When a customer or client is greeted by a salesperson, they often will brace themselves mentally. This stems from years of dealing with self-interested sellers that take advantage of emotions and co-opt decision making. Before the prospect knows it, they come out purchasing more than they would have ever wanted or needed just to get the seller off their backs. When clients feel conned or tricked, they’re unlikely to respond favourably to further contact. When salespeople are able to guide those on the other end of a call with empathy, and with the intention of creating a returning buyer, the potential for a successful professional relationship greatly increases.
Empathy Builds A Client’s Trust
When a call is unexpected, the biggest thing a salesperson will contend with is defensiveness; it’s up to them to diffuse a potential customer’s anxiety. When the seller actively listens to their client’s needs and creates packages based on what customers are actually looking for – their work will be appreciated, seen as useful and genuine. When a client trusts the person they’re giving their money to, they’re more likely to engage them or their company again and recommend the products or services to others in their network.
It Humanizes The Seller
There’s this pervasive misconception that salespeople are all sharks, painting those looking to help solve problems as predatory. While there are some salespeople out there that have a blatant disregard for how a sale should meets consumer needs, and are only interested in building revenue, most are passionate about their work – and the best are empathetically attuned to their business contacts. As an enterprise it’s your responsibility to hire the latter personality type over the former and the best way to guarantee a strong salesforce is to implement soft skill evaluations early on, ideally at the start of each hiring process. Consider the advantages of a sales personality test —tools like this, available from SalesTestOnline, measure an applicant’s level of empathy (along with other traits like sociability and emotional maturity) by having them answer about ten short minutes worth of questions.
Empathetic Listening Inspires Salespeople To Search For Solutions
While it’s important for a salesperson to meet quotas and to keep targets at the back of their mind, they’ll only be able to offer clients valuable solutions when they put customer concerns first. When a human element is introduced into the work, salespeople will start to invest more personally in their clients’ happiness; not only will this lead to greater fulfillment in a career but help the companies they’re associated with to build good reputations.
Ensure the salespeople making up your workforce have an adequate amount of empathy embedded in their personalities, that they can show your clients they care, that they’re eager to problem solve in unique ways. You want your partners to feel like more than just numbers at the end of the day. Implement a tool in your workplace that measures empathy to see current employees are on the right track, and that future ones have what it takes.build good reputations