One on One Sherpa
Growing St. Louis Startup Uses Technology to Build Empathy

Sherpa, is the brainchild of Co- Founders, David Smith and Alexandra Fisher and it’s based on fulfilling one of the most basic, and largely unfulfilled, promises of the technology revolution—building real empathic connections between people.

Sherpa was designed to help sales professionals create trust and the emotional space necessary to overcome resistance in any sales relationship. The company used its unique blend of empathy and technology to power a growth rate of 345 percent in 2015. Its technology platform, which revolution-izes the traditional Customer Relationship Management model, has garnered 1,500 users in 350 senior communities to date. Co-founder Smith says that Sherpa is “a real leap in the use of technology to create empathy and build emotional intelligence.”

“Sherpa has now proved that investing more time to create empathic connections and learn about the prospect rather than contacting and presenting to as many prospects as possible is the most successful way to sell senior living.” Smith stated. The unprecedented study, conducted by the ProMatura Group, a global marketing and research firm examined over 300,000 encounters between sales counselors and prospective residents. An analysis of data collected during 2015 by Sherpa.

“The senior housing industry was a logical choice to test our proof of concept for Sherpa, since we know the industry well. With Sherpa sales counselors help prospective residents confront the fear that often accompanies decisions about moving into senior housing. Technology doesn’t typically facilitate deep understanding or human relationships, but we believe that this is precisely what was needed in order to create a new sales model—one that measures success based on helping people ‘get ready’ rather than call out or tour quotas. The extent of increased sales results for Sherpa users has been dramatic.”

Sherpa has now proved that investing more time to create empathic connections and learn about the prospect rather than contacting and presenting to as many prospects as possible is the most successful way to sell senior living

Smith also noted that the senior housing market is on the leading edge of the “age wave” which will transform American business in the next 20 years. Sherpa’s ability to help people make life-changing decisions in the Senior Housing Market can be equally effective in other market segments like charitable fund raising, smoking cessation, home health care, broker/dealer transactions, etc. Expansion into these markets creates significant growth opportunities for the St. Louis firm.

Its innovative model, early success and the solid business pedigree of its founders has enabled Sherpa to raised more than $4.5 million to date, and the company expects to generate revenue of $2.5 million in 2016. Sherpa has an exceptional team of software engineers and developers, data analysts and technical support staff currently numbering 15. Smith says they expect the Sherpa team to grow as business continues to expand “and the people working in technology, many of them Millennials, want to use that technology to improve the lives of real people.”