The five levels of intentional Empathy
Intentional empathy defines the approach we take towards our clients. It also helps us understand the level of trust we have with a customer. This also helps us to improve our relationship with our customers.
There are five levels of intentional empathy.
A self-interest in the success of the product or service from your perspective; as a representative of the vendor.
An interest in the success of your product or service from the client's perspective.
A belief that if you make the client successful they will buy more of your product. The client sees you as an advisor for projects relating to your product only.
An interest in the client's projects beyond the project that your product can help with.
A relationship whereby the client sees you as a strategic advisor for the current project and future projects.
These different levels of intentional Empathy also imply different levels of trust. As you move through the scale from 1 to 5 the level of trust increases.
An example. I remember being with a leader in a large government department and they said “we don't get to have this level of discussion with any other vendor”
This comment highlights that we had attained a level of trust that maps to level 4 of the Intention Empathy index.
When we build a relationship map with our customers often the measure is binary. Its either positive or negative. These measures are of interest but they don't tell us that much. A more fine-grained view such as the Intentional Empathy Index would add clarity.
Th level of intentional empathy we have with a client can also define the strength of the relationship. This can equate to the chance the client will be a recurring customer.
If you have a transactional relationship with your client, e.g. level 1. This is where your interest in the client's success is based on your own self-interest. An example of this is where you are only interested in the client to help a sale for a new product feature.
In this case, the level of trust the client has for you is equal to the trust they have for the organization you represent. For you, this means you are a resource that is easy to replace.
If you have things in common with your customer such as similar interests, common values etc this can elevate the relationship. Be warned, it will only elevate your relationship so much. You will not achieve Level 5: Strategic advisor status with this alone.
My experience has shown me that people in senior leadership positions are good at understanding the motives of people. If you approach your customer with a Level 1 Empathy, they will see you coming a mile off.
An example, I was working with a salesperson and before we started to work together I received feedback from another seller that they were a archetypical sales person e.g. "a hard-hitting sales driver" .
While this was very true something that my colleague didn't have visibility of or didn't value was the level of trust that this salesperson had with their clients.
The salesperson was very clear on their objectives with the customer. The salesperson was also very clear that they would move heaven and earth to make the solution work. They demonstrated to the customer that they will walk in the customer’s shoes and share their pain.
I attended customer meetings with this hard-hitting sales person and the customer went to great lengths to ensure the sales rep had what they needed. This was a demonstration of Level 3 Intentional Empathy.
High Touch CSM
Where the CS team has a high-touch model, with the right approach the CSMs can demonstrate a level 3 or level 4 relationship fairly quickly, say 2-3 months.
This new relationship which is built on trust is created by the CSM delivering repeatable outcomes for the client.
An example. A CSM started working with a customer and one of the areas of focus was adoption. During these discussions, it became clear that the client was not using their licenses in the most efficient manner.
From the sales rep’s perspective, this inefficient usage of licenses by the customer increased the salesperson’s commission at the client's expense. Ultimately, this situation reduced the value of the product for the vendor and the customer e.g. the client's value came at a higher cost than it should have.
Simply put, having a focus on revenue only when working with today's clients will only carry you so far. To maximize the value we deliver to customers, we need to aim to reach the highest levels of Intentional Empathy.
