Best practices to create rapport with customers

How to create rapport?

Rapport is one of the most important skills in sales. It is how we create relationships and form common ground between sales people and the client. If a potential client does not like you, there is a good chance that they will not work with you. When we speak about rapport there are a number of different ways to build rapport with someone, and different types of sales need a different technique.

If you are in a role which is a transactional type of sale, then rapport is not as important. The client will contact you and purchase the product in one call and then you may not speak to them again. In other sales, like real estate, you may have a number of meetings/calls before they actually purchase and it is important to have a relationship.

Whichever type of sale you are involved in, it is important to make the client comfortable and understand what they are asking you. We will look at a number of rapport building tips to help you build better relationships.

Tips to create rapport

These are tips in order to help you build rapport with clients and have a better conversation. It makes for a better experience for the client if you have a conversation with them rather than browbeat them with your product.

• Name – The most important thing to anyone is their name. It is their identity, it is what makes people unique, and people like being addressed correctly. Use a clients name if you wish to get an answer, but do not fall into the trap of overusing a client’s name as it then becomes annoying.
• Empathy – Unfortunately, sometimes you will speak to a client who is having a rough time. In this case, show some humanity and show some genuine compassion for their situation.
• Interests – When speaking with a client they will mention interests, when they do, share your experience or if you do not know much about their interest ask them open questions about their passion. I always find people interesting, finding out about how they spend their free time, whether that be skiing or going on holiday to new and exotic places.
• Ask the right questions – This one is often overlooked, when you are in talks with a potential client about a service or product, find out more about their situation and why they are exploring an option with you.

Conclusion

Rapport is a fascinating subject and an important one. If you want to succeed in sales, in fact in business, you want to build relationships. People are wonderful characters and are so complex. Just by asking people’s interests and what they do in business or their spare time can be fascinating. It also broadens your knowledge of subjects and in turn you can use that information in conversations with other people. As well as this, it makes any sales experience so much better.