Rapport
As a cash flow coach, building rapport is possibly the most critical skill to develop. Rapport is the basis of a healthy, productive and sustainable cash flow coaching relationship. Without it, you and your client do not have a genuine relationship. And without a genuine relationship, you won’t be able to truly assist your client to commence their journey and reach their full potential.
Rapport is a state of harmonious relationship and connection between you and a client.
Rapport can happen naturally. Sometimes we just ‘hit it off’ with somebody or seem to ‘get on well’ with them. Friendships often start this way. It can also be built by finding common ground and being empathic.
When you have achieved cash flow coaching rapport, conversations will have an easy flow, and you will sense what it’s like from their perspective. It may even be like talking with a close friend.
As rapport strengthens and deepens between a cash flow coach and client, the client initiated discussions will have more focus on feelings and emotions and less on information and facts. The figures become peripheral to the journey, and habitual change is driven by motivation and desire, fuelled by the great rapport that exists with the cash flow coach and the client.
Building Rapport
Rapport building skills have been the subject of much debate, and numerous articles and papers have been written. Theories like, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) uses terms like pacing, matching and mirroring, for verbal and non-verbal techniques that assist coaches in tuning into, and working with their clients.
However, it is difficult to build rapport with just good techniques.
Fundamentally, cash flow coaching rapport is “walking in the shoes of your client” – actively listening to recognise who they are; seeing their point of view(s); connecting with their emotions and feelings. Tuning into their wavelength to really understand their needs, wants and values and then speaking their language to work with them and assist them in moving forward.
Here are eight areas that cash flow coaches can use to generate rapport and develop meaningful relationships.
1. Prioritise
Because rapport is the cornerstone of ongoing cash flow coaching relationships, you need to spend the time and give priority to establishing and developing rapport. The trap that cash flow coaches (and clients) can fall into is jumping too quickly into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of cash flow and the numbers – an immediate focus on achieving results. Remember, it’s a coaching relationship that just won’t work without rapport.
2. Questions
You cannot build rapport with someone until you understand who they are as a person. So, along with getting information and numbers about their cash flow position, ask rapport-building questions. These questions should lead you to appreciate
· what makes them tick
· what are their values (what is really important to them)
· what are their underlying beliefs
3. Permission
In your role as a cash flow coach, a recurring key skill is your ability to interpret what you are hearing and seeing, and provide feedback to your client. It is far more likely that feedback will be accepted and readily taken on-board if you have asked permission to provide it, in the early stages of your cash flow coach-client relationship. It is also a good part of the rapport-building process.
4. Listening
When you are really listening as a cash flow coach, you are totally focused on the client, observing their body language, comprehending their words and picking up on their tonality. Importantly, you are not distracted with your own thinking or emotional state.
In addition, you also need to show you are listening by using active listening techniques to demonstrate you are picking up what they are saying and acknowledge your understanding. They have to know you are listening.
5. Language
A helpful way to build rapport is to start to speak your client’s language. By picking up on their words and phrases, you can use them in your own dialogue. Initially, you need to be selective when doing this, and as rapport builds, it will start to become natural.
6. Levels
As you start working with clients, you will go through levels of communication and rapport. First appointments may start with small talk, and from there, the cash flow coaching journey will move to information gathering, establishing opinions and beliefs and through to exploring values and emotionally based habits. The journey is not linear, and clients may revert to lower levels in subsequent meetings.
Being in rapport means being on the same level as the client at any point in time. Listening and establishing at what level your client sits is important to maintain previously built rapport. If we start to explore feelings and emotions with a client when they want to exchange facts and figures, rapport can be broken.
7. Affirmation
As clients progress with their cash flow coaching journey, they will utilise attributes, qualities and strengths to achieve goals, improve behaviours and establish quality habits. However, often they unaware of the talents they have used to achieve change. Affirmation of the client’s positive qualities you have observed is a powerful way to develop the relationship and build rapport.
8. Body Language
When two people are in strong rapport with each other, you will notice that they naturally mirror and match body positions. As a cash flow coach, you can generate rapport by consciously mirroring and matching your client’s body language.
elevateB provides the training program as well as support and ongoing development for certified cash flow coaches. Individuals who choose to work with a certified cash flow coach are better placed to achieve financial independence and security. If you would like to make a difference and help everyday Australians be more financially prudent and savvy, consider becoming a cash flow coach today. Click here.