Compassionate Salespeople? An Oxymoron?

By Michael J Griffin

Survey after survey indicate that customers do not trust salespeople. I believe one big reason salespeople are not trusted is because they are more interested in selling their solution rather than aligning with the customer feelings and emotions about the problems they face. Salespeople who don’t show compassion can come across as pushing product or seem more interested in meeting their target or commission plan even when their good intent is to show the customer how their product can solve problems.

Every customer problem or need has elements of emotion and objectivity. Many salespeople in their desire to meet needs and solve problems, unintentionally ignore customer emotions and feelings tied to their problem. Many years ago Xerox had this problem with their photocopier sales and service people because they only focused on machine solutions or repairs and not the customer’s feelings and motivation to get the machine working. This resulted in Xerox developing their world famous sales and service training that connected the salesperson and Xerox solutions to both the problem and the customer’s feelings and emotions.

This was later confirmed by AchieveGlobal research that salespeople who empathize
and show compassion for their customer’s feelings about his/her problem
doubled their closing success rate compared with salespeople who
only focused problem solutions (and no empathy).

Demonstrating sincere empathy for your customer feelings, perceptions and problems is a competitive advantage. Most salespeople have not mastered this skill of communicating in a way that shows your customer you care. When your salespeople do, it increases sales, and supports long term customer loyalty.

Successful Salespeople practice Dr. John Maxwell’s Law of Connection (adapted for sales) “Salespeople Touch the Customer’s Heart Before They Present their Solution.”

Demonstrating sincere empathy is the emotional connection between your customer’s need or problem and the solution you introduce! Let’s learn how to demonstrate sincere empathy. My sales experience has uncovered five ways to show empathy in discussions with your customer. Here they are:

The Five “A’s” of Empathy

Agree – This the simplest and easiest way to empathize. You agree with customer statements, suggestions or ideas that help solve his/her problem. 
“That’s a good idea to outsource production.”
“I completely agree increasing sales is a top priority.” 

Acknowledge – With acknowledge we truly show we care for customer feelings or frustration over a problem. 
“Losing 40% of your revenue during Covid must have been very stressful.”
“I can see you are really concerned over this issue of poor quality.” 

Aware – Empathy can also show you understand the seriousness or consequence of not solving a customer problem.
“That would be bad news if you lost the global contract.”
“Yes, not solving the production delay could really hurt your market image.” 

Assure – This kind of empathy helps relieve customer stress and show you want to serve the customer.
“I have solved this service issue with a similar customer in Malaysia and can help you as well.”
“Having machine downtime is stressful, I will call my technician to come right away.” 

Affiliate – These empathy statements let the customer know he is “not alone” and many others in the market have the same issue.
“ Many of my customers have faced the same problem of keeping your doctors happy with accurate timely test results.”
“Many companies doing global sales and service experience difficulty
with their call centers handling customers from different cultures.”

Caution! Never empathize by saying “I understand, but…..” or “Yes, but……” These simple but very, very common statement destroy the sincerity of truly caring for the customer. Rarely do sales or service people really understand you problem when they use these “pseudo empathy” statements to blow you off.

Demonstrating sincere empathy does not come naturally to salespeople. It takes a persistent change of perception, attitude and skill to be a true empathy giver, a salesperson of compassion. Better perception of customer feelings and emotions, an attitude of a servant leader, and fluency of the 5 “A’s” of empathy. Remember, salespeople who consistently care to empathize with sincerity is a very significant competitive advantage.

May you keep healthy. Lead well. Show compassion. Give others hope.

Michael J Griffin
CEO and Founder of ELAvate
Sales Productivity Consultant
A Person Learning to be More Compassionate