Empathic
Empathy-you can't really understand someone unless you know where they've been and where they want to go.
Empathy (from the Greek εμπάθεια, "to suffer with") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize,
perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires
of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more
effectively define another's modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to
"put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself,
a sort of emotional resonance.
Being able to put yourself in your customer's shoes can be one of the greatest attributes that you can have
as a professional salesman. In my particular industry, one of the most nagging problems for customers is
the hidden cost of change orders. Since the majority of construction contracts are awarded based on "low-
bid" criteria, it's not unusual for the winning contractor to leave things out of their bid in order to improve
their chances of being awarded the contract. In fact, in many cases, the bidder might intentionally submit
what they know is a below costs bid because they know that once they win the contract and after they start
the job, they can make up the difference with higher labor rates and higher material mark-ups on the
change orders. And there will be change orders. There is always change orders. If you think about this for
a minute, this type of change order strategy is duplicitous and in the terms of Dr. Stephen Covey, it's a
Lose/Win for the customer. The contractor might try to justify his strategy by rationalizing to himself that he
wasn't making any money on the front end of the contract, so he has a right to make it up on the back end.
But if you are empathetic with your customers, you need to stop for a minute and ask yourself what sort of
position are you putting them in? If the cost of the project increases significantly because of "budget
busting" change orders, how do you think that is going to make them look in their bosses eyes.? Not very
competent. Your job is to solve your customers problems, not create more problems for them. You
should be looking for ways to make your customer look good for selecting you and your firm.
When your customer selects a contractor based on low bid, he is going for a Win/Lose, which means that
the has no empathy for you. When you in turn try to make up the difference later on in the form of over-
priced change orders, that results in a Lose/Win for your customer, which means that you have no empathy
for your customer. In the end, it becomes a Lose/Lose for both parties. The only way to make sure that it's
a Win/Win for everybody is to make sure that your customers have empathy for you and understand that you
are in business to make money. If you customer understands this and allows you to make a reasonable
profit on the front end, then when the inevitable change orders come, and they will come, you will have
empathy for him and go easy on the change orders. Remind him that you are looking to establish a long
term relationship based on a Win/Winfor everyone. Win/Win results can only occur when both parties have
empathy for each other. A contract based on only low bid criterion, whether it's with you or your competitor,
can only result is a Lose/Win, a Win/Lose or a Lose/Lose.
Empathy (from the Greek εμπάθεια, "to suffer with") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize,
perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires
of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more
effectively define another's modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to
"put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself,
a sort of emotional resonance.
Being able to put yourself in your customer's shoes can be one of the greatest attributes that you can have
as a professional salesman. In my particular industry, one of the most nagging problems for customers is
the hidden cost of change orders. Since the majority of construction contracts are awarded based on "low-
bid" criteria, it's not unusual for the winning contractor to leave things out of their bid in order to improve
their chances of being awarded the contract. In fact, in many cases, the bidder might intentionally submit
what they know is a below costs bid because they know that once they win the contract and after they start
the job, they can make up the difference with higher labor rates and higher material mark-ups on the
change orders. And there will be change orders. There is always change orders. If you think about this for
a minute, this type of change order strategy is duplicitous and in the terms of Dr. Stephen Covey, it's a
Lose/Win for the customer. The contractor might try to justify his strategy by rationalizing to himself that he
wasn't making any money on the front end of the contract, so he has a right to make it up on the back end.
But if you are empathetic with your customers, you need to stop for a minute and ask yourself what sort of
position are you putting them in? If the cost of the project increases significantly because of "budget
busting" change orders, how do you think that is going to make them look in their bosses eyes.? Not very
competent. Your job is to solve your customers problems, not create more problems for them. You
should be looking for ways to make your customer look good for selecting you and your firm.
When your customer selects a contractor based on low bid, he is going for a Win/Lose, which means that
the has no empathy for you. When you in turn try to make up the difference later on in the form of over-
priced change orders, that results in a Lose/Win for your customer, which means that you have no empathy
for your customer. In the end, it becomes a Lose/Lose for both parties. The only way to make sure that it's
a Win/Win for everybody is to make sure that your customers have empathy for you and understand that you
are in business to make money. If you customer understands this and allows you to make a reasonable
profit on the front end, then when the inevitable change orders come, and they will come, you will have
empathy for him and go easy on the change orders. Remind him that you are looking to establish a long
term relationship based on a Win/Winfor everyone. Win/Win results can only occur when both parties have
empathy for each other. A contract based on only low bid criterion, whether it's with you or your competitor,
can only result is a Lose/Win, a Win/Lose or a Lose/Lose.
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http://www.hectorcadena.com/blog/
http://www.convergencecabling.com
http://www.cablecominc.com
Houses for Sale on Lake Travis
Hector Cadena Hired as Vice President of Sales for Cable Com, Inc.
http://www.convergencecabling.com
http://www.cablecominc.com
Houses for Sale on Lake Travis
Hector Cadena Hired as Vice President of Sales for Cable Com, Inc.
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