If you’ve ever wondered how to build real rapport with sellers that leads to more creative, win-win business deals, this video from Carl Allen is pure gold. Carl breaks down three (actually four!) powerful moves you can use right away to deepen relationships with business owners in a way that makes structuring deals smoother, more flexible, and way more enjoyable. It’s not just about numbers—it’s about connection.

From learning personal details through social media to sending a well-timed birthday card or thoughtful gift, Carl shares real stories that show just how far genuine kindness and curiosity can go. And wait till you hear the seven words that can stop a seller in their tracks and turn a stalled deal into a lifelong business friendship. These rapport-building strategies aren’t just clever—they’re deal-changing. If you’re serious about getting creative and building trust that lasts, this one’s a must-watch.

Full Transcript:

Hey, guys. Carl Allen. Wanna do a real quick video for you. I’m actually driving out, I’m in my Florida house at the moment.

I’m just driving out doing a little errand in between calls. Had a brutal day so far of meetings and Zooms and a whole bunch of different things. So, then six hours straight back to back. I’m taking some time out and and running some errands.

But let me talk to you about something real quick. So one of the key things about what we do as dealmakers, as creative dealmakers, is the art of building rapport. Right? And I wanna give you three massive power plays that you can deploy with business owners to build rapport that’s, like, so off the charts, it makes the rest of the transaction just so much easier for you.

There’s there’s a direct correlation between the amount of know, like, and trust or rapport that you build with a seller and the amounts of creativity you can then plug in to the deal structure. It’s like an infinite line. And, you know, if you find a business if if if you only ever wanted to do a one hundred percent seller seller financing deal, then you could literally pick any business and just spend the amount of time it would need you to take to to get that relationship so locked down that that you could transact on that creative deal. You know, it might take you four weeks, might take you four years.

Right? That’s why you need to have a lot of deals in in your pipeline, so you can play them off against each other. But let me give you the three power plays that you can leverage in your discussions to build world class rapport. So the first thing that you should do is get to know the seller personally.

Right? So find out a whole bunch of things that you can about the seller. And the the beauty of the Internet or social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or even Google, is even for old sellers. But you’d be amazed, like, how many older business owners are on social media they are.

Right? You know, people you know, one of one of my friends, he has a grandparent that’s a hundred and one, and he’s on Facebook. Right? So literally, don’t be fooled when people say all the sellers are not on Facebook.

They they are. And what’s great about Facebook is you can find these people and you can find out information about them, and then you can layer it into your conversations. So if they have a family, if they like a particular sports team, if they’ve checked in at a particular restaurant which which you’ve been to. So find out things about them personally that you can relate to and you can have a conversation about.

If you live in the UK and, you you’re a guy, it it’s highly likely you’re gonna be into football or or or soccer as it’s called in the US. Right? And so finding out what team somebody supports and being able to have that conversation is is an incredible, way to build rapport. And and that that that kinda takes me that’s a nice segue into ninja power play move number two.

Right?

Which is when you know what sellers, like, really like and really value, buy them a gift. Right? And you’re thinking, what? Buy them a gift?

I’m telling you, it’s crazy. I I did this once. Let me tell you the story. So I was buying an engineering company from, a a sixty five year old guy in the UK.

It was in Liverpool. And, if you’re from the UK, you’ll know Liverpool has two major soccer club football clubs. One’s called Everton. They play in blue.

Not a very good team. Sorry, Everton fans. And Liverpool, who were very, very good, and they played red. Right?

And there’s a lot of rivalry.

There’s a lot of rivalry. It it it’s like the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. You know, they don’t like each other, I don’t think. It’s, you know, the White Sox and the Red Sox, they don’t like each other.

So it’s the same in Liverpool for for soccer. Right? So I was talking to this guy on the phone before I had an in person seller meeting with him. So I’m having this chat with him on the phone, and it was a one hour call.

We spent fifty five minutes talking about football or soccer and five minutes talking about the business to kind of lay up the the next meeting. So we’re having this conversation about soccer, and he was telling me that, he, he would just become a granddad. His wife sorry. His daughter had just, had had a baby.

But his daughter had married a team, a a person who supported the rival team. So his whole family were blue. They were Everton fans.

His daughter had married a guy that supported the red team, Liverpool rival fans. And, what had really annoyed the business owner, the granddad, he’s called Tony, is that that the guy, his son-in-law, had brought his granddaughter over to see him in his house, and he’d kitted her out in a red Liverpool baby socket kit. And he was really annoyed about it. Right?

He thought it was really like a bad thing to do because because this guy was winding him up. Right? So I put the call I put the phone down, and I called my assistant, and I said, Selena, hey. This is my assistant at the time.

I said, could you go on Amazon or wherever and buy me, as soon as possible, a Everton blue baby light kit? Right? She says, like, why? Like, your children are grown up.

Like, why do you need that?

Anyway, so she did it. And then when I went to the meeting, I walked into the meeting and, you know, the guy was a little bit gruff, you know, wasn’t in a very, very good mood. And I said, hey. Didn’t even shake my hand or offer me a coffee.

I said, hey, Tony. Before we start the meeting, I bought you a gift. He’s like, what are you talking about? I said, I bought you a present.

So why have you bought me a present? So he unwrapped it and he’s kind of he burst out into this smile. He saw the baby blue socket kit that I bought. I said, hey.

I felt really bad for you that your son-in-law had brought your granddaughter over. She’s wearing the wrong colors. If he does that again, you could put her in the baby blue Everton kit. And he was like, oh, that’s so incredible.

I really appreciate you did that. Cost me twenty pounds, which is like, what, twenty five bucks? Like, it’s nothing. And that allowed me to build an incredible relation.

He gave me a hug when I left the meeting. I was like his new best buddy. And if you could become like a seller’s new best buddy, it’s crazy how creative that you can get in terms of the deal structure because they wanna help you do the deal. It’s really, really crazy.

One other power play that you can do, is, you know, send them a birthday card. So you can find out on Facebook or LinkedIn when their birthday is, and then if you don’t end up transacting with them, let’s say the deal goes soft for a bit, send them a birthday card or a Christmas card. Or if it’s a female, send her a Mother’s Day card or a Father’s Day card for a guy, you know. Send them that little thing.

It makes a big difference, that touch. But then another really cool power play is sometimes you’ll be in seller conversations and the seller will be having a crisis. Could be a crisis in the business or it could be a crisis in in their personal life. Right?

And when you hear that and they say, hey. You know, sorry. You know, I gotta, like, can’t have this call today or, you know, I’m just gonna be delaying me doing this or I might even need to abort the deal altogether for a few weeks, because I’m dealing with this issue, whatever it is. Ask this very, very simple question.

What can I do to help you? Seven words. What can I do to help you? And you’re gonna really take them back because they’re gonna think, well, wow.

Like and and I do that all the time and people say to me, well, Carl, that’s extremely gracious of you. That’s very generous of you to ask. Like, that’s blow me away. Thank you so much.

But, well, you don’t even know me. Like, what what commands you to even wanna help me? Because I say, well, I think you’re a great person. You know, I’m looking to build a relationship with you.

And, you know, I’ve got a big heart. I’m a noble entrepreneur. I I I wanna help you through whatever issues you’ve got. No one’s ever taken me up on that yet, but the rapport you build, the respect and credibility you build just by asking that question.

Seven words, what can I do to help you? Right? That’s all you need to say. Right?

And you you’re gonna go way up in their in their estimations and then you you’re really seeding that that kind of friendship. You’re making a relationship deposit. Right? So if you’ve got money, you put money into a bank account and then you can draw that out.

Right? So relationships are the same. You make big relationship deposits upfront, then you can draw on that relationship fund, if you will, that that relationship bank, and that can help you in your deals. So just wanted to show you those those three power plays.Again, the strength of your relationship, the rapport that I like and trust, the high that is, the more creative that you can get on a deal. It’s absolutely true. And then the three or even four massive power plays, you know, send them cards, send them gifts if appropriate, really get to know them personally and how that can relate to you so you can have non business deep and meaningful conversations. And then if they’re ever in a bind or a pinch, ask them what you can do to help.

It makes a big difference. I hope you found that useful. I’m almost at my errand now, and I will see you soon for the next video. Don’t forget, hit like and subscribe so I can send you all of my amazing content in real time, and I will see you amazing people very, very soon.

Until then, bye for now.