Establish Rapport in Four Seconds Flat

You have one chance to make a first impression. You have four seconds or less to establish rapport. After this you’re toast.
According to the The Wolf of Wall Street again, in the prospects mind you need to come across as:
1. Enthusiastic as hell.
2. Sharp as a tack.
3. A figure of authority.
You need to convince the prospect in four seconds that you are all these three things. This is so that they can be sure that you can help them achieve their goals or give them control of their life.
If you lack any of these three, your prospect will be unlikely to buy from you – ever. All future encounters with this prospect will be coloured by what happens in the first four seconds.

Tonality

In telephone selling, establishing rapport is even more difficult than face to face, but there are certain things you can do to stack the odds in your favour. The main thing you can control is the tonality of your voice.
Your tonality needs to convey that you are enthusiastic, sharp and that you are an authority. Speak like an influencer.
To help you along the way, you must have a script. This is the art of not blowing it. This way you take out all of the variable as possible. This script must be tested and tested. You do this by starting with a script and measuring your results You then tweak one thing in the script and measure if this has improved your script. Tweak the words and tonality until you have gained all the improvements possible. This will then be your tested script.
So for example you first words – “Hi, is John there?” should set the pace and establish that you are enthusiastic, sharp and an authority. Stand up and smile before you dial.

Inferred Micro Agreement

In the mind of the prospect you will be a stranger until you speak. Your tonality can convey that you aren’t a stranger, but you have spoken before and might have actually met. You do this with an inferred micro agreement in other words by using a raised inflection A raised inflection is when the pitch of your voice goes up, as if you are saying “you remember don’t you?”, although you aren’t actually saying it. For instance “It’s Mike Holden (raised inflection) of Karmelle (raised inflection), I sent you the information on filling machines (raised inflection).
Your prospect will then be searching their memory banks to remember.

Establish Mystery

Here again you create some mystery and anticipation with your tonality.
“… now if you recall (pitch rising and falls on recall – think of a small child saying aww please but without the whining)… you attended the seminar on liquid packing (raised inflection – you remember don’t you?)… Does that ring a bell?”
Answer – “YES”
“Ok Great” (bottled enthusiasm)… “Now” (tonality down and slow – getting serious now) … the reason for the call today is that you are one of the last ones to attend who haven’t had a follow up call” (say this like you are telling them a deep secret)…”if you’ve got 60 seconds I’d like to share the process with you…Got a minute?”(Imply you’re a reasonable man.)
When you are formulation your script, use transitional words as you move from section to section and change your tonality from for instance enthusiastic to serious. Some examples of transitional words are:
Well
But
Now