How To Build Instant Rapport Without Talking About The Weather?

It is easier to sell to people who trust you. You can indeed make clients trust your brand, and Sam Wakefield shares how he builds instant rapport with his HVAC clients. He talks about how to create instant rapport without talking about the weather, golf, the dog, or the car in the driveway. Believe it or not, you can establish instant rapport without unnecessary conversation because everyone knows why you’re there. Get to know some strategies for building that connection from nonverbal communication to matching energies in this great episode.

We’re going to be talking about how to create instant rapport without talking about golf or the dog or the car in the driveway. The instant rapport without unnecessary conversation because everyone knows why you’re there. They know that you’re not going to be their friend, but why would you talk about stuff on and on and endless banter about the pictures on the wall and all those kinds of things. It’s important to ask them what they’re into and to talk about that stuff briefly maybe. Did you know that there’s a way to build instant rapport without them even knowing it? That’s what we’re going to talk about.

There’s a lot of science and psychology behind how you can build rapport with people. It’s something that has been studied for a long time but never applied to the HVAC industry. There’s a lot of the psychology of sales and there are a lot of industries that have gone deep into this, but no one does an HVAC. It’s time that we raise our level when it comes to sales when it comes to interacting with the client, with the consumer, with the homeowners. It is time to raise our level of understanding of how to communicate because that’s what so much with sales is. It’s the transfer of enthusiasm. That is what you’re going to learn so stick around. Thanks for joining me. First of all, I want to make sure to mention to go to SamWakefield.com. That’s going to get you connected to our Facebook community. That’s my profile page, but also join the Close It Now HVAC Sales Facebook group. We’re creating a safe space for people in the HVAC industry who make residential in-home sales. That is the focus of what we do.

Building Instant Rapport: The fastest way you can serve people is closing the deal.

A brief history of myself. Since we’re going to be spending a lot of episodes and a lot of time together, I love to share a little bit about myself and what brought me to this place and then we can move on to our content. I’ve been in the HVAC sales industry for a decade now. Since the year two, I have been a $1 million-plus a year salesperson. I’m rocking about 72% close rate for the month, which is the standard number for me. Not to impress you, but to impress upon you that bit of a handle on what we’re talking about. That is a little of my history. I started this training for the HVAC professional because as we all know, most of the time if you’re anything like me, my very first year in sales, I was handed the price book and a stack of slips that people had called a stack of leads. They said, “Go sell it,” and I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how to talk to people. I got to the house and I was like, “Where’s the air conditioner?” From there it was trial by fire. I was thrown right into the cauldron from day one.

What I learned from that is through going to dozens of sales training seminars specifically for HVAC and not for HVAC to buying tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of courses and sales. I’ve read hundreds of sales books at this point and condensing it all down into these concepts that we’re talking about in the show is A to Z system of in-home close the sale and close it now. That’s the important part is they don’t delay, they don’t need to close it next week or next year or next month. They need to close it now because that is the fastest way you’re going to be able to serve people. It’s getting the deals so they can start experiencing the benefits and the painless journey of replacing their system and making their house right. That interaction needs to be quick and painless for them and also, they need to get a lot of value from it.

At the same time, you deserve to be compensated to the same degree of value that you’re bringing the homeowner, that you’re bringing the consumer. It is not a bad word to get profit from your sales. You should be getting an incredible margin because you’re providing a premium product and a premium service with your company. Always strive to improve and get better every single day. That’s a little bit of my history, but I started off like you with not having a clue what I was doing.

Our topic is rapport. How do you build rapport? We know that consumers and people buy from people they know, they like and they trust. That’s not a secret. It’s not something that’s new information. At least I hope it’s not for you. The other part of that is people buy from people. People don’t buy from a company. People don’t buy from a brand. People buy from people. I’ve had many times where I’ve had people that have reached out and said, “Your price was higher,” and gave me this list of reasons in their mind of why they wouldn’t necessarily buy from me or buy from my company. They always end that with, “We loved your presentation and we loved you as the representative. I know that we’re going to be taking care of when we go with you.”

I have one example specifically that we were $4,000 higher than our nearest competition. People called back and said, “We chose you because we know we’re going to get the white glove treatment with you and your company because of the way you took care of us and listened to our concerns to start with.” We went from the first date to marriage for an $18,000 project in the time span of an hour. How did that happen? A lot of it happens through nonverbal communication. If you don’t know what I mean by that, that is the tone of your voice, the body language, and the matching energy. There are a lot of different things that are going on because people buy from people they like and they like people like themselves. If you could have one word for what we’re talking about, it is called matching.

Matching is such a key principle when it comes to building rapport. By matching, there’s a handful of things that it encompasses so let’s unpack that. That means when you show up to a house or even before you show up on your greeting call, and if you’re not doing this, start immediately. Because the appointment is set for 2:00 or whatever time it is, don’t assume they’re going to be there and ready for you. Always call when you’re on the way. I recommend about 30 minutes out. What that needs to sound like is, “This is Sam Wakefield calling to let you know that I am heading your direction. I will be there in about 30 minutes, will that work? Is that alright?” More importantly, when you hear them answer, instantly match their energy with your energy. If they answer the phone super excited, then you’ll have energy in your voice. If they answer the phone nice and calm and slow speaking, then instantly slow down. If they’re talking fast or if they’re talking slow, instantly start to match them right away even on the phone call before you get there.

They’ll recognize that and they don’t even know what’s going on in the subconscious. By matching, you’re going to be able to make that connection with them right away. Once you get there, when you get to the house, that’s giving you an indicator of where their energy level is before you get there. Also, once you get there, then you can totally start to match their energy with your energy. By doing that, what that means is if they’re happy, be happy. If they’re sad, don’t get down with them, but match the energy. If they’re excited, if they talk fast, talk fast. If they talk slow, talk slow.

Building Instant Rapport: You can instantly build rapport by being a professional.

The whole point of this exercise is to not necessarily be someone you’re not, but you have to chameleon into the right situation. You wouldn’t wear your baseball uniform to a black-tie restaurant. You would dress for the occasion, you would act the part. This is the same thing here. It’s not that you’re acting like someone you’re not, you’re just becoming the right individual for the situation. As you start to match their energy, you’ll notice that you start to match. If they lean forward, you lean forward. If they lean back, you lean back. If they cross their legs, you cross your legs. You’ll notice that the moment that you’ve built enough rapport with them is the second that they start following your lead.

If you make a change in your body position, if you make a change in your posture and then they follow you, from that second forward, you’re now a consultant. You’re on their side and you’re a team at that point. That is the moment that you’ve turned the corner. Now that you’re aware of this, you can start to recognize those moments when rapport changes and you’ll feel it. You’ll feel the energy shift in the room at the very fraction of a second. All of a sudden, you’ve gone past this person who’s trying to sell them something to the person that’s working together with them to come up with a solution to the problems that they have. The way the energy level needs to look throughout the duration of your visit is you always enter the situation just below their energy level.

Wherever their energy level is, match it and drop below it. Through the course of the visit, as soon as that rapport moment changes and you felt that energy change in your interaction, that’s when you start to crank up the dial, and notch it up. You now all of a sudden are matching them with the energy. As that rapport gets better and better, you start to notch it up. Your energy level starts to rise just above theirs. They’re going to start to bring their energy up to match you. You bring it on up until the climax being the moment that you ask for the sale in the house while you’re there. That’s going to be a topic for another episode is how to ask for the sale. That’s where that very zenith of your energy needs to happen.

This done properly, they’re going to bring their energy level up to match yours wherever you take it. You can match and then lead the energy into the close. That is a deeper principle with sales, but it’s so crucial with interpersonal interaction. We’ve got to enter the conversation below their energy. Through matching, you’ve built rapport, you’re matching their tone of voice, you’re matching their energy level and then when you feel that energy shift, you’re going to start cranking up your energy and take it to the next level. That way, when it comes time for the close, you’ve presented the value properly first before any numbers ever get talked about. Once the value is presented in the right way, you want this client, these people, this homeowner to be thinking, “I hope I can afford this because it’s so amazing. There is so much value that they’re bringing. They’re so professional. It’s such a great plan to solve my problems that I hope I can afford it.” When you show the price, they’re relieved at what your price is because they’re thinking it’s going to be some number even higher than that. That is when that moment of energy meets when you present with the price and say, “Why don’t we get you on the calendar? Will you trust me with this project?” It is a great way to close the deal.

Does this make sense? Have you gotten anything out of this episode? You’ve got to build instant rapport. You don’t have to talk about golf. You don’t have to talk about the dogs. You don’t have to talk about the car in the driveway. You don’t have to go on and on about hunting or the latest movie. You can instantly build rapport by being a professional. Get to the point because you’re not there to be their friend. You’re there to help solve their problems. By getting to the point right away in your introduction, you’re matching them with energy and matching them with the words, with body motions and all of that. You’re going to build rapport because it can’t help but be done. I have proved this tens of thousands of times.

I hope this was helpful to you. If it was, share this with all of your friends that make HVAC sales. Share this with everybody that you come in contact with. Let’s build this community. Email me at Sam@SamWakefield.com. Go to SamWakefield.com. Find me on Facebook. Join our community we’re building. Close It Now HVAC Sales is our group on Facebook. We’re building a community to support each other, to lift each other up, to help each other overcome the objections that we all get, and to raise the bottom line because a rising tide raises all ships. If you are interested and would like to have me come teach your organization, I’d love to have a conversation about that. I have a system for sales as the Close It Now HVAC Sale System. If you’d like for me to teach that to your company or your organization, email me and we can have that conversation. Otherwise, have an awesome day and I will see you again soon.