"Man, We'd Love To…" – The Power of Empathy

Never underestimate the power of empathy. Just relating to someone’s idea. Just letting them know that you approve of what they’re doing but the circumstances aren’t right at this time is way more powerful than you think.

Often it’s the difference between leaving a bad taste in someone’s mouth, and a good one.

I recently was on a call where I was pitching an idea to someone who I was desiring to partner with us. After my little 4 minute spiel on who we were, what we were doing, and why I thought partnership might be of interest to them, he offered his response.

Without so much as saying a word of validation about what we were doing, he merely jumped headlong into all of the really famous people and organizations they were already partnering with and then simply let me know that they weren’t interested in working with us.

Which is fine.

But it sure would have been nice to hear a “Man, we would love to but…”

Conversely, about 6 weeks earlier, I had a conversation with another prominent leader of an organization of similar stature. After my same spiel, he said “Man, we would love to but…”

Both offered rejections. One offered empathy, the other nothing. One left a good taste in my mouth, the other left a bad one.

Never underestimate the power of empathy. It might just be the difference in your Brand’s reputation in the mind of a future customer.