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.

‘FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT’…….Is a mantra most people in business understand and one many of us have used as the cornerstone of our professional lives. Without occasionally ‘faking it’ along the way, we would never move up the corporate ladder or overcome the crippling Impostor Syndrome which afflicts so many people (myself included) in our daily lives.

The problem with faking it however, is knowing where to draw the line….For example when asked: “Are you proficient in the use of Excel”

The natural response would be…“Yes, I know my way around a spreadsheet or two” ….followed by a quick Google search and 2 hours of rapid, self-taught excel skills.

This strategy tends to unravel however when you try to fake your knowledge, credibility or authority in more important areas of business or life. I’m incredibly fortunate to spend a lot of time interviewing senior decision makers, shortly after they have made significant (often multi-million dollar) purchasing decisions. It never ceases to amaze me how frequently these individuals cite issues such as lack of professionalism, poor cultural fit or lack of emotional connection, as key factors for their decision not to pursue business with a particular vendor.

What they are effectively telling me is that these sales people were still faking it. They lacked the interest, the aptitude or worst of all the empathy to be create cut-through and connection with the stakeholders in these businesses.

What I’ve come to realise across these thousands of hours of interviews and countless Win Loss Reviews is that customers aren’t just buying the product or service that you are pitching, they are actually buying you. More than that, they actually see you as the personification of the product or service you represent. If you are professional, knowledgeable and responsive, by definition your company is seen in a positive light. Equally if you are sloppy, slow to follow-up or lack basic knowledge, by association the business you represent gets marked down immediately.

The harsh reality of business is that your product and price-point are simply your ticket to the dance, they get you in the door, but that’s all. At that stage the customer is wondering:

• Do I like and trust them?
• Will they be good people to work with?
• Do I know someone who can vouch for them?
• Can they help me mitigate my risks?
• What will happen when we run into problems?

For maximum effectiveness in B2B sales, you’ve got to be able to get past the feature/function conversation, to break through the walls of professional courtesy and form a real relationship. The power of a smile with intent, as Tony Hughes so aptly describes it.

For this reason, empathy is arguably one of the most important, though often neglected, sales skills. Neglected because in a formal sales training program, it’s easier for trainers to focus on more tangible IQ related skills and behaviours, than the softer, more esoteric character traits.

My own sales enablement activities tend to be a little different. When working with sales team, I prefer to focus on attributes like strong discovery and active listening skills, understanding and harnessing the power of storytelling and recognising the need to create an empathetic and authentic human connection. It sounds very warm and fuzzy doesn’t it…far away from the important, serious work of closing big deals and hitting quarterly quotas…but believe me when I tell you, as humans we invariably decide with our hearts and then justify with our heads.

“People prefer to do business with those they know, like and trust”

This sales truism has been handed down from generation to generation. Some sales experts will tell you that times have changed, that salespeople are far less integral to the process than they used to be, however my own extensive research simply doesn’t support this new reality. The vast majority of times I interview a senior decision maker about how they reached their purchasing decision, the quality of the vendor’s team and the cultural fit of their people are among their key decision criteria.

Typically, when you think of sales skills, your mind goes to meeting sales goals, lead generation and handling objections. But too often we neglect the most fundamental aspect of relating to another human? At the core of any relationship is the ability to understand another person and to find common ground. This is just as true for business as personal relationships, which is why empathy remains so important.

So how can human empathy really impact sales?

Empathy is the ability to perceive and understand how another person is feeling, to put yourself in their shoes for a time and feel what it feels like to be them. It’s the basis of many social interactions and explains how we create bonds with other individuals. Without it, business deals and most human interactions for that matter, would be devoid of humanity and become robotic, emotionless transactions.

Developing empathy is crucial for establishing rapport and increasing the trust factor. It sends the message that you have the prospect’s best interest in mind. Salespeople who harness their own empathy tend to be more successful, because they intrinsically understand their buyers at a deeper level and form more meaningful relationships. It’s human nature to naturally open up to someone whom you trust and you believe has your best interests in mind.

Empathetic individuals also recognise that every prospect has different motivators and objections and are adept at using empathy to unearth what their prospects are really feeling, making it far easier to find the best solution to their problems. In contrast, failing to display empathy or focusing solely on our own needs, triggers a silent alarm in most people, causing us to very subtly disengage from the individual displaying those traits.

Can I learn empathy?

With empathy being at the core of sales success, it begs the question, “Does everyone have empathy?”

It’s true some people are naturally gifted at displaying empathy, while others may struggle to tap into this emotion. No matter where you find yourself along this empathy continuum, virtually anyone can learn to become more aware of and empathetic towards those around them, with the right support and coaching.

My Top 3 Tips for learning empathy in sales

A well-balanced sales team is one that can see beyond the basics of sales: cold calling, performance metrics, handling objections, closing the sale, and actively infuse empathy-based behaviours into their sales process. Teams embracing this approach have a much easier time establishing rapport, progressing deals and ultimately converting sales.

Listen intently. 

You need to hone your listening skills in order to identify and accurately pinpoint your prospect’s point of view. This is the core of empathy-based selling. It’s quite simple: the better you listen, the more clearly you can replay what you have heard back to your customer and the more comfortable and trusting they will feel towards you. This won’t necessarily increase the likelihood of you closing a deal, but it will undoubtedly ensure your calls get returned and you get an accurate and honest picture of what’s happening on your deal. It may sound trivial, but creating a genuine connection with your prospective customer, is the best way to avoid being blindsided in a sale.

Pay attention to nonverbal cues. 

Closely tied to listening carefully is tuning into subtle nuances, tone, pauses, and nonverbal cues that can paint a more vivid picture of what your prospect needs or wants. There is plenty of valuable intel revealed when you slow down and pay attention to details. A simple way to understand this topic is to split the feedback you recieve from your customer into above the line and below the line information. Above the line is the kind of information that might be contained in an RFP document or vendor briefing, its factual, its specific and it speaks to the business reasons this customer has gone out to market. Below the line information is harder to garner, but often much more valuable in terms of understanding how a specific decision will be reached. Below the line includes the political and career motivations of your customers, any major frustrations or aspirations they may be experiencing. People are less likely to tell you this information outright, but over time, with the right relationships and intelligent questions, you can often get to the heart of these issues, which can often be the key to unlocking the entire sale.

Clarify and ask questions. 

After listening and gathering the facts, it’s time to clarify any uncertainty and confirm what you have just heard before strategizing. Try to step into their shoes for a moment and observe how they might see your product or service. It’s also the time to look for opportunities to demonstrate to your prospect that you are their ally not their enemy, by demonstrating you understand where they are coming from.

Empathy is an incredibly valuable trait not only to close more sales, but to bring a greater degree of human connection into business and elevate the perception of the sales profession. If empathetic-selling does become more pervasive in business dealings, perhaps we can begin to change people’s long-standing perceptions of salespeople. Maybe one day the word ‘empathy’ will be synonymous with salespeople and the negative stereotypes can finally be put to rest.

The post Could Empathy Be The B2B Key? 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.

The post 5 Strategies To Handle Intimidating Prospects appeared first on Head Of Sales.