Is empathy the key to successful sales? – Tony Hughes

Underpinning all success in life, learning, or leadership is the importance of having genuine empathy. Empathy is one of the most important skills in selling.

When looking to build a relationship with a new person or prospect, many sellers try to become their friend to build rapport. This can often come across as disingenuous.

Instead of a friending strategy, we must provide value in the conversation. Through showing value, we earn the right to build the relationship.

You need to walk a mile in another person’s shoes and approach a conversation with the mindset of making it all about them, their challenges, and the opportunity to improve their results. Ask yourself, ‘How do I make the other person the hero of my story rather than myself?’.

Sales conversations are not about you, your quota, company, product, or solution. As you seek to drive success as a seller, it’s really about the other person, and you need genuine empathy for them and their role to build a bond.

Empathy quickly becomes the meta-skill that enables us to focus on the truly human elements that make a difference in the ever-evolving world of technology and artificial intelligence. This will future-proof your skills and make you stand out as a salesperson dedicated to improving your customers’ results. 

To gain further insight into how to improve your sales effectiveness, work through Tony’s 5 actions in the Sales Skills Accelerator.