Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales.
I conducted a role play for a client a while ago. The group split into pairs, and one person played the salesperson while the other played the client.
One of the teams was having a lot of trouble - the 'salesperson' couldn't establish rapport with the 'client.' I asked what was wrong.
The client said that the salesperson looked too eager - almost nervous. The salesperson also seemed tense. I asked the salesperson what he was trying to accomplish, and he said he wanted to appear professional. To him, 'professional' meant sitting up straight in his chair and getting down to business.
I told the salesperson he was making the client nervous, which didn't promote trust or rapport a bit. When I asked him to relax to match the client's posture, he said he couldn't because it wouldn't be professional. So I asked him what his desired outcome was - to be professional or to get the client to buy something from him. When he finally did relax, the client immediately felt more at ease.
The salesperson in this role play was concentrating so much on his own image that he couldn't get in tune with his client. It isn't likely that he'd have made a sale, is it?
So how could he have better established rapport?
Visual Rapport - the Basics
We've talked about rapport in earlier lessons. You probably now have a good feel for aural rapport and how to enhance it. Now let's discuss visual rapport.
You establish visual rapport when all the elements of your appearance match those of the person with whom you are communicating. These elements include:
Clothing
- Hair style and length
- Facial expressions
- Body movements
You can greatly enhance the level of rapport you establish with a client or prospect by matching the other person's movements, appearance, and expressions. Remember, people like to work with people who are like them.
When people are in rapport, trust increases and they communicate with more ease. Look closely at their faces, and you'll see that they look more relaxed. They often smile more and seem less formal or even intimate. On the other hand, people with little or no rapport seem more formal and tend to keep their distance more.
You Had It, You Lost It, Now Get It Back
Were you ever talking with a prospect and getting along fine until you said The Wrong Thing? You didn't even know what The Wrong Thing was - you just knew you said it, because the prospect suddenly sat back in their chair and tense up. Somehow you broke rapport. Now what can you do?
At a time like this, you want to know your options and how to restore the situation. What happened? You somehow mismatched your client's beliefs or values and caused them to back away. You need to continue the matching process and try to reestablish rapport.
Clothing
How you dress matters. Many people seem to think that dressing alike is for teenagers and twins. If you're one of them, go to work tomorrow in cut-offs and a tee shirt. You may have the self-confidence to pull it off, but you'll probably feel awfully uncomfortable when you go to lunch with a valuable client.
The beauty of establishing rapport with your clothing is that it's so easy to control. You recognize the way a prospect prefers to dress and dress the same way. It's that simple.
With clothing, it's better to be safe than sorry. Did you know navy blue is the most popular color for men's jackets? If you want to build rapport, your best bet when meeting a new client is to wear navy. If you arrive at someone's office to find that they have their jacket off, take yours off, too. Men need to pay attention to their ties. Are you wearing a splashy tie to a meeting with a very conservative client? Not the way to build rapport! The same goes for women's jewelry. Conservative clients probably won't appreciate the trendiest look - so don't bother to wear it.
Hair Style and Length
Noted speaker and author Brian Tracy tells a story about a colleague whose rose and fell in direct proportion to his hair length. Keep that in mind if you're going to work with conservative people.
Facial Expressions
There are two regions of the face - eye level and above, and below eye level. At eye level and above, be careful of wrinkling your forehead and narrowing your eyes. The person you're speaking with may roll their eyes or look away - these are indications that something's going on. Something you said just made an impact.
Below the eye level, you can match the movement of the other person's mouth. Look for smiles, frowns, puckered lips.
Mirroring facial expressions goes deeper than just matching. When you adopt another person's facial expression, you often feel the same way they do. Try it - put a great big smile on your face and try to feel awful. You see? It just doesn't work. If you have match someone's facial expressions and it leads to congruent feelings, you can't help but establish rapport. You actually feel the same way the other person does.
Body Movements
Your body can be divided into three regions for the purpose of matching:
Head
- Shoulders to Waist
- Waist to Feet
There are a number of ways to move your head that affect visual rapport. We just talked about one - facial expression. Two others are nodding and color changes. When the other person nods, you nod, too, in the same direction and speed.
Matching torso and arm movements is relatively easy for most people. Pay attention to how widely a person gestures - how far away from the body they move their arms and hands. If you're talking with someone who uses very expansive, expressive gestures, match that. Likewise, if the person keeps their hands and arms close to their body, match that style.
What is the position of the other person's shoulders? Are they facing you straight on or at an angle? How about posture? Are they relaxed or rigid? Making these matches is a lot like matching facial expressions - it not only creates more rapport visually, it also aligns your emotional state with the other person's. If they sit on the edge of their seat, you should too.
Also watch leg position and movement. Are the other person's legs crossed? Do they constantly move their feet? If the other person taps a foot, tap yours. If they stand with feet wide apart, you do the same.
When in Rome, Match
There are ways to enhance rapport by matching others visually. You can do this with your clothing, hairstyle, posture, body movements, and facial expressions. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of matching visually is that doing so often affects your feelings. When you match another person's body movements and facial expressions, you'll often find that you can't help feeling the same way they do. Which, of course, increases rapport even more.
Exercises
Look around you at the people in your office and identify the people you'd feel the most comfortable talking with. What are they wearing? How do they wear their hair? What expressions do they have on their faces? Do these aspects of their appearance match yours?
- Match someone. Choose a person with whom you want to create rapport and work on matching them visually. Sit down with them and while you talk with them, match them in these areas:
- Facial expressions.
- Head position (tilted, rigid)
- Shoulder position (turned right, squared forward)
- Torso (slumped down or straight)
- Legs and feet(crossed, tapping)