Building rapport with clients enables you to develop their trust, which is fundamental to the client/advisor relationship, says Rosemary Smyth, founder of Rosemary Smyth and Associates in Victoria.

Developing a good rapport with your clients means you have formed a personal connection that strengthens your ability to communicate with each other. A strong rapport may be reason why a client chooses one advisor over another, Smyth says, or why a client acts on an advisor’s recommendation. Rapport also makes it easier to discuss delicate or private matters because both parties feel comfortable in sharing personal information.

Here are five ways to build rapport with your current and prospective clients:

1. Ask open-ended questions
To develop stronger lines of communication, you will have to find some common ground. People tend to gravitate toward those who share similarities with them, Smyth says.

Questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” can be limiting, while open-ended questions will encourage clients to share personal information. For example, you might discover that you share the same hometown or your children both attend the same elementary school.

2. Expand on similar interests
Everyone’s favourite subject is themselves, and prospects are usually more than happy share their passions, if encouraged. Prompt clients and prospects to elaborate on their interests, Smyth says, so you can uncover what makes them tick.

3. Be sincere
“If you’re caught in a fib, then people will immediately cross you off their list,” Smyth says. Once a client loses trust, it’s unlikely the relationship will go further.

Don’t be disingenuous in the hopes of building rapport, Smyth says. For example, if a prospect says they spend their free time training for marathons, and you don’t even own a pair of running shoes, don’t try to build a connection by saying that you also love running.

4. Listen with genuine interest
Give clients your undivided attention by leaning your body forward and maintaining a healthy level of eye contact. If you keep checking your phone or looking away, Smyth says, clients will think you are bored or uninterested.

5. Practice “conversational generosity”
Make sure you’re not dominating the discussion, Smyth says. It can be tempting to spend the first meeting explaining your practice to clients, but you don’t want the initial conversation to proceed like an interview. Your meetings should be a dynamic, two-way dialogue.

This is the first part in a two-part series on building rapport with clients.