Yes, people who need people are the luckiest people in the world. Ummm. Or would empathy in your sales tool kit make a difference.

Author: Sonya Lawrence (TSRN Associate & Sales Training Specialist)

In the words of Barbara Streisand “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world” and in the sales office we are the people who need people and that makes us sometimes very frustrated with the world. Well, some of you might say that the customer, client, is there to pitch a battle with, prove wrong. SO HOW ARE YOUR SALES FIGURES ?

In many cockerel-like speeches heard across the land customers are called out as wrong. Labelled as being ignorant and fresh. Any salesperson who cannot bare the fighting talk, please depart.

Now, before we plunder into the linguistic realms of Henry V – Speech – Eve of Saint Crispin’s Day, lets pull back from those pre-planned battles. What about a new way to approach those clients?

Let’s think about empathy and why it could be a soft skill that that opens up genuine relationships with clients?

Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist and USC professor once stated after innovative research findings “we are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think”. According to Professor Damasio “when emotions are impaired, so is decision-making. “1″

When we do not have the ability to get under the skin of our clients and see their issues and problems through their eyes our decisions are impaired. So, we could ask ourselves this: What emotions are my clients experiencing at this time with (for example) their CAD software.

This could be anything from:

Frustration

Anger

Boredom

Worry, to delighted, joyful, satisfied.

If you are not in touch with those emotions yourself, how can you sense, identify them in others. We can get a measure of our customers feelings by asking about their daily experiences with their current supplier, product. Get it?

Most of the time there is a need is to solve a problem, which time after time is very real and will put an end to dissatisfaction with a current provider. There not looking for cold words like solutions and cold call. Their looking for warm calls and remedies that heal the problem

1: (Ref: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1008328)

If you would like Sonya to suggest some very interesting, enjoyable and informative sales training ideas, please contact us here at TSRN without obligation. Everything she does is unique and very effective.