5 Tips to Build Sales Confidence

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You can be the most confident person. But when faced with something you haven’t done before your confidence can drop to an all time low. This can result in you putting off doing the one thing you need to do.

You’ve started your business and you’re feeling excited. At last you can do what you’re passionate about. You have the experience and you’ve done the training in your chosen field. It’s now time to start building your business so that it earns you a living.

Then you have a wobble. You worry that you’re not good enough and that no one will buy what you offer. On top of that, you’ve just realised you have no idea how to sell. You’ve never sold anything before or you have but some years ago and for someone else.

Selling yourself and the product or service that you’ve created all of a sudden feels really scary. Your confidence has just gone from 10 to minus 1 in the space of 10 minutes.

So how do you build confidence to sell when you have little or no experience in sales?

Here are five tips to start building your sales confidence today.

1) Personal development

I cannot stress enough how important personal development is to your success. If you don’t make time for it you run the risk of stagnating, personally and professionally. Spend at least 30 minutes every day on building your confidence.

Here are a couple of ideas:

  • use affirmations telling yourself you’re a confident seller
  • visualise yourself confidently closing a sale

2) Know your offer and your prospect.

Ensure you know your product or service inside out and back to front. This will help you to confidently convey how it can solve your prospect’s problem or challenge. But only if you know who your ideal client is. Don’t get too hung up on creating an in depth ideal client if you’re just starting out in business. That will come with the more clients you work with. Just have a good idea of the type of person who has the problem you solve.

As a little bonus here; make sure you know and understand the industry your prospective client is in.

The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel.

3) Be prepared

Before making any sales or follow up call make sure you are prepared by creating a plan. Have the questions you’re going to ask ready so that you’re not fumbling around. Decide beforehand how you’re going to record your prospect’s answers. This is so you can refer back to them when needed throughout the call. So if you’re going to use pen and paper, make sure you have plenty of paper and a spare pen!

If it’s a follow up call, have your notes from your previous session in front of you. Make sure you have read over them to familiarise yourself with your prospect’s situation. Being prepared will help you feel more confident.

4) Change your state

This tip is really important. It’s something I ALWAYS do before I get on a sales or follow up call; notice your feelings. What is your current emotional state? When you think about making the call, does it make you feel excited or anxious? If it’s the latter then you need to change your state before you make the call.

  • Replace your negative thoughts with positive and empowering ones.
  • Put on some motivating music and have a dance.
  • Watch a motivating video that pumps you up.

If you’re excited then just hold on to that feeling and those positive thoughts.

5) Create an effective sales process.

A sales process is your roadmap to getting sales. It’s a series of 5-7 steps that takes a prospect along their sales journey, hopefully resulting in a sale. Once you have created a sales process you feel comfortable with, study it well so that you know the order of each step.

When you do something you know well, you are more confident. It’s like learning to drive. When you had your first few driving lessons, did you feel as confident driving as you do now? I doubt it. But the more lessons you had, the easier it got until it became second nature. You became a confident driver by driving more.  

It’s the same for sales. The more sales you get the more confident you will become. And the more confident you become, the more sales you will get.

I did 11 consecutive appointments once without getting a sale. How did I deal with it?By just moving on to each appointment with the mindset of ‘next’. I actually ended up closing 8 of them when I followed up with them!

But my point is that you won’t sell to every single person you speak to. Don’t take it personally. It’s either just not right for them or it’s not the right time. Don’t let getting a ‘no’ discourage you from making that next call.

If you would like help to skyrocket your sales confidence then click the button below to arrange a chat with me….

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How To Sell Without Selling

What comes to mind when you hear the word sales?

Most people associate it with in your face, hard sell tactics used by sleazy sales people. That’s because at some point they’ve had experience of a pushy sales person who just wouldn’t take no for an answer. That experience has probably been confounded even further by similar stories told by friends or family.

Although people love to buy, they hate being sold to. And this is so very true. What do you do if someone tries to sell you something in a pushy way? If you’re anything like me then you will go in the opposite direction. Think back to when you were little and your mum or dad told you not to do something. You most likely did it anyway! When people are pushed they almost always go in the opposite direction. Remember that.

As a business owner you know for your business to be successful, you have to sell your product or service. But there’s one problem; you don’t like selling. You don’t want people to see you as that pushy, salsey person they’ve experienced in the past. At the same time though, you need to make sales to keep your business afloat.

If you think about it you sell all the time, but you probably never even realised it:

  • Trying to get your kids to eat healthy meals.
  • Talking your friend into going to the gym with you.
  • Wanting your partner to agree to something new for the home.

All the time you’re selling reasons why the other person should do something. Just take a moment to think about what you say and the way you ‘sell’ the idea to others.

So how do you sell your product or service without it feeling like you’re selling?

Sell with integrity. This is for me THE only way to sell.

When you sell with integrity you sell from a place of honesty and openness. You always do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. So if your product or service isn’t right for someone, you are open and honest about that. You tell them. If you try to hide this, that is when you become the sleazy sales person no one likes. To sell with integrity you also need to do what you say you will do. They are investing their time and their money in you and your product or service. Therefore, they deserve you to serve them at the highest level. Give them the value and the solution you promised them before they paid you.

Be genuine and real…be you.

It is why they wanted to speak to you in the first place. There was something about you that they liked and they wanted to learn more. Celebrate who you are, you are amazing. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. People can see straight through it and it’s almost impossible to keep it up. Align all that you do with your values and never chase a sale at the expense of who you are. Otherwise, you may as well sell your soul to the devil!

Ask questions and listen.

It is why we have two ears and one mouth; to listen more and talk less! The person who speaks less has the most leverage. I’m a chatterbox by nature. Ever since I was a little girl, I have ‘talked for England’. I’m friendly and confident when I speak. So you would think I would automatically be brilliant at sales. No. In order for me to become successful in sales I had to learn to shut up!

When you’re a natural talker, you never really listen to what the other person is saying. You’re too busy working out what you’re going to say once they finish talking. This results in the other person not feeling listened to or understood. And that’s the point I’m making. You have to listen to understand what’s going on, what they’ve tried in the past and what they want to achieve. If you don’t then you’ve lost the sale before you’ve even started.

Position the solution.

Don’t forget, if someone has agreed to a call with you it means they need your help. So you don’t need to sell to them. You just need to ask questions to understand their problem and their pain points. Then show them how your product or service can solve these. Paint the picture of how things will look once they no longer have that problem. 

If you do it right then you shouldn’t get any objections. You will have answered all of their concerns before they even realised they had any. Then the close should be easy. There won’t be any need for you to try and push them into a sale. It will be the next obvious step.

Ask for the sale.

Just think of it as a conversation and not a sales call. But also remember to ask for the sale. There is no point spending all that time asking lots of questions, positioning your offer as the solution to then end the call without asking that question!

When people trust you and they can see the value you bring to the table, they will be more likely to buy. So go and close those sales, help more people and grow your business. You deserve it just as much as your prospects deserve your solution.

If you need help to get more sales then  join my Sales Success Group for Women Entrepreneurs HERE.

I would love to welcome you into the group.

Build Relationships & Increase Sales.

The building of relationships is one of the most important foundations for your business to be built on.

Without strong, nurtured relationships you will find it difficult to make sales and grow your business.

Building relationships takes time to:

  • Get to know each other.
  • Build trust and mutual respect. 
  • Understand what exactly your prospective client needs. 

Sometimes, this will happen quite quickly but other times it will take longer. 

I have been in front of a lot of prospects who I have ‘clicked with’ almost immediately. But then every now and then I meet one and think this person is going to be a hard nut to crack.

Do I think to myself they’re probably not going to buy? Absolutely not! These are the people I spend more time understanding and nurturing. By doing this, quite often I am able to turn it around because I’ve taken the time to put them at ease and built trust. The client feels safe in the knowledge that throughout the process I will be by their side doing what is best for them.

Who would have known!

I had one client who told me the moment I walked through the door that she wouldn’t be buying that day!

I had been stuck in traffic and was two hours late for this appointment. So things really weren’t boding well. I was already at a disadvantage.

It was 7.30pm and I was tired because I had been on the road for ten hours. 

I still spent time getting to know this lady and began to understand her fears, due to past experiences with sales people. I went through everything with a fine tooth comb. Constantly checking she understood and being patient with her every step of the way.

At no point did I push her for the sale. There was no point, she had already told me she wasn’t going to buy today. But then the most unexpected thing happened…

She said “Sam I have never been someone who goes ahead with something immediately. As you know I’ve had my fingers burnt quite badly. But you have been so patient, understanding and knowledgeable that I feel I can trust you. You could have quite easily re arranged our appointment because of how late it will be for you getting home. But you didn’t. I would like to go ahead with you now”

I was gobsmacked yet felt honoured that the lady felt she could trust me enough with her money.

This lady called the office the very next day to sing my praises. She also gave the company a glowing review!

Not every prospect is going to become your customer or client.

We all know that. But that doesn’t mean that your time has been wasted. Sometimes far from it.

What I mean is this – I have nurtured business relationships in the past that haven’t resulted in a sale. But they were so impressed with how I ‘came across’ that they referred me to others that did result in sales. 

My advice is this, don’t see a prospective client in terms of a sale or as a pound sign. You do that and most of the time it’s game over. You’re going to come across as desperate and trust me; they will see it a mile off. Will they want to do business with you? Not a chance!

As I said at the beginning, take the time to get to know the client. Show them you understand what they’re saying and what they need. Build the trust and mutual respect so they feel safe doing business with you.

If you would like more tips and strategies to help you sell more, more confidently.

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Why You Need a Sales Strategy

Getting sales is critical to the success of your business.

If you want a business that’s going to be successful and earn you the money you want, you need a plan on how to do that.

I’m guessing you started your business because you want to make an impact. Or to help others create some kind of transformation in their life or business. But you also need to make a profit otherwise you may as well just have a hobby.

You can have the most amazing product or service. But if you don’t know how you’re going to sell it or to who, you’re going to struggle to sell.

That’s where a sales strategy comes in.

A sales strategy defines the exact process you’re going to take:

  • to sell your product or service,
  • who exactly you’re going to sell it to,
  • how you’re going to convert leads into paying clients
  • help you determine how much money your business will generate.

Without a sales strategy you’ll be fumbling about in the dark. Trying out all sorts of different things hoping one of them will work. But never getting to where you want to be.

That is a painful place to be in. Especially when you’re putting your heart, soul and every waking moment into your business.

Running a business can be hard enough. So why put yourself under even more pressure by not having a sales strategy?

Creating a sales strategy for my business was a non negotiable. After being in sales so many years I knew the impact it can have on results, if implemented correctly.

I found having an effective sales strategy provides you with so much information about what you’re doing. Plus it gives you a roadmap to achieve better results. In my opinion it is a critical component to being successful in business.

Some other benefits that a sales strategy brings to your business.

Having a sales strategy will provide you with clarity. It will help you identify where you need to focus your time and effort to ensure you’re achieving your sales goals. It will also reduce the feeling of overwhelm associated with ‘not really knowing what you’re meant to be doing’ conundrum. Often experienced in the early days of business. Just that in itself is worth its weight in gold!

A good sales strategy will allow you to clearly define your ideal client so you better understand their needs. By mapping out your client’s sales journey you can ensure you’re meeting their individual needs at every stage of the sales process. So, you’ll need to map out what your sales process looks like and include it in your sales strategy.

This will not only help with your client’s sales journey. It will also make it easier for you to sell your products or services because you’ll have a clear roadmap. Then as your business grows, if you hire a sales team then they’ll have a standardised system of how YOU want them to sell leaving you to focus on what you do best!

Your sales strategy should be your roadmap to sales success.

It can help you understand what your unique selling points are. That way you can fine tune your message to focus on the exact pain points of your clients. This will allow you to offer the best solution and allow you to stand out from your competition. In addition it will help you to position yourself as an expert in your field and help you attract the right people. Those who want to work with you and have the means to do so.

Implemented in the right way, your sales strategy can also identify the best sales tactics to use to increase your closing rates. Each client you work with will have different needs and challenges. Being able to identify which sales tactics better suit each client will improve your conversion and ultimately your ROI.

Take a step back to move forward.

When you create a sales strategy it gives you the opportunity to take a step back and really look at what you’re doing. So that you can see what’s working and what isn’t. From here you can make improvements or changes to help you maximise your results and improve your sales. Both of which are critical to the success of your business.

A good sales strategy should always be a work in progress and as such it needs to be revised on a regular basis. To ensure it’s up to date with the current market and any changes in client’s needs. By investing the time into doing this you will be setting yourself up for success.

Do you have a solid sales strategy that converts leads into paying clients on a consistent basis? Let me know, I would love to hear what’s working for you. You can email me at [email protected].

Do you need help to create your sales strategy. Or would you like to optimise your existing strategy to skyrocket your sales further?

Claim your free 30 minute strategy call HERE