You Can Learn to Have Confidence

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

​Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.

According to a survey published in Psychology Today, 55% of people feel their self-worth or confidence is tied to what other people think of them – while Oprah Winfrey had this to say: “I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people and all had one thing in common – they wanted validation. They want to know does what I say mean anything to you?”

Selling, self-worth and confidence

Some people call it self-worth, others call it confidence, maybe it’s ego but it doesn’t take long for us to discover that all three play a significant role in the world of sales.

Interestingly, the assumption is often made that if someone has chosen selling for their profession, they are “naturally” confident but this isn’t absolutely true. I work with salespeople all the time and many are not confident in the early stages of their career (some never gain sufficient confidence!)

But like many selling skills you can learn confidence.

Personal success authority Brian Tracy has written a great article on the subject: “How To Become A Top Salesperson By Moving Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Building Self-Confidence

Transferring confidence

Being able to confidently qualify prospective customers, conduct discovery meetings, deliver your solution and answer their questions or objections is one of the most important skills to master in becoming a sales professional.

Selling has been described as accomplishing a transfer of confidence – your job is to transfer confidence to the potential customer so that they believe in your confidence more than they believe in their doubts!

As one of my early sales managers told me: “Son, it’s not what you say, but how you say it”.

How?

Here’s one way… and many of you won’t like the answer.

Scripts.

I often get challenged on the merits of using a sales script and there’s a never-ending debate about using them. But the purpose of a script isn’t to memorise and recite the words verbatim – it’s simply a standard procedure you can access at any time. A default tool.

These days, selling is complex and it helps to have these procedures in your repertoire. Just like actors, athletes, pilots and doctors have learned routines and procedures to navigate their complex roles.

When you have a simple, prepared response readily available to you at any time, it frees you up and allows confident delivery of message.

Confidence plays a big part in sales, without it all your other strategies will often fall apart and when you’re confident you are seen as more trustworthy to customers.

Think about it.

Until next week good selling!
 
 

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.

He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 

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