Things that never go out of style: Your face, The Ham Sandwich and Confidence.
If you decide to pursue sales as a career, you need a high level of self-confidence because you don’t stand a chance of success or longevity without it.
The thing is, they don’t make it in a lab or in some warehouse on the outskirts of town.
Just like you can’t spray on fun – you can’t douse yourself in confidence before heading to work in the morning.
Temporary confidence disguised as The Real Thing surrounds us. Drink this, swallow that or surgerize are easy fixes but you’ll find that eventually they wear off and you’re right back where you started.
So, if you can’t manufacture it, what then?
In sales, you build Confidence brick by brick, day by day, layer upon layer – no shortcuts.
Confidence is the byproduct of grinding and falling on your face enough times that you figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Through knowledge, practice and repetition, Confidence emerges.
Have you ever talked yourself out of making cold calls and focusing on email because you lost your nerve?
As a salesperson, you’re paid to call people 40 to 75 times a day. Then suddenly, you’ve got the yips.
How do you call for help if you’re afraid to pick up the phone?
The most popular remedy for losing your ‘juice’ is to remember a place and time when you were Confident and the Confidence exercised in that moment, led to a positive and successful outcome.
The average inside salesperson in Enterprise-level sales can make 15-25 calls an hour with research while effectively managing their CRM.
FOLLOW THESE 8 STEPS TO REGAIN YOUR SALES CONFIDENCE USING YOUR CRM
1) In your CRM, go to your Closed Won deal section
2) Take a look at your WINS from the past quarter, six months or year. Those clients are proof posi+ive that you’re more than capable of closing business through cold calling.
3) Open each account (call notes, outbound/ inbound emails, players) and review the history from contact to contract. Go over every conversation and re-familiarize yourself with the issues your prospects had and how you were able to address them and eventually come to a close.
4) Prep your next call using key resources:
a) Company’s website/ About section, Products, Management/ Governance, Latest News
b) Check Hoover’s, Zoominfo, InsideView, annual reports or Wikipedia for additional nuggets that may not be on their website
c) Any Accounts or Leads previously owned by colleague should be thoroughly reviewed (all notes and communication)
5) You should already have a standard Call Prep Sheet with 5 to 10 open-ended and industry-specific questions that you use when dialing. If you don’t, now’s the time to put one together. There’s nothing worse than being on a call and blanking on your next question.
6) Warm up your mouthpiece. If you’ve ever played a sport or watched one on TV, ALL athletes stretch before games, matches or meets. If it’s Monday morning, if you’re nervous or it’s the first call of the day, have a water and make sure you can talk OUT LOUD. Try a tongue twister or a mock voicemail to loosen up.
7) STAND: Motion Creates Emotion. SMILE: People can see you smiling through the phone from the inflection in your voice.
8) Start dialing and don’t stop until you get a commitment, whether it be a request to send information, instructions to call the decision maker on a certain day or time or even better – an appointment or scheduled call for a demo. You should be able to get through at least 10 calls using this method.
A Slump has multiple definitions but the one that stands out states that it’s a period of time during which a person goes without an object or action.
Losing your MOJO is a temporary condition because you’ve proven your ability to sell and you will sell again. The Confidence is already within you.
Follow the 8 steps above to get yourself back on track.
And as far as the ham sandwich, it’s one of the earliest recorded closed-faced sandwiches dating back to the 18th century.
It’s still kickin’ ass and taking names today.
What do you do when you’ve lost your sales confidence?