Sunday, July 11, 2010

RAPPORT

Rapport : An emotional bond or friendly relationship between people based on mutual liking, trust and a sense that they understand and share each other's concerns.


Building rapport with customers is like squirting oil into gears. Imagine some gears grinding together. When you squirt lubricating oil into the gears, you reduce the friction and make everything work smoother.
1. Pay attention to your appearance.


2. Try an occasional bit of disarming honesty


3. Humor


4. Use a sincere complement


5. Ask a perceptive question


6. Indicate a personal connection


7. Tell a short personal story



Tips

• Reaffirm the timing and ability to focus on the agenda.
• Ask to meet in their buying area.
• Ask if it ok to take notes.
• Compliment.
• Share something unique and personal about yourself
• Be able to articulate your value adds.

The Job Of The Sales Person

Simply stated, the Job of the sales person can bet reduced to these six elements:


Engage With The Right People
        o  You can be the most trained, thoroughly equipped salesperson, with the best questions, the most powerful presentations and the gift of a good sense of humor. However, if you waste all this on the wrong people, you’ll never be successful.

• Make Them Feel Comfortable With You
        o If they aren’t comfortable with you, they won’t spend much time with you, and the time that they do spend will be guarded and tentative.

Find Out What They Want
        o This step is the heart of selling – the essence of what a salesperson is all about. I know that flies in the face of the routine practices of multitudes of salespeople, who believe that the end all of their focus is to push their product. While it is certainly true that the company expects you to sell your product, how you sell it is really the issue.

• Show Them How What You Have Provides Them With What They Want
        o Sooner or later you have to make an offer to your customer. In order for you to sell anything, they must decide to buy it. And if they are going to buy it, you need to make them aware of it.

• Gain Agreement On The Next Step
        o Every sales interaction has an assumed next step. If you call someone for an appointment, the next step is the appointment. If you present your solution to a decision-maker, the next step is the order. In between, there are thousands of potentially different sales calls, and thousands of potential action steps that follow the sales call.

• . Insure That They Are Satisfied, And Leverage That Satisfaction To Other Opportunities.
        o This is the one step in the sales process that is most commonly neglected. Most salespeople are so focused on making the sale that they neglect to consider that their real purpose is to satisfy the customer. And that extends beyond just the sale itself.

JUST LISTEN!

When we listen, we send a powerful message that we care about the other person. Conversely, when we don’t listen, we send the message that our agenda is far more important than the customer’s trivial ideas and issues. That makes effective listening one of the all time great relationship-building devices.


From a salesperson’s perspective, the more we listen, the more different positions, motivations, opinions and nuances we are able to understand and accommodate. The wiser and more capable we become. Since we are able to understand an ever-growing panoply of positions and opinions, we are able to feel a rapport with more and more customers, and move closer to a consensus position with them.

Listening positions us as a consultant, not a peddler, in the eyes of the customer. Ultimately, listening provides us our competitive edge.

1. Listen constructively.


2. Discipline yourself to build the habit of responding to your customer’s comments.

NEON SIGN
Imagine your prospect with a three-inch high neon sign fixed to his/her forehead.
The sign is bolted in with four stainless steal bolts at each of the four corners.
On the sign are bright red neon letters which spell the words
"SO WHAT?"

“The only way you can get the sign to shut off is to translate that statement into a benefit by using the words "This means that you....."
Mediocre? Or outstanding?



The world is full of salespeople who never invest in their own success. Few salespeople have ever been trained in the best practices of their profession. They are content with mediocrity. A few continually pursue their own growth and development. They become outstanding salespeople, significantly outperforming the others.