How do we build rapport in conversations where we're trying to get someone to buy something?

The first thing is to realize that tips and tricks won't help you here.

People are hyper aware for scammers and bullsh!^&#, so tips, tricks, and hacks will make you out to be a bad person.

Open conversations are the key, but you need an agenda and a structure to what the conversation will be.

First of all we should be trying to figure out who this person is. This is called "qualification" in sales.

After that we should be trying to find out if the person has a need for our product or service. We'll be asking open questions at this stage to figure out if they have a problem and how pressing the problem is. This stage is called "discovery".

There are other stages in carrying on a sales and business conversation, but these early stages are the ones where we have the most prospects for building rapport with them.

Whether we're talking to a potential associate or customer, we should have conversations around who they are? where they come from? how they got into this line of buisness? and how come XYZ has become a problem for them?

During these stages of the conversation you'll discover that both of you may have gone to the same university, maybe you share the same religious faith, maybe your mothers are from the same town, or maybe you both agree that Donald Trump is the greatest politician to have walked the face of the earth.

When these similarities come up, to build rapport all you have to do is point the likeness out and it gives an aura of commonality between you two...

"Are you serious? You went to Nsukka? Which set? 2008? Oh! I graduated in 1998! Na una enjoy pass!"

This kind of conversation establishes a warm link between alumni’s.

With a couple of connections in the conversation like this, the next time you meet to talk business, you shouldn't be total strangers.... and this familiarity can lead to easier conversations to explore the beautiful future that lies ahead.