Building a Great Rapport

Sales are often built on our ability to build relationships with customers and for this we need a good customer rapport. This is more than small talk. It is more like a common understanding between 2 or more people.

This should help you to -

Build rapport
Inspire customer confidence
Adjust your style to match your customer

Pacing and leading : Like all rapport skills it demands great attention to detail. Listen carefully to how the customer is speaking.

How fast/loud are they speaking?
Are they cheerful or very serious?
Are they formal?
Are they using technical language?

From this you can take your own lead and adjust your approach so you match theirs. The customer will not realize what you have done, but the conversation will immediately feel more comfortable.

Remember the details: Everyone likes to be remembered-it makes us feel special, so if you have spoken with a customer before try to remember the details. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference and could provide a useful shortcut to rapport.

Speak their language: We all have a preferred way of processing and presenting information. Some of us need to see stuff, some of us need to hear stuff and some of us need to feel stuff! It’s part of our makeup and we give clues to our preference in the way we speak.

Someone who likes to see stuff will use visual language like “This looks good, I love the quality of this hoodie”
Someone who likes to hear stuff will use auditory language like “This doesn’t sound like its dry fit”
Someone who likes to feel will use kinesthetic language “I’m not comfortable with this, do you have anything with fleece?”

Sell the right benefit: Understanding our customers better can help us to identify the right benefits too.

A visual person- The material looks shiny

An auditory- Tell me what the material feels like

A kinesthetic- The material is really rough

How can you present your products?

1st Impressions DO MATTER!!!

If we want to inspire trust and confidence in our customers we need to get it right from the start. Before you take or make the call ensure that you can focus just on this customer. Have everything you need to hand. Looking around for a working pen or a piece of paper, or the information you need could undermine all your good work in the eyes of the customer. Be ready to start EVERY call with a lively and enthusiastic greeting. You should be please to get this call and you need to sound it!

Pacing and Leading: The pace and volume of our speech should mirror that of the customer. We instinctively talk at a pace that is comfortable for us.

Consider:

A customer who talks slowly could become confused by a fast talking sales person.

A customer who is talking at speed may be in a hurry and could feel frustrated or patronized by a slow talking sales person

Take your lead from the customer.

Tag questions: We can use questions to build rapport or commonality. Questions on the end of statements that make disagreement difficult.

Example - Rapport building is really easy, isn’t it?

Here are some more examples below - Speak confidently.

- What do you prefer? - Isn't it a great colour? - Have you heard of the Independent hoodie? - Will you go ahead with the sample order? - These tshirts can be grouped together because they will be decorated the exact same, this will give you volume pricing. - Have you seen our more premium t-shirt collection? - Would the Gildan 5000 T-shirt work for you, its 100% cotton? - Don't you agree these two options work best for your event?

Key Learnings

Create a great 1st impression
Be alert to the customer’s style and adjust yours accordingly
Match your pace and tone to theirs
Use tag questions to build commonality
Identify how your customer sees (hears or feels) and use the right phrases yourself