How Empathy Helps You Earn More and Sleep Better
The highest form of human knowledge is empathy for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.
Bill Bullard
Of all superpowers, empathy is supreme.
Success in business comes by discovering what people need and providing that.
Unfortunately, many think selling is convincing customers to purchase a company’s product or service.
So salespeople barrage potential customers with features and use manipulative tricks to close the sale.
The first one to blink loses.
Imagine a utopia where someone gives you exactly what you need and never makes you feel rushed to buy.
Unlike most fantasy worlds, that is well within reach.
All it requires is empathy.
Anyone who figures that out will be hugely successful and wealthy.
Empathy allows the salesperson to understand what people need.
You would think this is easy.
But it appears to be very difficult.
The first problem is that salespeople rarely listen.
They have the solution before they know what needs to be solved.
The second problem is that the customer usually has only a vague idea of what they need.
But when armed with empathy, a salesperson can discern more than is consciously known by the customer.
They might say, “Don’t buy that. This is what you need.”
And this advice is blind to the relative prices.
If the second item costs less, the customer has saved money.
If the second item costs more, the customer still saves money (and time), because they did not need to buy both the cheaper item and the more expensive item.
Lacking empathy, a salesperson would like to sell the more expensive item but is happy with any sale.
The empathy-equipped salesperson would rather make no sale than to send the customer home with the wrong thing.
The pushy, numbers-driven salesperson eventually experiences stress from exploiting their customers.
The empathetic salesperson sleeps well because they know they are helping their customers.
You might say, “That’s interesting, but I’m not in sales.”
But we are all in sales.
If you are a parent, you are in sales.
If you are a leader, you are in sales.
If you are a spouse, you are in sales.
No matter your occupation, you are in sales.
If you want to be successful, become an expert in empathy.
As a bonus, you’ll sleep soundly.
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