by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Tom Daddario of Standard Pacific Homes gave Realtors and affiliates new tools to help them get at least one more sale or loan this year.
He is certified in Neuro-linguistic programming and created a non-verbal communications seminar designed to help salespeople build rapport with their clients.
“If you don’t have rapport with a client, it is very hard to get them to believe you,” he said. “Rapport is the foundation upon which all influence is built.
“Studies have shown that the major difference between highly successful salespeople and mediocre salespeople is that mediocre salespeople tend to establish just a small amount of rapport and then move straight into influence strategies.
“Highly successful salespeople build a strong rapport base and then move into influence strategies.”
One of the strategies that he discussed was pacing. Pacing is when you get into the rhythm with the customer’s behavior and then mirror them on as many levels as possible.
“Pacing works because likes attract likes,” he said. “Pacing signals to the customer ‘I understand you. I accept you and I am like you.’ This signal is picked up on a subconscious level and it is the fastest way to create rapport. When a person likes you, they tend to want to agree with you.”
Types of pacing include posture, speech and breathing.
You imitate these behaviors of your client and get into sync with them, helping them to feel more comfortable with you.
“Posture pacing is when you mirror some of the postures that they have,” he said. “Most of this is done from the neck up. We can pace the face, head turned, eyebrows raised when they talk or do they look down a lot. When you sit across from the person, you can start mirroring. If they cross their legs, you can cross your hands. You don’t have to do exactly what they are doing.”
Another area Daddario explored was determining how people sort information.
Are they visual, kinesthetic or auditory? Knowing this can help you communicate with them better than if you didn’t know this information.
This can be found out in two ways - either by listening to what they say or by watching their eyes.
“If they come in and say, “We’d like to look at the models,” then they are visual,” said Daddario. “These people never forget a face or they might have a photographic memory.”
He said if they say, “I’d like to get some information about your homes,” they are probably kinesthetic.
“Feelers like to get a feel for a problem, untangle knots and remove stumbling blocks,” he said.
Auditory customers process their information through sounds. They might say, “I’d like to hear about your community.”
Daddario said we process information internally through our five senses.
“By carefully observing the eye patterns, we can get clues or cues as to where the customer stores related information and how they will probably act on it,” he said. “This works because there are nerve-endings located around the edge of your eye socket that are attached to different parts of your brain.”
He said if the person’s eyes go up when asked a question, they are visual. If their eyes go down and right, they are kinesthetic and if their eyes go any other way, they are auditory.
After you have determined how the person communicates you can speak their language.
If they are visual, you should respond to them in visual terms, as in “Would you like to see the house?” If they are kinesthetic, you could say to them, “Would you like to walk around and get a feel for the house?” And if they are auditory, you could say, “Would you like me to tell you about our community?”
“The object is to match the language in which your listener speaks, thus creating an atmosphere of rapport and understanding,” said Daddario.