What Real Empathy Feels Like

Something hit me after I left the gym yesterday. Believe it or not, I drew a parallel between B2B selling and fitness coaching.

Yes, the great ones have something distinctly in common (and my Orangetheory membership proves valuable in yet another way).

Empathy is more than just relating to other people. It's feeling what they feel, putting yourself into the decisions they need to make, and appreciating their inner self-talk. You can't fake this, and there's no active listening charade that will help you.

You can feel it when you get it right, and they can, too.

It's like you're telepathically connected, and when you add your subject matter expertise, you can actually understand and explain their problems better than they can. 

Rather than write about it, I shot the video below 👇.

You can't truly have empathy during a sales call if your head isn't where your feet are. Incidentally, I talked a lot about this on the podcast this week regarding my EAR framework for handling objections. 

Just like what it says on a lot of raffle tickets, "Must be present to win."

I did some math a few minutes ago, and believe it or not, publishing on 416 consecutive Sundays adds up to eight years.

Despite all the times I've thought about giving this up as part of my routine, nothing has helped me to sell as well as writing and content creation. It's about the thought process that goes into it more than the medium itself, and I highly recommend it (but only if you want to get better at communicating).