Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Selling With Confidence

One thing that frustrates me is when salespeople feel they have to beg their customers — for a meeting, a quote, or an order.

What does that say about you as a salesperson if you feel that you have to beg your customer for anything? Let’s face it, if you honestly felt that you had the world’s best product or service, you would act like you are doing your customer a favor and not the other way around.

So many times, when I am in sales meetings, I hear the fear in a salesperson’s voice, even when they are just talking about talking to a customer. I feel the lack of confidence coming from them.

Why is that? Don’t they believe in their products? Don’t they believe in themselves? Obviously not.

If you don’t believe with all your heart that you are selling the best products and offering your customers the best solutions, then you are in the wrong business.

I can hear you up here in the great state of Maine saying that your company messes up once in a while and that there are genuine reasons you aren’t confident that you have the best product; that you feel the company could do better. You are probably right. But that’s not your job. Your job is to present your company and its products in the best light possible. If you want to be successful, your job is to convince your customers that you are providing them with the best solutions. Your job is not only to speak with confidence but to exude confidence from every pore.

Selling with confidence is essential for success and you must find ways to make sure you always do so.

First, you must have confidence in yourself; be completely self-assured. You must believe that you are indeed the best salesperson to sell the best product in the world. This starts with product knowledge: you know every detail about the product, its features, benefits, and unique selling points.

Next, you must be passionate. Nothing sells like passion. Your enthusiasm and passion for the product are evident in your voice and body language. Confidence is all about passion. The better you communicate that knowledge and passion, the better you will do. You must be able to articulate the value of the product clearly and persuasively and effectively address any potential objections.

The best way to demonstrate the value of your product is to tell stories. veryone loves stories. If you go into a meeting fully armed with interesting stories that demonstrate the success of your products, your customers will be more engaged. The great thing about great stories is that they are repeatable. For example, if you share a success story about your products with a buyer, she will remember that story and justify the purchase of your products when she shares her reasoning with the rest of her company.  

The same goes for testimonials: Customers bragging about what you’ve done for them, in writing no less,  is the best way to get your positive message across. Success loves company and with testimonials from some of your market’s big-name companies, your prospective customers will want to jump on that bandwagon.

Focus on your customers’ needs. If you have done your homework properly, as all confident salespeople do, you will know all about this potential customer. You will know their specific needs and will come armed with a complete list of how you can not only meet but exceed those needs. There is nothing more impressive to a potential customer than realizing that you “feel their pain,” know what they need, and can meet those needs. In short, you are demonstrating that you know his company as well as he does; that you have done him a favor by meeting with him, and are doing him an even bigger favor by allowing him to buy from your company.

Confidence is what sales are all about. Believing in your company, your products and services, and of course yourself, is the only way to sell successfully.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.