I recently read an article about the most important thing in sales and how crucial it was to success. It stressed that the foundation is rapport.
It is the first step in sales and the most critical. I would agree with the pitch that article made for rapport. Understanding people and being able to effectively communicate is beyond key in today’s world. Competition is at its highest level ever and it’s not hard to find competition the next block down the street. The internet has opened up a door for anyone to get into a sector and be able to capture market share and succeed.
The principles and techniques of rapport skyrocket the importance put on it. If you lose a potential client’s attention, they’re off to the next guy. Rapport helps break down the barriers by being able to successfully communicate with people who we perceive to be like us. Being able to personally connect with someone helps us to arrive at our end goal of a sale by influencing them to make the change necessary. Building a relationship built on authenticity, trust, respect, and honesty is everything and will help build your prospect into a loyal client.
You really have no choice but to do this well. You can build up a relationship for months, years, and decades but it only takes a sentence to blow it all to pieces. You have to mold a relationship and brand-loyalty in today’s world to survive. Retaining clients is the key to any successful business and the door to a plethora of other similar services/products is one click or street away. Luckily in today’s world for the seller, we are increasingly placing more emphasis on our time and humans can be creatures of habit – so don’t give them a reason to shop around. Do it right! Focus on serving the prospect, not selling.
BoweryJE22
This was a great post Alan. It is very important to focus on serving the customer. This will help to create a relationship between the salesperson and the customer. Through this, the salesperson will be able to obtain a more healthy relationship with the client and hopefully gain more sales because of it. Like you said at the end of your post, it is important to not rush the sales process and take your time. There is no need to try to develop a close relationship in a short amount of time. Good relationships take time and sales people need to be patient when prospecting for customers.
I agree that rapport is generally useful, but I also find it more interesting when rapport doesn’t exist: specifically top level executives. When you are selling to top level executives sometimes they are purely interested in your pricing compared to competition.