Authentic Persuasion Show

[E42] Q&A Week: How to gain confidence as a salesperson

Listen Later

In this episode, I go into depth answering one question

that I have received a lot over the years:

  • What are some good tips to gain your confidence as a salesperson?

If you have any sales or mindset related questions, send

me a message through the contact page or
via LinkedIn.

Episode 42 – Transcript

On

this episode I’m going to try to tackle some more sales related questions and
keep the episode under 10 minutes. Welcome to Episode 42 of The Sales
Experience Podcast.

I

am so excited for this week for pulling up some questions that I’ve received in
the past or seen online and trying to answer them the best I can, in a one way
conversation, throwing out information as best as possible.

My

goal for these episodes is always to keep them under 10 minutes and to keep
them very valuable and useful so that in your daily journey in short bursts,
you can get some value and useful information to help with your sales career.

Yesterday,

obviously, I went over 10 minutes. Hopefully, it was worth it answered three
questions, I had a whole ton that I wanted to go through some to pick up where
I left off yesterday. And as always, make sure you subscribe, download these
episodes every day.

They’re

available Monday through Friday. And if you’re on iTunes, if you could rate it,
leave a comment, all of those ratings and comments really helped both for me
and feedback to know that people are liking this and the direction’s going is
fitting with what you’re looking for.

And

then on the flip side, also helping people who are looking for new podcasts to
listen to come across the show, want to see some social proof, read some
comments, see some ratings, see if it’s going to be valuable for them as they
decide whether they want to download episodes or not. So if you could do that,
I always appreciate it. But until then, let’s jump into some questions and see
how far we can get through today.

The

first question that I’ve got, that I want to tackle is, what are some good tips
to gain your confidence as a salesperson?

And

this one is so important. Whether you’re brand new to sales, you’ve never done
sales, you’re thinking about getting into it, and you’re not sure, because you
look at experts, you look at professionals, you look at someone who’s operating
at a high level that you either bought from and were amazed by, or you see
online.

You

know, thanks to social media, and YouTube and Google and LinkedIn, Facebook,
Instagram, all those different things, you can come across so many different
people, whether they’re experts or not, and you can absorb their content. And
sometimes that may make you feel like you’ve got a long way to go and the gap
between where you are and where they are is so big, not sure where to start.

And

so what are the tips that I give people as far as sales, and how to be
confident and gain that confidence as you go?

The

number one thing I always tell everyone is to know your strengths. It’s all
about self awareness. And I have article on the CutterConsultingGroup.com
website if you want to read that. But self awareness is the key so you know
what you’re strong at, what are your strengths.

Now,

a lot of advice and old school advice is to look at your strengths and your
weaknesses. And then work on fixing your weaknesses and turning them into
strengths. I think and I believe with those who say the opposite, which is,
know what your strengths are, and then go all in on those strengths and just
run with that.

Now,

you always want to know what your weaknesses are, you always want to know where
your blind spots are, and you want to take that into account. You do want to
improve things in certain ways. And to make sure it’s not detrimental. You
don’t want to have weaknesses that actually get in the way of your progress or
success, but you want to focus more on your strengths.

If

you’re really good with talking to people, if you’re really good at solving
problems, or, you know, doing puzzles and figuring out where the issue might be
and how to fix that, that is key, especially in sales. If you’re good at
relating to people having conversations, if you’re okay with where
conversations may go and that spontaneity of it. Or even if you need it to be
planned. And that’s one of your strengths, understand that and who you are and
what you like because that will really help when you get into that comparison
game which can be detrimental. And you’ve got to be careful about that.

If

you know your strengths, like you need a script, you have to have it all
planned out, I covered this during the behavior weeks. If you find yourself in
the analyst group where you don’t like confrontation too much you like to have
it planned, you like to have a strategy in place, you probably are the kind of
person and I know that I’m this way at points, where you want to have
everything written out, you want to know what you’re doing.

If

you’re going to call somebody even if you leave a voicemail, you want to have
that planned out and just make sure that it’s done right. Because again,
analyst biggest fear is to look wrong, look stupid, look like you make a mistake,
have other see that you make a mistake, so you want to plan out.

If

you know that and that’s who you are and once you’re in that framework, you’re
really strong and effective and you can get lots done and it’s amazing, just
roll with that. If that’s what you need to be strong and get into your
strengths, then just go with that and set yourself up for success.

And

so it’s important to know your strengths if you want to be confident and
successful in anything. Obviously, we’re talking about sales, but that’s really
anything in life. And also cut yourself some slack. Because depending on where
you’re at in your life journey, you may not know what your strengths really
are. Or you might not be totally in alignment with them yet.

So.

just give yourself time and do a lot of analysis, self awareness and take a
look at where you’re really in your zone and what your strengths are, and then
go all in on that. Now, that’s step number one for confidence.

Number

two advice that I give to people is believe in what you’re selling. So it’s so
important that if you want to be confident in sales, you have to be confident
in what you’re selling.

Is

what you’re selling, actually helping other people either change their life,
fix something they’ve got that they’re struggling with, improve their life,
costume transformation, big or small or is it helping them get to a goal or buy
something they need or want something that’s going to bring them joy or
happiness?

If

the answer to that is yes, then know that your confidence will build over time
when you’re selling something that you know, it’s actually a good thing for
other people. If it’s not a good thing, if you’re selling something where deep
down inside, you know, it’s not a good thing for people or you having to force
it on people that might not be a good fit, or you have to sell it to every
single person. Whenever you’re in those situations, that’s tough to have
confidence.

You

might have fake confidence, you might seem like you have confidence and you’re
outwardly doing it, internally, you’re not in alignment and that’s going to
come through. Even at a subconscious level, the people you talk to will pick up
on the fact that you don’t really believe in what you’re selling. And when you
do that, then it’s tough to have confidence because you’re going to hit a lot
of walls and a lot of rejection.

And

that’s not the way to go. When you have something that you’re selling that you
believe in, it’s so much easier to be confident in it. And if somebody says no
one rejects you, then it doesn’t matter because it’s not about you, it’s about
them because you know you’re doing the right thing.

Third

part here for building confidence is fundamentally realize it’s not life or
death. Realize that a sales career and what you’re doing, at the end of the
day, nobody’s going to die. And so a lot of times people get afraid of saying
the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing or losing a sale or upsetting
somebody.

You

know, if you’re good person and you’re trying to do the right thing, and it
doesn’t happen, they don’t buy you don’t get that sale, whatever it is, keep in
mind, it’s not life or death. I’ve been in several situations where it has been
life or death or there’s been life on the line in past roles I’ve had where
that’s actually the case, I’ll tell you, sales is not like that.

Now

the thing is, our mind tricks us. It makes us think that everything that could
go wrong will go wrong, and that it is life or death or your prospects make you
feel like it’s life or death. I remember when I was in the mortgage business,
the realtors, the people wanting to buy a house, they all acted like it was
life or death if they didn’t buy that house or it didn’t close on time or if it
didn’t happen, or they didn’t find the right one, like their whole world was
going to collapse.

Just

remember, step back a little bit and realize none of it really matters like as
far as life or death goes. Keep doing what you’re doing but that’s where you
just got to be careful not to take it too personally.

And

the fourth tip I have for building confidence is know why you’re in sales, why
do you do what you do? I’ve done episode on this before, during the first week
of the podcast, I have an article on the website. There’s so many different
resources.

But

the key is to understand why are you in sales? Why do you get up every day? Why
do you want to be successful for your goals for something that you’re trying to
achieve for money that you’re earning, and then what that is going for, or how
it’s an alignment for who you are and what you want to accomplish, and your
service to the world.

Wherever

you’re at on all of that spectrum, make sure you understand why you’re doing it
because then you’ll have the confidence. If you know I’m doing this because I
want to make money, that money is a tool for me to get this or to do that or to
build this kind of security, whatever that might be for you, keep digging as
deep as possible.

And

then once you have that, that will give you the confidence to do what you need
to do; to make extra calls, to push for the sale, to ask deeper questions of
your prospect, to get past rejections and not worry about it and then just keep
going everyday. So, that one’s key.

And

then the last one, just take massive action as much as you can. There’s
something about doing a lot that will build confidence in you. And I think part
of that is is when you sit around, and again, I’m speaking from my own
experience as well about myself.

But

when you sit around and you spend a lot of time thinking about what you could
be doing, should be doing, and then you put some guilt or blame on yourself for
what you’re not doing. So, you’re not picking up the phone call, you’re not
closing more deals, it’s tough to feel confident when you just go, go, go and
give it all you have.

If

you’re working, you’re in an office, you’re in a cubicle and you’re on the
phone and you’re doing sales, you’re there, let’s say eight hours a day. I see
so many reps who out of eight hours, if they actually work two hours, it’s
amazing, but they don’t.

There’s

a lot of hanging out, checking your phone, playing around talking to people
getting coffee, you make a call, nobody answers, then you go to the bathroom,
then you come back, you think about another call. And then you’ve got to go
talk to somebody else. Whatever it is, all that stuff is distracting.

It’s

tough to feel confident about what you’re doing and the success you can create
when you’re just procrastinating and delaying and doing everything else other
than what you know what you could be doing or should be doing. And so the key
is just do massive action. If you’re in that office eight hours a day, you will
blow your managers mind, you’ll totally throw them off if you just hustle your
face off during those eight hours.

And

again, if you’re in telesales, you’re not going to be able to be on the phone
eight hours a day, because that will melt your brain. Like literally you can’t
keep that pace. But if you can put in a good 4, 5, 6 hours of phone calls, talk
time, availability, if you’re working in retail, you’re talking to people all
the time. You know those days when you’re on fire, where you’re just in it all
the time, non stop, it just doesn’t stop and you’re going like crazy. At the
end of the day, you feel so confident you feel so great.

If

you’re in a call center environment, just make sure you push yourself to that,
just don’t stop. Don’t listen to anyone else around you. Don’t get distracted
by other people and just go and do as much as you can.

Leave

it all on the field where at the end of the day, you’re just like, boom, that
was amazing. Maybe I didn’t close a lot of deals, I did a lot, I feel great,
I’m going to come back again and do it tomorrow.

Hopefully

that helps answer this one question in one episode. Come back again tomorrow.
I’m going to go through more questions here. And if you have any questions
specifically, hit me up like I said on the website or on LinkedIn is a great
way to go. And always remember that everything in life is sales and people will
remember the experience you gave them.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store
Authentic Persuasion ShowBy Jason Cutter
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

35 ratings