Empathy is a human-centred approach to business development. It is a powerful tool to help you connect with your target audience and build trust. By focusing on your customers' needs and understanding their problems, you have a better chance of developing a solution that appeals to them and drives sales. However, many businesses still need support using Empathy as part of their sales strategy because they need the proper tools and format for applying Empathy in the field.

Successfully selling a product or service is all about solving problems for people – understanding their needs and designing something that makes it easy for them to accomplish their goals. When we can experience users' struggles firsthand, feel their frustration, and hear their words, we can't help but empathize.

When we empathize, we can better envision the future, strengthen interactions, and prioritize the right features to build new partnerships successfully.

Here are six steps to help you develop a human-centred approach to business development.

Step 1. What is your prospecting talking about in public? 

Check your prospect's LinkedIn profiles and online presence to identify meaningful connections within your target accounts that you can leverage for a thoughtful introduction and later to build rapport. 

To build a relationship with a prospect, you must understand your potential customers' goals and challenges. This familiarity will help you connect with decision-makers at your target accounts and shorten the sales cycle. 

• Read and track the articles your prospect is engaging with online.

• Join the communities and groups as your prospect.

• See what public figures they follow on social media.

• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to gain access to valuable account insights and intelligence. 

Step 2. What is your prospect doing? 

Look for specific behaviours that indicate a prospect's needs or priorities so that you can tailor your approach accordingly. For example, if you notice that a prospect has been sharing much industry-related content on social media, they may need help to keep up with the latest industry trends. This simple social action indicates that they are interested in learning about the latest trends in their industry and would be interested in learning more about how you can help them meet their goals.  

Another example is what type of behaviour you can understand from their social interactions. For example, if they post a lot between 6 am -8 am, it is safe to say they are a morning person. Therefore, it would be wise for you to tailor your outreach to the morning. 

You can use this information to craft a compelling message that connects your solutions with the prospect's challenges in a manner that is most impactful to them. 

• See what tools they are using to build their website with Built with.

• Note what time they are active on social media.

• See if they are attending webinars or conferences. 

• Can you tell if they engage from their mobile or desktop?

Step 3. What is on your prospect's mind? 

Why do your prospects think about buying a product or service like yours? First, identify your prospects' state of mind and determine how to cater your message to them in the most appealing manner. For example, suppose your target prospect is at a company that has done layoffs recently, and you sell accounting software. Your prospect may be concerned about finding savings within their department to ensure job security. In this case, you should focus your sales messaging on ways your product can reduce these operating costs and help increase ROI.

• What are significant circumstances at their company that impact their role/department?

• Can you public events that directly affect them (i.e. everyone is thinking about inflation)?

• Is there a general trend in what they are saying/doing online that indicates a specific state of mind?

Step 4. What are your prospect's emotions & motivations? 

Emotions play a crucial role in buying decisions because various factors influence them, including social influences, past experiences, and personal values. Therefore, understanding your prospects' emotions can help you create messaging that addresses their needs and pain points in a way that resonates with them emotionally. For example, if your prospect has ranted recently about dealing with complicated software that is difficult to use and makes their jobs more challenging, you can highlight the benefits of a more straightforward and more user-friendly solution that will empower them to do their best work. 

Usually, things are more complex, so cast a wider net. For example, can you tell from their social media a general state of mind from their personal and professional account?

• Are they posting about positive experiences (i.e. vacations, dinners out, etc.) 

• When they are posting, is their tone positive, negative, or neutral?

• Look at how they comment on other people's content. 

• What can you surmise from their tone?

Step 5. What is your prospect's goal?

One of the essential aspects of effective prospect communication is having clear and concise goal statements. A goal statement is a straightforward, articulate way of communicating your prospects' needs to stakeholders who will support your sale.

Remember, your goal statements should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to your users and time-bound. For example, "Our prospect wants to buy locally sourced products online with less than a 1-week delivery window." 

Step 6. What is the problem they need you to solve? 

Now that you understand what your prospecting is doing, saying, thinking, and feeling, you can more accurately identify the problem your customers face and then find ways to help them solve their problems. 

You have lots of great information about our users here, and to capitalize on this gold mine of knowledge, let's look for paint points and align on 3-top pain points that you can support with the data you have collected. 

Instead of focusing on the features of your product, highlight how it solves their customers' problems and makes their lives easier. For example, if a customer is struggling with time-consuming reports, show how your company's solution will help them save time so they can focus on the things that matter most.

Now that you have completed these six steps, you have enough compelling information to help you connect on a human level and start to form a relationship.

Empathy Mapping Workshop 

An empathy map is a visual tool that helps teams identify and reflect on a prospect's behaviours and attitudes.

This strategic planner guide is for taking a more thoughtful and engaging approach to understanding user behaviour, creating collaborative teams, and developing products and services customers love.

Outcomes of Empathy Mapping Workshop:

✔️ Identify opportunities to improve your product or service. 

✔️ Access user experience enhancements. 

✔️ Create new features to meet user needs. 

✔️ Reduce risk to your organization. 

Using our Strategic Planner Guide, you can facilitate an Empathy Mapping workshop like a pro with your team. The six steps covered in this article are the foundation of an Empathy Mapping activity workshop we facilitate for customers trying to take a human-centred approach to business development.