The Million Dollar Rapport Building Question!

When it comes to building rapport with their IT prospects, most MSPs are just helplessly stumbling around in the dark.

Everyone knows how important it is to break the ice and find a common interest on sales calls; but finding a cookie cutter technique that works has proven to be illusive.

We have discovered the ultimate rapport building question that works in every marketing situation and we are going to reveal it…

Let’s Play 20 Questions

Right now the prevailing wisdom for trying to build rapport on the first managed services sales meeting consists of mainly of trying to play 20 questions and pin down a topic that interests the prospect.

You are encouraged to ask them a barrage of questions that range from, including, but not limited to: 

• Where they're from
• What school they attended
• What movies they like
• Where they went on their Honeymoon

However, one question after another can actually irritate a potential customer and will almost certainly never get you any closer to discovering what makes them ‘tick’.

The Goal

True efforts to build rapport should be designed around discovering what the person you’re talking with is really interested in and then pursuing a conversation discussing those topics.

The purpose of this strategy is to make your prospect feel important by catering to their interest and taking the time to know them better.

The problem is that many times asking random questions misses the mark as we may think we have discovered what they are interested in and inadvertently babble on about something that bores them to death.

The Reveal

What I have discovered in our sales meetings is that it’s best to just come right out and ask them in a very specific manner what it is you’re looking for. I can report that to date I have been pleasantly surprised to find most executives have no problem opening up and answering the following question:

The specific question we ask is, “What is it that you’re MOST PASSIONATE about in LIFE?”

In our next article we will discuss the responses we have had.

In addition to being very secretive, John Black is the Marketing Director at MSP Telemarketing and has over 10 years experience marketing on behalf of managed services providers.