Influence through Appreciation

Appreciation and Leadership

One of the quickest ways to connect with someone is to appreciate him.

Appreciate where he is coming from. Sincerely appreciate her perspective. Acknowledge and appreciate his contribution.

From the most sensitive personality to the most high-charging go-getter, sincere appreciation is… appreciated.

By pinpointing where someone has made an impact, that person will be naturally encouraged to continue to make the same impact and perhaps make the impact more deeply.

We’ve all had the experience of being thanked or acknowledged for what we do and, as a result, focus additional effort on doing that thing better or more consistently.

Quality leaders get it. Leaders who consistently and verbally acknowledge solid work and pinpoint someone’s most effective contributions get more of those contributions.

It happens at work, at home, in volunteer settings.

Appreciation and Sales

Are sales and marketing efforts any different? Can we influence people who we hope to serve through our product or service via sincere appreciation (we won’t get into hair-splitting about sincere vs. insincere appreciation – we all know the difference)?

In sales, will my appreciation of a prospect’s contribution result in a greater likelihood of closing a deal?

On the surface, honestly, perhaps not. If we simply tell our potential client that he has done a bang-up job as a leader in his organization, this might smack of flattery at worse or basic rapport-building at best.

But dig into the definition of ‘appreciation’:

Understanding and fully recognizing all the implications or a certain situation.

Here we find something that can be very useful on a sales and marketing level: If we fully understand and appreciate the implications of a potential client’s decision to work with us and buy our product or service vs. using a competitors, then how more complete will our solutions and our sales process be?

When we appreciate our key contact’s internal corporate relationships, the economics of their decisions, and their current vendor relationships, we should do a better job at building out proposals that make change both attractive and easier for our prospect. We’ll also be more thorough in our sales process in order to gain the correct commitments to move the relationship forward.

When we appreciate more deeply our client’s situation, we move from being enamored of our benefits and features to being willing to walk a mile in our prospect’s shoes, to go to bed considering what keeps our prospect up at night.

When we start taking on our prospects’ concerns, we gain insight that goes beyond our own offering.

We can influence through appreciating someone’s contribution. We can bring change by appreciating someone’s circumstances.

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Consider how, today, you can acknowledge and appreciate a colleague’s contribution. And consider also how you can acknowledge and appreciate a potential client’s situation.

What can you do to encourage both to make the improvements that you see is possible? 

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Today’s reading of How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie influenced this post.