Do you ever think to yourself, “Why on Earth would you ever want to build rapport with a prospect that you’re trying to sell to?” To illustrate, I’d like to tell you a little bit about a sales call that I had recently that was a complete disaster.
There were several things that I did wrong in the sales consult, but the primary one was that I did not build a rapport with the prospect initially. As a result, the prospect didn’t know me or like me and therefore didn’t trust me enough to part with her money to buy the product that I was selling.
What is building rapport?
It’s getting someone to know you, like you, trust you, and being authentic with them. What is it about you that makes you special and makes you likable? No one is going to buy from you if they don’t like you or trust you.
What happened to this sales call? I wasn’t prepared for it and I had a bad mindset going into the call after reading the application I received. I knew the prospect wasn’t good for me and wasn’t going to buy anything from me, so I just called without any preparation. Throughout the call I tried sales tactics, like mirroring language and manipulation, to convince this person to purchase the program and that never works. I’m definitely not proud of those moments. I’ve had so much sales training and so much success in selling that I just divert back to those sales tactics instead of going into the call with an understanding of where this person is coming from and building rapport immediately so that they can at least get to know me and make a decision from there.
Building rapport starts out the entire conversation. On this particular call, it was never there, so all throughout the call it was like pulling teeth. It was very combative and at the end of the call, no sale was made even though she was giving me all sorts of buying signs. Unfortunately for myself and for her, she wasn’t able to get the product and build her business, but it was a great lesson I wanted to share so that you don’t make the same mistakes I made. With every sale call you make, go in fresh even though it might be your thousandth sales call. While it’s your thousandth call, it is the very first time that person is speaking with you. Just like dating, you want to make sure you’re building trust and rapport in every conversation you have with your prospects.
Do your prep work. Get your mind right and make sure you’re building rapport with that person from the beginning.
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