Insight April 2026

The Word That
Changes Everything
in Sales

Most people think great sales is about understanding the product. Good salespeople understand the customer. The best ones understand something deeper.

Sonder / ˈsɒndə /

noun · coined by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The realisation that each passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, anxieties, routines, and pressures, of which you are only dimly aware.

In everyday life, sonder is a moment of quiet recognition. In sales and leadership, it is a strategic imperative.

Every stakeholder you speak to is living a completely different version of the same problem. Same organisation. Same project. Same solution on the table. Completely different realities sitting behind their eyes when they walk into that room.

The CFO is thinking about financial risk and board-level scrutiny. The operational lead is thinking about workload, delivery pressure, and what this means for their team on Monday morning. The end user is quietly wondering, "Is this going to make my life harder?"

Deals don't stall randomly. People don't push back for no reason. Decisions don't get delayed without context. There's always something going on in someone else's world that you haven't fully understood yet.

This is where sonder becomes more than a philosophical idea. It becomes a practical sales skill. The moment you genuinely internalise that every person across that buying committee has a world of pressures, priorities, and personal stakes that you are only dimly aware of — your whole approach shifts.

You stop asking, "How do I sell this?" and start asking, "What does this mean for them?" And that question — that single shift in perspective — changes everything about how you show up in a conversation.

Three Realities. One Room.

The CFO

Financial Risk & Scrutiny

Every decision passes through a lens of cost, exposure, and justification. They're not just evaluating your solution — they're evaluating what happens if it goes wrong. Speak to the risk, not just the return.

The Operational Lead

Workload & Delivery Pressure

They're already stretched. Change means disruption before it means improvement. Their question isn't "will this work?" — it's "what does implementing this cost my team right now?"

The End User

Simplicity & Daily Reality

Often the most overlooked voice. They don't care about strategy or ROI. They care about Tuesday morning. "Is this going to make my job easier or harder?" If you can't answer that, adoption will fail.

The old question

"How do I sell this?"

Leads with features and capability

One message for the whole room

Surprises when stakeholders push back

Deals stall without clear reason

Champion burns out selling internally alone

The better question

"What does this mean for them?"

Leads with their specific reality and problem

Tailored message for every stakeholder

Objections anticipated and addressed early

Deals move because everyone feels understood

Multiple champions across the organisation

Better conversations. Stronger champions. Fewer surprises. More predictable outcomes. These aren't the result of a better pitch or a sharper deck. They're the result of genuinely understanding the human realities sitting behind each seat at the table.

You're not just selling a solution. You're navigating multiple human realities at once. And the salespeople who grasp this — who lead with sonder rather than with slides — are the ones who consistently outperform, outlast, and out-relate every competitor in the room.

That's where great performance actually lives.

Sales Leadership Customer Centricity B2B Public Sector Multi-Thread

Ready to sell to the whole room?

Multi-threading puts sonder into practice — building relationships across every stakeholder, at every level, with a message tailored to their world.

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