How To Use An Empathy Statement In Sales
If you use an empathy statement in a sales conversation, your prospect is more likely to feel like you are hearing what they’re saying and genuinely care about them. ❤️
If you steamroll right past an objection without expressing empathy and understanding, the prospect will be thinking to themselves, “Did they hear what I just said?!”
At all costs, especially during objection handling, we want to avoid a situation where the prospect feels like they are being steamrolled, misunderstood, ignored, or forced into doing something they don’t want to do.
How to make an empathy statement.
To make an empathy statement, you can use any of the following:
- Softening statement
- Mirroring statement
- Combination of the two
Here are some examples of softening statements:
- No worries
- I understand what you’re saying
- I hear you
- I see where you’re coming from
Here are some examples of mirroring statements:
- It sounds like … [and then repeat what they said]
- I’m hearing that … [and then repeat what they said]
You can even combine the two.
For example, let’s pretend the prospect tells you,
“I’m busy.”
Then you can respond with a softening statement and a mirroring statement, like this:
“No worries, it sounds like I caught you at a bad time.”
“No worries” = softening statement
“It sounds like I caught you at a bad time” = mirroring statement
Be careful with mirroring.
The problem with mirroring during objection handling is that it can seem like you’re agreeing with your prospect’s objection, which then makes it more difficult to turn the conversation in a more positive direction.
A mirroring statement should be used as a preface for a question. There should be no pause between the mirroring statement and the question.
Here’s an example of adding a question after the mirroring statement:
“No worries, it sounds like I caught you at a bad time. Can I give you a call back later this afternoon?”
When to use an empathy statement.
Empathy statements are particularly useful during objection handling.
Click here to read more about using empathy statements in objection handling.
But really they can be used during any transition in a sales conversation.
They can be helpful to “round the corners” during parts of a conversation that might otherwise feel like a sharp turn.