Whether you are on the more emotional side or not, a little bit of empathy never killed anybody. You may not be super sappy or “in-touch with your emotional side”, but every person appreciates someone who can relate to how they are feeling, especially when one is feeling pain. There is nothing worse than feeling stuck in a difficult situation and needing help, but no one can understand where you are at. This is where the word of the day… EMPATHY, kicks in!
Now, I myself am a rather “emotional” person you could say, and believe God has given me the gift to feel empathetic towards others, therefore giving me an advantage in one aspect of the sales world. Something I have learned recently is how one of the most important things to identify in a sales process, is the pain behind a customer’s problem. Questions such as, what is bothering you, and how has this been a hindrance on your work ethic or personal life must be asked. Perhaps the person is having issues with their television service and they are rarely able to watch a show or movie without something on the television getting messed up. Your customer is obviously frustrated and maybe they’ve used several TV services and all of them have resulted in some issue. So now, they come to you hoping you can FINALLY provide them with a service that is worth their while. After dealing with several service providers who have done your customer wrong, they may be less trusting towards you. So what do you do? BE EMPATHETIC!
Tell them stories of how you struggled terribly with television services in the past. Give them the parts of the story where you were so angry you were yelling at the service man on the phone. Your customer now feels like you know where they’ve been, and they trust that you would not want to put them through such an obnoxious situation since you, yourself, have experienced it.
You have placed yourself in their shoes, and felt their pain looking at the issue from their perspective. Not only does this put you as the seller in a better place to sell the customer the best product for them, but you have now created a bond. The customer feels like they can relate and trust you as a salesperson and friend. Who knows? This might mean repeated business as well. Even if you are not the king or queen of emotions, try on another person’s shoes and be empathetic.
BoweryJE22
When it comes to being effective at solving the problems of others do you have an opinion about whether empathy or perspective taking is better suited? If you do, do you have a line of reasoning for your opinion?
It is very surprising to me that I like sales so much, yet am an un-empathetic person by nature. I used to think this is why I was good at sales…I could relay facts and knowledge and answer questions without feeling bad when a person said no to me. I was easily able to walk away and not feel discouraged about closing the deal. However, this class has taught me that with empathy I would be able to be an even better sales person, which is awesome! Great post 🙂
Great point here Mackenzie. I think being empathetic also shows you are willing to be vulnerable and HUMAN! A big wall that salesmen face is that they are almost treated as robots. Being empathetic shows your client that you too are a real person with real feelings!
Looking back at my shopping experiences, the places I tend to spend the most money are the stores with empathetic sales reps. I also believe that someone can learn to be empathetic. From experience, it goes a long way with customers to kind of step down from a sales role and interact with someone person to person. Like John said, many salespeople are seen as robots and it makes a world of difference when they break out of that stereotype and interact with you on a more personal level.