A: One of the quickest ways to establish rapport with someone on the phone is speaking at the rate at which they speak. People think at the rate they speak. Consider your own internal dialogue; it should be about the same rate as your speech.

From here you can start speaking at their volume, tone, and cadence. And if you feel comfortable and can do so without overdoing, you can imitate accents. But keep this really subtle or don't do it at all. You can also match the quality of their speech. If someone speaks broken English, and you speak back to them in broken English, they'll understand you better than if you were to speak clear and fluid English. Remember you are building rapport by matching how they think internally. If it is broken English on the outside, then it is probably broken English on the inside. The premise behind rapport is "I am as you are."

Practice first with getting in rapport with anyone, whether it is over the phone or in person. Get your ears tuned into hearing all of the above, so that you can modify your speech immediately upon hearing the other person.

And when you get good at this and no longer have to give it as much conscious attention, then you can move on to listening to their language for their predicates to hear which modality is their lead. You can also tell by the rate at which they speak. Really fast, visual. Average speed, auditory. And slowly, then it's kinesthetic.

There are also some energy techniques that can be used to build rapport that I won't go into here, but you can find some articles on it in the articles section or subscriber's area.


-Oz