Hey everyone and welcome to our throwback episode. In our throwback episodes, we are reintroducing

you to some of our most popular episodes. This is great for new listeners who want to learn more

about the work we've done in the past, and it's a great refresher if you've been a listener

for a long time. Enjoy. So let's start off with building rapport. Tell us it a little bit more about that.

Well, you know, it occurs to me that you have to play to your strengths in anything that you do.

If right now Wimbledon is going on, and so I see these tennis players. If you're Roger Federer,

you're about playing the points really quick, about putting the ball away, about advancing the net. And so similarly, as a negotiator,

this isn't necessarily the tip for every single person. I do think there is definitely a universal

truth in the value of building rapport. But for who I am, and for people who may resemble me,

I think that that is my go-to strength.

It's my secret weapon.

And so the basic concept is this.

It's that in order to negotiate well, you need to build rapport with the other side.

This means finding commonality, finding common ground, having things to talk about building

of that relationship, getting to that

point where they like you and you like them. So the matter that is being negotiated is almost

secondary to the relationship. That's at least at a very high level what I'm trying to

accomplish when I try to build a report. I love your response for two reasons.

Reason number one, I am a tennis junkie.

And I love the fact that you brought in the tennis analogy, which was spot on.

And number two, I really like the fact that you recognize that based on your personality type, you use rebuilding rapport as a strategic tool. But you acknowledge that there are

some people who do not have that personality where building rapport comes easily to them. So for that

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