Sales Training Blog - RAIN Group

7 Ways to Build Rapport in Sales and Connect with People

It's important to build rapport from the initial handshake. Take a look at these 7 tips for building genuine rapport with new prospects.

Consider this: a CBS News / New York Times poll asked, “What percent of people in general are trustworthy?”

The answer: 30%. Pretty skeptical we all are, right?

Not necessarily. At the same time, the CBS News / New York Times poll asked a similar group the same question, but with a slight difference. “What percent of people that you know are trustworthy?”

The answer: 70%.

That’s a huge difference. Goes to show you: when people get to know you and people get to like you, people begin to trust you.

Of course, there’s a lot more to building trust than making a good initial connection with someone, but it’s sure a good start. And making a connection with someone makes them more comfortable sharing with you their aspirations and their afflictions, two things you need to know if you want to succeed in sales.

When you build rapport in sales, keep in mind you want to make a sincere connection. All too often chit-chat before a sales call seems contrived…because it is. Assuming you want to build solid and real relationships with people, consider the following...

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Build Trusted Relationships in the Sales Process by Setting (and Meeting) Expectations

By Bob Croston

Not meeting expectations hurts salespeople during the sales process... and foursomes that don't have a fourth.

Last Friday, I was looking for one more person to round out a foursome for a Saturday golf date. That evening I bumped into an acquaintance, mentioned we needed an extra, and he agreed to play.

The next morning as the clock struck eight, three of us were on the first tee, ready to go. The friend who agreed to play the night before was nowhere to be found with no message or explanation for his absence.

He stood us up. Behavior like this drives me crazy and it sets a precedent for how he’s going to act in the future. I’m certainly never going to invite him to play golf again.

Saying one thing and doing another can be devastating to your sales effort. Continually setting, and meeting, expectations is one of the easiest and most direct ways to build the strong, trusted relationships you need to close deals. However, in the heat of the chase – or in the warm glow of a Friday evening – promises are made, but never kept.

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6 Building Blocks for Communicating Your Value Proposition

By Mike Schultz & John Doerr

Even when people know their value, many find it difficult to describe it.

Let’s say someone asks you the simple question, “What do you do?”

How do you answer? Of course, you need to get your value across, but as we note here, when communicating your value proposition, you don’t want to deliver the same canned speech for everyone.

What you need to do is first craft, then learn to deliver specific nuggets of information you can use to get your value across. Put all these nuggets together, and you have what we call a value proposition positioning statement.

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Using the Power of Why in Needs Discovery

By Mike Schultz & John Doerr

Why - a powerful word in uncovering need.

"It’s not that they can’t see the solution, it’s that they can’t see the problem.”

- G.K. Chesterton

One day the production line stopped suddenly, and the whole plant shut down.

It was horrible!

The company lost tens of thousands of dollars an hour by not turning out widgets as the staff stood idly by and waited.

The problem was in the ViperAssembly machine. No matter what they tried, they just couldn’t fix it for good. They replaced the McGurnkney nut and it worked for about a day. Then it stopped again. Then they tried realigning the Johnson rod, and that fix only lasted 3 hours.

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I Hate Selling: So Now How Do I Convert Leads (and How to Win an iPad 2 – Today Only!)

By Erica Stritch

Our friend John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing is doing a fun giveaway each day this week to celebrate Small Business Week. We at RAIN Group are happy to be a part of that today.