How to use the Rapport technique and win more clients
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 8:45 am
Creating a strong bond with a lead is essential to closing a sale. Rapport is the ideal technique for building a good relationship and achieving great sales results.
Rapport is widely used by sales professionals to strengthen relationships with prospects, leads and customers. This technique can be the basis for great negotiations and help achieve sales goals.
What is Rapport ?
Rapport is a term of French origin that means a close uk email address list connection and harmony with others. In the sales area, we can define it as empathy between seller and customer. Among its main benefits are:
Establishes an agile connection with the lead
By understanding the lead, it is easier to guide them through the purchasing journey.
It is a fast and safe way to generate trust.
Improves the relationship established with the customer
To develop rapport , you need to follow some essential steps. Below are some points we have selected to help you apply this technique:
1. Analyze the prospect
Studying the field where you want to work is the first step to building rapport . A detailed analysis of the lead will help you create mental triggers. Mention a course they completed, an award they won, or professional experience listed on their LinkedIn profile.
Making a quick diagnosis of the company and the decision maker will provide enough information for a personalized and more convincing pitch.
2. Practice mirroring
Mirroring is the act of reproducing the behavior of another person, that is, putting yourself in the other person's shoes and repeating the same actions to understand the way they think. In this case, you should practice this technique and get used to the lead.
Try to base yourself on the way the other person speaks. A calmer pace requires a slower pace of speech, while a faster conversation requires a more lively pace.
Mirroring is a difficult technique, but by practicing it you will have a better chance of generating empathy and a deep connection with the lead. This way, they will identify with you and will allow you to strengthen the relationship.
3. Be careful with your tone of voice
If you work with inside sales , you need to build trust with your lead during the call – especially if it’s a cold call – and your tone of voice is essential for this. Over the phone, you can convey your exact emotions at that moment. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain a good posture and maintain an appropriate dialogue.
If the lead's tone of voice is calm, for example, maintain the same intensity. Now, if you come across a warmer person, it is important to make the conversation more dynamic. You can even use slang if the lead uses it, but try to maintain your posture during the contact.
Being outgoing and good-humored is also a good technique for building rapport with the lead. Making the other person feel relaxed when talking about pain points and solutions can bring benefits at the time of more advanced negotiation.
4. Show interest in the lead
Create a connection by highlighting an item on the website, a key factor found on the Linkedin company page, or a news story in which the lead's company appears.
Here, it is also worth putting together a short script with questions to identify some things in common and use these points during the conversation. But be careful, as this interest should sound natural and genuine and not something coldly calculated or invasive.
5. Enhance rapport
There are several ways to apply rapport to your prospecting process and increase your chances of increasing sales. Try to enhance the technique by:
Recap what the interlocutor highlighted:
“As you were saying…”
Use remissive verb forms:
“Maybe, maybe, who knows…”
Show that you are paying attention to what the other person is saying
Creating rapport means establishing synergy with your lead, always focusing on making the negotiation as personal and effective as possible.
Now that you’ve learned the power that a technique like this has for sales results, do you want to know how to maintain excellence in customer service for your prospect/lead? Download our Mini Guide to Prospecting and Sales Service and apply good relationship practices to your prospecting process.
Rapport is widely used by sales professionals to strengthen relationships with prospects, leads and customers. This technique can be the basis for great negotiations and help achieve sales goals.
What is Rapport ?
Rapport is a term of French origin that means a close uk email address list connection and harmony with others. In the sales area, we can define it as empathy between seller and customer. Among its main benefits are:
Establishes an agile connection with the lead
By understanding the lead, it is easier to guide them through the purchasing journey.
It is a fast and safe way to generate trust.
Improves the relationship established with the customer
To develop rapport , you need to follow some essential steps. Below are some points we have selected to help you apply this technique:
1. Analyze the prospect
Studying the field where you want to work is the first step to building rapport . A detailed analysis of the lead will help you create mental triggers. Mention a course they completed, an award they won, or professional experience listed on their LinkedIn profile.
Making a quick diagnosis of the company and the decision maker will provide enough information for a personalized and more convincing pitch.
2. Practice mirroring
Mirroring is the act of reproducing the behavior of another person, that is, putting yourself in the other person's shoes and repeating the same actions to understand the way they think. In this case, you should practice this technique and get used to the lead.
Try to base yourself on the way the other person speaks. A calmer pace requires a slower pace of speech, while a faster conversation requires a more lively pace.
Mirroring is a difficult technique, but by practicing it you will have a better chance of generating empathy and a deep connection with the lead. This way, they will identify with you and will allow you to strengthen the relationship.
3. Be careful with your tone of voice
If you work with inside sales , you need to build trust with your lead during the call – especially if it’s a cold call – and your tone of voice is essential for this. Over the phone, you can convey your exact emotions at that moment. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain a good posture and maintain an appropriate dialogue.
If the lead's tone of voice is calm, for example, maintain the same intensity. Now, if you come across a warmer person, it is important to make the conversation more dynamic. You can even use slang if the lead uses it, but try to maintain your posture during the contact.
Being outgoing and good-humored is also a good technique for building rapport with the lead. Making the other person feel relaxed when talking about pain points and solutions can bring benefits at the time of more advanced negotiation.
4. Show interest in the lead
Create a connection by highlighting an item on the website, a key factor found on the Linkedin company page, or a news story in which the lead's company appears.
Here, it is also worth putting together a short script with questions to identify some things in common and use these points during the conversation. But be careful, as this interest should sound natural and genuine and not something coldly calculated or invasive.
5. Enhance rapport
There are several ways to apply rapport to your prospecting process and increase your chances of increasing sales. Try to enhance the technique by:
Recap what the interlocutor highlighted:
“As you were saying…”
Use remissive verb forms:
“Maybe, maybe, who knows…”
Show that you are paying attention to what the other person is saying
Creating rapport means establishing synergy with your lead, always focusing on making the negotiation as personal and effective as possible.
Now that you’ve learned the power that a technique like this has for sales results, do you want to know how to maintain excellence in customer service for your prospect/lead? Download our Mini Guide to Prospecting and Sales Service and apply good relationship practices to your prospecting process.