Positive Rapport

4th April 2013

For those of you who go to a number of networking groups, you will know that many of them have a rule whereby only one person from each business category can join. The point of this is to make sure that each member gets exclusivity to referrals in their area of expertise, which of course makes a lot of sense. Except that it doesn’t in every case, firstly, because competition is generally a healthy thing in business, and secondly and perhaps more importantly, not everyone likes or gets on with everyone, and therefore many referrals may never come to fruition.

Speaking to my son about his recent school report there were a couple of subjects in which he had not done particularly well, mainly because it was clear that he had not been so committed to the work involved. When I questioned him, he immediately said that it was because he didn’t like the teacher, and couldn’t get on with them (hence the lack of effort).

It occurred to me, that the same thing definitely applies in coaching. I only work with people with whom I have a positive rapport, because without this they are never going to put in the effort required to make the changes needed in their businesses. The best results are therefore always going to happen with the clients I get on with best.

No doubt the same applies in most businesses. As they say “people buy from people,” and I am sure that most of us would much rather do business with people we like and trust, than those who rub us up the wrong way.

So don’t be afraid of competition, or indeed losing some of your leads. You won’t get them all, and the ones you don’t get would invariably only buy from you once anyway. However, the more open, friendly, honest and trustworthy you are, the more people will want to work with you.

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