Empathy in Sales!

Empathy in Sales can help you build strong relationships with your clients. If there is an issue, you should ask them: “what’s going on?”, to understand. Clients do have bad days at times. But having empathy in sales will help you solve the issues for your clients. Read this story to find out how I helped a client solve a problem.

I sent four candidates for an interview. My client selected all four. All my candidates received Offers. They all accepted to join.

Now, something unexpected happened.

They all joined my client. What? Really?

Yes, they did.

That was how I started my relationship with an IT Services company [an MNC], many years ago.

“Kannan will send only a few candidates but they will all be gems,” was a casual remark by a recruiter who worked with that client. That’s how I was branded.

Months rolled by. I got offers for several of my candidates. When they weren’t happy, they told me. I worked with the recruiters and got revised offers for them. They accepted and eventually joined.

Those were the days when I worked as a Recruitment Partner.

But then there were many dropouts as well. That’s a given. With one client, we got 140 offers for our candidates in one year and the number of people who joined was only 73. So, we had our share of issues as well.

In the above story, when I sent the invoice to my client, the recruiter called me. I was on cloud nine. Which recruiter calls the vendor partner?

Only we chase them for interview feedback all the time.

This recruiter who called me was very tense. He was unable to communicate.

But this is what he said: “Of the four candidates who joined, one is actually an employee referral. It was my fault to have missed that. Now, that employee is also asking for the credit.”

Without thinking for a second, I said: “No problem. It’s ok. It happens. You can trash my invoice. I will send you a fresh invoice only for three candidates. You can give the credit to your employee.” After that, he thanked me profusely. Also, he promised to send me the email originally sent by that employee. He sent it to me though I told him that I don’t need it.

I looked at it. It was true. But there was a shock waiting for me.

The employee who was asking for the credit was my friend & an ex-colleague. After all, it’s a small world.

The candidate never told me that he had sent his resume to the same client as an employee referral. Hence the confusion. Whoever sent the resume first gets the credit.

No matter who read the resume, who matched the profile to an open position, collected additional information, wrote a summary, scheduled interview, did handholding till the joining, etc.

In another post, I will narrate another story that happened with this friend [a few years later].

My initial days in the recruitment business: https://zignalytics.com/2020/05/30/my-initial-days-in-business/

Takeaways:

1. Everyone has challenges & bad days. Including your clients. But you have the power to make them happy.
2. First impressions are the best impressions.
3. If you treat others well, they will also treat you well.
4. To open the door, branding is important.
5. But it is your work that will help you stay there.

Happy Selling!

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