by Jeffrey Willis
One of the most important things you can do as someone who sells on or offline with your potential customer, or a term I like to use, the decision maker (DM), is build rapport. The key to driving a positive buying experience is by developing effective rapport.
Rapport is what you do to minimise differences between yourself and the other person. and maximise similarities.
I like to think of the whole process of building rapport as being the foundation upon which all influence and persuasion is built. This is a major reason that attention to customer service, including quick email response, is very important.
Have you set a service level agreement (SLA) for yourself or your business to ensure prompt turn around times? It might be a commitment you have set for yourself to return all email correspondence within 48 hours. This type of action leads directly to positive rapport building.
Remember, people often buy for two reasons:
- They trust the salesperson
- They feel the product/service offers them value (in essence, it appeals to their 'hot button' - send a blank email to hotbutton@ustoday.net to learn all about a DMs hot buttons)
A website really starts off the rapport building process online. A good website, autoresponder sequence, ezine/newsletter or email contact helps to persuade and influence the DM into making a purchase without appearing as being manipulative (a very anti-rapport term). You are simply helping the person to select what best meets their needs through rapport.
You use rapport to persuade and influence the DM to make a decision that will benefit them and offer them value.
If you work hard in establishing and building rapport and building rapport, your DM will become your ADVOCATE. This is one of the highest levels of customer relationship management and leads to positive word of mouth (and future testimonials!)
As a final thought I want to whare with you the three elements of persuasion and influence.
ETHOS - Character. You must sell yourself and be deemed worth of gaining the business. People trust you and want to do business with you. You 'earn the right!'
PATHOS - Feeling. People purchase based on feelings about a product or service. They want to be involved in the purchasing decision.
LAGOS - Logic. DMs will purchase based on feeling but they will justify their decision based on cold, hard logic. Value and ongoing commitment (from you the salesperson) are all part of the logic process.
The above were formulated by Aristotle in the third century BC and are just as relevant today!
Jeffrey Willis was previously a sales manager for AMEX Corporate Travel and now is the operations manager for a major cable television corporation in Australia.
He has recently put together a collection of his favourite digital products geared at helping you succeed at selling online. Check it out at http://www.vitalebooks.com
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