Attention is a privilege, here’s how to earn it.
There's been a lot of discussion about empathy in sales recently, possibly because remote working has made building personal relationships more difficult, or because customers have become overwhelmed with poor targeting via e-mail and social media. Current statistics tell a very clear story though. For example:-
B2B buyers are 57%-70% through buying research before contacting sales
If you take this into account, how you win a deal as a salesperson has a lot to do with how you differentiate your offer quite late in the sales cycle. The people you’re talking to are already knowledgable, and it’s critical that you demonstrate a well honed understanding of the prospects challenges, and your willingness to guide and help them through their decision making process in a way that’s going to help them achieve their goals. This requires you to build empathy. This can seem like a complex area, particularly given the seven plus people who are usually involved in approving the B2B sale,, but there are some things that every sales person can do right now to start building it.
Earn your prospects ATTENTION. You don't do that by yelling out the same message incessantly to everyone you see, you do it by listening for what matters to them. I don't mean 'active listening' type of stuff, where you repeat what the prospect has said, or starting every answer with 'I can understand how that might makes you feel', that's actually quite irritating. What I mean is approaching every interaction with the purpose of building your understanding of what they need and want to make happen. Ask yourself before engagement what information are you missing, and how it might help you help them.
Think PROCESS. Not your process, theirs. Everyone works in some kind of process, and a really basic way to understand what matters to your prospect is to learn about the process they work in. Who is their customer, what are they looking for, and most importantly, how do they measure their success? Most B2B sales people are focussed on specific roles or functions, so they already have a baseline of knowledge about the typical challenges their prospects face, but every organization is different, and asking questions about what's unique about their process is a great way to uncover what they prioritize.
Work the JOURNEY. Your prospects journey is ideally going to be a subset of your organizations overall customer journey. In most large organizations, this has been mapped out from touchpoint to touchpoint, and every interaction has been defined. This is a really compelling piece of information to share with your customer. Presented well, it demonstrates what they can expect from a relationship with your company, how that relationship might grow and most importantly, the benefits that they will experience along the way. It shows that, as an organization, you're focussed on building relationship value, and, as a sales person, it helps you deepen your understanding of what matters to them.
Be OF SERVICE. Make sure that at every touchpoint, you deliver value. It doesn't have to be massive, you can start small, but the very act of thinking about what value you're going to bring in every engagement will shift your mindset towards your prospect. The 'value' can be a book you think they might enjoy, an invitation to a webinar, a piece of research or an article from a magazine, but being able to show that you have an understanding of what they might find useful and enjoyable is big step to building trust. This data is from Gartner:-
75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience
Taking this into account, it’s seems pretty clear that the majority of B2B buyers have stopped seeing value in engaging with sales people. Every conversation where you exercise the discipline of empathy is an opportunity for you to change that.
Empathy building is a process, and like every successful process, it has specific steps, measurable milestones, achievable goals and realistic timelines. When you do it well, more of your prospects will start to value YOU, and that always makes sales a lot more fun! If you'd like to learn more, don't hesitate to get in touch.
