Selling with empathy: Tips for making cold B2B sales emails more human

Salesforce reported in its State of Sales 2020 analysis that 86% of sales reps have placed an increased importance on building long-term customer relationships in the current economic conditions. Meanwhile, a recent LinkedIn study found that only 32% of customers would classify sales professionals as “trustworthy.” However, 88% said they’d buy if they considered the sales reps they were working with as “trusted advisors.” 

So what’s the best way to gain the trust of potential customers? 

These days you need more than just killer sales instincts to increase your deal volume. You also need a whole lot of empathy, and that starts with your cold B2B sales emails. 

We have already walked you through the key ingredients for crafting successful B2B cold emails. Let’s take it a step further and talk about how to make these e-introductions even more human. The human touch, now more than ever, literally has the potential to make or break a potential deal in the Covid era. 

Benefits of empathy in sales 

Incorporating empathy into your B2B sales emails will help you:

• Connect and understand customer needs: Your goal as a sales rep has always been to make your customers feel heard and understood and valued. Build on this by showing you understand what they’re currently feeling and experiencing.
• Establish long-term relationships and trust: Establishing trust through empathy will allow you to uncover your customer’s pain points and help them find a solution faster, laying the foundation of a long-term relationship.
• Discover hidden customer needs and goals: As a “trusted advisor,” you’ll be able to expand on your initial feature-driven sales conversation to learn more about what a customer’s long-term needs and goals are.
  

Empathetic B2B sales emails: Focus on relationship-building

Power of video

‍Including a video in your email will make you stand out. The video could be a short introduction about your product or service or better yet, a personalized demo geared specifically toward your prospect’s individual needs. VideoForm does an amazing job of crafting a video experience that will help you increase the conversion rates as well as build better, long-lasting relationships with your potential clients.

Using humor to drive action

Humor, when executed appropriately, can be an effective sales tool. Not only is it a proven way to increase sales across a wide range of businesses, it is also a great way to connect to your prospect on a human level, offering them a reprieve from their day-to-day struggles.  

Offer help in as many ways as possible

‍Customers always feel a bit closer to sales reps when they're trying to find a solution that best fits the customer’s needs even if it doesn’t necessarily lead to a closed deal. This might mean connecting them with someone in your network that can better serve their immediate issues. In this climate, such actions will go a long way in helping build long-term relationships.    

Research, research, research‍

For the sales rep to be educated about a potential client is a must in order to offer personalized and relevant solutions. Do you research before reaching out. What are your prospect’s immediate challenges? What are their pain points? What are their long-term goals? What can you offer them?

Get personal

Sharing (relevant) personal experiences could help you uncover more about a potential customer and better understand their current reality. When people share, others are more inclined to share back. Sharing also helps to establish trust and build relationships. So when a prospect asks how you are doing, don’t use the standard “I’m fine,” but instead let them know, for example, that you are feeling ambivalent over these uncertain times. This is one way to widen the scope of your conversation.        

Get started

Drive up your response rate by automating your B2B sales email campaign. Sales Booster's outreach tool sends out personalized emails and follow-up sequences on your behalf and presents you with a list of prospects eager to work with your company. 

Learn how to close deals smarter – request a demo in the form below!