Got Rapport?
What do elite Sales Professionals know about rapport that you don’t?
Got Rapport?
Got Rapport?Sales research has shown that up to 90% of success in selling depends on your skills for establishing rapport with your prospect or customer. The data also indicates that while average salespeople do well in selling to people like themselves, top performing Sales Professionals have learned how to build relationships with, and sell to, anyone.
What do elite Sales Professionals know that others don’t? Top Performers understand that, despite what trainers have been teaching for more than thirty years, establishing rapport is more than just asking about a picture on the wall or an object on a desk. They also know that building rapport requires more than charisma and attitude. The highest earning Sales Professionals consistently practice the skills required to connect with people, earn their trust, and build confidence so that a relationship is quickly formed.
Having rapport with someone means you understand them well enough to experience the world through their eyes. It is a fact that people like, and are more comfortable with people who are like themselves. So it logically follows that the more we can learn to be like our prospects and customers, the better rapport we will have with them. But it’s not enough to just be similar to someone; it’s having sincerity, establishing trust, listening, having the right intentions and it’s understanding their values.
We have all heard the saying that customers most often buy from people they like. And while this is true I believe that there is another more powerful tenet at play. I believe that people really like to buy from people they believe like them. I’m sure to some this sounds a little strange so think about it this way. One of the strongest human cravings, beside sex, is the desire to be liked and accepted by others. We want other people to become our friend, respect us, listen to us, show us sympathy, appreciate us and make us feel important. And, when we believe that another person likes us, we reciprocate and return the favor.
What top sales professionals have learned to do is get beyond rapport and become so sincerely interested in their prospects and customers that they become friends with them. This is powerful because when a connection is made at this level and a friendship formed, they are virtually guaranteed success.
The Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Building Rapport
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Strangers Scare Us: There are few things we find as disconcerting as a stranger asking us personal questions. Yet, that is what many salespeople do the first time they meet a new client or prospect. Great Sales Professionals have learned to find common ground on the business level first. Once this bond is established, then they earn the right to get personal and become even more connected.
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The Name Game: We have been conditioned since childhood to respond to the sound of our own name. When someone uses our name we instantly become more comfortable. In fact, there is no other word more beautiful to our ears. Great Sales Professionals recognize that using names strengthens connections and rapport, and have developed techniques for remembering and using names.
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Find and Solve Problems: The fastest way to lose rapport is to start selling. Your prospects and customers don’t want to be sold. Selling happens when your mouth runneth over with the features and benefits of your product. When you forget about the “sale” and instead focus on listening to your customer and their problems, you earn trust. Trust, is the foundation of all rapport.
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Shut Up and Listen: Listening is the real key to rapport and for that matter all relationships. Listening is the manifestation of empathy. And empathy is simply our ability to stand in another’s shoes and to learn to be like them. Empathy connects us to other people on the emotional level. Great Sales Professionals listen deeply, paying close attention to words, tone of voice and body language. They focus their complete and sincere attention on the other person quickly developing a strong connection which often leads to friendship and profitable business relationship.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy.
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