Gaining rapport is one of the most important sales skills. It is the starting point for building trust and a relationship with another human being.
The research continues to indicate it is critical to gain rapport with a prospect or customer as fast as possible. Reason? The prospect decides if they like you in the first 30 seconds of the meeting. Then after only four minutes, they lock in their feelings about you in their mind.
If they like you in the first few minutes then the rest of the time they are looking for ways to do business with you – including working with you to solve issues or differences between what they want and what you have to offer. Interesting, only four minutes to set this up. The flip side to this information – the dark side if you may – is if they feel they don’t like you, then they are listening for the first excuse or reason to say “no” and get you out of their office.
Since everything counts in selling, gaining rapport quickly is a key factor in your ultimate sales success. While there are many things you can do for better rapport building techniques, I will focus strictly on the nonverbal rapport building techniques. As a reminder, it is critically important for you to learn the power of word usage, behavioral style recognition and improved questioning techniques for total rapport building with others.
Let’s get back on track, nonverbal selling techniques you can use immediately include…