5 Killer Relationship Building tips to skyrocket your Sales and Business Growth!

All too often I walk into small retailers, single chains, ma and pa shops, hair salons, and a variety of other Sales based outlets and all too often I walk away disappointed knowing that there could have been a few simple tips that could revolutionise that Business.

There is one part of the selling process that ultimately will grow your Business faster than closing a sale, adding on, up-selling, or financing the purchase ever will, and that is the ability to learn how to build a strong relationship with your client or a potential future client so they keep coming back for more.

1 . The most important part of your Business:

You see, relationship building doesn’t take a long time, and to the true masters, you can build a relationship in less than a minute and have that client coming back to do Business with you over, and over, and over again! The most missed “value proposition” any Business fails to recognise in their marketing efforts is the very people that work within the organisation itself.

Do you have a Hairstylist or Barber that you particularly like? Do you have a Banker that you singularly deal with? Do you have a Car Salesperson that you go back to time and time again when you lease or loan is about to come due and you’re ready for a new one?

Chances are pretty good, that if you have one person in your life that you have this kind of Business relationship with, that person has a strong ability to build rapport, and grow a relationship with their clients. They are no stranger to the fact that there isn’t just potential for one sale over their career, but many sales to the same person over and over again!

The ability to build a relationship, what is commonly referred to as “Rapport” in the Sales world is the true number one, and most important skill that any Business owner or Sales Professional can adopt… why? Because it is the first sale, the basis for all other sales that a Business relationship is built off of.

Business owners, and Salespeople miss the fact that the single greatest piece of value that can be brought to the table is actually the Salesperson themselves! That they have to sell themselves in about 35 seconds as the client is going to make a decision as to whether or not they are going to buy based on a great many factors. If you’re a creep — it doesn’t matter what you’re selling or how good a deal it might be, they’re never going to buy a single thing off of you if they do not like you as a person! Chances are they are just going to come back for the very same deal, only from someone else — that ladies and gentlemen I have seen time and time again in every industry and it’s never going away!

Let’s look at some ways that you can grow your Business:

2. Be genuine:

Rapport building requires a certain level of interest, a certain level of interest in the client, in current events, in what might be going on in their lives and the lives around them!

You see, being genuine is more easily defined as being real. Not being real in the intention of what they know, but being real in your approach to rapport and relationship building.

Now, being genuine doesn’t mean being a know it all either. The great secret to rapport building is getting the prospect talking. There was a story I have long since relayed time and time again of a friend of mine, my friend, we’re going to call him James, had a rather peculiar knack of being able to walk into a party and become friends with every person in the room in about 30 minutes. Now, after watching him do this a few times over and over again, I finally asked him what his secret was? He told me it was simply a matter of getting the other person talking and not letting them stop!

People love to talk about themselves, oftentimes when I’m building rapport, I don’t bother telling people what my interests are, I just want them talking about them, about their lives, about what is going on around them. Their stresses, their worries, their accomplishments, their vacations, celebrations, kids, jobs, and the list goes on. Why? Because people who are interested in hearing about other peoples stories are oftentimes perceived to be as interesting and friendly. These people, most of the time, don’t even have to open their mouths.

Have you ever had someone in your life go on a tangent, I mean a real bender about what is going on in their personal lives? If you’re human, then chances are good that you have, and what happens all too often after that person has gone on their hour long bullshit spree about their lives? They thank you for being an open ear, your relationship becomes stronger because you took the time to hear them out!

Now, this is peculiar, because if all you have to do is hear someone out, then the real trick is to just get them talking, get them speaking right? You’d be right. But it doesn’t happen if you’re not genuinely interested in what is going on in their lives. People all too often can pick up on someone else’s garbage if they aren’t paying attention to what they say… and then what happens? They apologise for talking “too much” and want to walk away.

You have to be interested in what is going on with that person, this allows you to listen a little more closely to what they are saying and allows you to ask questions to get a little further, carry the conversation forward and move ahead with the process of building trust, building the relationship, and ultimately progressing down the buying relationship road!

3 .Genuine doesn’t always mean invested:

Genuine is not always invested, genuine is sincere. It means you’re sincerely interested in what they are saying. It does not mean that you, yourself, has to be personally invested in the topic that is being discussed.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on the wrong end of a football conversation that started up quite innocently because I noticed that there was a “Greenbay Packers” plaque on their wall.

Now, I don’t know SHIT ALL about football — I wasn’t invested, but the person that was sitting across the table from me, definitely was! So, I had two choices, let the conversation die off and potentially put the relationship and the entire buying situation at risk, or get the client to TEACH ME why THEY were so invested in the football they had supported for so many years.

I chose the latter, I got a lesson on Football Economics and why the Packers are the greatest team on the planet, I walked out with an order. 3 days later I sent that client a Jersey that I had purchased from the Local Jersey City (There’s some free advertising). And I now have the client for life, all because I got them to teach me what was so great about this one topic that they loved so much!

I’m not invested in football to this day, but I know that if I can get someone talking about what it is they truly love, now I’m approaching being genuine. Being honest and upfront by saying something like “Hey man, I don’t know a damn thing about football, but I was a little curious…. how is it….” carrying on the conversation from this basic start to a great question, and before you know it, you’re moving closer and closer to building a relationship and growing your Business!

4. The number one topic to avoid — Weather:

Now, I want to address something not a lot of people in my field, owners, or managers, really address. Opening up the Sales Process and trying to build a relationship with a bullshit topic like weather!

Fuck me, I wish a bolt of lightning would come out of the sky and strike a Sales Professional or Business owner just hard enough to create a pain sensation that they ultimately try to avoid every time they end up bringing up this topic of conversation first.

If you want to talk about the most outdated, overused, guaranteed to get you almost nowhere, garbage driven, obvious sales tactics that will have a prospect running to the hills faster than you can say “See you later.” Start the entire sales process off with weather.

“Sure is cold outside, ain’t it?” Says the Sales Professional. “Yup” Says the prospect, while simultaneously rolling their eyes and wanting to get away from yet another boring jackass that has absolutely no intention of doing anything for them other than selling them a product.

Weather is amongst the most overused Sales tactic designed for Salespeople from the late 50’s and amateurs. Remove it from your repertoire, it’s getting you nowhere! Don’t even think about using it again! There are SO MANY OTHER THINGS YOU COULD BE TALKING ABOUT and if you took the time to open up your computer as most of us Sales Professionals have one of those these days, and find out what is going on in your community in the near future, you could strike up a conversation that is relevant and might strike some interest in your Sales Process and more specifically, your client. If you can’t take 1 minute from your day to go and find something to talk about for the day, then you might as well give up on this industry altogether, this is a research based industry, you have to study it day in and day out in order to keep the saw constantly sharp! So take a minute to find something interesting about what is going on in the world and keep using it throughout the day, I promise you, you’re more likely to get a response from a current event than you ever are, using a topic like the weather.

5. Asking questions, dig deeper, build the relationship:

The last skill falls back on being genuine with the questions you ask. We have a weird and innate desire as human beings for wanting to be praised every time we do something good — that isn’t limited to questions! If you ask your client a question, even if it’s genuinely just to show interest in them, don’t be afraid to say something like “That’s interesting! What happened next?” They want to hear, they want to know that they are being heard, they want to be praised for answering your question.

Now, the “That’s interesting what happened next?” phrase in itself almost makes me want to throw up because it’s some random ass example of what could happen without getting into very many specifics. But praise, coupled with a follow up question to what they already answered is TREMENDOUS in the relationship building process!

Going back to the football example, I asked the client “Where he got the plaque from?” He had told me that it was a gift that his brother got for him from the game he had gone to in Wisconsin. I could have just said “Oh, that’s nice.” And let the conversation die off, but I was genuinely invested IN THE CLEINT. I followed up with “That’s awesome! Me and my brothers are pretty close! Have you both been Packers fans your entire life or did he just get you that because “He had to get you something?” Kind of like the time my parents went to Cuba and brought me back a Cigar cutter.” He chuckled and said, “No, we’ve been fans our entire lives!” I then told him “It was always good to have outside interest, now, I don’t know a damn thing about football, but I am a little curious as to how to game actually works, describe what the guy does when he kicks the ball through the posts? Why does he get points for that, what dictates when they get to kick that, I’ve always been curious?”

And the conversation had started, the guy explained to me what a field goal was, 40 yard passing, how formations worked, penalties, and an hour later “I finally said that I was impressed and thankful he helped me out with that, but I showed up because I wanted to grow his Business and teach his people how they could make more money and earn more repeat clients!”

I cited the example of rapport building we just had over football when I was demonstrating my services to him, that it was good to be genuine and before he knew it, he was signing the deal, and we were growing his firm!

Don’t be afraid to spend some time getting to know someone!

• It’s the most important step and the first sale you’re ever going to make and it’s going to ensure that you get repeat Business if you do it well.
• Be genuine in every encounter! Show that you are listening to what they have to say!
• You don’t have to be invested in the topic, but being interested enough to dig into it a little bit is important — most people aren’t unwilling to teach you what they know!
• Avoid weather like the plague! It’s a bullshit way to open up the Sales Process and it’s going to cost you a career or a company.
• Don’t be afraid to praise a question answered! Saying something like “That’s really cool!”, “I didn’t know it worked like that…”, “That’s actually fairly new to me, how does that work?”, and “Wow, I can’t believe that actually happened?” are all great ways to get this accomplished and keep the client talking!

Matthew Gourley is the CEO, Primary Sales Trainer, and long time Janiotr for SalesTrainInc. a company dedicated to teaching Business owners how to grow their Business and change Salespeople lives through training on Social Media Marketing and Sales Process Services!

He can be reached at matthew@salestraininc.com or you can call his office at 403–331–5229!