How to Build Rapport in Five Easy Ways with Prospects
Building rapport is just as needed as any key element a telemarketer should possess. Rapport with its many tactics in outbound selling is essential should a telemarketer have to sound like a real human while on the phone. This ensures healthy connection between the prospector and its prospect. To establish rapport with your prospect, we have assembles five easy ways for you to enable your telemarketer’s inner human connection to spark out.
Rapport One: Do your research on LinkedIn
Before calling, look up to your prospects profile in LinkedIn (if they have one). Your research will tell you thing that you need to know and clues to how your prospect perceives themselves and will behave. A 50-year-old man in a tie will behave differently than a millennial in a T-shirt and will quite naturally respond differently to the questions you ask.
Rapport Two: Knowing his/her Persona
After researching about the prospect’s persona, you will have an input on how they care about the business they are in. Each of these personas cares about different things, has a different personality, and needs to be communicated with differently. Rapport-building is all about meeting people on their turf and treating them how they want to be treated, so understanding your prospects’ personas is crucial.
Rapport Three: Make Your Prospect Laugh
Laughter is the best way to start a call. If you can make a prospect laugh, you make them more comfortable (and more likely to tell you what’s going on) and remind them that you’re a human too, not just a faceless sales robot. It also makes the experience more enjoyable — prospects who enjoy talking to me will spend more time in the sales process and will look forward to my calls more if they can relate to me on a level beyond just business.
Rapport Four: Ask Good Opening Questions
Avoid generic questions about the weather or sports — “How’s the weather in Scottsdale?” or “How about the Celtics this season?” might seem like easy places to start, but they’re pedestrian questions that your prospect has probably heard dozens of times.
Rapport Five: Transition to Sales
After you ask a question, hit the mute button. Let the prospect talk and listen. You’ll hear the point where your prospect is thinking, “Enough chitchat — let’s talk business.” Once you hit that point, move to the agenda and the reason for your call today.