Article Sphere Logo  
 
"Sales Training" Article
 Article Directory Home Business Sales Training

Selling with Success - Gaining Rapport

Expert Author: Nickolove Lovemore | Submitted: 2006-09-22 | Word Count: 936 words | Views: 94 view(s)
[View Summary]
Nickolove Lovemore
Gaining rapport is perhaps the single most important element to selling with success. Without rapport your chances at making a sale are slim to none. Rapport is created from your first point of contact with a potential client and so one easy way to gain rapport is through the use of your client's name. Hence:

o Get to know your clients name,
o Use your client's name,
o Remember your client's name, and
o Use your client's correct title.

Sounds easy doesn't it? Yet how often is this done in practice? I once accompanied my sister-in-law in Barbados to a new gym she wanted to check-out with a view to perhaps joining it. I'm a qualified Personal Trainer and so she, or rather my brother, wanted my expert opinion. I introduced myself to the Manager who then proceeded to spend the next minute or so asking me if I was called anything other than "Nickolove" even though I had indicated that was the name I preferred to be called. I wasn't even the main client! So you can imagine how impressed I was with her sales skills. (The gym didn't pass muster with me either.)

There are exceptions to using a person's real name. One of my friends is called "Tifsihit". She is a beautiful individual and I wanted to honour her by using her full name and I tried to do so. However, she politely informed me that my efforts resulted in saying something rude and that she was happy to be called "T" - an abbreviation used by most of her friends. I humbly acquiesced.

Sometimes we meet individuals whose names we later or promptly forget. How many times has this happened to you? Do you ask the person their name again? In many cases people are reluctant to ask a person's name the second or third time around. However, the irony is, people don't mind being asked their name. It shows that you are interested in them and people generally respond favourably to this.

When you are talking to a customer, address them by name and use their name during the conversation. You don't have to overdo it but when people hear their names mentioned it helps to make them feel that they are being spoken to as an individual rather then just anyone or everyone. It helps to give them confidence that you are seeking to address their individual needs.

Many people say that they can't remember names. Just saying this helps to reinforce this negative and false belief. The truth is, unless you have a medical condition that affects your memory, you have a perfect memory and, with a little effort, you can remember the names of a roomful of people if you so desired.

One technique that helps me to remember a person's name is for me to ask a person to spell their name for me, especially if it is somewhat unusual. When a person spells their name I can actually see the letters and this makes it easier for me to recall.

I am also unashamed at repeating a person's name a few times until I get the pronunciation right (or not as in the case of Tifsihit!). This repetition also helps me to remember their name.

I also like to discover the meaning of names. I meet many people with exquisite sounding names and I'm always curious as to their meaning. Even common names have interesting meanings. Take the name "Stephen". I discovered only this weekend that the name Stephen is of Greek origin and means 'crown'. Knowing what someone's name means is another way of engraving that person's name into my memory. It also creates a natural focal point for light conversation which adds to building rapport.

There are many excellent resources on the market to help you develop your memory. I highly recommend choosing one of these resources if you want to dramatically improve your memory and your ability for remembering names. It's too lengthy a discussion for this article.

Finally, use a client's correct title. Many times I receive correspondence addressed to "Mr Nickolove Lovemore" or sometimes I receive calls asking to speak to "Mr..." What is really irritating about this is that, in many cases I have actually spoken to the person sending the correspondence and there is no way you could mistake the sound of my voice for that of a man.

I remember a situation where I received a letter from a real estate agent I had been dealing with who fell foul to this error. When I pointed out that my title should be "Ms" and not "Mr" I was told that they assumed "Mr Lovemore" was the decision-maker and so had addressed the letter accordingly. That went down like the proverbial lead weight. How chauvinistic! I was the individual to whom they always spoken to and yet it was assumed that I, a lowly female, was incapable of making a decision about a financial contraction of this magnitude even when a "Mr Lovemore" had never been mentioned.

Getting a client's title wrong is a sure way to alienate them so if you are unsure about a client's title simply ask them. If this is not possible then circumvent this problem by not using a title at all.

There are many hurdles to overcome with regards to building rapport. Get your client's name right and you will sail over the first hurdle and be one step closer to selling with success.

About the Author

Nickolove Lovemore is a Life and Success Coach and a NLP Practitioner. Please visit http://www.SuccessAccesories.com for information regarding new program - Selling with Success.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Selling-with-Success---Gaining-Rapport/51316

 
 
 
This article has been viewed 94 times.

More "Sales Training" Related Articles

 

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Sales Training" article category.

People interested in the above article "Selling with Success - Gaining Rapport" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

Expert Author: Rod Mckinnis | Submitted: 2008-05-20 | Word Count: 943 | Views: 48
As a Sales Management Training Consultant, I often notice business cards from salespeople with titles that require some effort to decipher.
Expert Author: Kevin Eikenberry | Submitted: 2008-04-22 | Word Count: 664 | Views: 22
If getting more things done with greater success sounds good to you, then strengthening collaboration skills would be a great thing to consider. Using these "seven C's" will help every team - even the best ones - perform better and achieve more results.
Expert Author: Stan Billue | Submitted: 2008-03-21 | Word Count: 1149 | Views: 20
Selling in its most simple form is nothing more than a transfer of feelings. The single most important Skill in Communicating, Negotiating, and Selling, is to be Enthusiastic. Yes, it’s more important than Sales skills, or Listening skills, or even Product knowledge.
Expert Author: Scott Deane | Submitted: 2008-03-05 | Word Count: 406 | Views: 19
The level of graduate sales training needed by young professionals depends on the nature of a particular industry. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to graduate sales training that takes into account every element of a particular industry.
Expert Author: Scott Deane | Submitted: 2008-01-24 | Word Count: 434 | Views: 31
Sales professionals of all ages would rather hit the streets to speak with potential clients than sit in a long seminar on sales technique. Managers and executives place a high premium on results but corporations want sales people to have the information needed to use intuition in a reasonable manner.
Expert Author: Scott Deane | Submitted: 2008-01-24 | Word Count: 394 | Views: 27
University students who are on the verge of graduation may think that their educational experience ends as they cross the stage to pick up their diploma. While universities are excellent places to develop business acumen and communication skills, there is no better test of sales skills than real world.
Expert Author: Scott Deane | Submitted: 2007-12-10 | Word Count: 446 | Views: 59
Many people say that no matter how many hours people have of sales training, skills like these can't be taught - that salespeople either have the knack or not.

 View Popular Sales Training Articles | View Top Sales Training Authors

Article Directory Home Business Sales Training

Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google Search!
(Search in 23 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Italian, German,
Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Greek,
Swedish, Romanian, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Czech, Croatian, Bulgarian)
 
 
Copyright © 2005 - by Larry Lim, Singapore - Article Search Engine Directory at ArticleSphere.com™
All Rights Reserved Worldwide. All Trademarks and Servicemarks are the property of the respective owners.
Template Design by Larry Lim | Internet Marketing
Français/French Español/Spanish 日本語/Japanese [أربيك]/Arabic Italiano/Italian Deutsch/German 汉语/Chinese Simplified 漢語/Chinese Traditional Nederlands/Dutch 한국어/Korean Port/Portuguese Русско/Russian
Ελληνικά/Greek Swedish Roman?/Romanian Polski/Polish Norwegian Suomi/Finnish Dansk/Danish ?esky/Czech Hrvatski/Croatian §¢§ì§Ý§Ô§Ñ§â§ã§Ü§Ú/Bulgarian English - Original language