Learn how design thinking can optimize your sales strategy by enhancing empathy, creativity, and customer-centric solutions.
Over the past few years, design thinking has gained momentum in the business world. Some leading brands now use it to optimize product innovation. At its core, design thinking is a creative problem-solving method. Unlike analytical thinking, which breaks ideas down, design thinking builds them up.
While product teams have widely adopted design thinking, sales teams have been slower to follow. Traditional sales routines often conflict with the iterative nature of design thinking.
The sales cycle is growing more complex, and customers expect personalized experiences. Sales reps are under pressure to innovate. Teams are beginning to see value in a design-thinking approach. Salesforce’s sales team, for example, applied design thinking to its discovery process and reported a 100 % increase in revenue growth. Broader adoption may help other teams as well.
Empathy sits at the heart of design thinking. It has two parts: a cognitive ability to see another’s perspective and an affective ability to form an emotional connection.
The importance of empathy in sales is hard to overstate. A study in The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice found a positive link between a rep’s empathy and a buyer’s trust and satisfaction. With only 3 % of buyers saying they trust sales reps, empathy may help close the credibility gap.
Empathy also encourages buyers to share information. According to buyers, the top way to create a positive sales experience is to listen to their needs. Even with abundant data and AI tools, reps still need to step into the customer’s shoes and hear what matters most.
The define stage aims to craft a clear problem statement—often called a point of view. Too often, reps define the problem before they fully understand the buyer, leading to premature solution selling. Research suggests that at least half of prospects are not a good fit for the offering. Defining the buyer’s real need first can help reps decide whether a deal is worthwhile.
The define stage involves asking a lot of questions. Contrary to popular belief, this focus on questioning does not hinder the sales conversation; it enriches it. According to one analysis of 519,000 discovery calls, there is a clear relationship between the number of questions a sales rep asks a buyer and the likelihood of success.
The ideate stage unlocks the true potential of design thinking, especially in sales. Here the focus shifts from identifying problems to generating solutions. The goal is quantity—producing a wide range of possible options, not the final answer. It requires thinking beyond the obvious and embracing creativity. How can you craft an offering uniquely suited to your buyer?
Creativity is often overlooked in sales, yet it is essential and a key predictor of success. Research from Aston Business School found that more-creative sales professionals generated higher sales than their less-creative peers. An Adobe study also reported that companies fostering creativity may outperform their peers in revenue growth.
When crafting solutions, reps must tap their creative resources. How can you shape a pitch that resonates emotionally? Which decision-makers—inside and beyond the C-suite—should be involved? If the customer offers a free or low-cost product, try it yourself. Read customer forums and reviews. Keep stepping into the buyer’s shoes; only then can ideation be fully optimized.
The fourth stage is prototyping—developing more detailed, scaled-down versions of possible solutions. Prototyping should not happen in a black box, or momentum will be lost. Use it to continue the conversation after discovery calls. Effective reps invite champions and other customer affiliates to vet ideas. Involving tangential stakeholders helps them feel valued and invested in the outcome.
The final stage is testing the refined offering. This means presenting the fully developed pitch to all key stakeholders. During testing, salespeople should act as partners, using collaborative language—“we,” “together.” A “you versus us” mindset undermines progress.
Forrester predicted that one million U.S. B2B sales reps could lose their jobs by 2020. Reps can no longer rely on “tried-and-true” playbooks; nearly 60 % admit they rarely change their approach. In a market that prizes personalized engagement, design thinking—well suited to ambiguous problems—can help sellers connect authentically and guide customers through the buying process.
Why creativity matters in sales – Forbes Discovery-call data – Gong.io Future of B2B sales roles – Forrester
