Why Empathetic Selling Works
Sales is hard. Having to continually deal with rejection can be brutal, as even the best salespeople can attest to. You can read all the books in the world on ways to become a successful salesman, and if you’re reading this then chances are you’ve done exactly that, but in reality being a successful salesperson comes down to a handful of characteristics. The one I will focus on today is..
Empathy
Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly selling. Whether you’re trying to convince your friends to see a movie, selling to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or trying to get your 6 year-old child to eat their greens, the same tactics are being utilized. Let’s take a look at the 6 year-old example in more depth. Most parents will either try and force the child to eat or will try and make the child understand the benefits of the greens.
Trying to force the child probably involves threats and and/or not letting the child leave until they’ve finished their veggies. This may have the desired effect of getting them to eat the veggies, but they won’t be happy about it, and most importantly this won’t change their negative attitude towards veggies. This means that every time dinner comes around, you will have to again force your child to eat the veggies. Imagine trying to force a client to do something they don’t want to do. I’ve tried, it doesn’t work.
The other tactic you could employ with the child is trying to make them understand why they should eat their veggies. The first step here is to look at things from the child’s perspective. Let’s be real, veggies don’t taste as good as ice-cream or pasta. We eat veggies for the health benefits. However, young children don’t really care about future health benefits, as they haven’t yet developed the capacity for delayed gratification > immediate gratification. You have to show the child why eating the veggies is in their best interest. Maybe you have a 6 year-old boy who loves football. You could explain that eating veggies will make him as big and strong as the football players he idolizes. This would be a huge deal for the boy, and he would decide that the sub-par taste of veggies is nothing next to being in the NFL. Of course selling to a CEO may be a little trickier than this, but the same basic principles apply no matter who you’re trying to convince.
You have too see things from the other person’s perspective. People spend most of their time thinking about themselves and how things in the world will affect them, so why would they care about a product that a salesman wants them to buy. They won’t care, because buying this product is what the salesman wants them to do, not what the customer wants to do herself.
Once you can see things from other people’s perspectives, not only will your sales improve, but your interpersonal relationships will improve as well. Just give it a try, and the results will speak for themselves. Now I cannot speak for the customer, but I’m sure that when they’re considering whether they will buy a product, they would prefer that the process be as easy as possible. InSitu Sales can help by showing them the products on a smartphone or tablet and by then allowing the customer to place an order and even pay in real-time. And should the customer really love the product, they can just hop on your company’s web portal and place an order for more. This just makes everyones life easier, which can only be good.
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