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An Era of Empathy: The X Factor in Sales

The focus of our efforts is to help you maintain and leverage a hardwired connection with those who matter to you. Direct identification with another person’s situation, feelings, and motives is what will get you there. The belief that you understand and acknowledge a person—that you not only viscerally understand but care about that person within the context of your business interaction—already exists almost without your trying. Let’s explore the magic of empathy, the balance of empathy and ego in sales, the science of empathy, and what it means today in building your book of business.

To understand empathy, think about what happens to you when you watch a heavy hit during a hockey game. How do you react—emotionally and even physiologically—when you channel surf and catch a mixed martial arts cage match or a blooper reel of skateboarders landing face first on the concrete? Do you cringe? Does your pulse quicken and your blood pressure rise? Do your muscles flex and tense up, and in some instances do you react so strongly that you have to shift position, stand up, remember to breathe, change the channel, or turn the television off?