How To Build Rapport On A Sales Call
In this post, you’ll learn how to build rapport on a sales call with four easy steps.
A lot of sales reps overcomplicate rapport building.
They try to search for something in common with their prospect. They look up the weather in their zip code or read up on their local news—this is trying too hard.
You really only need one question.
A long list of rapport-building questions won’t do you any good because you’ll sound like you’re reading from a script and the conversation will feel disjointed and unnatural.
All you need is one really good question to get the prospect talking, and then from there it’s all about asking intelligent follow-up questions to keep the conversation flowing.
This method of building rapport isn’t cheesy, intrusive, or awkward (if done correctly).
You don’t have to be your prospect’s therapist, ask about their grandmother’s health, or chit-chat about the weather.
You just have to ask one simple question.
And then keep the conversation going from there.
And what makes this even easier is that you’re probably already asking this question on all your sales calls (or at least you should be). So step #1 is already part of your process.
It’s steps #2, #3, and #4 that really make this rapport-building strategy successful.
Here are four easy steps to build rapport with any sales prospect over the phone:
(Note: this rapport-building strategy is for prospects with whom you’ve already spoken or contacted in some way; it’s not appropriate for cold calls. Scroll down to the P.S. at the bottom to learn why.)
1. Ask the magic question.
Your biggest opportunity to build rapport is going to be right at the beginning of the call. And it starts with some variation of this magic question:
“How are you?”
There’s some debate on the exact wording of this question.
According to research from Gong, in which they analyzed a dataset of 90,380 first-interaction cold calls, this question correlated with the highest success rate of 10.0% (compared to the 1.5% baseline):
“How have you been?”
Here are the results from the other questions included in the research:
| Question | Success Rate |
| Baseline | 1.5% |
| Did I catch you at a bad time? | 0.9% |
| How are you? | 5.2% |
| How have you been? | 10.0% |
We’ve heard successful salespeople use all of the following variations of the magic question:
- How are you?
- How have you been?
- How’s your Friday going so far?
- How’s the week been going for you?
- How have things been going since we last talked?
- How has everything been going with [insert event]?
For example, if you were talking to an SMB business owner during the COVID-19 pandemic, you might ask,
“How have things been going for your business during the pandemic?”
The more specific, the better. If there was something that you talked about with your prospect previously, bring that up again.
The magic question can really be anything, as long as:
- It’s open-ended, i.e., can’t be responded to with a “yes” or “no” answer.
- Gets the prospect talking about something they’re interested in.
But don’t worry too much about the exact wording, because how you say it (tone) is actually way more important than the words you are saying.
Click here to read more from BITS on mastering your tone.
For now, just focus on sounding genuine. A trick to achieve this: actually care about the person you’re talking to. Talk to them like you would talk to your best friend. And then a sincere and genuine tone will happen naturally.
2. Actively listen and actually care.
This is the most important part. If you don’t get this part right, the rest doesn’t matter.
You have to actually listen.
Not half-asleep like you’re sitting through a history lecture in college.
Listen to the changes in their tone. Do they sound sad? They might be having a bad day. Are they talking fast? They might be busy. Do they sound annoyed? They might be frustrated by your phone call.
And you have to actually care.
Not like you’re already thinking about what you’re going to say next.
What if the prospect says they’re miserable? Or they’re having a bad day. You can’t just blow past something like that. Express empathy. “Oh I’m sorry to hear that, what’s going on?”
Not everybody will feel comfortable opening up, but some prospects will, and it might have something to do with the pain point your product is aiming to solve. But those responses will be few and far between.
Most responses will be something like, “Oh, my day’s been alright, just busy with this project.” To which you can respond, “Oh cool, is this the same project we talked about last time / in your email / on your website?”
Click here to read about what happens when you don’t listen to your prospect’s response.
3. Ask an intelligent follow-up question.
Asking follow-up questions is a skill in and of itself. It’s part of what separates junior reps that sound like they’re reading a script, from veterans that can make any conversation flow smoothly.
Your follow-up question should be intelligent, such that it “makes sense” in the context of the conversation and directly relates to whatever your prospect was talking about in response to your first question (which is possible only if you’ve done a good job of #2).
For example, if the prospect’s response to your first question is about how they’re busy working on a project, then your follow-up question should be about that project.
The question should also be open-ended, i.e., “yes” and “no” aren’t possible answers. This makes it so that the prospect has to say more than one word to sufficiently respond to your question.
4. Keep the conversation going.
At this point, you can repeat #2 and #3 to keep the conversation going, and it should start to feel natural.
Remember, there is a reason for your call, and it’s not just to build rapport, so at some point you’ll need to get down to business.
Usually rapport building should last anywhere from 1-3 minutes.
Here’s an example of how it might sound on the phone:
For example, let’s imagine you’re calling a prospect for a pre-scheduled appointment to pitch them your product.
Salesperson:
“Hey Karen, this is Cole from ABC company. How are you doing today?”
Prospect:
“I’m alright, we’ve just been so busy.”
Now, here is the golden opportunity to build rapport by asking a follow-up question with a caring tone. Let’s look at the wrong way to respond and the right way to respond.
‘I don’t care’ salesperson:
“That’s great to hear, so like I mentioned last week today we’ll be going over …”
If you respond like the ‘I don’t care’ salesperson, you’ve already missed a huge opportunity to build rapport. Instead, respond like this …
Rapport-building salesperson:
“Oh, busy in a good way or busy in a bad way?”
Prospect:
“Well, I guess it’s good, but it’s getting really hard to keep up with our growing clientele and we’re not making much money from these projects.”
Rapport-building salesperson:
“Wow, that sounds tough, how are you feeling about that?”
Not always, but sometimes, you can qualify during rapport building.
Your main goal is to build rapport, but you’re also gaining valuable qualifying information.
For example, if you’re trying to sell an advertising product, and Karen is already saying they have too much business and low margins, that’s a red flag.
On the other hand, if you’re selling a POS system that increases Karen’s margins and helps her business handle more volume, then this is a green light.
But, we digress. This post is about rapport building, not qualifying.
Click here to read more from BITS on qualifying.
Use this “point of rapport” consistently throughout the rest of the sales encounter.
Now, you’ve established a “point of rapport” with Karen to which you can continue to return throughout the rest of the sales encounter.
For example, when you’re ending the phone call you can say,
“Good luck with all those projects!”
Or, if you have to make a follow-up call, you can start that call by asking,
“Still crazy busy over there?”
P.S. Don’t use this rapport-building strategy for cold calls.
If you’re cold calling a prospect that you’ve never talked to before, this strategy probably won’t work.
Think about it from the prospect’s perspective: you receive a phone call from a stranger that wants to talk about how you’re feeling before they’ve told you why they’re calling.
Sounds a bit awkward, doesn’t it? You would probably hang up on that salesperson too.
According to legendary sales coach John Barrows, “There are two things everyone is trying to figure out every time they pick up a call. The first is whether or not they know the person. The second is why they are calling.”
JB says his personal favorite introduction is:
“The reason for my call is … ”
“Because if you cannot finish that sentence then you should not be making the phone call.”
Click here to read more from John Barrows on this topic.
Click here to read more from BITS on the best opening lines for a cold call.
On the other hand, if you proceed directly to the reason for your call, i.e., straight to “business,” then you miss a valuable opportunity to strengthen your personal relationship with the prospect.
So, for true cold calls (the first time you’ve ever talked to the prospect), it’s usually best to take JB’s advice and get straight to the point.
But for any of the following situations where there’s previous context for your phone call, you’re good-to-go with asking the magic question and using the rapport-building strategy outlined above:
- You scheduled the phone call over email.
- Your SDR set up the call for you.
- You’ve talked with this prospect on the phone before.
- There’s any other previous context for the call.
In these situations, you should definitely be building rapport to further strengthen the relationship that you’ve already started.
P.P.S. Think twice before using this strategy with high-ranking executives.
Most human beings are willing to talk about how they’re doing or how their day is going for at least 2-3 minutes, but you may encounter a straight-to-business C-suite executive who wants nothing more than to get to the point of the phone call as quickly as possible.
In a case like this, the best way to build rapport might be to give the executive what they want and get to the point.
This could be true for non-executives as well. It’s all about reading your prospect. If they’re shutting down your attempts at building rapport, they might just want to talk business.
Summary
- Ask the magic question.
- Actively listen and actually care.
- Ask an intelligent follow-up question.
- Keep the conversation going.
Prospects buy from salespeople that they like. Rapport building is key to getting your prospect to like you.
At the beginning of the call, have an honest and genuine conversation about something other than the product or service you are trying to sell.
At the end of the call, closing the deal will be a lot easier.