Business Success: Understand Your Customers Point of View

Communications Skills Are Critical

Depending on who you ask you will find the number of words in the English language estimated at anywhere from a few hundred thousand words, to around  a million words. What is even more amazing about our language is that many people have a vocabulary that is only a small fraction of that amount with estimates of an adult vocabulary ranging any where from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

When it comes to understanding success, the two words that follow are critical.

Sympathy or Empathy?

You may not remember the difference from in these two words from English class, but don't forget the difference as it applies to business!

Sympathy is a sharing of sorrow or trouble. Also associated with pity, an emotion aroused by the distress of another.

Empathy means to identify with a person, entering fully into another person's feelings.

We feel sympathy for a person who is ill, or who has experienced a loss. We feel empathy for clients or customers with a problem that we understand. To be successful in business, you need to fully identify with the needs and feelings of your clients or customers.

The most important tool you have is your ability to ask a question. Ask successful people selling a similar product in a similar marketplace, what is common for your industry. Ask people who are successful in a field you are interested in, if they could help you set a realistic goal for yourself.

When asking questions of friends, or "experts", make sure the answers are based on the same marketplace conditions as your own. More importantly, ask yourself if the person answering the questions is the person you want to become.

What is in it for me?

Years ago sales courses taught the concept of FAB, an acronym for - Features - Advantages - Benefits, to identify the key points of salesmanship.

Marketing today has reduced that down to one key point: Benefits!

If you can not answer the question, "What is in it for me?" in the mind of the client, you will not sell your product.

When devising and asking questions, understand the difference between empathy and sympathy. The key to successful communications, and ultimately selling your product to your customer, is your ability to truly understand something from the customers point of view. All questions should build to the most powerful question of, "What is in it for me?"

In order to answer the question of what benefit is expected, you must understand the point of view of the client. If your clients feel sorry for you they may be feeling sympathy for you because you lack empathy for them.