How being a salesperson shaped me into a better designer

During the past years, I have worked in sales for the technology and architecture industry. I learned that the most successful salespeople who close the most deals are not those who aggressively pushes his prospective customers into closing a deal, but the ones who have deep empathy.

What do I mean by "deep empathy"? To have the ability to understand how the customer thinks and learn what his or her pain points are. For example, on many occasions, I sensed a desire to buy but some hesitation because of budget problems. My strategy in this scenario was to be proactive and suggest alternative payment plans to close the deal. Did I close 100% of the deals? No, I did not, but I definitely increased my chances of closing more deals. I was putting myself on the same financial page as my prospect was and they knew I understood their challenges.

On top of empathy, I trained myself to be a good listener.

Every prospect customer was different so I had to be able to listen more than they talked. As if I was a journalist who has prepared to ask probing questions, I prepared myself to ask the kind of questions that allow me to explore my buyer's mind. It was not enough to have a good sense of people, especially with cold calls, I needed a strategy.

All the organizations I worked for had scripts for their salespeople to follow. I never did. Why? In reality, the sales scenario never matches the one you trained for. I had to be confident enough to think on my feet and improvise. Honestly, this is the best way to go if you are a sales consultant: prospect clients throw curveballs at you all the time so you better adapt, quickly.

As all this happens on the fly, you have to be agile too. The more clients I was exposed to, the more I learned to be agile and use my empathy to read my customer's signs.

I have heard a lot of people say "I can't work in sales, I am terrible!". Well, if you give up easily, then this statement is true. When you work in sales, you cannot quit and give up too easily when prospects do not respond to your 8 emails or 5 calls. If you quit, you will miss out on many deals.

Just like a UX Designer, I tried to offer valuable information in every interaction so that customers can match their needs with what I have to offer, and hopefully will come to me instead of somebody else.