I love asking this question of salespeople.
As much as I want to hear what they say, it’s how they say it that really tells me something.
Typically, salespeople will say they would buy from themselves. Where I find things don’t add up is when I compare what they’re saying to their tone of voice and body language.
Confident salespeople are able to express with their body language and their tone of voice as to why they would buy from themselves without any hesitation.
Salespeople who are not confident… well, you know the rest of the story.
Now step back and begin to think for a moment about what prospects and customers are seeing? If a salesperson doesn’t have enough confidence that they would buy what they are selling, then why would a customer be expected to do anything different?
Where this really plays out is with salespeople who do not have dedicated customers. In other words, the salespeople are in more of customer service type role. Salespeople who rely on prospecting or deal primarily with customers where the relationship is a single sale are clearly at a disadvantage if they don’t believe in themselves enough to buy from themselves.
The number one request I hear from people is they want help finding better leads.
I’ll agree that this is the number one issue most salespeople are facing in today’s marketplace. The problem is all the leads won’t make a difference if the salespeople don’t have the level of confidence to sell to them.
Prospecting results are an outcome of a salesperson’s level of confidence. If your confidence is not where it needs to be, it’s time to take a step back and examine why that is the case.
Confidence comes from within. It is built on a person’s belief system and their attitude. This is why I always say a salesperson’s greatest asset is their own personality, and the way they can increase their own success in sales is by maximizing how they use their personality.
In the coming days, I’ll be using this blog to talk more about how confidence and sales prospecting go hand in hand.
Keep reading and keep selling!
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
