As a young sales professional, I was truly blessed to work with the Southwestern Publishing Company for three summers. The reasons are many, but the main one is they truly believed in training.
They worked our young butts off to develop selling skills that were powerfully effective. (By the way, I heavily discuss my experience with Southwestern in my latest book, It All Matters).
Customer's Viewpoint
One of the most powerful components of the sales training focused on seeing things from the customer's perspective. This was described as a genuine display of empathy on the part of a sales consultant. I used to think of empathy as feeling sorry for someone else. However, empathy is the ability to experience what another person is feeling. When you can put yourself in the customers' shoes and feel their concerns as your own, you demonstrate empathy. The customer needs to know you have listened and understand, but more importantly, that you truly care. Using empathy is important, especially during the holiday season as your customer may be making several big purchases.
Building Trust
By displaying empathy, you are able to then establish trust. Once trust is established, then your thoughts and ideas have more value to the customer. When you are able to establish value, you increase the likelihood of being able to create "yes" momentum towards the purchase of your product or service.
Key Steps
Listen to learn
Absorb to understand
Restate for clarity
Question to confirm
Validate and present
Do you follow these steps when speaking with a customer? Are you genuinely listening and absorbing not just what the customer says but how and why? Are you restating their concerns or comments for clarity? Are you asking questions to confirm your understanding? Are you validating that your product or service will meet or exceed their expectations?
Three Tips:
Slow down the process early and seek to learn all you can.
Focus on their needs and concerns.
Stay in service and solution mode at all times with your customers.
This approach will help you gain the trust and respect of your customer. This old saying is still true today:
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
Make a difference today.
How can you live a life of real intention and purpose instead of duty and obligation? It All Matters offers one hundred and twenty-five life-changing strategies to inspire you and help you to develop your skill sets, build more knowledge, improve your attitude, and develop work habits that truly pay off. When you read It All Matters, you join me as your personal coach. I'll ask you questions that challenge you to find your "It"...inspire you to define your "All"... and encourage you to begin your journey towards greatness so that you can determine what truly “Matters.”
If you enjoyed this article, and want to receive more stories from me, you can join my newsletter here. Find out about Paul Cummings University demos here.