Confidence in Selling

Some Physicists’ confidence in Einstein’s theory on the speed of light has been shaken in the last few days by the speed of the Usain—St. Leo- Bolts of the sub atomic world – neutrinos-  which covered a distance rather quicker than they  were ‘meant’ to.

The Chairman of the Bank of England has stated that the country's economic  crisis could be worse than the 1930's  ,so 75 billion pounds is to be injected into the economy over the next four months  and England football manager Fabio Capello said of this week's Euro 2012 qualifier in Montenegro that he will set his side out to take all three points in Podgorica against Montenegro.

"If you play for a draw it is a big mistake, you are defending a result and it is easy then to make silly or stupid mistakes,"

"We need to go to win in Montenegro and not to play for a draw."


"The players understand that we need to play better and with more confidence and focus on every game to improve."

Confidence is also a crucial part of a professional salesperson’s make up.

Confidence is a state of being sure that a viewpoint is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective for our customers. It is often having confidence to listen to the customer rather than pray and spray PowerPoint presentations at them.

Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself and is an aspect some buyers look for in reassurance of their buying decisions.

Arrogance or hubris is unmerited confidence—believing that we are capable or correct when we are not.

Overconfidence or presumptuousness is excessive belief in someone (or something) succeeding, without any regard for failure. In business a situation can only be judged after the aim has been achieved or not.

Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy as those salespeople without it may fail or not try because they lack it and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because of an innate ability. Just consider the challenges of prospecting, new business generation and the like - many have lost the confidence to practice this side of the craft.

I guess it is time for 'positive mental attitude '(PMA) to be elevated again in sales skills training. The building of both optimism and realism into the attributes' set of sales people is part of that self confidence salespeople need.

After all as the old adage goes “ The first person a salesperson needs to convince is themselves”

Pep talks from managers , coaches and trainer can help to encourage and further build a salesperson’s confidence.

However recent research from TACK International suggests fewer sales managers have time for coaching team members especially if they have a personal responsibility for their own key accounts to focus on. www.tack.co.uk

I presented some research findings at an Executive forum at De Vere's Cheadle House for the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management last week. One of the findings concerned the audience of sales professionals- the frequency that sales managers go out into the field with their sales team members.

28% of sales people have had either their sales managers accompany them on only one field day in the last 12 months or none at all. ( 13% yearly +15% never)
For the main headline numbers of the research click on this link
http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/10/sales-leadership-research-findings-2011.html

Let's build our confidence

Unofficial poster inspired by the campaign of ad agency Mother for the Olympics below