Utah is a great state to do business in.  I am excited to be a part of ConnectBlogs and Connect Magazine and especially excited to be a part of the business community here in Utah.  I look forward to your thoughts, questions, and experiences in the coming years.
 

I am not sure that empathy would be something that the general population would associate with the sales profession.  Poll your colleagues and ask them to name the top ten most empathetic professions and my guess is sales wouldn’t even come to their mind.  Pose the question to yourself … don’t you think sales should be right up there with doctors, nurses, and soda-jerks?  Wouldn’t one of the top characteristics of a great sales person be their ability to understand the customer’s situation so they can more fully work to solve it?
 

At eLampros our pipeline review meetings are filled with employees banging their fists on the table, “my customer released this product six months ago and no one is successfully selling it - it’s not fair, all the research shows that the market wants it but they are not buying.  We NEED to fix this.  We NEED to help their call center learn how to move this in the market.”  Before they begin selling we insist a salesperson describe their accounts with the same passion and pain the customer is feeling.  Having empathy for the customer’s situation helps us to work to solve it rather than to cram our product down their throats.  (Which fewer and fewer businesses will let you do anyway)
 

THE WRONG KIND OF EMPATHY:  Often sales people use empathy but in the worst way possible.  Each of the following introductory statements is empathetic and each is completely inaccurate:  ‘we can save you money’, ‘we can make you more productive’, ‘we can free up your day’.  I have a colleague who get’s very excited when they receive a call telling them how much money they can save.  He says, “Really, that’s WONDEFUL!  Thank you!  How much am I spending now?”  Silence on the other side of the phone.  Point being empathy is a positive facet - scratch that - a critical facet of a sales professional … but only when it’s the right kind of empathy.  Get to know your prospects, understand their pain and be almost more passionate about it than they are and you’ll get the sell every time.
 

EMPATHY IN LEAD GENERATION:  The most important thing every lead generation professional needs to know is this - you are interrupting something very important when you call a prospect.  By definition what they are working on is important because they are working on it.  By definition the least important thing in the world to them is you - or they would have called you.  By definition you are interrupting because they were not expecting your call.  When you understand this you have very important knowledge.  When you put this to work you will change your world. 
 

What would you say to someone you are calling if you knew for a fact that you were interrupting something important?  What are you currently saying?  Do they conflict?  If you put yourself in the prospect’s shoes {visualize being extremely busy with an important task} and then think about what you say to them when you call how would you feel?  Do some of the responses you’ve gotten make more sense to you?  Do some of the hang-ups and false excuses and ’send me an email’ lines seem more realistic?  They should.
 

In our firm we absolutely refuse to meet with someone unless they were expecting our call.  We’re too empathetic of their situation.  If they are expecting my call and I’m on their calendar I’ll meet with them.  If someone calls them during our call THEY are interrupting and I’m the important thing they are working on.   Suddenly calling 100 people a day to set a time to talk seems significantly less daunting then calling 100 people a day to see if I can find someone willing to listen to my pitch.
 

Try it out - empathy in sales and lead generation may be one of the most important yet subtle things you can do to assure your growth.