Rapid Rapport With Storytelling

So say you're face to face with a brand new prospect. They've heard a little bit about you, know of your reputation, maybe they even have an idea what kind of a person you are and yet, they still may have some defenses, defenses which you are going to need to overcome before they trust you and want to commit to business with you, before rapport has been established and they can feel good trusting you completely.

Stories speed up rapport and trust incredibly. They allow your clients to quickly learn who you are, what's important to you, and that they can really trust you with their business.

Many times, relationships (of all kinds), take a while to unfold. We reveal a little information and then a little more, until it builds up into a whole picture of who we are. Stories accelerate this process, eliminating that build up, and when they're told well and, most importantly, with a lucid, pertinent point, they can reveal your true essence in a brief time.

Think of how you get sucked in when you watch a movie. Stories do this to us. They fit into the indirect permissive model not the direct authoritarian model and therein is one of the most significant powers of stories.

There was a recent New York Times/CBS news poll which I found absolutely fascinating. The poll revealed that sixty three percent of people believed that you have to be very careful in dealing with other people. Sixty three percent. Two thirds.

The poll also goes on to say that thirty seven percent believe that most people out there would try to take advantage of you given the opportunity.

Over one third of the population believes that. One out of every three people thinks you have the interest or potential to try to take advantage of them. And over three fourths of the population believes that you have to be extraordinarily careful when you deal with others.

That's interesting, isn't it? Seems like we are quite distrusting and cynical in our dealings with others.

Here's the strange part: the very same poll asked, 'Of the people you know, what percentage would try to be fair?'

The result was overwhelming. Eighty-five percent of those polled believed the people they *knew* to be fair.

What does this mean? We drastically cut down on distrust when we get people to know us. We can immediately turn up our persuasive powers with our prospects and clients by sharing who we are.

One of the best ways of letting people know you is by telling them a story. We go from three fourths of them distrusting, believing you can't be too careful, taking cautions with you, and over a third of the people thinking you'd try to take advantage of them if you could, to a whopping eighty-five percent of them believing you would be fair with them.

Use a story to let people know who you are and your trustworthiness almost triples.