How To Build Rapport That Wins You Work

We’ve all been told that building rapport establishes trust and helps clients and prospects feel like they can open up to you.

But building rapport has to be intentional. Remember, you are in business and, while you must be genuine, you also have to win work if you want your practice or business to thrive.

Here are my top tips for building rapport that wins you more work:

1. Be genuine?- Most people are astute enough to know whether you are being sincere and, if you really want to help, that will shine through. If all you are doing is saying nice things to tap them up for work, you’ll get caught out pretty quickly.
2. Use social media?- there’s no better way to help people get an understanding of who you are and how you work than posting content. The key is to post in your style and voice. You might be a lawyer, but people already know you know the law. They want to know how the law can help them. And they want to hear it from someone who they can connect with, in order to feel comfortable with the idea of working with you. So don’t be afraid to be true to who you are.
3. Tailor your conversations?- the best trusted advisors can personalise their advice to each client or prospect’s specific circumstances. They are great listeners because they really care and want to help their clients succeed. Make sure you ask questions that uncover their true goals and then use that information to hone your advice.
4. Give information away for free?- your advice isn’t proprietary, people can find a lot of what they need on a search engine. What they are really looking for is someone who can give them advice they can trust. Sharing stories about how you helped clients just like them and suggesting a few ideas about how they can improve their situation will build a huge amount of trust.
5. Keep in touch?- Remember, prospects aren’t always ready to go ahead just because you are, so it’s important to show you care by checking in regularly to see how they are getting on. If you take an interest in them and ask the right questions, they’ll tell you what you need to know in order to help.

Building rapport is an important part of winning work, but being the nicest person in every room is not enough. Your role is to build trust through educating and empowering clients and prospects to attain their goals.

If you can follow these tips, it will benefit both your clients and you.

That’s it for now.

Here’s to making it rain!

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Ps. The Legal Iconoclasts Expo#2 is coming!

Join me, John Chisholm , Elani Maas , Karen Finch , Shaun Jardine , Leah Steele and Melissa Lyon , as we take you through a deeper dive into value-based pricing and all the benefits it can bring to your clients, team members and business.

And you'll network with other iconoclastic legal professionals from around the world, who are breaking down barriers and changing the way we provide legal services.

ONLINE on Tuesday 16th May at 8am BST/5pm AEST.

Want to come along? Find out more and book your ticket here .