Traditionally, salespeople look for something in the office that begs a question. For example, "Is that your sailfish on the wall?"

How many times do you think that prospect has been asked that question? How often do you think the prospect hears a salesperson ask about the family portrait on the desk, last night's baseball game, etc.? The prospect anticipates these questions. Verbal skill is actually a very small part of the rapport quotient. Non-verbal communication goes a long way toward establishing rapport with your prospect.

This may seem to suggest the need to learn to read body language. But it's not as simple as interpreting (guessing) what your prospect's body language is saying. The fact is, people feel comfortable with people who are like themselves! So, as a professional salesperson, you can use a technique called mirroring to match your prospect's body language so that your prospect relaxes and feels comfortable in your presence.

Show and Tell (and Touch)

All of us interpret our personal environments through our senses, which act like filters. Your mind is constantly asking, "How does what just happened fit into my world? How do I make sense of this and that?"

You use your senses to interpret your environment: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. For certain stimuli you use only one of these senses; for others, you use some combination of the senses.

In the business world, three senses are dominant: sight, sound, and touch. (Unless you sell a food product, you generally cannot give your prospect the opportunity to taste or smell.)

Most of the time, your prospects rely on one sense more than the others to make decisions. Prospects are either visual people, meaning they need to see a picture before they can make a decision; or auditory, meaning they need to hear something before they can make a decision; or kinesthetic, meaning they need to touch or feel to make a decision. Some combination of these senses is at work in all prospects, but one sense tends to dominate.

So what happens when your prospect is kinesthetic and you walk into the room and say: "How