Sales has changed a lot in the past few years. Customers now have plenty of choices. If you want to be their first choice, you will need to stand out and make it obvious why they should turn to you. The twin aspects of Sales are acquiring new customers and making the most of your existing customers; or hunting and farming respectively. We will be looking into the latter and it’s boundless potential. To accomplish this, you have to prepare well in advance to build trust and rapport with customers. Here are ways to build rapport and trust and implement them into your sales practices to be more productive and successful.

1. Build trust and rapport to farm customers
Sales has changed a lot in the past few years. Customers now have plenty of choices.If youwant to
be their first choice,you will need to stand out and make it obvious why they should turn to you.
The twin aspects of Sales are acquiring new customers and making the most of your existing
customers; or hunting and farming respectively. Wewill be looking into the latter and it’s
boundless potential. To accomplish this, you have to prepare well in advance to build trust and
rapport withcustomers.
Here are ways to build rapport and trust and implement them into your sales practices to be more
productive and successful.
Surpassexpectations
Often companies focus on acquiring customers, not realising they are unable to hold on to them.
Just bringing customers onboard doesn’t mean they will be properly serviced. After a customers
acquisition, it is important to see whether their expectations are being met. It pleases customers to
see someone enquiring after them and taking care of their needs. We also need to focuson what can
be done to ensure that our relationship continues to grow. If needed, do your ownanalysis to find
out where you are going wrong.
If customers are irate, visiting is a great way to get them to open up and air their grievances.
Maintaining proper lines of communication is a must. By finding out the gap between expectation
and delivery,it is easier to convincethem to stick around while you fix the issue or address their
concerns. Whether the relationship is smooth or rocky,youmust stay in regular contactwith
customers. If it is a distant customer, plan it out and schedule a callwith them on a regular basis.
Researchthoroughly
Forewarned is forearmed. Before reaching out to existing customers, youneed to know their past
record. Only once you have done your homeworkwill youknow how long they have been with you,
their background and experience with your company.Look at all challenges before you and know
the requirements. Occasionally,a customer won'twant to share every detail but if youare doing
well then it is possible to demand more work.Identify the pain points of customers and how you
can address those areas.
Similarly, it is up to the customer to provide the right information so that his business can take the
best advantage and you are able to understand the challenges they face.By sharing feedback, both
sides benefit and learn from each other and get better results.
Strengthenrelationships
If we are workingfor a company with multiple verticals,it presents us with the potential to explore
how we can expand our reach through that organisation. Another source forfarming is by re-
evaluating the services on offer.
If three people are working on the same pitch, remember, the customer willchoose to go withthe
one with whom they have the strongest relationship with.If you’vealready built the trust, the
customer won'thave to worry about the basics since he already knowsyou.

2. Once the customer has been won over,each individual has their own approach to making further
sales. It might be over the phone or in person but mostly depends on the individual. This can be
further broken up into industry, segment and more but these basic rules apply to everyone.