We all do it, you know the story and in fact you have lived the story. As sales people sometimes, we lose our confidence just at the last minute, just when we need it most.
This sound familiar? You have a prospect, one you have been working on for a while, and finally they are interested and ready to buy. In fact, given the conversations you’ve had with them (and what an amazing sales person you are) you know they are open to buying big. You make a plan, you put together your proposal and on paper you’re ready to “go for it!”
Then for some reason when the prospect is in front of you and it comes time to close the deal you back down. You still ask for the business (yeah you) but you lower your price or you don’t ask them to buy as much as you had planned to. Whatever it is, you lose your nerve at the final hour.
Why? Why when everything looks good, and we know that prospect is ready to go big, do we back down and start acting like a kid who cannot get a date rather than the confident sales people we are? First, give yourself a break. It is normal, that is human nature and we all at some point in our sales careers do it. Second, it is a sign that you need to do some work on building your sales muscle and boosting your confidence.
No one really goes into sales with their confidence level where it needs to be. And unfortunately, because we don’t talk about confidence as a “sales skill”, many spend their entire careers losing their nerve and never really getting the price or level of sales they could.
3 Sales Strategies To Build Confidence & Boost Your Confidence
- Sell From Power –
If you want to be that sales person who closes big deals and get his price, then you need to learn to sell from a place of power. In other words, you need to not care if the deal closes. Whoa, now calm down I can hear you all the way over here. “Not care if the deal closes isn’t that the point of sales?” Well yes, it is, but if you want to command more and sell more you have to be not so vested in the close.
The reason we lose our nerve just at the last minute, isn’t because the prospect won’t buy, it’s because we get “scared” we’re going to lose the deal. And the only reason we get scared we’re going to lose the deal is because we are desperate for the deal to close. If you want to boost your sales confidence and build your sales muscle than focus more on the ask and less on the close. Keep your energy on helping and serving the client and less on closing the deal.
- Sell To Share
Sales is a delicate balance, offer too little and you’re not helping the client, offer too much you’re too aggressive and too pushy. So how do you strike the balance? You sell to share rather than push to close.
Rather than thinking about selling products or pushing services when you talk with clients, think about sharing ideas. Using phrases: “I like to let my clients know the range of services we can use to help them,” or “Based on what you have shared with me, I know we’re alking about this product today, but here are a few others that could really make a difference to your bottom line” Authentically, and honestly ensuring you “share” all you can do to help your clients will build your confidence and close more deals.
- Sell For Position
Okay, even the best of us, even with all the work we have done to build our sales muscle we sometimes lose our nerve when it comes right down to it. There are just some deals you really want, and no matter how cool, calm and collected you act you just do not want to lose the deal. In that case, you need to sell for position.
You close the deal, take any piece of business you’re willing to ask for, but don’t leave that meeting without positioning the next deal. Sometimes you just want to get in the door and closing even the smallest piece of business feels like a win. However, if you want to sell more or sell bigger you have to plant the seed in that sales meeting. Telling prospects things like “Great, I am excited to be working together, and I am going to head back to the office and get your project moving. Once we get this in motion, we can talk about some more ideas to help you achieve your goals.” Often I present a next steps proposal right when I am closing that first piece of business. Planting the seeds for next steps while you are closing a piece of business will build your sales muscle.
Confidence is key to sales. Remember people buy from you. Your energy, how much you believe in yourself, transfers to how much prospects believe in you. Using these three sales strategies, will boost your sales muscle and build your sales confidence.