Rapport is the deepest level of relationship between two individuals that involves sharing common ground, and is established when harmony and accord have been reached between both parties. This does not mean the individuals involved agree on every issue. Instead, it means they have attained a mutual respect for each other’s opinions. Developing rapport with others lowers stress within our relationships, thereby creating greater productivity.

We have established rapport with people know, like and trust

Establishing Rapport

Rapport is developed as we understand, recognize, appreciate, and adapt to the behavior and communication styles of others. Regardless of background, everyone wants to be valued, appreciated and unconditionally accepted for who they are. As a result, we tend to trust and have an affinity for the people we believe really understand us and accept us.

Unfortunately, we struggle with this as human beings. Some folks just ʻrub us the wrong wayʼ, or worse still, they ʻpush our buttonsʼ. And often, the ones that irritate us the most are the ones closest to us, such as family, friends, and coworkers.
To begin connecting with others, we must cultivate a genuine desire to understand the people around us.

Mastering Rapport

Mastering rapport is reached when an individual develops the skills and the genuine desire to develop relationships of mutual trust and emotional affinity.
Rapport Mastery works best when adopted as a lifestyle to better communicate with people and do business, not merely to manipulate others with surface techniques or to be saved until there is a glaring problem. Rapport Mastery involves personal transparency as well as enthusiasm for the success of others.

The Road to Rapport

There is no instant path to building rapport with those around us. This level of respect and trust will take time to develop. Attempting to rush this process will actually be counterproductive as it breaks that trust. Although each of us will have the ability to connect more quickly with certain individuals, there is no way to create this level of trust and regard for another person outside of the test of time. Creating rapport is a step by step process.

Do I Have Rapport?

Individuals with whom you have established rapport will come to you for advice or information on a wide variety of subjects. Rapport is developed as we understand, recognise, appreciate, and adapt to the behaviour and communication styles of others.

How do you begin to establish rapport?’

The Power of Perception

Rapport starts with understanding the behavioural and communication style of another, discovering how our personal actions are being perceived by others, and learning to control our own behaviours to better meet their needs.Connecting with others begins with recognising and understanding the perception of those with whom we interact.

Humans are uniquely different from one another. Our ideas about the world around us have been influenced by our parents, values, education, and culture. In addition to these factors, the way we perceive, interpret and share this information is based largely upon our behavioural and communication style.

Imagine that two individuals walk into a room. Both are wearing glasses, however one pair has red lenses and one has blue. Neither of them realise they have glasses of different colours. Both individuals are asked to look at a white wall and announce to the other what colour they believe the wall to be. The individual wearing the red glasses will be sure the wall is red, while the individual with the blue lenses will be sure it’s blue. They both would KNOW they were correct and sure the other person was wrong.

Now imagine these individuals try on each other’s glasses. Would they have a better idea of what the other person was seeing? This change of perception would help reduce conflict because each of them would now be able to understand the otherʼs perception.

In order to understand and connect, we need to understand how the other person is perceiving the world around them. By putting on someone else’s glasses, so to speak, we will have the ability to appreciate and understand them better.

Perception is based on an individual’s communication and behavioural style

Pace, Perception and Adaption

To understand human behaviour and communication we need to begin by looking at two basic elements pace and priority.

Pace is the speed at which individuals move and speak. Some individuals tends to be more faster or slower than others. There is not right or wrong pace as we all have elements of both.

Fast paced individuals tend to move, speak, respond and decide quickly, whereas sower paced individuals prefer to spend time in reflection and act carefully.

If you are fast paced person, a slower paced individual may see you as impatient, irresponsible, reckless, rude, manipulative, overbearing, angry and inconsiderate.

If you are a slow paced person, a fast paced individual may see you as unmotivated, lazy, sad, uncaring, disrespectful, disengaged, untruthful and distracted.

All relationships being by connecting with each other’s PACE. If there is missed connection at his level, you will be unable to move forward to build rapport.

This is where adaption comes into play. Connecting in a non-confrontational, non-irritating way requires adapting my own pace to match the pace of the other person. I may be fast paced, however, the only way to show the slow paced person that I am not impatient or reckless, I must control my actions and slow down. In the same way, if I am slow paced, I may need to speed up my interactions so I am not perceived as unmotivated and lazy.

Priority characteristics

As with pace, individuals have different priorities , which refer to what they prioritise as they view their world. Individuals tend to be either:

Task-Orientated – they are more focused on accomplishing tasks. Think in terms of plans, procedures, organisation, function, projects and programs. They like to create lists and check off items as they ate completed.

People-Orientated – they are more focused on establishing relationships. They are energized by being around people. They tend to focus on more on relationships, feelings, friendships, helping others and making people happy.

If you are a task-orientated person, a people-orientated person may perceive you as cold, workaholic, greedy, disconnected, inflexible, unmerciful, unfriendly and not family oriented.

If you are a people-oriented person, a task-oriented individual may perceive you as distracted, weak, overly emotional, unproductive, naive, gullible, foolish and not serious.

90% of conflict is caused by a clash of priorities or false perceptions

Now that we understand what rapport is and how we unknowingly can break it by failing to control our behaviour, we can now develop a process that will help us to better adapt and build relationships.

Know, Like, & Trust

Remember, rapport is established with all types of individuals when they know, like, and trust you. Matching pace provides the foundation for rapport by allowing other’s to get to know us.
However, the other two aspects, trust and like, are developed differently depending upon an individual’s priority style.

We get to know each other by matching pace. We develop rapport by respecting priorities.

Task-oriented individuals must trust you before they will like you. Here’s the progression of establishing rapport with the task-oriented individual: They will do business with you only if they have come to trust you. Once trust is established they will gradually begin to like you.

People-oriented individuals must like you before they will trust you. Here’s the progression of establishing rapport with the people-oriented individual: They must first like you. (One of the best ways to begin to establish affinity with this type is to smile.) Once they like you
they will begin to trust and develop rapport with you.

2 ROADS TO RAPPORT

Practical Application

To build rapport with a task-oriented individual, consider what is most important to this behaviour style. Because this behaviour style views the world from a task perspective, task completion is imperative for constructing trust.

To build rapport with a people-oriented individual, consider what is most important to this behaviour style. Because this behaviour style views the world from a people perspective, they will observe how you interact with others and desire friendship.

They are the basics of building more meaningful, peaceful, and productive relationships with those around you.

The post A Practical Guide On Building Rapport In Sales appeared first on Head Of Sales.

This belief rests on the assumption that success in sales relies on some special talent granted at birth. However,  this does not fit our experience. It may be true that some people are born with ‘talent’, meaning an abundance of charisma and ease with people. Charisma may help close some sales. However, we find that successful sales people, those who are top in their field year after year,  work diligently to develop their sales skills regardless of their starting capability.

Talent or Skill?

At this point in training discussions, people often ask: “Talent or skill. What’s the difference?” To answer this question, let’s define some terms.

• Talent – A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment
• Skill – Proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.

The difference is pretty simple. Talents are natural abilities. Skills are acquired or developed abilities.

Sales Talent:

Let me make one thing clear. Talent (charisma / personality) will help make sales. However, those depending upon talent tend to ‘shoot from the hip’ when making a sales presentation. This results in a very entertaining presentation. The sales professional may seem to be able to ‘sell ice to eskimos’. Unfortunately, the majority of prospects cannot follow this type of presentation. Most people want a logical progression of information backed up by solid data. So, although the client may like the sales professional personally, they may actually purchase a similar product from someone else.

Sales Skills:

What I love about sales skills is that anyone can master them and become successful in sales. Mirriam-Webster defines a skill as:

A learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability

Notice that a skill is something learned or developed. Hence, with the assistance of a qualified trainer and measured practice, those who have the desire to apply themselves toward mastering the task will succeed.

When I lead training sessions or have less experienced sales professionals ride along on sales calls with me, I often hear that I have a “great talent for sales.” I take the comment as a genuine compliment, and I might even agree with it if I did not know where I began in sales. This is because, except for my persistence and drive, the words and actions people see in me today bear no resemblance to what they would have seen in my performance when I started in sales. For example, I now speak about and give my absolute best effort to model:

• Focusing on benefits to my client
• Active listening
• Allowing time for the client to speak
• Working to connect with my client
• Giving my clients the time they need to reach a decision.

When I first entered sales, someone watching my sales calls would have seen me:

• Focusing on product features
• Speaking more than I listened
• Interrupting my clients
• Pushing to close the sale
• Growing impatient when clients wanted to collect more information or “think it over.”

Basically, I started with very few of the positives and nearly all of the negatives. The one thing I really had in my favor was persistence. I initially got results because I kept going in the face of rejection. My closing ratio was low, but I made lots of sales calls.

Consequently, I was frustrated by the scant sales I acquired relative to the enormous amount of time and  effort I was exerting. Over time, I began to see that I just couldn’t do any more work in the time I had. Therefore, I had to find a way to improve my results. Better results required cultivating a more effective sales process and developing greater skills for:

1. You must have leads: 

I remember hearing someone say, “Just keep throwing mud on the wall. Some of it will stick.” No! You just waste time and end up with a dirty wall. Unfortunately, driving all over town searching for someone to listen to your presentation is usually a waste of time and gas. Don’t equate being busy with productivity.  It is more effective to prequalify the leads you pursue. Above all, develop a lead generation process which includes leveraging LinkedIn, quality referrals, and industry specific leads.

2. turn your leads into appointments:

“Let your fingers do the walking” and develop the skills to book appointments on the phone. In addition, discover how to navigate the gatekeeper and reach decision makers. Making only 10-20 outbound calls per day will keep your calendar full and your pockets ‘fuller’.

3. Reading prospects:  

Become a student of human behaviour and improve your communication skills. Furthermore, discover how to connect with prospects and clients for closing more deals and developing long term, repeat business. Likewise, I’ve learned to not only care about my customers needs, but to show that I care. It may look natural, but trust me it is not. I had to really work on me to develop these skills. After I learned and began to apply the DISC Model of Human Behaviour in the way that we teach today, my closing ratio skyrocketed.

Discover what your client is thinking! The FAST, EASY way to connect more effectively with clients & CLOSE MORE DEALS

It’s like taking the Pici’s with you on your next sales call. Our flip charts will remind you how to: Recognize and adapt to your client’s communication style.
 Develop rapport
 Tweak your presentation for maximum impact
 Close the deal

4. Develop a  simple, short, and logical sales presentation

I call this your ‘core story’. Your core story should be dominated by your client talking, not you. Most noteworthy, you can achieve this by asking relevant questions. Above all, design questions that will reveal the pain your client may be experiencing. Situations that will  cause them to purchase a product/service from you.

5. Close the deal

Closing is the sales skill set that most sales professionals focus on. Yet, closing is the natural conclusion to a sales process that began with the first contact. Therefore, do not depend on one or two closing techniques. In addition, avoid being discouraged if you cannot close your prospect at the first meeting. Closing the deal may take several days/weeks/months or only a few minutes. Certainly, the study of human behavior will help you determine which time frame and approach will be best for each individual.

5. Finally, remember to follow up: 

The purpose of follow up is three fold. a) Make sure the client is satisfied with the product. Answer any questions regarding the use, installment, or difficulty with the product. b) Secure future sales including cross selling. c) Attain quality referrals. Certainly, this is the lifeblood of your business.

By improving my effectiveness through skill development, I improved my results without working harder or longer.

Improving my skills was the key element. I read books and went to sales seminars. My success was a result of becoming a student of sales.

Lots of sales people eventually burn-out due to excessive rejection, long hours, or both. Most people don’t have the stomach for tolerating rejection that I have. And most people don’t want to develop the thick skin necessary to put up with it. As a result, many otherwise great sales people give up their dreams of success when they reach the burn-out stage. I want to give people the tools to overcome that challenge before they reach burn-out.

The good news

Everyone can develop the skills.  I’m willing to share what I’ve learned so that they don’t have to go through the same amount of rejection I faced before I learned these skills. I don’t have a monopoly on what it takes to be great as a sales professional. I’ve just learned to apply some really powerful, practical, and effective ideas to the sales process. Anyone with the desire to work on themselves and grow personally can learn what I’ve learned. It really doesn’t matter where people start, as long as they view sales as a profession and invest the effort necessary to learn and perfect the skills.

The post Talent Versus Skill. Time To Sharpen Your Skills? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

You may be a big fan of this super hero. But perhaps his physical prowess, intimidation and indomitable will would bring some hesitation, if not raging fear. Likewise, there are always a few folks in our client or prospects who share similar behaviour characteristics with BATMAN.  How to sell and approach BATMAN, or individuals like him, has its challenges, but also great rewards.

You might be selling to ‘BATMAN’ if you recognize these behavioral clues:

• Rapid speech and quick gestures
• Speaks in bullet points
• Tends to take charge of situations
• Decides quickly & independently
• Focuses on end results and avoids details
• Possesses a penetrating stare
• They often prefer to wear black

We refer to this behaviour style as DIRECT or High D. It is easy to see they tend to be faster paced and more task oriented, (as opposed to being slower paced and more people oriented). For this reason they are extremely productive which makes them a huge asset to their company or team. As a result, the High D places greater importance on accomplishing tasks over building relationships with others.  They believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Therefore, they have no time for detours. Consequently, they may inadvertently ‘run over’ people. They tend to appear unfriendly as they pursue their objectives.

Please note: High D’s are not intentionally unkind or rude. Rather, they are simply focused on the mission or task at hand. Join them on their journey and they will become a life long client.

Although their manner may be intimidating, these folks are the easiest to sell to because:

1. They want to buy. They will not grant you a sales meeting unless they are in the market to purchase. They do not say, “Yes”, to meeting ‘just to be nice’.
2. There’s no time like the present.  They usually intend to purchase at the time of the sales presentation. As a result, this behaviour style does not want to have two meetings for one decision. Obviously, the larger the corporation, the greater the number of sales meetings. But this individual will ‘take the bull by the horns’ whenever possible.

5 Key strategies on how to sell to the High D behaviour style

1. Psychology of Selling to the Direct client

Selling to any individual requires you understand their psychological needs as well as product needs. Furthermore, this deeper understanding will help you build rapport with your client. 

The High D’s needs include a) choices (options), b) challenges, and c) control. The things that really push their buttons are: d) being taken advantage of, e) losing control, or f) being disrespected.

Therefore, they want you to be:

• Brief and to the point – you can speak in bullet points
• Respectful of their time
• Direct – get to the point quickly
• Confident – look them in the eye
• Ready to take their order – they want to get this decision behind them

2. Sell more by understanding:

Connecting with your client in the sales meeting is critical. You must first win their respect if you want to sell to them. This requires tweaking your sales presentation to meet their needs. You will be well on you way to earning their respect when you:

• Arrive at least 15 minutes early for your appointment. The High D believes if you are not at least 15 minutes early, you are late.
• Return their phone calls promptly. This practice is common courtesy and proper business etiquette. In fact, successful sales professionals have a ‘same day’ policy for returning all calls.
• Get down to business right away. (Can you imagine sitting down with BATMAN and starting off by asking him about his summer vacation?) Ignore the sales books that tell you to spend 10 minutes ‘breaking the ice’. Jump right into your presentation and focus on quantifiable results.
• They enjoy a fight. If they are interested, they will challenge you, your information, or your product. Answer their concerns and don’t back down.
• End early. The High D is a busy person.  While they are listening to your pitch they are also thinking about the next three meetings they have scheduled. Therefore, if they have granted you 30 minutes, be finished in 25. Let them be the one to ask you for more time.

3. During your sales meeting make sure you focus on:

• Their goals
• Providing a solution to their problem
• The results your product or service will deliver
• Give them options

4. Communicate more effectively with the High D by using the following words:

• You
• Results
• Performance

5. Finally, here’s an example of how I made a sale to an individual who has a High D behaviour style.

I will always remember one of my high D customers (I’ll call him Dennis). His demeanor scared most sales people away, and very few of the ones brave enough to approach his office succeeded in their attempt to sell him. I remember waiting weeks to gain 30 minutes of his time. In preparation for our meeting, I did the following:

• I planned to arrive early – High D’s will NOT be kept waiting, and, if there was a break in his schedule, I might get a few extra minutes.
• My presentation was designed to fit the amount of time Dennis allotted. It allowed me to  finish my presentation early.
• Identified the key issues so that I could get right to the point – no personal chit-chat.
• Prepared a few key questions to identify his pain so that I could solve it in my presentation.
• We created printed materials for Dennis to peruse that included bullet points.

Adapting my sales presentation to meet his behaviour style

• Dennis would interrupt me. This meant that I would have to work to maintain my focus so that I could keep the presentation on track.
• He would challenge me if he was interested. Therefore, I prepared myself not to take offense.
• One of my goals was to maintain control of the meeting. This was accomplished with was pre-prepared questions  and answers.
• Foremost, I was focused upon the  High D’s need for choices (options), challenges and control.

First, as I was introduced to Dennis, I returned his firm hand shake.  Unfortunately, he took two phone calls, and his receptionist interrupted us once during our meeting. However, the bullet point presentation helped me stay on track and keep my presentation on schedule. The sales presentation focused on discovering the challenges he and his staff were facing.

The sales meeting began like this:

” You told me that you were looking to increase the effectiveness of your sales team. What I do is help sales professionals book more appointments, close more deals, and develop repeat clients who provide quality referrals.” Then I proceeded with my presentation. 

Eventually Dennis challenged me:

Dennis sat forward, and he put his finger in my face as he challenged my ideas. He had a better idea. Immediately, he seized control of the meeting by pontificating at length on his idea, (I’ll call it option Y).

High D’s can become very intimidating. Keeping my cool I responded with a question rather than a statement to see where he was coming from. Likewise, I needed to recover some control of the conversation. “Dennis, why do you think that Option Y would work better than Option X?” His response indicated to me that his reasoning and approach would not give him the results he wanted.

How I turned the meeting around in my favor.

Most importantly, I turned the meeting in my favor by using the magic word – results. The word results is part of the ‘love language’ for the High D. 

“ Dennis, I think I understand where you are coming from, but to produce the results you are looking for it would be best to do X. In our experience customers who did Y did not get the results you have stated you need. To get the results for the type of goals you desire, we really need to  consider X… Of course the choice is yours.” 

Consequently, I met his psychological need to make his own choice.

Because of this, I was able to direct this client toward a more suitable training solution without engaging in conflict. Finally, Dennis approved my proposal. Above all, he has been a great customer ever since.

Remember – the High D’s bark is often worse than his bite.  If you respect them and meet their expectations, they will probably do business with you.

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