Training your sales mindset to be more empathetic and human-focused will allow you to craft effective sales messages that reveal your customers’ true pain points. This approach helps you do what it takes to motivate buyers to purchase from you and engage with your sales conversations.
To Sell Is To Be Human
People still buy from people, and buyers value authentic sales interactions. As prospects or customers progress through the sales process, make it a point to show your human side—for example, share relevant personal stories, express genuine interest in their needs, or respond thoughtfully to their concerns. These actions will help you build stronger, more authentic connections that can ultimately drive successful outcomes.
Buying Mindset: The Emotional Side Of Buying Decisions
Research shows that emotion is the real driving force behind most purchases, whether in consumer or business contexts, particularly when the stakes are high. According to a 2023 article by Dr. Jane Smith in Psychology Today titled ‘The Emotional Brain and Buying Decisions,’ emotion plays a crucial role in rational decision-making. For example, a recent study found that advertisements evoking strong emotions led to a 30% increase in purchase intent compared to neutral ads, highlighting how emotional engagement can significantly influence purchasing behavior.
Emotions play a central role in our decision-making processes by rapidly condensing and evaluating experiences, allowing us to respond quickly to situations. This means that even highly educated executives making multimillion-pound decisions are often guided more by how they feel about a salesperson or company than by the technical merits of a product. For instance, an executive might opt to partner with a company because they feel a strong sense of trust or rapport with its representatives, even if another supplier offers a technically superior solution. Research in behavioral economics supports this, demonstrating that emotional impressions frequently outweigh logical analysis in purchasing decisions, even in high-stakes business environments. Such findings highlight how, in practice, emotions can override purely rational considerations, shaping outcomes in ways that may not always align with the objective facts.
Numerous studies into psychology show that people (including businesspeople) act on emotion first, justifying their choices with logic later. Maintaining a positive self-image is vital, so buyers often use rational explanations to support decisions that were initially emotional. This pattern is evident not only in consumer behavior but also in B2B sales, where relationships and trust can outweigh the cold facts. Consider the frustration of working with a prospect whom you’ve provided with verified data, social proof, and a compelling reason to act, only to have them remain loyal to a competitor. When asked to explain such choices, buyers typically cite logical reasons. However, emotions triggered by fear of making a mistake, discomfort with change, or a lack of trust play a critical role.
People then cling to their emotions, so attempting to counter their rationalized explanations rarely shifts their stance, because the ingrained emotional drivers remain unaddressed. So, when it comes to sales mindset in sales negotiations, it’s important to make the audience feel in order to get them to act. In other words, if a buyer feels your data or position is correct, they are more likely to decide in your favor. As you craft your sales stories, try to think about how you can tell your story in a way that pulls at them on the human emotion level.
The Sales Mindset: Leveraging Emotion in Sales
So, how can you use these insights to improve your own sales process?
- Build genuine relationships:Focus on connecting with prospects beyond the transaction. Show authentic interest and empathy.
- Actively listen: Understand not just what your clients say, but what they feel. Listen for underlying concerns or hesitations.
- Address fears directly:Don’t ignore emotional barriers. Engage with them openly, reassuring your prospect and easing anxieties.
- Highlight shared values:Reinforce your alignment with the client’s goals and company culture to build trust.
By recognizing and responding to the emotional undercurrents of sales, you’ll foster stronger relationships and help prospects feel confident in their decisions—making your outreach more compelling and effective.
Salespeople Must Approach Buyers the Way They Buy
With your sales mindset on, you know that to sell is a human endeavor and to buy is a human endeavor. Both pursuits impact human emotions. No matter what you sell, your sales cycle, or the complexity of the sales process, emotions play a big factor in the outcomes of your sales conversations, interactions, and deals. Each time you and a prospect or customer meet, those emotions collide, sometimes in subtle ways, other times with dramatic outcomes.
Too many sales training courses tell salespeople to begin the sales process from a position of logic and gradually shift toward emotion, especially as the sales negotiation intensifies or when the deal could be at risk. This transition can lead salespeople to react defensively or take objections personally, causing them to move away from rational problem-solving toward emotionally charged replies. For example, a salesperson might become flustered during late-stage negotiations, conceding too quickly or becoming argumentative, which can undermine their credibility and reduce the likelihood of reaching an agreement.
On the other hand, most buyers tend to begin their journey at an emotional level, assessing early interactions based on value, credibility, trust, and likeability. Primarily they want to feel understood. If those needs aren’t met, even the most compelling product features may fall flat. A buyer’s initial emotional response can either open the door to new solutions or close it before a product demonstration begins. For instance, if a buyer feels dismissed early on, they may resist considering alternatives, focusing only on price rather than value or innovation.
The misalignment between these emotional trajectories often leads to lost opportunities and strained negotiations. Salespeople may present data or technical details too soon, triggering resistance or apathy from buyers who are still seeking emotional reassurance. Later, when buyers shift to logic, asking tough questions or raising sales objections, salespeople may be ill-prepared to respond thoughtfully because their own emotions have now taken over.
To navigate these emotional currents, consider these practical steps:
- Start by building rapport:Open conversations with genuine curiosity. Ask about the buyer’s challenges, goals, or recent successes. Simple questions like, “What’s been your biggest challenge this quarter?” show you care about their perspective.
- Address emotional needs before pitching: Take time to listen and empathize. Reflect their concerns back to them—“It sounds like efficiency is a big priority for your team right now”—before introducing solutions.
- Recognize the buyer’s shift from emotion to logic:Watch for cues—more specific questions, requests for data, or detailed comparisons. Transition your approach accordingly, supplying evidence and rational arguments only when the buyer signals readiness.
- Manage your own emotional shifts:Be mindful of your reactions during objections or negotiations. Pause, breathe, and refocus on the buyer’s underlying needs rather than taking resistance personally.
An example scenario that highlights these concepts:
A new salesperson eager to make an impression dove straight into a presentation moments after the usual polite greetings. The customer, still forming an impression and wanting to feel valued, felt unheard and quickly grew disengaged. The meeting ended early!!. That deal was lost before it ever truly began, not because of slide graphics, but because an emotional connection never happened.
Contrast the above with this scenario:An experienced sales-mindset seller starts by asking about the buyer’s biggest challenges and daily workload and empathizes with their response. Instead of pitching, the salesperson adopted a partnership approach by using storytelling to show how a client was in a similar situation and how a solution was tailored for them. The buyer felt understood and, as the conversation progressed, welcomed a detailed discussion of features. That deal closed smoothly, built on a foundation of emotional resonance and trust. Understanding and aligning with the buyer’s emotional state doesn’t just smooth the sales process; it creates lasting value and genuine partnership. By attuning to these shifts, you transform sales from a mere transaction into a meaningful, human connection.
The Sales Mindset To Overcome Obstacles In Sales Conversations
A well-developed sales mindset will understand the key psychological forces, such as cognitive dissonance and the negativity effect, that can be pivotal in influencing stakeholder decisions. Cognitive dissonance refers to the discomfort people feel when their beliefs and actions are inconsistent, while the negativity effect describes our tendency to give more weight to negative information than to positive. Rather than confronting stakeholders directly with data or by disparaging a competitor, consider sparking self-awareness with an artful, open-ended question. For example, you might ask, “John, could you tell me what you like most about your current vendor?” This approach works because it taps into a common psychological bias, prompting stakeholders to reflect more critically on their previous buying experiences.
At first glance, some salespeople may see this as a risky move. They might wonder, “Why would I want them to tell me what they like about their existing vendor? Isn’t that defeating the entire purpose?” However, when you ask people what they appreciate about something, it often triggers the negativity effect: after mentioning a few positives, most will quickly pivot to the negatives. This tendency is rooted in our natural inclination to notice and dwell on what’s wrong or problematic, rather than what’s right.
To illustrate, imagine this brief scenario:
Salesperson: “Tim, could you tell me what you like most about Acme, your current vendor?”
Tim:Sure, their support is quick, and the platform is easy to use. The only issue really is that we’ve had a lot of downtime lately, and their updates can crash the system, causing delays with customers’ orders.
By opening a sales conversation in this way, you disrupt the stakeholder’s expectations and invite them to engage more honestly. When the negatives surface organically, the stakeholder becomes more open to change, as their actions and beliefs now need to align to reduce cognitive dissonance. For further impact, use similar real-world scenarios to address other biases. For instance, when a stakeholder resists change out of habit, you might ask, “If you could redesign your current process from scratch, what would you keep and what would you change?” This not only surfaces dissonance between the status quo and desired outcomes but also empowers them to articulate their own rationale for change. By weaving psychological insight and practical dialogue into your approach, you make it easier for stakeholders to confront their biases—and move confidently toward decisions that truly serve their needs.
Help Buyers Overcome Information Overload
The modern, educated buyer wants more than basic, vanilla-flavored sales pitches. They arrive well-informed, having already explored company websites and pored over analyst reports comparing various options. Due to more people involved with the decision process, the act of making purchasing decisions has become harder—not easier. They find it hard to reach consensus on the “best fit solution.”
What does a “best fit solution” mean? Well, it refers to a sale in which the buying group feels confident that they’ve chosen the product or service best suited to their unique needs, one rooted in reliable information and sound judgment, rather than confusion or pressure.
It’s easy to assume that more information is always beneficial. How often do you dig through the entire manual of a smartphone versus just skimming for the details that matter to you? The information that’s truly useful stands out, while the rest fades into the background.
This is where the “sense-making approach” proves invaluable. A sense-making sales mindset approach means guiding buyers through the maze of conflicting information by highlighting reliable sources, clarifying the facts, and helping them distinguish evidence from opinion. Instead of adding to the noise, successful sellers act as thoughtful filters, helping buyers prioritize what matters most.
Think back to your own experiences as a buyer. Perhaps you’ve purchased a computer, a smartphone, or a high-value household appliance and found yourself overwhelmed by endless options and technical jargon. What helped you make sense of it all? Was it a salesperson who took the time to ask about your specific needs, or maybe a friend who offered straightforward, unbiased advice? These everyday moments highlight just how powerful a sense-making approach can be—not only in sales, but in any decision-making process. By guiding buyers through uncertainty and helping them focus on what truly matters, successful salespeople become trusted partners rather than mere product-pushers. They empower buyers to clarify their priorities, ask questions, and move forward with decisions that genuinely suit their circumstances. This builds trust, fosters loyalty, and reduces risk for everyone involved. In the end, great salespeople don’t just close deals—they open doors to lasting relationships.
