Communication Skills

Sales Training for people who would like to become the most effective communicators you can be.

Summary

Rapport

Rapport is the quality of harmony, recognition and mutual acceptance that exists between people when they are at ease with one another and where communication is occurring easily. 

Why is Rapport important?

In general, we gravitate towards people that we consider similar to us, because people like people who are like themselves - like likes like. In rapport the common ground or similarities are emphasised and the differences are minimised. Rapport is first essential in effective communication. No rapport - no communication...

Rapport is a skill

We naturally experience rapport with close friends or in the company of those with whom we share an intense common interest. However the ability to create rapport is a skill that can be learned and which can be used to facilitate our relationship with anybody, in any setting, and even with those with whom we profoundly disagree.

How to use Rapport

Among the many ways of creating rapport the most effective are:

• By subtly matching non-verbal communication - especially voice patterns and eye contact patterns
• By developing a genuine interest in the other person and in their model of the world.

Representational Systems

People experience the world through the 5 (or maybe 6) senses, and put those inputs through a series of filters before it becomes an experience or a memory. Hence the expression, “the map is not the territory” - and a favourite of mine, "the meaning of your communication is the result you get". That one puts the responsibility firmly back where it belongs - with ourselves!

Filters vary from person to person and examples are:

• Distortions: we change what comes in based on past experiences and learned responses.
• Deletions: we simply cannot take in every sensory input, so we delete what we don’t want. So we pay attention to some things and ignore others.
• Generalising: we select experiences to base current decisions on. We’ve all seen the films of criminals frantically trying to shoulder open a door that opens inwards. I’ve even seen one where the door was unlocked, and the criminal gave up and waited to be arrested.

So we all take in information is subtly different ways, and construct our own model of the world based on these structures.

Then, when we are communicating, we do the reverse process. We store representations of our experiences, and use representation systems to communicate outwardly. Examples of these are visual, (people who talk about what “this looks like”) auditory (“that sounds good!”) and kinaesthetic (“it feels…”).

Imagine two people describing the same thing; one in terms of what it looks like, and one in terms of what it feels like? Do you think it seems to them that they are describing the same event? It sometimes does not. Bring all this into a relationship and mix it up with emotions, and all the other stresses of daily life and its no wonder we have communication issues!

Or is it? You can improve your existing and learn new communication skills now!

Do you want to:

• Establish Rapport quickly, reliably and easily
• Be able to understand the “structure of communication”
• Understand people better
• Make people feel at ease with you, build trust and good working relationships
• Choose language that is truly influential with people
• Write letters, memos and reports that people want to read and are appealing to them
• Be really effective on the telephone

We'll show you how, with explanation, examples and practical experience, you can understand the structure of communication and use that understanding to understand people better, and be better understood yourself. In a fun, two day workshop you'll discover that you can enjoy better relationships of all kinds by being a better communicator.

Such a level of skill will set you apart from most people in your ability to recognise and respond to unconscious communication. You will also find that such acuity and skill in calibrating will serve most of your needs in communicating. And, if you are really curious about people, you can then begin to develop your ability to calibrate to other accessing cues such as breathing pattern, leg movements, etc.