Confident people tend towards success.
This is especially true in sales since customers and prospects will immediately trust a salesperson more if they are confident and knowledgeable.
As the leader of a sales team, you can help your team members build their confidence and achieve sales success with these 7 tips.
7 Tips for Building Confidence in Sales
1. Focus and Build Upon Strength Areas
Confident salespeople know their strengths and they work to develop them. This comes from being self-aware, not from being arrogant.
Help each sales rep identify an area they naturally excel in, and then coach them to develop it even further.
This will help them improve in that area, of course. But even more, it will help them build self-confidence when they’re faced with areas they find challenging (delivering a sales presentation, for example.)
2. Replace Negative Energy with Positive Influences
One of the best ways your salespeople can build their confidence in sales is to surround themselves with successful, goal-oriented people. (And get rid of any negative self-talk and negative people in their lives.)
The sales manager should set the example by being positive and confident themselves, and avoiding negativity when possible.
Positive, optimistic people motivate us to achieve. Try pairing up new sales reps with a mentor who can help them develop their skills and build their confidence.
3. Learn from the Success of Others
A mentor is great for this, but sales leaders should work to build a culture in which salespeople regularly share “tribal knowledge.”
When a member of your sales team achieves success, recognize it and ask them to present their success story at your next team meeting.
They’ll own that area of expertise and increase their own confidence level. At the same time, they’ll help their team members to achieve the same success.
4. Master the Fundamentals
People are most confident when they’re doing something they know well.
For sales professionals, that means getting completely comfortable with the sales process. They should know each stage of the process like the back of their hand.
Effective sales training allows salespeople to make the steps of the sales process a habit, so they aren’t trying to remember what to do next when they’re with a buyer.
5. Keep an Open Mind
Successful, confident salespeople don’t stagnate and settle for mediocre.
They have a growth mindset and are constantly looking for ways to improve.
Whether that’s through self-help books, creating long-term goals, or taking educational courses, they keep an open mind and never settle for less than their best.
Often, when we step outside of our everyday routines we’re able to see things in a different light. Encourage your sales reps to venture out, learn, and bring fresh ideas back to the daily hustle.
6. Become a Subject Matter Expert
To confidently communicate the benefits of your solution to prospects and customers, a salesperson must be an expert on your product or service.
That’s up to the company to offer adequate product training.
But it’s not enough to be an expert on the solution your company offers. A confident and effective salesperson will also be an expert on their customer’s industry, so that they’re regarded as a strategic resource—and not just a product pusher.
Encourage reps to learn as much as possible about the industries you serve so they feel sure of themselves when calling on buyers.
7. Learn from Successes and Failures
We will all experience success and failure. They’re both a necessary part of life.
It’s how we react and learn from our successes and failures that makes the biggest difference.
When your reps fail at something, coach them to use it to their advantage. They should learn from it, brush themselves off, and go back out there stronger than before.
When they experience a win, they should do the same thing. Have them examine what went well, and replicate it in the future.
While a win can provide a confidence level boost, your reps should learn to always be thinking about the next opportunity on the horizon.
Conclusion
When your salespeople are confident, they can build confidence in your prospects and customers, and remove any doubts or fears they may have around your offerings.
Make sure your reps feel self-assured and prepared on every sales call by equipping them with a standard sales process they can access like second nature.
IMPACT Selling is a customer-focused sales process that works so well because it’s easy to learn and apply.
