Five Tips for Building Rapport   I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ― Maya Angelou When dealing with people — customers, prospects, colleagues, friends, family — it’s important to think about them not as creatures of logic, but as creatures of emotion. We are all human beings, and we engage our whole selves in conversations and relationships. Some people call this IQ and EQ, left brain/right brain, and even new brain/old brain. The point is:  People are complex beings who often draw on emotions more than logic, knowledge, or intellect when making connections with others. There’s a dynamic — changing energy or chemistry that passes between people. This is the basis of building rapport. How can you be sure building rapport is positive ? Try these five tips: Be Positive: When engaging with another person, your attitude affects the kind of rapport that you build. Are you smiling? Is your body posture open? Do you exude confidence and enthusiasm? It’s not about being someone you’re not or looking like an excited cheerleader. It’s about showing genuine interest and being authentic in who you are. Be Present: Be mindful of the person you’re trying to build rapport with. Listen carefully to what he/she is saying. Try to understand his/her world and focus of attention. Notice body language and how he/she does and says things. Be an Active Listener: More than hearing words, active listening involves noticing tone of voice, how the person is feeling, and what he/she is not saying. It could mean synthesizing what the person told you into a larger context so that you can share experiences. Be curious about the other person and the words and sentence constructions he/she uses. And, listen without judgment. All of these aspects help to leverage empathy, which comes across in multiple ways: tone of voice, eye contact, word usage, questions asked, and the sincerity that you project. Be Looking for the "Yes": It’s easy to connect with some people. Whether it’s their personal style of communication or something else, they just resonate with you. You "get" each other. And, there are others in which you have no immediate connection with whatsoever. Instead of jumping to conclusions and making assumptions about this person, look for a positive aspect — a "yes" — that you can relate to. Be Aware of Purpose: In the world of sales, we are constantly seeking to help someone solve a particular problem. Approaching with the mindset of, "What can I do to help this person?" helps in establishing rapport. More than just going for the sale, you’re focused on helping another individual. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Five Tips for Building Rapport appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Building Rapport with WIIFO, not WIIFM Salespeople can spend a lot of time on the road, traveling to meetings or client presentations. Thoughts naturally wander to internal dialogue: "How am I going to meet my goals?" or, "What’s in it for me?" — known as the shorthand, WIIFM. When you get stuck in WIIFM, you’re not as "other" oriented as you should be. Building rapport is much easier and successful when you focus on what’s in it for others (WIIFO). In conversation, focusing too much on your own thoughts and what you’ll say next stands in the way of personal connection and rapport. It is better to come to the discussion well versed on the area that you’re addressing and then to have that conversation with a nonjudgmental, open mind. Consider the Buddhist parable of the empty cup. You can come into a conversation so full of information that nothing more gets in, just as pouring tea into an already full cup causes it to spill over. But, if you are ready to listen, becoming an "empty cup," you can receive more than you came with. Building rapport happens when there’s real openness about what is actually going on in the moment between you and the other person. You’re not talking to an organization, but an individual — a person, a human being — who is largely an emotional being. So, if you’re not connecting at an emotional level, which is beyond the realm of words and thoughts, you might be too focused on yourself. Empathy and compassion are important in building rapport in today’s fast-paced world. People can feel when you’re being authentic and trying to connect with them. Instead of focusing just on your own agenda, think about the other person’s agenda. You have to be self-aware and then be "other" aware. At Richardson, we teach rapport as a blend of art and science. You can see the energy flowing when participants practice skills like body language, especially when modeling "matching" behavior. If this sounds too touchy-feeling to you, think about neuro-linguistic programming, a field that involves the connection of thought processes, language, and behaviors. On a more basic level, rapport is an awareness of the other person’s communication style and then being sensitive to it. If someone is a fast or slow talker, match his/her speed. Otherwise, you could either overwhelm the person or cause him/her to tune out. When you smile, be sincere — use your mouth and your eyes to express yourself. The passion of your speech and spirit of your conviction make your intent visible to the other person. As with any aspect of the sales dialogue, being skilled at building rapport takes forethought and practice. The goal is to create a connection and build on it in a way that is concise and genuine. This can happen in the first two to ten minutes or more, depending on the client, the situation, and the culture. Regardless of how much time it takes, it’s worth it to make the effort to differentiate yourself and create a personal connection. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Building Rapport with WIIFO, not WIIFM appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Building Rapport with Six Critical Skills Some people are extroverts; others are introverts. Some people have expressive communications styles; others get their points across quietly but with authority. There is no right way to be. The only right thing is to appreciate the other person and make an effort to building rapport. In my last two blog posts,  I discussed the importance of building rapport in the articles, Five Tips for Building Rapport and Building Rapport with WIIFO, not WIIFM. To be honest, building rapport is one of those concepts that often can’t be explained, but you know it when you see it. You hit it off with someone or get along well. Rapport is about building understanding and harmony with another person in a way that supports easier and more effective communication. At Richardson, we often talk of the Six Critical Skills for consultative selling. They also are useful skills for rapport building, which is essential in differentiating yourself in a sales situations and establishing a personal connection. Presence: Ability to project confidence, conviction, and interest in body language and voice Relating: Ability to use acknowledgment, rapport, and empathy to connect Questioning: Ability to explore needs and create dialogue Listening: Ability to understand content and emotional message Positioning: Ability to leverage client needs to be persuasive Checking: Ability to elicit feedback The first two skills — Presence and Relating — come into play immediately upon contact. This is the "breaking-the-ice" stage, where showing empathy and reducing tension is key. The next two — Questioning and Listening — are layered on top when you begin a dialogue. Nonverbal communication plays a key role here, building a connection subconsciously through body language, eye contact, facial expressions, and tone of voice. The last two — Positioning and Checking — reinforce your approach and strengthen rapport. These involve asking open-ended questions, summarizing what you’ve heard, and building on the ideas presented. The point is:  You’re building rapport with a person, not an organization. You’re interacting with a human being who is likely more emotional than logical. EQ, or emotional quotient, is more important than IQ in establishing rapport. Sometimes, acting as if you already have a good rapport is a good starting strategy. Talking as if the other person were a close friend with mutual trust sends subconscious signals to the other person to view you in the same way. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Building Rapport with Six Critical Skills appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Training Industry Executive to Lead Richardson; John D. Elsey Named New CEO Philadelphia, PA — June 1, 2015 — Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement firm, today announced the hiring of John D. Elsey as president and chief executive officer. Effective June 1, 2015, Elsey will replace Interim CEO Carter Brown, who remains a director of the Richardson Board. For the past 15 years, Elsey held C-suite positions with commercial training and education companies formerly owned by Informa Performance Improvement, most recently as president and CEO for ESI International — a global leader in strategy execution training solutions — and concurrently as president for the portfolio of four other training businesses within the group holding. "John is a training industry veteran with a strong, global perspective and success in driving results. He is a proven leader who focuses on both top-line growth and bottom-line profitability, with international expansion a key element in his strategic thinking," Brown said. "John brings great value to Richardson with his demonstrated ability to work with C-suite customers of large, sophisticated organizations. He understands the subtleties of a conceptual sale and the operational, quality, and financial metrics of an exceptional business service organization." In leading ESI International, Elsey substantially grew revenues and margins while spearheading the growth and integration of the Americas, EMEA, and APAC businesses. He also established product development priorities and the go-to-market and brand strategy. "I look forward to working with the global Richardson team to take this industry leader in sales training and performance improvement to the next level," Elsey said. "I believe leaders have the most impact when they inspire individuals and groups to perform at levels superior to those they would achieve on their own. My role is to create an environment for smart people to excel, empowering them to be self-sufficient while providing underlying support, as needed." Learn more: If you would like to learn more, or set up an interview with John, please contact Jim Brodo directly at jim.brodo@richardson.com About Richardson Richardson helps leaders prepare their organizations to execute sales strategies and achieve business objectives. Richardson has the expertise and resources to help clients scale their initiatives quickly and confidently across their entire salesforce and supporting functions. Working together, Richardson helps clients to identify sales best practices, evaluate talent, build capability and consistency through world-class sales training, and sustain necessary change. Richardson ensures that each customized solution reflects the unique culture and values of its clients, driving rapid adoption and lasting results. The post Richardson Welcomes John D. Elsey as New President and CEO appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Are You Caught in a Negotiating Trap? Here’s a common scenario: You’ve just presented your truly tailored, well researched, totally relevant proposal. The customer, who had been nodding in agreement all along, now has a strange look on her face. The change happened the minute you mentioned price. She says your price is too high. It’s your move. What do you do? If you start negotiating on price, trying to find a figure that she’ll accept without hurting your business, you’ve just landed in a negotiation trap. The trap is in starting to negotiate too early, before justifying your value. This is how a lot of money is lost, either by discounting too early or by leaving money on the table. Getting pushback on price is a common occurrence for sales professionals. That’s why it’s important to recognize the negotiation trap and learn how to avoid it. First, don’t start off trying to resolve any immediate price objections; focus instead on justifying the value of your proposal. Consider the objection as an opportunity to learn more about the customer’s situation. Where does the objection come from? Is the customer at the end of a budget cycle? Would splitting payment over two cycles be workable? Or, would changing delivery options add value? The point is, you need to understand what the customer is trying to accomplish so that you can determine which terms are most important. This can be more than what customers ask for at first blush, so make sure to take the time to question further. If you immediately head into a price negotiation, you’ve limited your options to price reductions. Once you’ve justified your value and have a better understanding of the customer’s concerns, you can begin to trade terms. Just be sure that before you do, you’ve prioritized your trading points and know their value — to you and to the customer. The best kind of trade in a negotiation is to give up something that doesn’t cost much to you but is incredibly valuable to the customer. It could be something as simple as a shorter turnaround time that you have the resources to accommodate. But, if you don’t have the resources to deliver on a shorter timeline, your trade could become an expensive accommodation. I often tell a personal story from when I was in the paper business. One of my sales professionals negotiated a price increase with a major customer. He was quite pleased with himself, as higher pricing is hard to achieve in a commodity business. When I asked how he did it, he said he only had to agree to deliver the paper on half-pallets instead of full pallets. What he didn’t know was his deal meant only half of the paper could be delivered on a truck at a time, which meant twice as many delivery trips. His great pricing deal actually ended up costing the paper company money. Too many people are enamored with the concept of negotiations but very few actually are engaged in them. Instead, what most end up doing is trying to resolve price objections and, in the end, trading away value instead of justifying it. —————————————- LEARN MORE! Click on the following link, or on the image below, to learn more about Richardson’s award winning negotiating training solutions The post Are You Caught in a Negotiating Trap? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Better Sales Negotiations Go Step by Step Sales negotiations don’t have to be stressful, contentious affairs. Yes, there’s a lot riding on the outcome of a sales negotiation. Just think of it as one more chance to uncover opportunities to provide value to the customer. The secret to successful sales negotiation is all based on knowing what the customer is trying to accomplish, converting demands into needs, and then demonstrating and justifying your value. Richardson teaches the following sales negotiation framework to help sales professionals to structure their dialogue with customers: Preparation for the Negotiation — It all begins by planning the strategy and tactics, including bottom-line terms, to achieve the maximum outcome that meets the needs of both parties. Opening the Negotiation — The sales professional should set the stage and lay out terms at the outset. Counter-opening — This step draws out the customer’s opening terms and demands in order to maintain control and avoid negotiating elements in a piece-meal fashion. Converting Demands to Needs — The customer’s real requirements may not surface without probing more deeply to convert demands to needs and gaining insight into their true agenda. Value Justification and Concessions — At this point, sales professionals need to protect essential terms by trading expendables, positioning value to persuade the customer that it is worthwhile to make concessions, and trading concessions to achieve essentials. Closing the Negotiation — The last step is to maintain the momentum of a win-win negotiation, solidifying what has been accomplished, and allowing for a successful implementation. By honing negotiation skills, sales professionals can build more profitable customer relationships, learning to handle price resistance and objections more effectively. These steps can help to make sure that no money is left on the table or, conversely, that no undue discounting occurs. The sales negotiation process itself can be a positive experience that inspires greater trust and customer loyalty, while strengthening the sales professional’s position to win future opportunities. —————————————- LEARN MORE! Click on the following link, or on the image below, to learn more about Richardson’s award winning negotiating training solutions The post Better Sales Negotiations Go Step by Step appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Open-ended Sales Questions Allow Sales Professionals to Learn More than Just the Obvious When you ask yes-or-no questions during sales calls, you get yes-or-no answers, which either confirm or deny whatever you had posited. When you become more strategic about asking questions, you can often discover important, underlying, and previously unknown issues that matter to the success of prospects and clients. There’s a skill to asking the right questions at the right time. At Richardson, we include Questioning as one of our Six Critical Skills for sales, and we define it as the ability to explore needs and create dialogue. Open-ended questions allow sales professionals to learn more than just the obvious, observable things. As a result, sales professionals are better able to be more consultative and position the best products and services to meet client needs, while demonstrating understanding and caring in helping clients achieve their goals and objectives. These five tips will help you get beyond the usual questioning strategy to discover what’s really on the minds of your clients: It’s OK to leave your agenda behind. In fact, we encourage it. Going into meetings without preconceived ideas frees you to focus on what is important to clients. You can more easily step into their world, identify their needs and objectives, understand their worries and challenges, and align your offerings with their strategies. Don’t focus most of your sales dialogue on open-ended questions related to your product or service. Yes, these are the questions that get you paid: they are your bread and butter, your comfort zone, your go-to questions that help you sell. While these questions are open-ended and elicit important information, they limit the scope of your client knowledge. If you are going to ask targeted or focused open-ended questions, make sure that you truly listen to the answer, so you can probe further. There’s no point asking great questions if you don’t actively listen to the answer. It’s human nature to think about your next question or how you can sell your product while the client is talking, but it’s not helpful. The mind likes to chatter; it’s up to you to stay in the moment with the client and hear what is being said. Don’t discount information that might not be relevant to your particular sale or conversation. Use a variety of questions to add some flavor to your dialogue and engage your client. You might ask about short-term objectives, key needs, the current situation, the level of satisfaction with current business practices, their long-term strategy, their view of you and your company compared to the competition, budget, decision-making process — the list goes on and on. This kind of questioning strategy can change the client’s perception of you, elevating you from just being a vendor to a partner or advisor. You gain greater credibility by being able to speak their language and can move the conversation from a transactional dialogue to a consultative one. Avoid sounding like a prosecuting attorney. Even though you are asking open-ended questions, make sure that you leverage your preparation, acknowledge responses in between questions, and use prefacing statements that let the client know why you are asking something. For example, you might say: "Earlier, you mentioned an interest to do X. How are you planning to go about it?" Then, you can leverage your knowledge and personalize your open-ended question, helping to ensure that the exchange is more of a conversation than an interrogation. The value in asking open-ended questions is that you don’t just explore the tip of the iceberg — the obvious issues and information. You get to dive beneath the waterline to discover those larger, foundational issues that haven’t yet made it to the surface. And, you may learn a few things that the competition doesn’t know, while helping the client in ways they hadn’t yet realized they needed. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post 5 Tips on Asking Open-ended Sales Questions appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.

Probing questions are at the heart of an effective, consultative selling approach Being able to win opportunities is what separates a great sales professional from a good one — those who excel, understand the structure of sales meetings, and stay in control. Great sales professionals know where they are going with their questioning strategy and what they want to accomplish at every point in the dialogue. They hone their focus on probing, learning, and fully comprehending the client’s needs before ever talking about their own product. In my last blog post, I focused on tips that will help with open-ended questions, today, I will look at probing questions. Probing questions are at the heart of an effective, consultative selling approach — one that is all about the client, not how much the sales professional knows or the great products to be offered. "People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care" ― Theodore Roosevelt At the start of a client relationship, you should show interest in the other person’s world, which may include work and family responsibilities, hobbies, sports, or career development. Let the client take the lead, and then use probing questions to explore what the client has just said and to demonstrate your level of interest and caring. Probing questions are a great way to demonstrate to your clients that you are listening and picking up on key "neon words" — those that can be easily overlooked but greatly affect meaning — to ask for clarification and additional information. Active listening and pacing are key when asking good probing questions. You should be conscious of the pauses and even silence between questions. If you ask a great open-ended probing question and get only silence, be comfortable with the silence. Don’t jump in with another question or repeat the same question (what I call "parrot phrasing") or answer the question for the client. Show confidence by giving him/her time to think and formulate a response. Another way to describe probing questions is drill-down questions.  Sometimes, too much probing can be counterproductive. It’s helpful to go by the rule of threes: drill down or probe at least three times for every vague word or statement. Too little probing will diminish your chances of uncovering the different levels of the client’s needs. Too much probing will feel like you are in a cat-and-mouse chase, with the conversation going in circles. If you don’t know where to probe, and the client doesn’t give you clues, use trading to open up new avenues. Trading is the process of giving information to get information. By exchanging information, you can help clients think, often triggering ideas they might not have considered. An example of trading is the following: "We are seeing a big change in the industry with X becoming a much bigger part of the mix. How has this affected your operations?" A sales professional skilled in using probing questions can more easily build rapport that encourages clients to openly and honestly share information about their needs, decision criteria, pricing, competitors, and other information critical to winning business. With this questioning strategy in your wheelhouse, you will be better able to uncover client needs and then position your product or service in a strategic, client-focused way that wins sales opportunities. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post How to Ask Probing Questions during Sales Meetings appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.

What are Some of the Best Open-ended Questions for Winning Sales? There is no magic wand to reveal the five best open-ended questions to ask for all sales situations. That’s the bad news. The good news is, there are several ingredients that will make asking five great questions easier. Here is the recipe for success: Remember the old joke, "Where does an 800-lb. gorilla sit? Anywhere it wants to." Don’t be that gorilla, starting the questioning dialogue with the questions YOU want answered. Start the sales dialogue by asking about the client’s short-term objectives and needs. This approach allows clients to take the conversation where they want, so they can share what is top-of-mind for them, what keeps them up at night, and what is most important to them in the near future. Even though you control the conversation by the questions that you ask, let the clients control which areas they want to direct the conversation. Here are some sample questions to consider and adapt, as appropriate: "In speaking with your senior account manager, he mentioned three key drivers: X, Y, and Z. What specifically are your key objectives related to these drivers?" (This question leverages your preparation so that the question doesn’t feel too basic or unprepared.) "What are you trying to accomplish in the next six months?" "What is most important to you in your business right now?" "What has prompted the shift in strategy from X to Y?"  Ask a variety of questions to get all of the key areas on the table. It is easy to start asking questions to explore the areas that YOU want to focus on, which typically involve your product, service, or ways to move the sales cycle forward. It is a little harder but better in the long run to forget about your objectives for the call and the questions that go with it. Here are some areas that usually get neglected in a sales conversation: Personal needs: "What is at stake for you?" "What do you look for in a partner?" Future needs: "What are your expansion plans for the next two years?" "What are your long-term strategies?" Implementation needs: "What is the decision-making process in your organization?" "What have you allocated for this project?" Even though you will be letting the client take the lead on conversational topics, you still need to plan specific questions during your pre-call preparation. You should be able to plan half of the questions necessary ahead of time, so take advantage of this prep. For the other half, allow some flexibility for questions that come up during the conversation and during your follow-up probing questions. Don’t become fixated on the questions that you planned. The best conversations are ones in which you follow the client’s lead. The type of questions that you ask will determine how the client perceives you: as a vendor or as a partner. The more generic your questions, the more generic the sale. You also lose the opportunity to use the client’s own words to position solutions or uncover additional opportunities. The most important, open-ended question in this blog post is, "What is your questioning strategy for winning sales?" Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Some of the Best Open-ended Questions for Winning Sales appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.

3 Barriers to Better Client Dialogues When it comes to effective selling practices, there’s often a difference between what’s commonly known and what’s commonly practiced. We know people make buying decisions based on a combination of emotion, logic, credibility, and both business and personal needs and wants. We know that client dialogues are crucial for uncovering needs, exploring solutions, establishing next steps, and building relationships. And yet, too many sales professionals falter in the interpersonal skills needed for open, effective, engaging client dialogues. Here are three barriers to look for so that you can adapt your approach. Different communication styles You might be an extrovert, and your client an introvert. Financial folks want numbers; technology groups understand systems and software; HR departments focus on the people element. How do you communicate with these different styles and information needs? The answer is to match your client’s demeanor, while still being yourself. You have to remain authentic to who you are and accommodate your client’s way of approaching business. With technology groups, your presentation should be succinct, based on solid data, with some charts and graphics to convey your message. For financial folks, the focus should be numbers and the economic benefit of pursuing your recommendation. In conversations with HR departments, you might focus on how your solution will make employees more productive. Beyond just considering job function, you should also try to pick up on what motivates your clients. Are they looking for recognition? Do they lean on you for insights? Are relationships important, or do they only want their product or service? Through the years, I’ve learned that people approach business very differently, and if you can match the way they approach the business and their decision-making process, you can eliminate those barriers. Reserved and secretive clients Some clients like to play things close to the vest. They won’t open up, and they won’t let you into their world. In this situation, it can take a lot longer to build the trust needed to have an honest conversation. Still, it’s well worth trying. It may take many conversations before they drop their guard to discuss their strategy or what’s important to them. But, when they do, you will typically get a treasure trove of insight into those people and what drives them. Truthiness Truthiness, a word coined by comedian and TV host Stephen Colbert, is similar to the truth, but it is not completely accurate or valid. It is the perfect word to define what some clients will tell you: "I am the decision maker." "I hold the budget." "I have responsibility for this area." Because these assertions are not always 100% true, you need to assess what you’re told and look for ways to verify facts. Finding the truth can be challenging, and you need to be careful about how you approach this so as not to alienate your client. Breaking down barriers can take time, as you try to whittle away clients’ protectiveness of their turf, themselves, or maybe their image. Knowing where people have been in life — education, work history, where they have lived — plays into who they are today and how sales professionals might best approach them. Sometimes, you can break down barriers with clients just by recognizing and commenting on things they’ve achieved, awards received, and progress made in their lives or their careers. I always say: this isn’t rocket science, but not all sales professionals recognize dialogue skills to be as fundamental as they are — or as transformative as they can be. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post 3 Barriers to Better Client Dialogues appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.