It's not simple to understand customers, we never know what's going on in a customer's mind while going through our service or products. It's the task of the sales team to develop empathy with prospects and drive them to the end of the sales funnel.
Often Empathy is confused with sympathy, Empathy is the ability to understand and sense another person's emotions and respond appropriately. Whereas Sympathy is to feel the same thing.
Developing proper Empathy with your prospect based on your understanding of the perspective helps you in building trust, maintaining bonds, defining the problem, improving the questioning, aids in defining the solution, and helps to close the sale.
"Study shows that 47% of users say they have refused to buy products/services from companies that are not empathetic."
When a salesperson understands and feels what the customer feels, they gain deeper insight into the emotional foundations of the customer's problem and this can be done with a little focused attention and practice. Here are the key factors that are necessary to develop empathy with your prospects and close more sales.
Empathy requires the ability to listen to others and to accept that their interpretation of facts or ideas is true to them. Understand and respect the client's views and opinions, yes, in order to close your sales you have to listen to them without immediately passing judgment on the facts and need to accept their interpretation as being valid and worthwhile, then discuss their needs and pain points and emphasize the benefits they get from your product/service. Prospects won't buy from someone who doesn't truly understand their needs and it’s crucial to the team to show prospects that they give full attention to them and understand them.
hink about what's important to your prospects, try to put yourself into their position, this can be eye-opening for various reasons. Figure out why they are pushing back, is it’s the pricing? Have they tried something similar in the past that failed? Thinking out these kinds of questions improves the ability to create the connection and foundation of trust and puts you on the client's side of the table. To do this take time in analyzing their needs, develop your skills, list out the benefits they can get from you, help them to realize the cost of inaction, show them that you can assuage their situation, and keep your prospects happy.
It isn't enough to be able to put yourself in your prospect's shoes, you have to be able to help your prospects to get out of those shoes as well, you have to be able to move them to action. Make changes in your approach, list out the actions that would have to be taken to get to them, and plan according to their schedule instead of making tempting and nearsighted moves, dig deep into your empathy supply, relieve some pressure from them by providing them with the information they need to advocate internally and reassure that they're receiving your full support in the process.
Developing and showing more empathy can make you a strong salesperson and help you to improve your numbers and build lasting relationships with your prospects.