“Educate yourself as a leader on emotional intelligence. So you can really understand how to educate your employees on what tactical empathy is and how to use it. ” – Brittany Scott in today’s Tip 773
How do you build rapport with your prospect?
Join the conversation below and connect with Brittany on LinkedIn!
KnowBe4
Brittany Scott on LinkedIn
Never Split the Difference
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Brittany Scott. Brittany is the VP of SMB Sales at KnowBe4, the world’s largest provider of security awareness training. She’s the Founder of the Women in Tech Employee Resource Group at her organization and mentors women looking to move up into executive roles with #GirlsClub. Here she is:
Brittany Scott: So the world of sales is changing and I’ve even seen it change in the four years that I’ve been with my company. And it’s so important that we are able to be flexible with change and understand what may have worked a year or two ago may not necessarily work now. So empathy is huge when trying to build rapport with your prospect, which I’m sure we’re all on the same page with this. If I were to ask you to define empathy, I’m sure a lot of you would be able to easily tell me it is understanding the feelings of another. However, if I were to ask you about tactical empathy, I feel like many of you may raise an eyebrow.
So Chris Voss actually coined this phrase in his book, Never Split the Difference. If you never read it, I implore you to do it for it. Not only helps you in negotiating business deals, but helps you in your day to day life as well. So tactical empathy is a way to deliberately influence your counterpart’s emotions by using certain tactics like mirrors, labels, and dynamic silence. So this taps into emotional intelligence, which I am a huge supporter for anyone working in any environment to really make this a one-two punch. This is a huge game-changer when trying to sell any products backed on any vertical.
So let me give you an example. So say you have a prospect on the phone and he’s pushing back because he wants you to get off the phone. Wow, I’ve been there lots of time and I’m sure you have too. So using a label would be a great way to deter this by saying, you know, it sounds as if time is a huge concern for you and then just shut up. He will give you more discovery. Maybe you’ll say something like, you know, I am busy implementing other projects. You can mere this by saying other projects and stay quiet. This is a great way to gain that discovery you are looking for without being too wordy, which we all know those sales reps.
Furthermore, having an environment where emotional intelligence is part of the training for sales reps, it’s huge. EPQ is something that we can train and improve upon that can really make us dynamic leaders in the workplace and make us more understanding to what drives each rep and how to pull out their full potential. I make an emission to work with my employees on this topic, and it really makes a difference in the overall environment and culture of the workplace.
So my sales tip for you is twofold. First, educate yourself as a leader on emotional intelligence. So you can really understand how to educate your employees on what tactical empathy is and how to use it. Secondly, have drills around this topic to really make the stick. So when your rep is hit with a rebuttal, they know how to easily navigate the waters of tactical empathy. Hey, check me out on LinkedIn. I would love to hear more of your insights as well.
Scott Ingram: To connect with Brittany on LinkedIn and to learn more about KnowBe4, just click over to DailySales.Tips/773.
Then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!