I often get asked is there a big difference between building rapport face-to-face to building rapport over the phone. Now yes obviously we can't see the person, so body language is going to be different.

But there are still four key fundamentals that I think are very useful to know. One of the easiest ones is "Pace or the Speed to which they Talk".

If you're a fast talker and your customer is a very slow talker. You staying at your normal cadence, may feel too rushed for them. So you don't want to mimic them. But you want to see where you can adjust to make it more comfortable to the pace that they are talking at.

Second is "Volume".  Now volume, if you've got a big voice and they've got a small voice or a light voice. You might come across too powerful and overwhelm them. Equally if your voice is very light and there's a is a big booming voice. They might actually become even louder thinking that that will help you adjust. So again you just wanted to see if I was to have us feel more connected and on the same page. If my voice was louder or softer but actually match theirs. Would that be better for communication. And very likely it will.

Now this one here is about the words that are being used. I'm just going to say it right here. One thing we never match or try and get closer to, is if they're swearing. We can use other ways to build rapport with our words.  If you've got someone who's very formal over the phone and you've got a very casual way of speaking. I'm not asking you to change your personality and suddenly become very formal. But look to see what are some words that you can adjust. That again can reduce the gap for how they sound and to how you sound.

The Fourth one is "Tone". Now tone's an interesting one. Some people sound like they're not in a good mood but in actual fact they are. It's just their tone. Don't use it as an assumption that they don't want to buy or they're not interested in talking to you based on how they sound. Because it could just be the way they sound anyway.

So rapport when done well, you will have such a better engaged conversation with that customer.

If you're selling something you're very likely to get a stronger yes. And even if you're dealing with a difficult situation.It'll at least help you then, have a smoother way to transition into figuring out what's gone wrong and how you can help them. Don't underestimate the power of being in rapport.

You can be in rapport with someone, even if you don't like them. Or if they don't like you, which does happen in sales. But it means that at least you've now paved a way to have better communication. So that they feel more connected to you and you can help at least figure out what do we do moving forward.

If you want to sell more with confidence, check out the videos on this page.

I've got lots of tips and strategies that will help you do that

Many thanks

Yvonne

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