Building Sales Confidence is Everything

Building sales confidence starts with expanding belief boundaries, addressing unproductive perceptions and providing the type of sales training and coaching that maximizes strengths, encourages risk taking and helps customers think differently. 

Sales confidence is about the inner game of selling. Confident salespeople believe in themselves. They’re secure in the knowledge that they have what it takes to deal with whatever challenges or setbacks come their way—and they behave accordingly. That’s a powerful quality to have when you’re in a high-pressure role like sales. It’s what builds a kind of emotional resilience that’s vital for sustained sales success. 

Confidence is important in sales when it comes to the external-facing aspects of the job as well, because confident salespeople gain a lot of credibility with their customers. Think about it: If you suspect a salesperson isn’t all that sure of the value they’re bringing to you, how much confidence will you have in what they’re offering? On the other hand, the confidence of a salesperson who genuinely believes in what they’re doing is contagious. 

Confidence isn’t a fixed trait, though, and that’s especially true when it comes to salespeople. Shifting market trends, changing buying habits, new products, unfamiliar technologies and upstart competitors can all shake a person’s confidence, no matter how much experience they have. 

Recent examples like the pandemic, which created more interest and demand for virtual selling, and the rise of AI, digital self-service, automation and other technologies have upended the traditional dynamics of buying and selling. Salespeople have to get confident with new and evolving trends and tools—and they have to do it fast.  

When confidence is lacking, avoidance behaviors creep in and salespeople put off doing the things that will actually make them successful. Engagement, productivity, performance and sales outcomes all suffer as a result. 

For sales leaders, cultivating and nurturing the sales confidence of your salespeople takes continual attention. Here are some of the key areas of focus as well as the habits that build sales confidence.   

BUILDING SALES COMPETENCE BUILDS SALES CONFIDENCE

When it comes to remote sales, now that they’ve gotten a taste of it, B2B decision-makers want more of it. Research shows that even a percentage of larger sales ($1M+) are now happening remotely instead of in person. If your salespeople aren’t comfortable engaging with buyers in a digital environment, they’re going to lose deals, and their confidence is going to plummet even further. 

Equip your salespeople not just with the technology but the skills and processes to use technology effectively in sales. Being proficient in the technical aspects will go a long way toward building their confidence. Just as important, they need to understand how to keep virtual buyers engaged. Nothing kills sales confidence faster than realizing your buyer is multitasking or has completely tuned out. 

Confident salespeople are prepared salespeople. They sweat the details, do their research and master the technology so that they can spend meeting time focusing on the customer and understanding their needs. By anticipating unforeseen challenges, confident salespeople are able to keep conversations on track and customers at ease, even when the occasional technical glitch happens. This not only leads to smoother, more productive sales calls, it also goes a long way toward building the trust and confidence of the customer. 

SALES SUCCESS IS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU SELL

Forrester’s What B2B Buyers Crave report observed, “Too many B2B marketers underestimate the importance of branding to their success, focusing instead on a product-based appeal to buyers.” 

This same concept applies to personal branding as well. Early in the sales process, buyers will care more about the value and insights you bring to them than the nuts and bolts of what you’re selling. Salespeople who take this customer-needs-focused approach are more likely to be viewed as credible and reputable, which helps reduce a common reason why deals stall out—the customer’s fear and perception of risk. The salespeople who can make their prospects smarter or think differently now are the ones who will land the appointments later. 

So why do so many salespeople skip ahead to product-focused discussions? Because that’s where they’re most confident. The reason for this is that the balance of sales training and coaching is often weighted toward things like product/service knowledge and sales techniques vs. effectively listening for cues, asking deeper questions, building up their beliefs about selling and overcoming mental roadblocks to success.   

Think about what your organization focuses on when it comes to sales development. Is the training and coaching you provide helping people build up confidence in themselves and what they’re capable of as much as it’s helping them build up their ability to recite product knowledge and use their CRM system? 

This is critical, because success in sales is more an issue of who you are than what you know. Inner beliefs are extremely influential, such that most people achieve a level of success they feel they deserve to enjoy. Do your salespeople believe they deserve to be performing at a higher level? Do they believe they’re still relevant in the digital world? Their degree of self-belief and confidence will directly impact their sales outcomes.  

In a similar way, salespeople tend to gravitate toward the level of performance their managers appear to settle for. Sales leaders who have confidence in their people and see possibilities they may not even see in themselves will inspire them to keep pushing further. Through effective coaching, the leaders can help them uncover what beliefs might be sabotaging their confidence and then help them work through it. As they begin to see what they’re truly capable of, their confidence and motivation will keep building. They’ll be driven to achieve more—for themselves and their customers. 

THE RIGHT QUESTIONS CREATE CONTAGIOUS CONFIDENCE

Confident salespeople ask good, probing questions. But as seemingly basic as that sounds, it isn’t always so straightforward. It requires that salespeople show a willingness to help buyers think differently or consider things they’ve never even thought about before. Being honest, transparent and ethical also takes strong self-belief. You have to have a healthy level of sales confidence to be bold enough to say the things a customer may not want to hear. 

But many salespeople fail to do the work in advance to think about why they’re asking questions. Before they walk in or make the call, they need to be able to think of a compelling reason why that person would want to use their products. And it has to be an emotional why, like saving time or money or leading to better outcomes for their customers. The why is also often about risk mitigation. And if they can’t come up with good reasons for the client to make this change or why it reduces their level of risk, they’re not going to go into the meeting with a high level of confidence. They’ll revert back to running through a laundry list of product features. 

Confident salespeople do the necessary prep work around questioning, and it gives them a significant advantage—they’re able to bring real value that sets them apart and drives stronger sales outcomes. Instead of an aimless list of closed-end questions that lead nowhere, they can be strategic and ask open-ended questions with specific goals in mind. Understanding how your product or service will make a difference for that specific client is a big confidence boost, and the confidence will transfer to the client as well. 

INNER CONFLICT SAPS SALES CONFIDENCE

Any number of underlying perceptions and belief patterns can eat away at a salesperson’s confidence, and often, the person doesn’t even realize it’s happening. For example, a person who views selling as a way to convince or persuade people to buy something may feel conflicted about what they’re doing. They don’t want to manipulate someone into doing something. That conflict with their values and their perception of themselves will damage their confidence in ways that tend to show up in other areas, like call avoidance. 

A person’s view of their abilities, whether it’s accurate or not, also plays a role in their sales success. Confident, high-performing salespeople believe that the next success is around the corner and that they have what it takes to get there. They know it might not be easy, but they believe it’s within their reach. And then they tend to turn that belief into a reality. That inner belief energizes them and unlocks their achievement drive, propelling them forward. 

Those who don’t believe they have what it takes—whether it’s to make a strong first impression, sell to a higher level within an organization or close the big deal—usually prove themselves right. 

In many ways, building confidence in sales is about expanding belief boundaries. Some people naturally push themselves beyond these self-imposed barriers, but most of us need a good sales coach, someone who sees more in us and what’s possible for us than we might see in ourselves. Just like confident salespeople transfer their confidence to their customers, the confidence of a sales coach breeds confidence in their people. 

It’s important to note that confidence isn’t the same thing as arrogance. Unlike arrogance, which comes from a place of superiority and ego, confidence comes from a place of self-awareness and humility. It’s not about talking down to the customer or manipulating them into buying something. Confident salespeople are open, transparent and genuinely interested in understanding what the customer needs because they believe in what they’re offering. And because they believe selling is about fulfilling customer needs and creating value for them—doing something for the customer, not to them—they’re also not afraid to tell the customer if the solution isn’t the right fit for them.  

FOCUS ON MAXIMIZING STRENGTHS

Everyone isn’t going to be good at everything, and that’s okay. If you try to force mastery in an area that simply not a good fit for the person, they’re going to become demoralized and disengaged, which only dampens confidence. Instead, training, coaching and reinforcement should focus on each person’s unique strengths and how they can put those capabilities to maximum use to achieve their goals. 

Another effective way to build confidence is to share successes as well as failures. Peer coaching—“real play” vs. “role play”—is a powerful tool for helping salespeople get outside of their own heads, especially if they’re convinced that they’re the only ones struggling. Just as important, they can learn from each other’s experiences with similar challenges and help each other solve problems—a confidence boost in itself. It’s often easier to see a solution to an issue when someone else is going through it than when you’re the one in the middle of it. 

And with more complex sales involving larger and diverse buying committees, salespeople need the confidence to go after and win these much larger deals. Sales training that helps them build the mindset to navigate these kinds of deals and incorporates the collective insight of peer coaching will deliver massive dividends. 

HOW YOU APPROACH BUILDING SALES CONFIDENCE MATTERS

It takes confidence to go for it, especially in an evolving and increasingly challenging sales environment. If your salespeople are busy fighting that inner game of self-belief, they’re going to struggle to get the big wins. In fact, a low average deal size on your sales team can be one sign of lacking confidence to go after bigger wins. 

In many ways, confidence and sales success are both self-perpetuating. As reps begin to use new skills, tools and processes and then experience mini-successes, it breeds a new level of confidence and expands paradigms. But for this to happen, the content and approaches must resonate; they can’t be in conflict with the person’s inner values and beliefs. The right training approach is also important. Learning must be accompanied by structured follow-up, bite-sized application over time, accountability, repetition, reinforcement and ongoing coaching. 

As confidence expands, it leads to a real sense of commitment, not only to setting and achieving your own sales goals, but also to the broader purpose of the organization. As a result, alignment and synergy individually and collectively peak. 

Confidence also has a direct impact on sales rep retention and turnover. If your salespeople are questioning whether or not they’ve got what it takes or feeling a lack of progress and growth, their performance will likely start to fall off and their confidence will take yet another hit. Without effective coaching and training to prepare them for today’s realities and expand their belief boundaries, turnover (either voluntary or involuntary) is bound to follow. 

With so much change going on right now, you can’t assume anyone is immune from a crisis of confidence. If you want to your team to remain confident and successful, help them see what’s possible for them to achieve and then support them in developing the self-belief to make it a reality. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SALES CONFIDENCE

About the Author

Mike Fisher

Business Associate & Master Facilitator

Mike Fisher began his 30 year career in sales as a college student, selling books door-to-door in the summers. He...