Professional Confidence

I recently gave a presentation about maintaining professional confidence when sales challenges arise, and I wanted to share two key points from my discussion with those sales leaders. The two concepts outlined below can serve as powerful strategies for efficiently, effectively, and confidently navigating any professional challenges.

1. Become an expert – One of your greatest strengths as a sales professional will be understanding and articulating your products and services. The more you understand the service, your clients and how they use your services to solve their pain points, the more prepared you will be to address challenges.

• Practice patience – Becoming an expert does not happen overnight or even in months, be patient, and ask a lot of questions. Learn from your mistakes and never make the same mistake twice. Additionally, your colleagues and managers can serve as excellent mentors – seek out someone that has been at your company or in the business longer and regularly meet with them.
• You’re not a know-it-all – The very best people in every role (athlete, doctor, CEO, and salesperson) continue to improve through education, coaching, and more. Don’t be afraid to express your knowledge.

2. Take accountability and respond decisively – Sales leaders begin to diffuse the challenge the moment it happens by taking accountability and addressing the issue. Responding decisively will leave little to no room for doubt, and you will be viewed as confident, capable, and composed.

• Timing is key – Don’t wait until 3 days have passed before taking accountability – this will serve no purpose except to make you appear lazy or too busy to deal with the challenge at hand.
• Responding decisively does not mean irrationally or frivolously – It is important to understand the sales challenge at hand. Have a good idea of the timeline for your potential client, their pain points and how the challenge or issue came about. This will help you follow the necessary steps to problem solve and come to a mutually beneficial solution.
• Anticipate challenges and issues before they arise – By paying attention to the challenges that might loom with certain clients or the pain points that might cause issues, you will be ready to address such things as they arise. You will use far less time trying to analyze the situation if you have even a tiny indication of what challenges might arise and how you would address them. These things will ensure you act in a timely, decisive manner.

To learn more about scheduling time for me to come and talk to your sales leaders about maintaining professional confidence or any of the other many topics I cover, send me an email.