Building rapport with customers has always been a critical component of sales success, but it’s even more important today.
Most B2B buyers report they prefer to search for solutions online rather than have a conversation with a sales professional. And when you do meet, it’s more likely to be on Zoom or Microsoft Teams than in person.
That’s why it’s essential for your sales professionals to be skilled at building rapport quickly and providing value when they do have the opportunity to talk to a buyer.
Over the course of the sales process, effective rapport building establishes your sellers as trusted partners. This helps them develop longer and more profitable relationships.
Here are three crucial tips for building rapport with customers. Pay special attention to tip #3—the expert step for many high-performing sales professionals.
1. Listen Actively
High-performing sales professionals listen more and talk less when engaging customers. Active listening and asking open-ended questions show the buyer the seller cares about their needs, challenges, and goals.
Active listening during discovery helps sellers uncover the prospects’ problem and root of the issue. Using this information later guides the recommendation and helps the seller tailor it to customer needs.
Listening, asking probing questions, and offering solutions that align with the customer’s goals position your sellers as consultants and advisors rather than simply product vendors. This strengthens the customer’s feeling of trust and influence.
2. Focus on Your Buyer
When a buyer first meets a seller, they look for clues to the seller’s trustworthiness. Until a prospect feels they can trust the seller, they instinctively hold back and protect their time and interests.
Many enterprise customers have large buying committees. Your sellers may need to build rapport with multiple customers within one account.
Remind your sales professionals to focus on the buyer rather than themselves and their own needs. This will help them uncover the buyer’s needs and wants instead of rushing to discuss product features and benefits.
Using consultative selling skills will help them keep their focus on the buyer and ways they can provide value to them.
3. Match Your Buyer’s Communication Style
Not everyone communicates (or prefers to communicate) in the same way. Sellers who learn to quickly identify a prospect’s preferred communication style and adapt to it have a competitive edge. Prospects will experience them as more trustworthy, easier to relate to, and more enjoyable to interact with.
Help your sellers learn this crucial technique. They first need to understand common buyer behavior styles and how to use them to adapt their approach.
According to the DISC personality assessment, there are four personality components: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. Everyone has a primary style and some degree of the other styles.
Here is a quick overview on communicating with each style:
“D” Types: Dominance
Dominant or Doer types are direct. They typically have fast-paced speech, a strong personality and a desire to get the point. They also tend to think in terms of the bottom line, so when speaking with them it’s important to skip storytelling and quickly articulate benefits.
Build rapport with “D” types by:
- Listening closely so they feel heard
- Asking specific, targeted questions—do not waste their time
- Keeping a fast pace to match theirs
- Giving direct answers without a lot of “fluff”
“I” Types: Influence
Influencer or Talker types are friendly and chatty. They enjoy interacting with people, so sharing testimonials and product benefits in an upbeat, positive way is a good place to start. With “I” types, it’s also best to stay focused on the big picture and not get too far into the details.
Build rapport with “I” types through:
- Friendly and animated conversation
- Asking for their ideas and opinions
- NOT dwelling on the details
- Giving personal stories illustrating how others have benefited from your solution
“S” Types: Steadiness
Steadiness or Pacer types have a deliberate and methodical decision-making style. Patient and easy-going, they are also risk averse and may resist change or anything they perceive as a risk.
You can identify these individuals by their reserved, indirect, yet people-oriented approach. Sincerity and allowing a little extra time for consideration and trust-building may be required to build rapport effectively.
Build rapport with “S” types by:
- Not pressuring them to make a decision quickly
- Listening patiently and taking time to explain
- Giving sincere, direct answers
- Showing interest in a long-term relationship
- Demonstrating care for them and their team
“C” Types: Compliance
Compliance or Controller types tend to focus on the details. Methodical in approach, they are primarily concerned with doing things the “right” or “correct” way. This can make their buying behavior style skeptical and concerned with analytics and the effects of change. It’s important to be prepared to back up your claims in a no-nonsense way for “C” types.
Build rapport with “C” types by:
- Presenting data to back up claims about your solution
- Not asking too many personal questions
- Slowing down, giving precise information
- Maintaining a diplomatic and courteous tone
- Being conservative in assertions
Selling Skills to Build Rapport with Customers
Building rapport is far more than identifying things in common and having a polite conversation. Effective rapport building is about establishing authentic connections, listening thoroughly, and adapting communication to match the buyer’s style.
Find out how The Brooks Group’s IMPACT Selling® training program teaches sales professionals the four DISC personality types—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance—and how to build long-term, profitable relationships with customers.
