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| | The !..:Bazaar Fundas:...! Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Building Rapport in Retail | Views: 695 | | Mar 18, 2007 9:50 pm | | Building Rapport in Retail | # | 
Tribal Route | |
Building Rapport in Retail
March 12th, 2007 @ 7:26 am
It’s a truism that people prefer to buy from people they like. That’s why sales pros who are good rapport builders tend outsell those who are more reserved. In Business-to-Business (B2B) sales, you generally have at least the entire sales call (and maybe multiple calls) to build rapport.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sales are more challenging. When a prospect walks into a store, you know next to nothing about that prospect, you don’t know if you have anything in common, and you certainly can’t comment on what you do know about, which is the customer’s appearance. Because of this, many B2C sales pros try to skip the rapport building, resulting in a conversation like this:
INEFFECTIVE:
Sales Pro: (Sees prospect looking at big ticket item): “Hello! So, what is it going to take get you into this car today!?”
Prospect: “Uh… Where’s the nearest exit?”
In some retail organizations, the sales staff is coached to build rapport by trying to be helpful to the customer. This usually results in a conversation like this:
INEFFECTIVE:
Sales Pro: “May I help you?”
Prospect: “Uh… I’m just looking.”
Sales Pro: “OK. Call me if you need me.”
While the “may I help you” routine is supposed to build rapport, in practice it’s usually a way of brushing off the customer while still giving the appearance of selling. That’s why it’s so popular inside retail establishments that don’t pay commissions.
How, then, do you build rapport quickly? I asked Earl Taylor, a thirty year employee at Dale Carnegie & Associates. Here’s what he told me:
“Whenever you meet a prospect, visualize that person as an honored guest in your home. When you welcome guests into your home, you’re honestly happy to see them and want to make them feel welcome and at ease. The specific words you say are different, of course, but the motivation and attitude should be that you are truly grateful for the opportunity to interact with this individual and have the opportunity to be of service.”
In a retail sales environment with a walk-in prospect, Taylor recommends using the one rapport-building topic that is both business-related and which is guaranteed to be of at least passing interest to the prospect: why the prospect came into your establishment.
EFFECTIVE:
Sales Pro: (walking over slowly; no pouncing) “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
Prospect: “I guess so…”
Sales Pro: (with real curiosity): “Why, out of all the stores in this city, did you decide to come into this one?”
Prospect: (After thinking for a second). “My wife is shopping next door and I notice that you have wide screen TVs and I’ve always wanted one of those.”
Unlike the "may I help you" opening, the "why did you come here" question gets the prospect involved in a real conversation where the sales pro can assess the prospect’s interest and readiness to buy. In most cases it will also begin to reveal other things about the prospect (like the shopping wife) that can be handles for further rapport building.
By Geoffrey James
http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=20
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