The art of connecting

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Doug Smith

Doug Smith, founder of Douglas Smith & Associates, is a 24-year industry veteran. His career spans the areas of loan origination, sales training, management development, marketing, personal coaching and corporate sales. Doug’s columns appear in Mortgage Originator, Mortgage Planner, The Mortgage Record and Mortgage Broker magazines. He publishes a monthly newsletter, Power Selling, and authored Climbing the Ladder of Success. For more information, visit http://www.dougsmithonline.com/

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The art of connecting

Written by Doug Smith

Selling is and hopefully always will be a people business. Highly successful salespeople got that way because they were successful at mastering certain selling skills; one of the most important skills being the ability to “connect” with people.

Most salespeople think they are better at connecting than they really are,” states Ronald White, sales consultant for Dimensions Development. “Most salespeople rate themselves on their ability to connect with customers high, but observation reveals that they score much lower on this skill in actual practice. They don’t make solid eye contact. They forget to use the customer’s name in conversation, and they make the biggest mistake of all---they start to talk about themselves!” In his assessment, White goes on to mention that this classic “mis-connection” costs salespeople tens of thousands of dollars in lost commissions each year. “If you can’t connect, you can’t build rapport and trust, two essential ingredients of meeting people and forming relationships.”

Maybe the same could be said about you. Maybe you feel you are skilled at connecting with customers and prospects, but observation would reveal a different perspective. Let’s take a little quiz today. Answer these questions truthfully:

1. Do I enjoy meeting new people?
2. Do I make and maintain solid eye contact with others while talking and listening?
3. Do I capture and use the person’s name in conversation?
4. Do I listen attentively with focused concentration while others are talking?
5. Do I remember to keep quiet and allow other people to talk about themselves?

If you answered an honest YES to all five of these questions, you are a great connector. If you answered NO to any of these questions, that’s where you have work to do. It really does take all five skills to connect with someone, and when you get good at it, people will be attracted to you and what you have to say.

Selling is and hopefully always will be a people business, and in a way, we are in the business of people. It’s more than just interest rates and mortgage programs and paperwork and guidelines. It is about people. The better you get at working with people, the more successful you become.

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