Being Empathic and Thoughtful in Sales

The best salespeople work for their customers’ best interests.

Meaning salespeople need to know how to be empathic and thoughtful in sales.

But it can be difficult to know what to focus on and how to approach and understand prospects and customers.

So in this blog post we will learn about empathy in sales and how to use it when interacting with prospects.

Let’s dive right in.

Be Empathic and Thoughtful in Sales

Empathy and thoughtfulness needs to be part of your sales efforts.

So lead with empathy and think about how to solve prospects and customers’ challenges.

Even in hard times, lead with the same approach even though the challenges your solving will change.

Basically, understanding your prospects and customers is key:

Ultimately, helping prospects to do their work better and knowing where they are coming from is central to this process.

Empathy in sales is not only for deals you’re trying to close but its about:

Sales is about understanding individual business cases and giving good advice and alternatives, like:

Even providing information beneficial to individual prospects can build relationships during the sales process that will help win deals.

It might not be immediately but prospects will remember to get back to you when they can.

Especially during difficult times, don’t be so focused on the quota, instead be more present and understand the prospects’ situation.

Because caring about prospects, customers, company, and reputation will help not damage any.

So listening, acknowledging, exploring and responding helps salespeople:

Even if the sale happens or not, the sales reps stays in control and builds a reputation of empathy for the long term.

Not being selectively empathetic to customers you know you will land straight away because that’s cheap and transparent.

Instead work consistently to build meaningful relationships, even if it means waiting for your efforts to pay off.

The main part of empathy in sales is knowing when to go fast and when to slow it down.

Not contacting prospects or customers for a period of time is one way to show empathy as a salesperson.

Your product could solve a prospect’s problems and give them massive ROI, but they will hesitate if they feel overwhelmed and confused.

And because humans have emotions you have to appeal to them logically and emotionally.

You can do this by pacing your sales efforts by slowing the deal at the start to pick up the pace at the end.

This strategy is even more relevant in difficult times.

Remember every prospect is different so if you don’t see engagement, action or feedback after a good start then move on.

And to know when to give prospects space, be empathetic and considerate of interests and sensitivities to help feel it out.

Just be patient and be aware of how they respond to your efforts to know when and how to back off and preserve the relationship.

Building relationships with prospects and customers is the foundation of productive sales efforts, so:

Doing so will help you: