Did you know that 7% of communication is words? Yes, only 7%, yet we try and do most of our selling through words a logic argument.
People like to buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you can build rapport with someone, they are a much better chance of buying from you.
Memberships are all about relationships.
If someone walks into your gym and they are in the market to buy, often they will make their decision on the "feel" of the place.
The "feel" of a gym often comes down to the people in it. Do people feel a connection with your staff?
A great sales technique for improving rapport is a technique called matching and mirroring.
This can be done for both voice tonality and body language.
I had used this technique often when I used to call on cold leads for our software services.
Someone would answer the phone with a fast-paced and deep tone, and I would match the pace and tone of their voice. This generally led to a much better level of rapport, and I had a better outcome from the call.
In a sales environment, some people default to what I call the salesperson tonality. This makes cringe as it sounds fake.
I guess you could argue that mirroring someone's tone and pace of voice is not authentic either, however, if you intend to help the person and only sell them something that you genuinely believe is a good fit for their needs and situation then doing what you can to build rapport is reasonable.
You will find that most people that are naturally good at connecting with others do this subconsciously. You will find if you do this consciously, after a while, it will become subconscious. After doing this for many years, I often pick up on myself talking at the same pace and similar tone to someone without out consciously thinking about it.
Some salespeople make the mistake of trying to mirror a person exactly. This will come off as unnatural. A good place to start is the speed and pitch. If someone is a fast talker, then talk a little faster than you normally do. If someone is loud and has a deep voice, raise your voice a little when you talk. Doing some role-play exercises can help team members quickly develop this skill, so consider building this into your team training.
Being able to generate rapport is such a vital skill for gym staff to have, not just from a sales perspective but also for general interactions with members.
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