People buy from people, and the fact is that if someone doesn’t like you, they probably won’t buy what you’re selling even if it’s the best thing on the market.  Every sales coach will tell you that building rapport in sales calls with prospects is the first step to turning them into a customer, but what is “rapport”, and how do you build it.

What is Rapport

When we talk about rapport in the context of sales, we’re taking about a situation where the people in the conversation have built a harmonious relationship in which they understand each other’s goals and are able to communicate well.

It’s not the same as being liked – you can understand someone completely and hate them at a cellular level – but it’s a step on the way.  Rapport suggests that you are both moving in the same direction, and have agreement.

Building Rapport in Sales Calls

If you’ve ever been in a cold calling sales environment like a call centre, you’re probably familiar with the idea of scripted conversations. Sales scripts, usually written years before by the most successful seller in the organisation ever, tend to become sacrosanct in hard selling environments, because They Work^TM.

They rarely do.

These selling scripts tend to start with a series of questions that someone once decided would be a great way of building rapport in sales calls.

• Hi how’s the weather?
• How was your weekend?

They’re intended to be conversation starters, to show you care and get the prospect to start talking to you before you sweep in with a great offer that they’d be an idiot to pass up on.

They’re intended to show that you care, but they actually show the opposite – they’re bland, superficial questions that could apply to anyone, and don’t do much except ensure that there’s words coming out of your face hole.

They are also questions that neither of you care about the answers to.

• How’s the weather?
• Great, almost 6 inches of rain this morning
• Lovely, would you like to buy something from me?

This is where a scripted approach falls apart. The script doesn’t care, and doesn’t adapt to the person on the other end of the phone. It does nothing to seduce a prospect.

The questions have to be tailored to the situation, be special to the person who is being asked them, and show that you have something beyond a transactional interest in them.  The questions that you ask to build rapport need to have answers that you can build on, and you absolutely have to listen to those answers and take them forward into the conversation so that you can build some common ground.

Going back to our weather question, if we research our prospect and tailor the question to them?

• I hear it’s raining pretty hard in Manchester today – did you struggle getting into the office?

It’s still a boring question, but it shows three things:

• You know where they are (not in a sinister way)
• You’ve taken the time to get some detail
• You’ve given the impression that you care

Developing the Answer

Building rapport in sales calls means establishing some common ground with the person you’re talking to.  Shared experiences are a good way of doing that. It is never, ever, a bad idea to research a person before you start a call with them.  5 minutes scanning their Facebook profile can give you insight into what they do at the weekend, which football team they follow, and whether they have a family.

Try and find areas where you share an interest because that’s a topic that you will be able to talk about with more than just superficial knowledge, but don’t just blurt out facts about them.  I’d be absolutely terrified if someone called me and listed a bunch of things about what I like:

• I believe you like running and drinking wine.  I also like to run and drink wine.  Would you like to be friends and buy something from me.
• Weirdo

The skill is in “discovering” a shared interest.

Going back to our first question:

• I hear it’s raining pretty hard in Manchester today – did you struggle getting into the office?
• Yeah, but no worse than usual y’know
• I know what you mean. I was up there for the half marathon last year, and I thought I was going to dissolve.

Oh, me too, how did you get on?

An important point to make here:

DO NOT LIE OR MAKE STUFF UP

The point of rapport building is to create trust. Most people have a pretty sharp bullshit detector, and if you start talking about something that isn’t true or can be easily debunked, you might as well hang up immediately.

• I know what you mean, I was up there for the half marathon last year and I thought I was going to dissolve
• Nah, that’s the only day in history when it didn’t rain in Manchester, and I know because I was there
• Click….

Knowing When to Pivot from Rapport to Sales

If things are going well in a conversation, making the segue to sales might feel awkward.  This is often an area where scripted calls are pretty bad.

• Question 1
• Answer 1
• Question 2
• Answer 2
• Question 3
• Answer 3
• RAPPORT ACHIEVED
• The reason for my call is to sell you something…

Getting an elegant pivot in the conversation is something that you should gear your rapport building towards.

I mentioned researching the prospect ahead of your call.  This research should also include understanding why they need what you’re selling so that you can weave it into the conversation that you’re having.

• I hear it’s raining pretty hard in Manchester today – did you struggle getting into the office?
• Yeah, but no worse than usual y’know
• I know what you mean. I was up there for the half marathon last year, and I thought I was going to dissolve.
• Oh, you’re a runner are you.  I’m signed up for this year’s race, but I’m dreading it.
• It’s pretty tough at the start, but once you get going it isn’t too bad.  Are you getting much training in?
• Not as much as I’d like, things are pretty busy right now
• Yeah, start of the year’s always tough, but actually I might be able to help you out. We’ve got a new reporting tool that cuts the amount of time it takes to get your client reporting done!

Understanding how your product or service can benefit people in different situations means that you can focus on the benefits that are most relevant to them right now, and build on the relationship.

Sticking religiously to someone else’s script doesn’t allow you to do that.  So bin it, ask questions that show you care, and talk about things that your customer might be interested in and which you know about.

Need Help With Sales?

Could your sales process do with a review? Give me a call and after we’ve been through the rapport building ritual, we can talk about what’s going wrong, and how we can fix it. We offer a range of tailored agency sales training packages to help your agency grow.