Member Article

Sales Nugget – improve your confidence

“Her confidence has grown so much in the last few months,“ said a director of a company to me last week. He was talking about a member of his staff whose performance was improving and her value to his company was increasing.

In most of our training programmes most learners in a 1-2-1 meeting always say they would like to improve their confidence. They can never articulate what this new confidence would look like and how it would make them feel but they are on the right track. Confidence plays a significant role in selling.

If selling were easy anyone could do it without any need for knowledge or training. What most salespeople realise very early on in their career is that they sell better when they are feeling confident.

So how can you improve your confidence? Let’s look at three areas that have boosted the confidence of the salesperson we mentioned at the top of the article.

1. Become an expert

One of the first things she has done has become an expert in her business. She knows how it is run, why it is run, and what services it offers. However this isn’t all she has done to improve her confidence.

What has made the difference is she has become an expert in her customers businesses. She has spent time understanding their issues and needs and how her companies’ services can meet those issues and needs.

This means that whenever she goes out to a sales call she has anticipated the topics that will be covered, the questions that are likely to be asked and she has the answers to them.

It is this expert knowledge that has given her a massive improvement in confidence.

2. Improve communication skills

The second area of improvement of the salesperson mentioned above has been an improvement in her communication skills specifically questioning and listening skills.

Over the last few months we have worked on the type and timing of some great questions that have engaged her customers in meaningful conversations. She has improved her listening skills by really listening and understanding what her customers have actually been saying.

With better questioning and listening skills her customers view her with confidence, as they know she is genuinely there to help them which has built trust in their relationship.

The more you strengthen your questioning and listening skills the more comfortable and confident you will feel in any sales meeting.

3. Why did you buy off me?

This is a great question to ask your clients and one that our salesperson asked. The answers can be surprising and at the same time massive confidence boosters.

What our salesperson found out was that she got many positive answers about why they bought off her. The surprise to her was that most of answers weren’t about her companies’ great products and services. They were personal about how they trusted her to do the right thing for them; how they knew she would help them and a few more.

The answers have not only give her sales tips she can use in future sales situations but also a major confidence boost.

So go out and ask your clients why they bought off you. You will get some great answers and a boost to your confidence.

Confidence can be improved and is a skill that can be developed the question is do you have the confidence to do something about it?

LIMITED OFFER

We have a limited amount of FREE fully funded sales, retail and customer services training available to SME’s in the North East region. The eligibility and criteria is very flexible which most of the SME’s in region will meet. The issue is that it is very limited.

If you want more information on this limited offer to increase your sales please contact us on 0191-2267366, email us at sales@arrowsales.co.uk or visit us at http://www.arrowsales.co.uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michael McMeekin .