Page 78 - Lighting Magazine December 2018

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“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it.”
—Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly E ective People
emPaTHy: THe moST ImPorTanT cHaracTerISTIc
Empathy is an essential trait for every successful sales team to develop. Selling with this understand- ing begins with the desire to connect with people and ourishes with the needed practice to increase the skill. To be successful with empathy, you must feel the emotions that customers are experiencing — from the situation they are in now through every point of their buying journey.
Empathy cannot be faked well or for very long, and it only works when there is a genuine personal interest in understanding and helping the clients wherever they are in their personal sales journey, not where you may like them to be. To win using empathy is to be adaptive to the client. It is more than modeling moods and emotions. Empathy goes beyond having the knowledge of what the clients might be feeling; it means feeling what they are feeling based on active listening and your previous experiences.
and THere IS more!
There are many more characteristics that sales stars have and employ than I can detail in this column.
One of the most important is being organized and applies to notes, customer contact info, order follow up, and client retention. You need to know when to reach out to a client, and what you want them to know or remember about you.
“Passion” and “Self-Motivation” are two key traits that are foundational to search for when hiring new team members and when expanding an existing team. As the rules of commerce change many parts of our go-to-market strategies, both passion and self-motivation will become increasingly important.
Lastly, to remain relevant in the future, both com- panies and individuals must continuously transform the way we look and operate in our professional lives. Real pros continue – and even actively seek out – their professional development. What is the last sales book you have read? When was the last time your sales team went to an o -site training? Product knowledge is essential, but can your team sell the advantages of your company and the ben- e ts of your select vendors?
Nothing in the sales world is stagnant anymore. As we prepare for business in 2019, keep in mind to maintain your applicable talents plus build new skills.
As always, happy selling!  www.enlightenmentmag.com
Mark Okun is Business Contributor to enLIGHTenment Magazine and President of Mark Okun Consulting & Performance Group. He has more than 30 years of hands- on retail experience training and coaching sales associates in the lighting and furniture industries. Mark@bravo businessmedia.com
we have to hit hard and di erently because di er- ent is memorable.
The rapid advancements in technology demand we understand how to share our stories and information digitally. This applies equally to the convenience of ordering products at the touch of a bu on to the position that our showrooms show up in a Google search.
What does this have to do with sales star charac- teristics? Everything! Once our various stories are built, they must get in front of the eyes of our clients and potential customers. We must be constant and consistent in spreading the word about our show- room brand as well as our own individual brand. This can only be accomplished with bridled self- promotion. Promoting both showroom and sales team is easy, but you will need guts, determination, and self-awareness that is sharp.
Here are a few pointers that can help:
* Do not be braggadocious. Share essential ideas
and information, and speak of cu ing-edge concepts and reasons that ring right with your targeted personas.
* Create a buzz around your skill set, be it con- trol expert or design diva. Post on social media how you use your skills. You may be the best of breed at what you do, but if no one knows it, they won’t seek you out.
* Encourage immediate social feedback from clients on projects, plus record the “results” of your assistance. Do it daily, 3 to 6 times.
Engage with the public based on social listening. This means following the posted con- versations within social groups or your targeted client personas focused on lighting-speci c top- ics. In these venues, you freely contribute your subject ma er expertise in a way that unearths opportunities and creates relationships that never would have happened otherwise. Similarly, the content you produce and share must appeal to your broad customer base and not be salesy.
74 enLIGHTenment magazine | december 2018
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