Greg's Right FIT #556–This week: Empathy, Communication, Writing

Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.

In this issue: 

• Thoughts about Empathy
• Being Human
• Random Stuff
• Back In The Day

Thoughts about Empathy

• Thinking like a buyer isn't some kind of superpower. We all do it to some degree and call it empathy. Simply understanding, being aware of, or being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of others is all that's required.
• Being sympathetic to others is easy inside our peer groups. It's harder with people we don't know or may never meet. I've found the best way to step into another's shoes is through a good work of fiction. It entertains and teaches.
• Surely by now I shouldn't be surprised there's a German word for what I'm talking about. Techniques for developing empathy is herzenbildung. Roughly translated into training the heart to see humanity in others. Understand our buyers better and we're closer to knowing the best way to help them.
• Thinking like a buyer/empathy means when a buyer asks, "What can you do for us?" the appropriate response is, "I don't know. . .yet." We're there to find out if there's an opportunity worth pursuing. Ask them to start with one or two outcomes their organization is pursuing and we can tell them more. 

Being Human – Communication

Last week I mentioned a sales coaching issue I'm helping with. It's a complex sale environment because the sales process has multiple buyers, competitors, and even purchasing agents. This playing field isn't unusual and on the spectrum of communication problems it's on the tougher side. We've been trying to teach the importance of using all our communication tools to get a good outcome. This communication culminates in the proposal. And the goal is to always deliver the proposal in person. Always.

The challenge is, the reps default to emailing too easily. They choose that medium to deliver the proposal over a web call or phone call. This is leading to longer sales cycles and missed opportunities. In a last ditch effort to illustrate why in person proposals are so important, I tried the simplest communication tool example my little brain could come up with.

Getting a stranger to help.

Imagine I'm at a long table. I'm thirsty. I look down the table and there is a water pitcher in front of a stranger. My goal is modest. I need the water jug. I say "please pass the water.” Simple communication. But what if the person in front of the water jug is just off the plane from Kazakhstan and doesn’t speak English? They have no idea what I’m saying. They may not even think I'm talking to them. Since we're in the same room, I can knock on the table, look at them, look to the water jug, point at it, then motion for them to pass it saying, "please pass the water." If they do it, I win. We communicated!

Now, let's put up a divider. We can't see each other, but we have a Zoom connection for some reason. I turn it on, they see me and hear me, but I can't point at the water. I can do some hand motions, but my chance of success has dropped. Or, consider that all we have is a phone for some reason. I can call, but they can't see me. I can't make motions but maybe I can make thirsty noises or something. How likely am I to get the water? Now, what if all I have is a pager to type on?

Our buyers aren't foreign strangers. They speak the same language we do, but since we're working on complex problems and they have complex decision processes, there's a lot of miscommunication that can happen. We're taking a big chance sending a proposal via email.

My point is that it's worth the extra effort to get in front of prospects. It's worth it for them and for us. We have the water jug. They need it. This is doubly true for big opportunities. Our goal in winning business is not as simple as getting a foreigner to pass the water jug. It's way more complex. Complex enough that it's critical to use all our tools for communication.

What do you think of my analogy? Yeah, I don’t think it worked on them either. I checked the CRM and it looks like the last big proposal went via email. I hope it works, but I'd feel better about the forecast if they had delivered it in person.

Random Stuff

I wrote an article for NACVA, an association for business valuation/financial litigation pros: Breakfast Events: Beat the Algorithm in Business Development. I used to write more articles ten years ago. I see that when I revisit my older blog posts and newsletters. It makes me feel lazy. All that work on pre-AI content. I wonder if the robots trained on any of my stuff? Might be why they hallucinate!

Why don't I submit more article ideas today? Good question. Things changed. The magazines operate differently for one. And there are fewer of them. Plus, I started using my writing time to exercise my artistic side.

My lovely bride has always exercised her artistic side. In her latest iteration she has been arranging flowers from the garden. (that's her arrangement above) We're getting better at growing dahlia. This is the time of year they start blooming like crazy. They'll keep at it right up to first frost. Just typing that makes me cold. We're months away from the freezing temps but oh lawdy, they're-a-comin'! I have lots of weeding and pruning to do between now and then. Harvesting of squashes and pumpkins too.

Which brings me to progress on my murder mystery. The latest artistic expression, a poisoning. Believe it or not, I'm still on schedule. I'm wrapping up the second draft and resisting the urge to rewrite the whole thing. It's down to about 330 pages and that's pretty close to where it will end up. I'll start sending pieces out to early readers before the first frost.

Lots to do. I should probably work and make some money too.

Back in the Day

What I was thinking about last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.

• Last Year: Right FIT #504 – I am thinking about the Dr. Henry Gates quote I pulled from his television show, "Finding Your Roots." He didn't say it meaning to be profound, but it's stuck with me. In the year since I heard it I've said it at least a dozen times. It's made me see the world through a new lens. I love when that happens.
• Five Years Ago: Right FIT #295 – I talk about evidence a lot. In complex sales someone will go looking for data to support the investment so we should help them get it. I'm in the midst of trying to teach this to a small group of national account salespeople. It's surprisingly hard. Even with clever water jug anecdotes.
• Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #33 – In this episode it's revealed that I took 943 photos and videos during my trip to China. A few of them ended up being great. One is still in use for the college's travel program we were part of. In my photo album of Wilson the Amazing Border Collie there are only 343 photos. I'm slipping. (as a side note, at my daughter's wedding we used disposable film cameras and wow, there were some terrible pics in there! Out of 200 we probably have less than a dozen really good ones. Maybe one great one. Great memories though.)