How to Develop the Confidence to Sell Your Services

The main thing that sits between you and getting your product or service to market is the confidence to go out and talk to people about it. The problem is that although many of us went to school and learned our craft of business, engineering, management, human resources, writing, art, design, and so on, most of us have not learned the craft of communicating with prospective clients about the product or service that we have built.

-----

If after reading this article you conclude that you found it helpful, please feel free to share it with your network. Perhaps we can all learn from each other. Thanks!

-----

There is an additional level of complexity here. Because we have not consciously worked on ourselves in the area of sales, we have subconsciously adopted an archaic mental image of sales, and this image leads to a lack of confidence in ourselves to go out and make sales. Also, we associate sales with rejection, and no one enjoys being rejected.

Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance that arises from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. Confidence really is an internal thing. Just as confidence is important to an athlete, it is also important to each of us as movers of what we believe in.

So, how can we develop confidence as sellers? Here are some ideas that I have put into practice myself and with the people I work with:

1) Study but not what you think

There are many sales trainers out there who focus on fighting through objections and closing more sales. These trainers serve a purpose for a salesperson whose sole purpose is to rack up revenue for the company. However, from my experience, the rest of us simply need to focus on the areas of motivation, human relations, and communications. In other words, ask questions, listen, and speak. 

Have any good sales trainers or books to recommend? Share them in the comments below. Tag the author if they are here on LinkedIn.

2) Identify and share your uniqueness

The best asset that you have for relaying your product or service to others is your story. Your story includes how you identified the problem that you’re solving and why you chose to take it on. Relay the stories of how you have applied your product or service to help other people and relate those stories back to the details of the client with whom you are talking. Your story is your uniqueness, and passion should flow from that. Clients buy into passion.

3) Create the picture

Combine your own personal story and what you have learned from books to create a picture of you doing, being, and having the confidence to share your story. Write it out. Take time each day to rehearse, with your mind’s eye, you acting with confidence while listening to and talking with prospective clients. We think in pictures. The pictures in our minds give us emotions. Emotions create the feelings that lead us to act powerfully (or not so powerfully). So, ensure that you have a compelling picture in your mind.

4) Celebrate small wins

Sales involves a conscious effort to own uniqueness and become better. Better is a nice word. The big wins come, but every day we can find one or two small wins to celebrate. Record them. When you hit the big win, look back over your journey and identify patterns in how you arrived at the big win. Learn through reflection.

5) To get the energy to do the thing, you just have to do the thing

There is a popular saying: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Early in my career, I adopted my own version of that saying. Whenever I had to conquer something outside my comfort zone, I repeated the following to myself: “To get the energy to do the thing, you just have to do the thing.” As I repeated this to myself, I would go for it. Before I knew it, I was all-in and doing just fine.

What do you think of these tips for building confidence as a seller? I welcome you to share your ideas and opinions below. Let’s have a conversation.

***

Connect Deeper

I welcome you to connect or follow me here on beBee.

If this article resonated, I welcome you to subscribe to my Sunday morning e-newsletter. I share stories about me falling down and getting back up as I pursue sales as my career.  You will get the first 3 chapters of my best-selling book 

It’s Time to Sell: Cultivating the Sales Mind-Set. It will change how you look at life and sales.