PROBLEM: I understand the problem, but I don't fully understand what it's like to experience it.
To find a profitable problem to solve, you must understand what it is like to experience the problem
STEP 3: DEVELOPING EMPATHY
I would make Step 7 the conclusion of Phase 4, and importantly, I would not introduce another book.
The purpose of Step 7 is to help the learner stop treating sales as a series of isolated activities and start treating it as a system they can measure, learn from and improve.
It should also close the loop:
Step 1: Build acquisition plan
→ Step 2: Build prospect list
→ Step 3: Start conversations
→ Step 4: Diagnose opportunity
→ Step 5: Present & close offer
→ Step 6: Follow up & handle resistance
→ Step 7: Review, learn & improve
Here is how I would write it.
STEP 7 — REVIEW, LEARN & IMPROVE
The Problem We’re Solving
“I’ve started selling, but I don’t know what’s working, what’s not working or what I should change.”
You have now put your acquisition and sales process into action.
You have:
Identified your target customer.
Built your prospect list.
Started conversations.
Diagnosed customer opportunities.
Presented your offer.
Asked for commitments.
Followed up.
Handled resistance.
But activity does not automatically produce learning.
You may have contacted 30 prospects and made no sales.
What does that mean?
Maybe:
Your prospects were poorly selected.
Your message wasn’t relevant.
You weren’t reaching the right people.
You didn’t ask enough questions.
The problem wasn’t urgent.
You diagnosed the wrong opportunity.
Your offer wasn’t compelling.
The price wasn’t justified.
You failed to follow up properly.
Or the market simply isn’t responding to the problem you thought mattered.
If you don’t review what happened, you won’t know.
You will simply repeat the same process.
That’s why the final step is:
Turn your sales activity into learning.
THE EVUNN MINDSET SHIFT
From “I need to sell more” → “I need to learn what makes the right customers move.”
When sales are slow, the natural response is often:
“I need more leads.”
So you contact more people.
Still no sales.
Then:
“I need a better pitch.”
So you rewrite the pitch.
Still no sales.
Then:
“I need to post more content.”
So you create more content.
But if you don’t understand where the process is breaking, you may simply be increasing activity without improving performance.
The better question is:
“What is the evidence telling me?”
Your sales process is producing data.
Every conversation gives you information.
Every rejection gives you information.
Every objection gives you information.
Every sale gives you information.
Every stalled opportunity gives you information.
Your job is to turn that information into better decisions.
THE EVUNN SALES LEARNING LOOP
Your sales process should now become a continuous loop:
ACT
↓
OBSERVE
↓
REVIEW
↓
LEARN
↓
CHANGE
↓
TEST
↓
ACT AGAIN
This is how your sales process improves.
You don’t need to reinvent everything after every conversation.
You need to identify patterns.
WHAT SHOULD YOU REVIEW?
There are five major areas.
1. PROSPECT QUALITY
Did you approach the right people?
2. CONVERSATION QUALITY
Did prospects engage?
3. OPPORTUNITY QUALITY
Did conversations reveal real problems worth solving?
4. OFFER CONVERSION
Did qualified opportunities move toward purchase?
5. FOLLOW-UP & DELIVERY
Did commitments actually turn into customers and completed engagements?
This gives you a way to identify where the problem actually is.
YOUR EVUNN ACTION
REVIEW, LEARN & IMPROVE YOUR SALES PROCESS
Don’t review your sales activity by asking:
“How many people did I contact?”
That number matters, but it isn’t enough.
Review the journey from:
Prospect
↓
Conversation
↓
Diagnosed Opportunity
↓
Offer
↓
Commitment
↓
Customer
1. REVIEW YOUR PROSPECTS
Start at the beginning.
Look at the prospects you approached.
Ask:
Fit
Did they actually match my Best-Fit Customer?
Problem
Did they have the problem I expected?
Situation
Was there a genuine reason for the problem to matter now?
Reachability
Could I realistically reach and engage them?
Priority
Were these actually the right people to approach first?
Look for patterns.
If most prospects weren’t experiencing the problem, your prospect criteria may be wrong.
If most prospects fit but never responded, your approach may be the problem.
If prospects responded but had no meaningful problem, your original problem assumptions may need revisiting.
2. REVIEW YOUR CONVERSATIONS
Now look at the conversations you started.
Ask:
Did prospects respond?
Did they continue the conversation?
Did they share useful information?
Did they reveal a meaningful problem?
Did they ask questions?
Did they show interest in exploring further?
Where did conversations stop?
You are looking for the point where momentum disappears.
For example:
50 prospects
↓
20 conversations
↓
10 meaningful conversations
↓
5 diagnosed opportunities
↓
3 offers
↓
1 customer
That tells you much more than simply:
“I contacted 50 people.”
3. REVIEW YOUR CONVERSION BETWEEN STAGES
Create a simple sales funnel.
For example:
| Stage | Number |
|---|---|
| Prospects contacted | 50 |
| Conversations started | 20 |
| Qualified opportunities | 8 |
| Offers presented | 5 |
| Commitments gained | 3 |
| Customers | 2 |
You don’t need complicated analytics.
You need enough information to identify where prospects are dropping out.
Ask:
“Where is the biggest drop?”
That is where you investigate first.
4. REVIEW YOUR CUSTOMER CONVERSATIONS
Go back through what customers and prospects actually said.
Don’t rely only on your memory.
Look for repeated language.
What problems did they describe?
What words did they use?
What outcomes did they want?
What frustrated them?
What did they misunderstand?
What did they ask about repeatedly?
What concerns appeared?
What did they care about more than you expected?
This can reveal whether your original assumptions were correct.
5. REVIEW YOUR DIAGNOSIS
Step 4 taught you to diagnose the customer’s opportunity.
Now ask:
“Was my diagnosis actually correct?”
For each opportunity, compare:
What I initially believed
with:
What the customer actually told me
You may discover:
You misunderstood the problem.
The problem was real but low priority.
The customer had a different desired outcome.
The consequences were different from what you expected.
Another problem was more important.
The customer didn’t see the problem the way you did.
This is valuable learning.
6. REVIEW YOUR OFFER
Look at the offers you presented.
Ask:
Did the customer understand what I was offering?
Did they understand the outcome?
Did the offer clearly connect to the problem we diagnosed?
Did they understand why it mattered?
Did they understand the investment?
What part of the offer generated interest?
What part created hesitation?
What questions did customers repeatedly ask?
If customers repeatedly misunderstand the offer, don’t simply blame the customer.
Your offer may need to become clearer.
7. REVIEW RESISTANCE
Your Step 6 conversations contain valuable information.
Create a list of the resistance you encountered.
For example:
| Concern | Number of Times |
|---|---|
| Price | 6 |
| Timing | 4 |
| Need more information | 3 |
| Need partner approval | 2 |
| Trust | 1 |
Then ask:
“What pattern is appearing?”
If the same concern appears repeatedly, don’t simply prepare another response.
Investigate whether the underlying sales process needs to change.
For example:
If everyone says:
“I don’t understand exactly what I get.”
Your offer presentation may need improvement.
If everyone says:
“I don’t think this is urgent.”
Your positioning or target customer may need reconsideration.
If everyone says:
“I can’t afford this.”
You may need to investigate whether the value, customer segment or pricing is wrong.
8. REVIEW YOUR WINS
Do not study only your failures.
Study your sales.
Ask:
“Why did this customer say yes?”
Look at:
Where you found them.
What problem they had.
What made the problem urgent.
What they valued.
What they asked.
What convinced them.
What concerns they had.
What happened during the sales process.
Why they decided to act.
Your best customers can reveal your best sales process.
9. IDENTIFY YOUR SALES PATTERNS
Now look across your conversations.
Complete these statements:
The customers most likely to engage are:
The problem they most consistently mention is:
The situation that creates urgency is:
The acquisition channel producing the best prospects is:
The message that gets the strongest response is:
The most common resistance is:
The strongest reason customers buy is:
The point where most opportunities stall is:
These patterns are more valuable than isolated opinions.
10. FIND YOUR BIGGEST BOTTLENECK
You cannot improve everything at once.
Identify the one stage that is currently limiting your sales process the most.
For example:
Problem:
Many prospects → few conversations
Likely area to investigate:
Prospect quality or outreach.
Problem:
Many conversations → few opportunities
Likely area to investigate:
Problem relevance or discovery.
Problem:
Many opportunities → few offers accepted
Likely area to investigate:
Offer, value or decision process.
Problem:
Many verbal commitments → few completed purchases
Likely area to investigate:
Follow-up or execution.
Your objective is:
Fix the bottleneck, not everything.
11. FORM ONE LEARNING HYPOTHESIS
Don’t make ten changes at once.
Choose one important observation and turn it into a hypothesis.
For example:
“I believe independent consultants who recently launched their practice are more responsive than established consultants because the need for customer acquisition is more urgent.”
Or:
“I believe prospects are hesitating because I am presenting the offer before making the financial consequence of the problem clear.”
Then decide:
“What can I change and test?”
12. RUN THE NEXT EXPERIMENT
Change one meaningful variable.
For example:
Target customer
Test a narrower customer segment.
Acquisition channel
Test LinkedIn instead of referrals.
Opening message
Change the first approach.
Discovery
Ask a different question.
Offer
Change how the outcome is presented.
Follow-up
Change the reason and timing for follow-up.
Then observe what happens.
You are not trying to prove yourself right.
You are trying to learn.
13. UPDATE YOUR SALES SYSTEM
When you learn something important, don’t leave it in your head.
Update the relevant part of your system.
For example:
If you discover that your best prospects are newly promoted managers:
Update your Best-Fit Customer.
If you discover that a particular buying signal predicts stronger conversations:
Update your Prospect Criteria.
If a particular question consistently uncovers valuable information:
Update your Conversation Guide.
If customers repeatedly misunderstand your offer:
Update your Offer Presentation.
If one objection keeps appearing:
Update your sales process.
The learning should change the system.
14. DECIDE WHAT TO KEEP, CHANGE OR STOP
For each part of your acquisition and sales process, decide:
KEEP
It is working.
CHANGE
It shows potential but needs improvement.
STOP
It consistently produces poor results.
TEST
You don’t have enough evidence yet.
This prevents you from abandoning something after one bad result—or continuing something simply because you have invested time in it.
15. SET YOUR NEXT SALES EXPERIMENT
Before leaving this step, decide:
What will I test next?
Define:
Hypothesis
What do I believe?
Change
What will I do differently?
Audience
Who will I test it with?
Measurement
What will I observe?
Timeframe
How long will I run the test?
Decision Rule
What result would cause me to keep, change or stop the approach?
This turns learning into action.
🧠 EVUNN MINDSET CHECKPOINT
Are you measuring activity—or learning?
It is easy to celebrate:
“I contacted 100 people.”
But 100 contacts don’t necessarily mean progress.
You need to know:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
What did I learn?
What will I change?
The goal isn’t to become obsessed with sales metrics.
The goal is to become evidence-driven.
Don’t say:
“People don’t want my offer.”
Ask:
“What evidence do I have?”
Don’t say:
“LinkedIn doesn’t work.”
Ask:
“What happened to the prospects I approached through LinkedIn?”
Don’t say:
“My price is too high.”
Ask:
“What exactly did prospects say, and what happened after they raised the price concern?”
Don’t turn one experience into a universal truth.
Look for patterns.
THE EVUNN LEARNING LOOP
Your sales process should now become:
PLAN
↓
PROSPECT
↓
CONVERSE
↓
DIAGNOSE
↓
OFFER
↓
FOLLOW UP
↓
MEASURE
↓
LEARN
↓
IMPROVE
↓
TEST AGAIN
This is how a repeatable customer acquisition system begins to emerge.
YOUR PHASE 4 REVIEW
Before leaving Phase 4, review the entire process.
STEP 1 — BUILD YOUR CUSTOMER ACQUISITION PLAN
Can I explain:
Who I want to reach?
Where I can find them?
How I will approach them?
STEP 2 — BUILD YOUR FIRST PROSPECT LIST
Do I have:
Real prospects?
Qualification criteria?
Problem signals?
Buying-situation signals?
STEP 3 — START THE CONVERSATION
Can I:
Approach prospects naturally?
Earn their attention?
Start a relevant conversation?
STEP 4 — DIAGNOSE THE OPPORTUNITY
Can I determine:
What problem exists?
Why does it matter?
What happens if it remains unresolved?
What outcome does the customer want?
Is there a genuine opportunity?
STEP 5 — PRESENT & CLOSE THE OFFER
Can I:
Connect my recommendation to the diagnosed opportunity?
Present the value clearly?
Ask for commitment?
Move the customer toward a decision?
STEP 6 — FOLLOW UP & HANDLE RESISTANCE
Can I:
Understand hesitation?
Investigate resistance?
Respond without becoming defensive?
Create a clear next commitment?
Know when to stop pursuing an opportunity?
STEP 7 — REVIEW, LEARN & IMPROVE
Can I:
Identify what is working?
Find where opportunities are being lost?
Recognise patterns?
Identify my biggest bottleneck?
Run a focused experiment?
Improve my process based on evidence?
If you can answer yes to these questions, you have moved beyond simply trying to sell.
You are beginning to build a customer acquisition system.
🔓 EVUNN EXECUTION TOOLKIT
Sales Learning & Improvement Dashboard
Don’t rely on memory to improve your sales process.
Use the EVUNN Sales Learning & Improvement Dashboard to capture your sales activity, track movement between stages, identify bottlenecks, record customer feedback and resistance, analyse patterns and decide what to change next.
The toolkit helps you move from:
Sales Activity
↓
Evidence
↓
Patterns
↓
Learning
↓
Experiment
↓
Improvement
→ Open Toolkit
ONE PAYMENT. ALL STAGE 1 TOOLKITS. YOURS FOR LIFE.
No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute.
→ Unlock All Stage 1 Execution Toolkits
YOUR STEP 7 OUTPUT
By the end of this step, you should have a:
SALES LEARNING & IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM
Containing:
Sales Activity
↓
Conversion Data
↓
Customer Feedback
↓
Resistance Patterns
↓
Bottleneck
↓
Learning
↓
Next Hypothesis
↓
Sales Experiment
↓
Improved Process
Your objective is not to produce a complicated sales report.
Your objective is to know:
What is working, where the process is breaking, what the evidence is telling you and what you will change next.
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOW KNOW
You entered Phase 4 with:
“I need to find customers.”
You now leave knowing:
“I have a process for finding the right prospects, starting conversations, diagnosing opportunities, presenting offers, gaining commitments, following up and learning from the results.”
You have moved through the complete customer acquisition process:
Find the right people
↓
Start the conversation
↓
Understand the opportunity
↓
Present the right offer
↓
Gain commitment
↓
Handle resistance
↓
Follow up
↓
Learn
↓
Improve
And this is the important final shift:
Your first sales process does not need to be perfect. It needs to produce enough evidence for you to improve it.
Because customer acquisition is not something you figure out once.
It is a system you build, test and improve through real customer interactions.
PHASE 4 COMPLETE
You have now built the foundation for acquiring your first customers.
But acquiring a customer is not the end of the journey.
The next question is:
“How do I turn the customer I acquired into a successful customer—and build a business that can deliver the promised outcome consistently?”
That takes you into the next phase.
NEXT PHASE → CUSTOMER DELIVERY & RETENTION
From getting the customer → to delivering the value.
To understand their experience, use Book 3. Title: Practical Empathy
Author: Indi Young
Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)
Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy at the Bookshop
The Big Idea from Practical Empathy
Empathy helps you move beyond assumptions and develop a deeper understanding of how people experience problems, situations, what they do, and what matters to them.
For an expert, this is a critical shift. Your expertise tells you what you think the problem is. Empathy helps you understand the problem from their perspective.
What Does this Book Help you Achieve?
Practical Empathy helps you:
Listen without immediately interpreting
Understand people’s experiences more deeply
Separate what people actually say from your assumptions
Make sense of what you hear
Identify patterns across people’s experiences
Use those insights to improve what you create
The goal isn’t to become better at selling.
It’s to become better at understanding.
Should I Read it Now?
YES.
You’ve already explored:
Step 1: What problems might exist?
Step 2: Why might people want to solve them?
Now you need to understand: What is this experience actually like for the person living through it?
Which Chapters Matter Most for me Now?
Chapter 2: Empathy Brings Balance (Essential)
Understand what empathy actually means and why it matters when making decisions about customers.
Chapter 3: Put Empathy to Work (Essential)
Learn how empathy can become part of how you investigate and understand problems.
Chapter 4: A New Way to Listen (Essential)
This is one of the most important chapters for this stage.
Learn to listen to someone’s experience without immediately jumping to solutions, advice or conclusions.
Chapter 5: Make Sense of What You Heard (Essential)
Find out how to process and deepen your understanding of what people tell you.
Chapter 6: Apply Empathy to What You Create (Essential)
Understand how patterns in people’s experiences can influence what you eventually create.
Chapter 1: Business Is Out of Balance (Read this chapter for context only)
It explains why relying only on numbers and analytical thinking can leave important parts of the customer experience invisible.
Skip Chapters 7–9 for now
They focus more heavily on applying empathy within workplaces and organizations.
Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial | Buy at the Bookshop
Your Step 3 Outcome
By the end of this step, you should have:
A deeper understanding of the experience behind each problem of the 3 problems generated in step 1
A clearer distinction between what you know and what you’re assuming
Initial insight into what people think, feel and do
A better understanding of their frustrations and desired outcomes
A list of questions you still need to investigate with real people
Notice what hasn’t happened yet:
You haven’t validated the problems yet. That’s intentional.
You’ve developed empathy, but empathy based on your own reflection is still not enough.
The next step takes you deeper.
Ready to Put Empathy into Practice?
Reading about empathy is not the same as practising it.
The EVUNN Customer Empathy Toolkit gives you a structured way to examine the problem from the customer’s perspective and separate evidence from assumptions.
One Payment. For All EVUNN Stage 1 toolkits.
What Should I Learn Next?
You now have a better understanding of the customer’s experience.
But there’s another question:
What are they actually trying to accomplish?
A customer may describe a problem, but the problem itself isn’t always the real objective.
They may be trying to make progress toward something bigger.
Step 4: Jobs-to-Be-Done
You’ll move from: Understanding their experience to understanding the progress they’re actually trying to make.
