Building Rapport doesn't involve Cheesy Openers

In the early stages of my career as an AE, someone mentioned that I wasn't the best at building rapport, and I can see where they're coming from.

I'm not the best at small talk. In fact, I tend to avoid it on purpose. 

Building rapport and trust is important, but it doesn't have to involve cheesy openers like...

"Hey Andre, where are you based?"

"How's the weather down there?"

"Have you watched the Super Bowl?"

Asking those generic questions will only do one thing for me:

Lower my status and make me look like a desperate salesperson.

All I'm saying to the prospect is "Hey I'm just trying to get you to like me, so you will buy my thing"

That's inviting trouble for myself.

I'd rather get my prospects into a "results" based thinking mindset quickly in the conversation.

Yes, I jump to business quickly. But isn't that why my prospect has given me his/her time?

I want to get to know the prospect's business needs and preferences than their personal matters. 

Also, establishing rapport shouldn't be misconstrued as simply trying to impress someone at the beginning of a call

I've spent hours on their website, social handles, press releases to understand their business priorities.

I've bought my client's products and analysed their entire buying journey to understand gaps in the current process.

I build custom proposals and build use cases for them to see the problem they might be adhering to without even realising.

I try to leave them with a piece of wisdom/ knowledge after they speak to me.

That is what rapport building is all about to me. 

I've gone out of my way to build a rapport with prospects in a lot of instances. I'm just not the sweet talker or briber (iykyk) 😉