top tip to successful selling relate to

Engaging in small talk is the easiest way to start relating with your customers. Examples of small talk are as simple as discussing the football, to fishing or an activity that your customer is passionate about. Get the customer talking with you and employ the skills of active listening.I liken this skill as corralling, similar to how a sheep dog can corral a mob of sheep with out upsetting them.A skilled Professional sales person can direct the customer's conversation to meet the objective with the customer moving along without objection and in fact wanting to do so. This takes a lot of skill.The skill of relating is a difficult skill to master as it is a 'feel how' skill, and includes rpport, acknowledgement, and empathy. Many sales people when asked about why they went into sales say it is because they like people. As important as this may be it is only part of relating to your customer. Rapport is the "like people" part and the chatting bit of relating. This can limit a sales persons ability to only that part of relating: the "rapport".These sales persons do not reap the benefits of using acknowledgement and empathy in their dialogue. A great example of this was in a recent training exercise that I conducted for a Real Estate office. During this training the sales group was confronted by an angry customer who said "You people speak in a jargon and promise things that you never deliver, how do you expect me to understand let alone believe what you are telling me".The sales persons were asked to respond to this customer with empathy. The sales people had problems responding with empathy and instead their responses were defensive, such as 'what part of what I said didn't you understand?' This type of a non empathy response creates more dissension.Finally after many tries the sales persons started to get the idea and finally arrived at "I am so sorry I did not mean to upset you and certainly did not mean to confuse you by using jargon, I am so glad you have brought it to my attention, now what specifically....?Acknowledgement and empathy are very powerful skills that need continual sharpening as they are the quickest to dull. While questions can be empathetic in tone, they can never replace empathy or acknowledgement. An example of this is when a customer tells you about a problem. A good sales person may ask," How did you handle that?". A superb sales person on the other hand would introduce the question with empathy conveying concern and more importantly, encourage a more complete response, for example," I am sorry to hear that" followed by the question.Empathy and acknowledgement are important in an active dialogue. Empathy, however goes beyond acknowledgement in showing concern for the customer and when used correctly can create a personal bond. Some salespeople find it difficult to express empathy. Some may feel empathy, but are uncomfortable communicating it and others go overboard and make the customer feel uncomfortable. Empathy is a fine balancing act.Verbally expressing concern and caring can help reduce customer defenses and when used by superb sales persons will eliminate customer defenses and make you very persuasive.WARNING: EMPATHY NEEDS TO BE GENUINE.Phony empathy is easily picked up by today's astute customers.Use these sharpeners:Acknowledge: Verbally acknowledge what your customer has said
Empathize: Be genuine when your customer is upset, excited or emotional
Rapport: Plan and rehearse how you will build rapport, practice on your friends and colleagues, this is the first step in building a relationship.

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