Are You a Corporate Therapist?

If you haven’t been to therapy, you might get lost in this article or challenge the idea that to be a good salesperson, consultant, or advisor, you must be a corporate therapist. To understand why this matters, it's important to break down what happens in therapy sessions.

Having been to therapy several times, I have always found the process as insightful as the outcomes. A good therapist will always start the conversation with, "Why are you here?" They give you a chance to share what is going on in your world and what caused you to reach out for help. As you progress through your session, the therapist will often repeat what you have said to verify they heard it accurately. This is extremely important as it gives the patient a chance to add additional comments. Once you have shared your pain, they will begin to ask you probing questions designed to get you to share more or deeper information about why this trauma or incident has occurred. If you have found a good therapist, that session will generally end with a homework assignment consisting of additional questions for you to answer. Note that in the first session, the likelihood of treatment being offered or a plan beyond your next appointment is unlikely.

The reason your therapist doesn’t provide an answer to your problems after the first session is that they need to learn more and process what you said before recommending a treatment plan. Depending on the complexity of the issue, this process will continue until they are confident their plan will give you the best chance of solving your personal challenges.

Therapists are trained to listen, ask questions, and then, with their expertise, recommend solutions. So, what is the difference between what they do and what you should do in your role as a salesperson, consultant, or advisor? The answer to this question is nothing, other than you aren’t solving someone’s personal challenges but their business ones.

To put this into perspective, let's look at an example. Your client or prospect reaches out to schedule a meeting to discuss an issue facing their business. Most, if not all, people on the frontlines would start the call with introductions, if necessary, and ask about the problem the client is facing. You can’t solve a problem until you know what it is. But in my experience, what happens next separates the good from the great. The good or average people start to offer solutions upon hearing what the problem is, versus employing the same tactics a therapist uses to get their client to open up—repeating what the customer just told you and asking additional questions. What I have found over the years is that everyone has a desire to solve the problem on the first call instead of taking their time and learning more about the challenge. Why is this important?

Customers are human beings, which means that just like in their personal world, they generally only offer a macro view of the issue and don’t understand the true impact of the challenge. By repeating what the customer said and asking additional questions, you will often find that there are additional underlying issues causing the problem the client is facing. In addition, by not attempting to solve the challenge on the initial call and learning more, you are building credibility. Just like the therapist, you can assign homework or ask for additional information to help you process and identify the best solution for the customer’s challenge. Believe it or not, by taking more time, asking more questions, and demonstrating that you truly care and want to solve their problems, you will lead to a better outcome for your client and establish yourself as their partner/advisor rather than someone who just wants to cash their check!