Building Rapport is a key component of the Sales process. It is the art of being able to enter a prospect's zone without he or she feeling uncomfortable with you inside it.
Remember how it works?
'Similar' leads to 'Like', which leads to 'Trust' which then leads to 'Business'.
The easiest way to do this is to Assimilate.
But this doesn't mean that you should pretend to be someone/ something you're not. To do so would be to manipulate as well as misrepresent; neither of which is good for you, the prospect, or business in the long run.
Remember, just as your business, or the company you work for is a Going Concern, once your prospect becomes a client, he or she is also a Going Concern. In other words it's an Ongoing Relationship. If the relationship is built on heavy drinking then the prospect / client will expect the boozing to continue.
Therefore if your prospect likes to do business over several drinks at the bar and you don't drink, ask yourself this simple question;
"Is it sustainable?"
If you know it's not sustainable for you to merrily drink lots of alcohol with a prospect because you usually don't drink, then don't do it.
Misrepresenting to Manipulate will give you a temporary win at best. But it never yields sustainable dividends.
If a prospect asks you to join him / her for a drink and you don't drink, then by all means meet up, but politely decline the alcohol and ask for something soft.
Always be true to both yourself and your prospect / client.
Relationship doesn't make sense of family relationships all the time but sometimes we need to maintain a good relation at our workplace too. To sustain for a long time in a job you need to make a good bonding with the colleagues and with the boss too. In the same way for a successful business, a good relationship needs to maintain with the clients. I like your blog Akande Segun. Professionals must maintain the same. Performance Coach
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