Posts tagged ‘Rapport Building’

Wednesday night I had a date with my wife to see the Great One – Robin Williams live. He was amazing and my ribs are still hurting from all the laughing. So, if you get a chance to catch his current act – just do it – He is that great!

Yet, as I reflected back on his presentation I realized what he did in the opening minutes to connect to the entire audience. First, since it was a sell out performance, I’m certain that everyone there was expecting a great performance from him. Yet, it was the personal connection that he used to grab your attention that caught my attention.

He used no less than five local references that everyone in the audience could relate to – assuming you were from Memphis. Before the global jokes and routine jokes, he made the personal connections talking about Memphis stuff that got our attention and our laughs – because we knew it was true!

Leaders, Managers and Sale People who communicate with others as part of their regular work day need to understand what this master comedian knows. Building rapport is the most important part of your presentation to others. Before the facts, details and your ideas, you must connect with your audience. With one to one or group settings, rapport building opens the door to effective communication.

Rapport Building is the foundation piece for trust. Without trust, very little can get done effectively. Learn to connect with others early and watch how engaging others become. I have watched people who would not give most people the time of day, begin to tell a person who took the time to gain rapport, their life history and all the information necessary to effectively sell to their company! Magic? No. Simple? Yes. If you understand the techniques of rapport building.

If you have no clue about what I am talking about – then it is your responsibility to learn about rapport building. Their are several excellent books on the topic for leaders and sales people. Or, you can get coaching on people skills from someone like us. We have been helping clients learn how to build improved people skills for over a decade. Can us at 901-757-4434 and we will build some rapport!

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Posted by Voss Graham on February 27, 2009 at 5:30 am under Effective Communication.
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The next Myth is that sales people must be “showing and telling” customers about their product or service.  Canned scripted presentations abound.  This activity usually leads to a price driven buying decision!  Some consider presentation ability to be the key sales success factor.  They think that sales people should present their product whenever customer shows even a glimmer of interest.

This show and tell mentality comes internal focused people. Its all about the product or service and therefore has nothing to do with the customer’s wants or needs. This method leads directly to the previous myth that you needed to be excellent at handling objections. Well, the only reason for handling objections is the lack of customer engagement and involvement. When the customer has no interest in a product or service, the old school sales person would attempt to trick or pressure a “yes” just to make one sale. The downside to this approach was no repeat business and a high return rate or order cancellation.

Today’s Truth is that sales people must focus first and foremost on the customer.  They have to master questioning and listening skills to be successful.  Customers demand that you totally understand their unique situation (even if its not really unique – they believe it is unique.).  Customers want salespeople to know the customer’s industry and the company’s specific issues.  This requires sales people to utilize value added selling of customer specific solutions.  At the same time this yields the benefit of higher profitability than can be achieved using the bidding method or generic open bid packages.

Customers want to deal with people who care about the customer’s success. The customer needs to feel that the sales person will support the customer – even in difficult times like today’s economic environment. Take the time to build relationships within an organization. Go wide and deep to insure that everyone is supporting your product or service. These people will override the blockers within the organization that want your competitors to win. Take the external point of view – know your customer’s situation, support their growth and needs and help them win using ROI and creative results.

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Posted by Voss Graham on February 20, 2009 at 5:17 am under Sales.
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