Emotion Doesn’t Hit the Same On Screen

The room always tells you more than the slide.

You can prepare your numbers. You can script your arguments. But when you walk into a room, whether you’re pitching a client, presenting to a board, or leading a town hall, what determines the outcome is not logic. It’s emotion. And that emotion doesn’t come through the slides. It comes through you.

The problem with remote charisma.

We tried to replicate trust through screens. Especially during COVID, we adapted. But something essential got lost in translation.

Body language. Eye contact. The subtle shift of a person leaning forward or shutting down. Those signals don’t show up in Zoom tiles.

What I’ve learned is simple: emotion is not optional. And you cannot outsource it to PowerPoint.

Selling is not just closing. It’s connecting.

When we talk about sales in the executive context, we’re not just referring to commercial deals.

We’re selling ideas. Visions. Priorities. We’re selling a story to the board. A direction to the team. A transformation to the regulators.

And in each of these scenarios, trust is the currency.

That trust isn’t built through technical detail. It’s built through emotional alignment. You don’t just win agreement, you win belief.

How I learned this the hard way.

Years ago, I stood in front of a demanding American client. We were in the finals of a competitive tender. Our first offer had been mediocre. However, between then and the final pitch, we had quietly, thoroughly, and with a personal touch rebuilt the proposal.

When they asked why we’d changed, I didn’t default to the spreadsheet. I walked them through their own company’s values one letter at a time.

It wasn’t just about the offer. It was about showing them we had listened, that we had cared enough to go the extra mile.

That moment changed the room. They clapped. Not for the data. For the feeling.

Improvisation is not unprofessional. It’s human.

Some of the most impactful moments in my career weren’t scripted.

They came from reading the room and sensing tension, and shifting gears.

• Once, I wore jeans to a finalist pitch on purpose to match the client’s culture.

• Another time, in a heated mock town hall, I handed a symbolic laptop to the audience. It disarmed the room.

• And sometimes, the most powerful gesture is silence, stepping back and letting a teammate shine.

These moves aren’t about drama. They’re about presence. You don’t learn them in slides. You learn them in failure, recovery, and human interaction.

Emotion builds teams, not just outcomes.

This is not just about selling externally. It’s also about alignment internally.

You cannot impose trust. You earn it over time. In the way you show up, listen, and give others the stage.

The most successful all-hands I’ve led were never just about me. They were about letting others speak and letting emotion emerge from the room, not from the podium.

It’s not about pressure. It’s about readiness.

I don’t believe in forcing decisions. If I’ve done my job, if I’ve made the case, connected emotionally, and aligned values, the decision will come.

Not pushed. Pulled.

Because if the emotional temperature is wrong at the close, no contract will fix what’s coming next. Problems don’t start with logic. They begin with misalignment.

Emotion is not soft. It is strategic.

It is the hidden current beneath every major decision, transformation, and alignment effort.

If we neglect it, if we reduce leadership to performance metrics and slide decks, we lose the very thing that moves people.

And without people, nothing moves.

So step into the room. Feel the moment. Build the bridge.

Because in the end, the true signal isn’t what you say.

It’s what they feel.

François Jacquemin

P.S.: Want to watch the video version of this article? Go to https://www.francoisjacquemin.com/covered/going-the-extra-mile-emotional-intelligence-in-sales