Foundations of Basic Rapport

You don’t have to be Casanova in order to establish basic rapport but you do need some practice. It probably won’t happen on the first try but it very well might on the fifth.

So the first rule of rapport is simple: smile. It might sound obvious but you’ll be surprised how many people ignore this rule and don’t grace their opponent with a hello kind of smile. There’s a thing to help to make your smile more charming: think of something pleasant that makes you smile and extend this smile to your opponent. People are guaranteed to like your smile then.

The second thing you can do to establish and maintain rapport is to make and maintain eye contact. It’s not as easy as it sounds as some people are naturally shy and have trouble in establishing eye contact. Here’s the thing though.

Eye contact should be fluid and natural. It means while you should maintain eye contact you must not stare at the person or you’ll make people feel uncomfortable which goes against rapport. There are a couple of things that you can do.

First, now and then glance away for a second and then look people back in the eyes. The second thing you can do is to look between the eyebrows. The best thing about this trick is that people will think is that you are looking them straight in the eyes.

But the best thing you can do about making eye contact and rapport in general is to develop “laughing” or “smiling” eyes. Then you don’t even have to smile, yet people will become drawn to you. Again, it won’t happen overnight, but if you practice, you’ll get them.

On a verbal level in order to establish rapport just find agreement about the subject you are conversing. Express your point of view. That’s also great technique to keep conversation flowing.

And, like with a smile, use the power of your emotions to build a great state. You can develop a personality that people will be attracted to you by your sheer magnetism. You’ve probably met people who are very much liked yet hardly say anything. The point is that you don’t have to be a brilliant conversationalist to be able to establish rapport though this definitely helps.