There has been a great deal of academic and managerial interest in Emotional Intelligence (EI) in organizational and professional sales settings. Despite this attention, and the broad claims for the importance of EI on job outcomes, academic research has consistently demonstrated disappointing empirical support for the direct effects of EI on job outcomes. This paper develops theory that, in contrast to the received direct effects view of EI, presents EI as important, but as a moderator. More specifically, integrating EI theory and transactional coping theory, this study frames EI as a buffer that enables salespeople to better mitigate the negative effects of role stress on salesperson burnout, customer-oriented selling, and sales performance. Using three matched data sources from multiple professional selling workgroups and hierarchical linear analysis, the authors find strong support for their contingency model.