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Self Confidence When Selling - You're the Convincer

A key element in your success as a sales professional is your own self confidence. It’s about believing in what you’re offering the customer and convincing him or her that it’s what he or she wants to do. It’s not about pushing hard or adopting a ‘softly-softly catchee monkey’ approach. It’s about achieving a balance where the customer feels comfortable enough to believe in your proposal and that your company can deliver the solution.

Quite simply, at any level of selling, the one thing that can scupper your sales pitch faster than anything else is a lack of self confidence. If you don’t believe in your own product or service, how on earth do you expect your customer to?

Ummm, err…

Let’s take an example… Two sales people are face to face with a customer. They’re both selling exactly the same solution at exactly the same price, so neither the price nor the product is a factor in the customer’s decision-making process. Both sales reps are dressed the same, are the same age and sex, and neither has any distinguishing features. So, again, visual impressions don’t influence the customer’s decision-making.

But one has self confidence - they believe in the solution being proposed. They are enthusiastic and they want the customer to love the product as much as they do. They smile, there’s a real passion in their delivery and they don’t panic when the customer raises an objection. Bingo - the sale’s secured.

The other delivers a pitch that goes exactly to script but is hesitant and punctuates some sentences with ‘kind of’, ‘err’ and words such as ‘probably’. For whatever reason, they’re unsure of themselves at that very moment and unsure of their ability to get their message across. The solution is great, but a mumbled delivery and soulless pitch that lacks any real commitment means that it’s a ‘no’ from the customer - even if they do have a desire to purchase the product.

‘It sells itself’

No product truly ‘sells itself’ - this is a selling myth. To convince a potential customer that any product or service you offer is worth paying for, you need to have confidence when selling that drives the right message across to the customer.

Every product needs a value-added solution - and that value added solution is the peace of mind that you offer that convinces the customer that you know their business priorities and how to implement a solution that tangibly enables the customer to achieve at least one of these priorities.

But remember…no matter how much the product is needed by the customer, self confidence doesn’t mean being pushy. It means being passionate without intimidation; enticement without having to railroad the customer into submission. It means believing in yourself, your product and your ability to relay that confidence to your customer without scaring them off.

In any sales situation, you are the ‘questioner’, the ‘understander’ and the ‘convincer’. Strike that balance of self confidence when selling with a trustworthy, professional and open approach and your sales figures will invariably be transformed.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

Self Confidence When Selling - You're the Convincer