On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll discuss the power of your own confidence and we’ll ask the question, “How confident are you with closing?”
Your confidence will cause them to persuade themselves to buy just the way the Jamaican food seller almost persuaded me to buy something I don’t even like.
Defining confidence
Confidence amounts to your belief in yourself and your ability to succeed.
If you are confident, then you will project an attitude of competence and authority.
As a seller, you must be able to project confidence, even in a situation that isn’t certain. Whether you’re new to sales, just not closing deals, or selling a product that is new to you, you must project confidence in order to convince your prospect to buy.
You have to drink your own Kool Aid, so to speak.
Evangelizing
Because I grew up poor, when I realized I could earn a decent living in sales doing something that I really loved, I wanted to evangelize about it. I wanted to tell other people how they could be successful in sales.
First, I launched my podcast. I discovered along the way that when people encounter a passionate seller who really loves what he is doing, they see him as an authority figure.
Without that kind of influence, it’s very difficult to convince people to make an economic decision.
Confidence vs. certainty
A 2018 study of experts revealed an interesting trend among people who hire experts to help them solve problems.
Whether the expert was in sales, finance, or any other industry, people generally valued competence and authority over an ability to accurately predict an outcome. In other words, they felt better about the process if the expert exuded confidence.
If, for instance, you offer prospects a 60 percent likelihood of a certain outcome, they will value that authority over a general suggestion of what might happen.
If you can share that 90 percent of your customers experience a certain outcome, that will bring a tremendous amount of clarity to your buyers.
You’ll have a much better chance of closing that deal and encouraging that person to persuade himself to purchase.
Taking shots
Wayne Gretzky said that you miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take. And while that’s true, it’s also true that not every shot will be the right one for us.
As a sales rep, you’re not going to try to sell every single product to every single person. You’re going to go after clients or prospects that are qualified; those that are more likely to close.
My soccer coach used to tell us that the more shots we took on goal, the better our chances of scoring. But shooting on goal is different than randomly kicking balls.
I made the mistake as a new seller of limiting myself to those shots that I knew would succeed. I decided that I would only pursue prospects that I knew would say yes.
The problem is that no one can know that with any certainty. Even in those moments, you must exude confidence.
Invite change
You must be sure that you’re confidently encouraging your customers and inviting them to change.
Take advantage of the upsell. If you recall, McDonald’s spent years asking its customers if they wanted to supersize their drinks and fries.
Practice your competence and your confidence through repetition.
Be humble, but be confident. Don’t be cocky.
“How Confident Are You With Closing?” episode resources
Read more about the basics of confidence here.
This episode is brought to you in part by Maximizer CRM, personalized CRM that gives you the confidence to improve your business and increase profits. To get a demonstration of maximizer, go to the sales evangelists.com/maximizer.
Click on the link to get a free demo of what Maximizer CRM can do for you. It integrates your marketing campaign as well as your CRM, and it works whether you’re a small organization or a large one.
This episode is also brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.
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