In the initial stages of developing a sales training program for a client, I asked sales leadership what they wanted to see their sales reps doing more of – and the answer surprised me. Overwhelmingly, the answer to this question was rapport building. Nothing about doing a better needs assessment, missed buying signals or objection handling – all things that I would have expected. No, the leaders wanted their sales reps to be a little less robotic and a bit more human. The feeling was that sales reps were often so focused on the product and finding a solution that they forget the subtleties of taking the time to check in with the customer and find out about what’s going on in their world. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Why then do we sometimes forget to do this on sales calls?

Well, to some extent, that might be because we often focus our sales training efforts on the tactical steps, assuming that things like rapport building will just come naturally. The problem is that when you are initially learning to sell, nothing really comes naturally. As a new sales rep, you are navigating your way through a myriad of new customer information, product benefits and company sales targets – and if you are told to follow a sales process with six steps, you will probably start with the first step and make your way through each step. As you gain more experience, you will no doubt put your own flair on the process – but in the end, you build on what you started to do from day one. And if we never identified the importance of rapport in the beginning, it might be hard to focus on it in the longer term.

So how can we focus more on developing rapport with our customers now? In an inbound call centre, it might start with ensuring you know the name of the customer who is calling in and where they are calling from – once you know the customer is from say, Boston, then you might be able to share something about that city. In a face-to-face meeting with a customer after a long weekend, you might ask them how their long weekend was – and then share something that you did as well. As your relationship with your customer moves forward, you can continue to build on the information they shared – not in a phony way, but out of a sense of genuine curiousity. If your customer told you that they spent their last long weekend building a cabin, then aren’t you curious about how the construction progress is coming along when you talk to them next?

Having said that - what if we get the feeling that our customer does not really want to chit-chat with us? Well, we certainly want to take our cues from our customer - but sales is about people and most of the time, once your product meets the basic requirements, the decision for a customer to purchase or not purchase boils down to the human factor. How do I feel about the sales rep? Do I trust them? Do they have my best interest at heart? And the answer to all of those questions speaks to the importance of rapport.

Never underestimate the importance of taking a few minutes to connect with your customer and find out what’s happening in their world. Selling is more than just sharing product benefits and hitting sales targets – it’s about connecting and rapport is the foundation of all connection.

#sales #rapport #connection