“Master your rapport and you’ll access more doors.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1375
How about you? Do you master your rapport?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. It’s Monday, so here’s your weekly dose of Meshell Baker and her wisdom:
Meshell Baker: Establishing Rapport Opens More Doors. Let’s start with what exactly is rapport? Rapport is defined as a friendly, harmonious relationship. There’s generally mutual agreement, there’s understanding, there’s empathy, there’s this warm fuzzy that makes the conversation and communication flow well. And as a salesperson, it is highly impactful when you are a master at establishing rapport.
Well so what exactly makes good rapport?
Well, it starts with a good first impression. You only have one time to make a first impression and it has a lot to do with how you make eye contact, if you’re giving a firm handshake, how you posture when you’re speaking to someone, are you actively listening? Are you asking questions before you respond? Are you clearly stating what you know instead of making it up? Are you succinct? Do your stories go to the point and the question being asked or do they go on and on? Are you aware of your nonverbal communication? There are so many different components to establishing and being a master, a great rapport and it takes practice.
So one of the constant themes you’ll hear me speak about is repetition, because repetition is the mother of success.
People become successful because what they generally do is habituate. It they don’t think about being a master of rapport, they don’t think about being a top performer, they don’t think about being a top seller. It’s just who they are and they can’t not do it.
So with rapport, making a good first impression is vitally important. And that goes to what do you think about yourself when you get ready to engage with someone you’ve never met before? Engage with someone who you want to do business with, engage with someone you think is important. So having your precall, planning, preparing yourself for the possible or the possibility of being uncomfortable and uncertain is vitally important. So that in those moments you will seamlessly and smoothly move into consistently communicating with confidence and grace, empathy and impact. So that person knows that they’re speaking to someone who is valuable, someone who they want to continue in conversation with, and someone who they will look forward to following up with them for the next step in the next stage of whatever that initial conversation was.
And remember, the rule of thumb is the person who is being sold does the most talking. So establishing great rapport, especially when you’re meeting people the first time, be a listener. Make it a habit to ask a follow-up question before you make statements, before you answer people, ask follow-up questions and clarify. Parrot back what you think you heard them say. This is game-changing as a sales professional to truly learn to listen, to clarify before responding.
And again, your posture, your body language, your eye contact, all of this ties into the impression that you’re making with people and thereby establishing a rapport. And we’ll go back to that rapport leaves people with a sense that there’s someone that they can trust, someone that they genuinely want to follow up with and make next steps. Have more conversation, do business with and refer.
So master your rapport and you’ll access more doors. Have a great day selling.
Scott Ingram: To have an even better day selling. Connect with Meshell, and for a link, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1375. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!