There is good and bad news for sales organizations. The good news is that sales organizations are recognizing the power of empathy and its role in building trust, rapport and sales.
The bad news.
Many well intended sales organizations will never accomplish the goal of having a more empathetic sales team because they don’t teach and reinforce the foundational skills needed to build empathy skills.
What are these foundational skills?
The first skill is decision making skills.
Huh, how does that affect a salesperson’s ability to demonstrate empathy?
A common trait found in empathetic salespeople and sales managers is that they have made a decision. And that decision is to be perfectly present in each and every conversation. They aren’t worrying about the meeting they’ve just left. They aren’t thinking about an upcoming meeting.
They have made a decision to be present in the conversation in front of them.
These empathetic salespeople and sales managers also possess a healthy dose of reality testing. They recognize will power is highly over rated. They proactively create an environment that allows them to be fully present.
They don’t put their smart phones in the line of sight because they don’t want to be distracted by the pinging, dinging and vibrations.
They don’t have their computer positioned so they can glance over every once in awhile to check incoming emails.
They make a decision to eliminate distractions so they can be fully present.
What decisions do you need to make in order to build your empathy skills?
Good Selling!