Building Rapport
Building rapport is vital for any sales professional and is often the biggest contributor to winning or losing a sale. Building rapport helps you gain the trust of your customer. Without trust, you won’t get the customer’s business. Proper rapport building is accomplished by following proven tips from top sales reps, such as - Breaking the Ice (engaging in small talk) and understanding the difference between a Sales Rep and a “Trusted Advisor.”
Building rapport means gaining a person’s trust by sincerely showing concern for their wants and needs. People buy from people they like, trust and believe. Building rapport is the first step in becoming a “Trusted Advisor.”
Let’s start with Breaking the Ice - Studies have shown that we make up our minds about a person within the first 30 seconds of meeting them. It is almost impossible to reverse their impression of us after making a bad first impression.
One of the easiest ways to build rapport is to ask a good opening question. Here are some examples…
-
(Business customer) - This seems to be a good business. How did you first get involved here?
-
(Residential customer) - This is a nice neighborhood. What led you to purchase a home here?
Opening questions provide the customer with an easy way to begin talking and having a conversation with you, and this begins the road to building rapport and trust.
Here are some additional tips to follow when breaking the ice with a new prospect:
-
Be Yourself - Be yourself, relax, and don’t act anxious to close the sale.
-
Talk About Something Familiar - Talk about something familiar that you both have in common.
-
Offer a Compliment - It must be sincere or it will be obvious.
-
Tell a Story - The best salespeople are great at storytelling. Just make it relative and make it short.
-
Show Your Knowledge of the Prospect - Do research about your prospect before your initial sales call.
-
Ask Questions - Ask about them and talk about them, remember it's NOT about YOU!
-
Practice Mirror Matching - We'll cover this in a future module of this playbook.
Topics to Avoid:
-
Politics
-
Religion
-
Controversial Topics.
Trusted Advisor
Customers are often skeptical of salespeople because they perceive the salesperson to be more interested in making the sale than doing what is right and best for the customer. Don’t be this type of salesperson. By positioning yourself as a trusted advisor, customers are 88% more likely to buy from you.
So how do you become a Trusted Advisor? The definition of a Trusted Advisor is someone that looks out for the customer's best interest first and their commissions second. Becoming a Trusted Advisor will not only help you achieve the income that you expect, but it will also lead to repeat business. Trusted Advisors stay on top of industry information, trends, competition, and solutions.
Here are some tips on how to become a Trusted Advisor:
-
Researching each prospect to fully understand their industry, business needs, pain points, objectives, etc.
-
Becoming competent and knowledgeable about the products and services offered and how they relate to the buyer’s specific wants & needs.
-
Asking more open-ended questions to fully understand what your prospect's pain points really are. Most salespeople only ask 2 or 3 questions before offering a solution. This might result in a sale but you may never know if you actually solved your customer's problems.
-
Always be transparent and honest about everything you share with your customer. Guessing at an answer is never a good strategy for answering your customers' questions.
-
Having enough integrity to not offer a product or service that your prospect may not need, only to close a sale.
-
Always find ways to collaborate with customers and inform them that you are working to come up with the best possible solution.
Homework Assignment:
Work with your sales manager to role-play a typical sales interaction practicing the skills you've learned.
Building Rapport
