10 Steps To Build Your Sales Confidence

What many solopreneurs or recent business owners often fail to realise is that having – at least basic – sales skills is vital. Unless you can afford to employ staff or have experienced family members who can help out, chances are that you are going to be the sales person for your small business in the early stages.

As you can imagine, getting into sales for the first time can be quite nerve-wracking as it can push you out of your comfort zone. Thus, allowing yourself time to build your sales confidence in advance is important.

Here, I have shared with you a few tips our BLAM team swears by that can help strengthen your sales confidence:

1. Build your knowledge. Knowing what you are selling is essential in terms of both your success as well as self-confidence. Studying your product in depth until you become unconsciously competent in selling it is the first and most important step in boosting your self-assurance. A successful salesperson is nothing less than an expert in their respective field and that is what you need to accomplish.

2. Define what a quality lead looks like. Until you sit down to specify the characteristics of your target audience, expect to waste a lot of time on unfit contacts. Trying to sell to people who are by default not likely to buy will not do any good for your sales confidence. Therefore, defining what a quality lead looks like should take place very early in the process as it is a critical step in getting you started with your sales.

3. Understand your role. It is important that you perceive yourself as a problem solver, trying to help others with your products. Focusing on the money a client is required to invest for your solution is a bad idea. In fact, try not to think about money at all and instead concentrate on how your product can make someone’s life better.

4. Believe in your power of influence. Getting to know the other person, their values and establishing common ground can increase your power of influence when talking to someone. Engaging them in the conversation by asking questions and involving them in the solution can also be very effective. Feel free to experiment with different techniques until you determine which works best for you and you will find yourself becoming more confident as you discover your very own power of influence.

5. Have a structured pitch. When building your pitch, make sure you follow an effective structure which guarantees you talk about everything important in the correct sequence. For instance, rather than beginning by describing the product, it would be better to identify the problem first and set the scene so that your client can understand the need to buy it. As previously mentioned, taking the first few minutes to get to know the other person’s background is important. Even more so when you are in B2B – understanding your client’s business and industry will definitely win you points of confidence when dealing with them as they are far more likely to appreciate your insight and accept your solution.

6. Focus on the benefits of your product . As important as having a varied pitch is, concentrating on the benefits your product can offer is without a doubt the most important part. Highlighting all the positive aspects of your solution can motivate you to feel more confident in selling.

7. Be prepared for a no. The sooner you realise how unlikely it is to sell to every single person you have contacted, the better for your sales confidence. Be realistic here – not everyone is going to be interested and that is absolutely fine! Knowing when to let go is an important trait of every salesperson. There is always the next time.

8. Practice, practice, practice. Cliché, but practice makes perfect and with sales that is definitely the case. There is nothing wrong with rehearsing your pitch in front of the mirror or with friends and family who can offer their honest feedback. In fact, it can save you and your client from a lot of awkwardness later on.

9. Don’t be one of those people that are afraid to fail. A lot of people – often myself included – become devastated in the mere thought of failure. In many cases, these are successful people who are simply too scared to ruin their track record of excellence. Let’s get one thing straight though – in sales there is no excellent track record. Failing to close a sale is in most industries much more common than closing one, so you better get used to the idea and embrace the failure. Once you do that, you will stop feeling so self-conscious every time you are about to make a sale.

10. Review all your past sales and client touches. You might want to start taking notes every time you finish contacting a prospect as reviewing your past sales, whether successful or not, can be a great lesson moving forward. Having a record of which technique has worked on each different type of client can prove invaluable for confidence building.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. If you have any sales tips, I would love to hear them so don't hesitate to comment below!