The more you can build up your level of confidence the better you’re going be able to present yourself, the more sales you’re going make and, the more money you’re going to make. Confidence is a really important step on the way to success, but if you are feeling a little less confidence at this stage of your business, don’t worry, you will feel better over time with experience but this post is about getting you there faster.
Let’s say you’re in a buying situation and the person that you’re considering making a purchase from is all awkward, and uncomfortable, and not showing much confidence, you sort of start to doubt that they can really offer what they say they can.
Below are four tips that can help you to feel more confident when you’re in sales situations, selling your products, or services so that you can earn more money.
Use a visualization technique to help you connect with success. A lot of people do talk about visualization, and visualizing success, but I’m going to add a little twist here, and suggest that you try and channel a mentor of yours, or somebody who’s already successful and whose work you really enjoy, and who has the enthusiasm that you’d like to be able to convey in your own presentations, or sales situations. Just take a few minutes to imagine how they would react in a situation like that. How they would feel. How they would present themselves.
Try and channel that same energy when you’re in those situations. Really get into it and pretend. Pretend like when you were a kid. Same situation here. When you’re in a selling situation just pretend. Pretend that you’re more confident. Step outside of yourself and try and channel your mentor, or somebody that you respect who’s in your industry.
Recognize that failure can help you to build your confidence. As odd as it may sound, commit to failing your way to success. Why? Because you can learn from failure. Unfortunately, we are programmed from a very young age to feel shame whenever we make a mistake when mistakes are actually very beneficial to us, as long as we take the lesson from them. If we can reflect on what we might’ve done incorrectly, or what we might’ve done wrong, and how we can do better next time then it’s just a learning opportunity.
So start framing failures, or mistakes as opportunities to learn. As long as you do that then there’s no such thing as failure. Again, we are programmed to feel shame from a young age when we make mistakes in school.
My mother was super bright, super intelligent, and she was also a straight A student when she was in school. So when I would come home from school with my report card and I’d have some As, some Bs, some Cs. So being that my mother was a straight A student, she focused a lot of attention, and criticism unfortunately on the Bs and the Cs. It kind of made me anxious as a kid about making a mistake, or anxious about not doing as well as my mother expected me to. As an adult, I had to let go of the fear of making mistakes and my need to be perfect. I learned that it’s persistence that wins the race, not perfection.
Let go of your fear of rejection. Recognize that not everyone is going to say yes, and just keep going. Persistence is key, and sales is a numbers game. The more you put yourself out there, the more you make those offers, the more you hear “no”, the more it will take the sting of rejection away. Think of it this way, “every no leads you closer to a yes”. It does often take seven touches or offers before someone will actually go ahead and make a buying decision with you because you need to build that no like trust factor.
Just being persistent and continuing to put yourself out there without worrying about failure, without worrying about making mistakes, without worrying about rejection, you will win.
In my first corporate sales job, this is going back quite a few years ago, I was an inside sales rep and I was selling financial services to businesses. We (myself and the other members on my team) would make anywhere between 40 and 50 phone calls per day to offer our services.
Not everybody said “yes” and in fact most people said “no” but there were enough people who said “yes” that we were very successful in selling our services. In fact, we were selling more than the outside sales people, because we had a large number of opportunities during the day to make offers.
So, just let go of the worry of rejection because ultimately it’s gonna take you to where you want to be, which is serving your customers with your gifts and talents in the best way you know how.
Use tapping to release any anxious feelings in sales situations. The final tip I want to share with you is about a technique to let go of those anxious feelings during sales situations in mere minutes. It’s a highly effective and proven mind/body tool called tapping. If you haven’t heard of it I encourage you to learn more about it because it is life-changing.
I’m a certified Tapping Into Wealth coach and tapping with my clients is a big part of what I do. I work with female entrepreneurs helping them to let go of their blocks to achieving the money and success that they want, and their blocks to feeling more confident in their business.
Join my free Facebook community for Female Entrepreneurs where you’ll get more mindset tips and tools as well as opportunities to network with other like minded entrepreneurs, share your business wisdom and promote your own services or products.
To Your Success!
Laura Whitelaw
Certified Tapping Into Wealth Coach
Carla Gardiner says
Oh, my word, your school grade experience mirrors mine except in reverse. I am the oldest of 5 children. School came easy for me and I liked it. In grammar school, I was an average C student. I felt inferior but managed to get through without being too hard on myself. Enter high school and all of a sudden things changed. Now I’m getting straight A’s, perhaps it was the study skills I had developed earlier. One night at dinner, we shared our report cards, I went first beaming with pride as I had never thought I would excel. Much to my chagrin, my father called me a name, sent me to bed without dinner and said “how dare you demean your brothers and sisters. They work so hard and you gloat”. To say I’ve never forgotten that is an understatement; but, it taught me that to please another serves no purpose…I discovered I could have been the first lady president and my father still would never be proud of me…publicly. So, let it go, forgive and strive to be YOUR best for YOU and no one else.
Livvie Matthews says
Great article! The recognizing failure can be a help and letting go of the fear of rejection brings out some good points.
Thanks for sharing!
Livvie Matthews