Rapport Building is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things you do as a B2B Sales person. Without the ability to gain rapport, you miss out on the things that really matter in the sales process. Think I’m kidding here? More sales have been lost because the sales person working an account had no credibility with the decision makers. Why? Because they had lousy people skills and did not think that rapport building was important!
One of the major reasons that rapport building is critical to your sales success is rapport building is the starting point for building trust. And, without Trust, there is no sales, no business, and no renewal business.
Buying decisions are made over 80% of the time based upon this concept of trust. Let me put it another way, if a customer or prospect does not have any trust in you – they will not buy from you. It really is that simple.
Are you good at building trust? I find a number of sales people have become quite arrogant and believe that it is all about the product and service. This leads to competitors enjoying the success of winning sales – at your expense if you are one of the arrogant ones!
There are many things you can do to gain rapport. Here is a short list of rapport building steps…