How To Build Rapport with Confidence - 3 Strategies for Success

         I know that this seems like common sense, of course, we want people to like us. In fact, when we like someone, our level of trust increases, and we are more likely to want to help the person we have rapport with. When you develop great rapport with people, they tend to be much more open and honest when answering questions, and they tend to share information with you that can be pertinent in helping you serve them at a higher level. The better you serve someone by helping them solve a problem, or sharing how you can help make their situation even better, the more opportunities you will win.

But, there is a big challenge that I see in every company is that most people simply take rapport for granted. You know what I mean? Because someone is friendly, we automatically assume they are great at building rapport with everyone. The truth is that in some cases, this is correct, in other cases, it’s not.

3 Principles on How to Confidently Build Rapport

Principle #1

Focus on knowing everyone involved in the decision-making process. This is also known as “your buyer’s table”. Let’s face it, it is difficult to build rapport with people that you have not met. Yet, many people will only rely on 1 or 2 contacts within a target company’s organization. Independent research tells us that today, on average, there are 6 people or more involved in making most decisions. You want to creatively decide on your best strategies to be in front of these people well in advance of giving a presentation to help you win their business. 

Principle #2

Know that different titles can help you know their decision tendencies. As you build and document your buyer’s table, you can start to anticipate patterns of how different titles may think. For example, you can anticipate that VITO (The Very Important Top Officer/Ultimate Decision Maker) is usually the person who has ultimate decision authority, but is going to let the process of buyer’s table voting for the decision to play out. But ultimately, know that VITO is usually the person that is going to be a deciding factor if there is a tie. In that case, having a relationship with VITO will make a huge difference in how you influence the decision. In some cases, it is VITO that can decide to spend more than they planned to spend. Always work to gain a relationship with VITO. 

Establish an Executive Sponsor

As you build your buyer’s table, know that it is a priority for you to establish an Executive Sponsor. This is the person that is in favor of you and your company, and you have established rapport and trust with. You can likely lean on your executive sponsor to keep you aware of information that is happening in the meetings you are not in. We have had cases where the executive sponsor kept us aware of what competitors were doing, areas of our offering to spend more time on, frustrations they are experiencing with the current provider, and even let us know details about buyer’s table member tendencies. Information is power and we want to leverage every possible angle to gain that valuable information. 

Look for technical experts.

There are likely going to be some internal subject matter experts involved in the decision-making process. It is important to build rapport with these people too. Likely, these people are looking for specialized and detailed technical information. If you feel confident that you can handle the depth of technical expertise to help them, then handle it. But, it is highly recommended that you “match up your experts with their experts” by calling on some of your fellow internal subject matter experts that have specific expertise in the subject matter areas. This can help you tremendously, because you become the go to person to connect them to the expertise they need in order to make the best decision for their organization. Executing this principle will only bolster their level of trust and respect for you.

As you build your buyer’s table, actively look for other members that are involved. Perhaps this may be a board of directors, an advisory committee, or even a consultant. The key here is that you are actively looking for all buyers table members, and focusing on gaining face time by yourself or other expert members of your selling team. Make the effort here, and never assume that they are “too busy for you”. You may be happily surprised to learn that they are glad to have a short meeting with you. It is in that meeting that you can establish rapport with them, and ultimately ask smart questions that can help position you to help them.

Principle #3

Take advantage of your online tools to help you learn as much as possible about people. Most people that you encounter have some level of online presence. That could be information and bio’s on a website, it could be a LinkedIn profile, it could be Twitter activity, and it could be articles of which they wrote or were mentioned.

LinkedIn is one of my favorites. 

Research shows that 87% of executives have a LinkedIn profile.

Key Points for you to Leverage LinkedIn:

 1)   Actively use LinkedIn to research the people you are planning to meet. You can discover details about them including:

§ Role

§ Career path

§ Where they went to school

§ Charitable organizations they support

§ Community activities they are involved in

     One of the most powerful strategies in building rapport is to start the conversation off      by talking about something that you have learned about them in your research. For            example, you could say something like “I saw that you are on the board of the local Boys            and Girls Club” (pause, let them comment) then say “How have you enjoyed that?”

a.    Ultimately, your goal is to demonstrate that you have done your research, and to get them talking about something they are passionate about. That is a key way to confidently build rapport.

2)   Pay attention to YOUR LinkedIn profile. Research also shows that people will be looking at YOUR profile as well. Know that LinkedIn is a great way to market yourself. Are you paying attention to it? As you can imagine, there is a tremendous difference between someone who simply has a headshot, and the companies they have worked at listed versus a fully completed profile.

A fully completed profile includes:

§ A professional headshot

§ A well written descriptive headline

§ Your work history

   Know that people pay attention to what you did, promotions you have received, awards       you received, and certifications you have earned, so make sure those are listed.

a.    In addition to this, LinkedIn allows you to share details about your education, charities you are involved in, and testimonials from friends, colleagues, and clients. Take advantage of this amazing tool, and pay attention to the details. You can anticipate that prospects will look at your profile – so build your profile to represent you at the highest level possible.

Whether it is LinkedIn or other resources, it only takes you a few minutes to do research on people you are going to meet with. Take the time to do this research, and be prepared to use your findings as key elements of building rapport with others. In today’s world, just being likable will not cause you to stand out. Being well prepared will help you stand out.

To summarize, do not take rapport for granted. In fact, use rapport as a competitive tool to help you build stronger relationships, open more doors, and further your prospect and client relationships. Pay attention to the need to go the extra mile in this category, and know that it will help you in many ways.

Rapport is a key strategy of its own!

And remember: RAPPORT IS POWER

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Best, Gene