It’s a well-established fact that people would prefer to do business with their friends. It should be no surprise to you that part of our sales training is building rapport and making friends.
Learning to weave your needs assessment into your rapport building is a great skill that we teach in our Master Classes, Modules, and in-dealership training.
The best skill a salesperson can have is rapport building. Besides earning you a genuine friend, It makes closing significantly less confrontational.
Generally speaking, you can break down rapport-building questions into four categories.
Family
Occupation
Recreation
Dogs (Pets)
F.O.R.D
Here are a few questions you can keep in your notebook to help you in a pinch.
Family
We all have families, you shouldn’t find it difficult to relate to anything about their family
- How long have you lived in ______?
- What is the best thing about living in _____?
- How do you like living in _____?
- Do you have a big family?
- Do you have relatives in the area?
- Do the kids play any sports?
- How old are the kids?
- Where do your kids go to school?
- Are your kids making college plans?
Occupation
You either know someone who works with your customer or you want to hear about what they do
- What do you do for a living?
- How long have you worked there?
- Do you enjoy what you do?
- What got you into that line of work?
- What does your company do?
- How long of a commute do you have?
- Do you travel much for work?
- Is that a 9 – 5 job?
- Is there room for advancment in your line of work?
- Is there any thought of your kids following in your footsteps?
Recreation
You’ve either vacationed where they’ve gone or you want to hear about it.
- Are you a sports fan?
- Do you get to take many vacations?
- How are you going to spend the rest of your weekend?
- Do you do any fishing?
- Do you do any hunting?
- What do you do for fun?
- Do you go out to eat much?
- What is your favorite restaurant?
- Are you heading out of town for the long weekend?
- What do you to unwind?
Dogs (Pets)
You either have a pet or are interested in hearing about theirs.
- Any pets?
- Have you had any luck training Rex?
- How long have you had Schmoopie?
- What breed is Dogzilla?
- What is that breed known for?
- Where is Mr. Bark Bark now?
- Did you get Mrs. Meow Meow from a breeder?
Building Rapport Is Finding Common Ground
You have something in common with every single person you meet. After you’ve got the ball rolling and your customer is opening up about themselves, their family, occupation, recreation, and pets, you will discover that there are likely many things you can talk about.
How to use rapport to help sell a car
Rapport building alone is pretty useless if it doesn’t help you move your customer closer to a car sale. The goal of every single thing you do with your customer is to move them forward in the sales process.
Don’t spend so much time building rapport that you forget to sell the car.
In our on-demand Master Classes, modules, and in-dealership training we teach how to seamlessly weave needs assessment and rapport building together to keep the sale moving forward to the finish line.
Making friends is great. Making a friend who buys a car from you is even better.
