"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
Norman Vincent Peale
Sales is hard. It’s not for the weak at heart. It requires the right mindset to really be successful.
One massively overlooked factor to becoming a great sales professional is the confidence you have in yourself.
If you fail to build sales confidence, you’ll consistently struggle to effectively sell. By 'confidence' per say, I'm not referring to fake it until you make it. I'm talking a deep, down inside of you confidence to become the best version of YOU.
"Successful people have the confidence to take risks that unsuccessful people try to avoid."
CONFIDENCE IS CRITICAL
Did you know that only 31% of salespeople effectively drive conversations with senior executives?
Startling isn't it? This is because a vast majority of those in sales lack the confidence to sell at a higher level. As your business acumen grows so does your confidence level. Soon, you’ll be viewed as a sales professional who offers real value.
How can your clients or prospects trust you if you don’t communicate like an expert?
Increase your confidence by:
- Valuing yourself
- Finding your passion
- Changing your mindset
- Building genuine and authentic relationships
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
How do you build confidence in a genuine and authentic manner in a sales world where one gets rejected frequently? Let's face it, most strategies out there are fake and quite disingenuous.
DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS
The comparison game, especially in sales, is as old as humanity. Comparing yourself to others does absolutely nothing but place the power with the other person. Channel the focus and attention on you!
The comparison game is a mental game and is a waste of your time. Seek to catch yourself and avoid comparison triggers if the activity doesn’t add meaning or any real value to you.
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the sales comparison game. It all depends on how you view yourself.
INVEST IN YOURSELF
Investing in yourself is one of the best return on investments. A true sales professional takes responsibility to develop their gifts and talents, in order to best serve their clients. You must love yourself before you can expect your clients to love you.
Look in the mirror and repeat after me...
- I'm worth it
- I'm of value
- I will create the best version of me
Investing in yourself, sends a powerful message not only to you but to the business community. When you’re willing to say 'YES' to confidence and invest in yourself, your clients and prospects will provide you with amazing rewards.
LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE
"The more you trust your intuition, the more empowered you become, the stronger you become, and the happier you become.
Gisele Bundchen
Don’t let the voice or opinions from others squash your inner voice. Develop the courage to follow your heart. Get real with yourself and ask yourself tough questions. Turn up the inner voice and get brutally honest with who you are.
"If you can't get real yourself then how can you get real with your clients?"
Listen to your inner voice and accept you for you. Self-acceptance allows you to slow down, pay attention, and take note of what is going on inside of you. The core foundation of a Selling from the Heart professional is authenticity.
Authentic sales professionals take responsibility for their choices. They know they're the authors of their own sales lives.
BE THE REAL YOU
Being the real you is scary. You need to get real and brutally honest with who you really are. Rip off the mask you're wearing. You can't wear the mask forever as this gets old and will eventually destroy your authentic self. Be the real you, not an imposter.
If you’re consistently nurturing your mindset, you will build up a tolerance against negative thoughts, procrastination, self-doubt and insecurities.
I encourage you to build confidence in your abilities. I challenge you both personally and professionally around these 5 areas:
1. Seek to become an expert in your field of work
2. Constantly crave feedback on YOU
3. Become brutally honest with yourself
4. Set goals and create a business plan
5. Never ever stop learning
YOUR HOMEWORK: BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE
On a daily basis develop a routine and self-reflect.
Building a self-confidence routine may be as simple as spending the first 30 minutes of every morning in solitude.
Asking yourself these questions...
- What am I grateful for?
- What am I proud of?
- Am I focusing on the right tasks?
- What went well for me?
Projecting just enough confidence helps you gain credibility, makes for a good first impression and helps you to deal with pressure that comes with being a sales professional.
What daily confidence building questions do you ask yourself?
If you would like to know more about Building Confidence as a Sales Professional, please tune into the latest episode of the Selling from the Heart podcast (click on image below)
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart has launched! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Social Sales Academy and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
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