(By Loyd Ford) We all know how important it is to prospect consistently and to do the work before you present so you are well-prepared every time you see a potential client. The business of sales is largely about being connective, highly relational, and consistently appearing helpful to potential clients until they think of you as “in their inner circle.”
But what role does confidence play in getting sellers through the most important doors, past the critical gatekeepers, and into presentations with better clients? A huge one.
A seller’s psychology can play a major role in leveling up their sales. Research has shown again and again the impact that confidence has on success. This isn’t only in sales. It’s most visible in sporting contests of all different kinds. A confident player can change everything in an individual situation or shift momentum of an individual game or even a whole season. A team that believes they can do something important can actually shift momentum even when things are not going well. Why is this?
Where does real confidence come from? Remember this: Managers often overlook the importance of confidence because of their focus on short-term results. We all fall prey to this sometimes. That’s because our day-to-day world is based on instant gratification.
We want the revenue right now. Just ask your boss.
Let’s talk about how sales managers and market managers impact the psychology of the sellers on their teams. Here are four ways they can really encourage confidence:
- Confidence comes from being educated on your products and potential solutions that can only come from proper training. When your sellers consistently receive education about products and services, their confidence rises drastically. This can happen weekly. How you arm your sellers matters beyond simply the knowledge. It strengthens your sellers in a wide variety of situations because they’ve seen it before…..in your training.
- Confidence develops around people who have great support systems and encouragers as managers who also hold them accountable for consistent behaviors that produce results. Managers can sometimes be afraid of holding people accountable, but the secret is that people want to be held accountable. Part of the art of great management is expecting your team members to succeed, watching to catch people doing the right things and consistently rewarding the behaviors you want to see more of from individuals on your sales team because those behaviors consistently practiced can only result in revenue growth over time.
- Confidence comes from having a manager who encourages trying different ideas and expanding creativity so sellers can control the narrative. Sellers that capture and retain the attention of the right potential advertisers convert them into clients. When managers create a safe place for sellers to reach higher and make their confidence in seller success clear to their individual sellers, outsized results can occur more often. Most people are afraid to fail, afraid they will be discovered or exposed. Great managers create environments where failure is part of making it to the ultimate yes. The great managers also know that if you don’t fail, you are not trying hard enough. Finally, great managers consistently have the backs of individual sellers. That’s what creates the safety needed to reach higher, to begin with.
- Confidence is more likely to develop and become sustainable when there is a credible expectation sellers will be successful. As stated above, sellers tend to do better when there is an expectation of success. If sellers can see it, they can sell it. In the 1950s runners all over the world were trying to break the four-minute mile. One after the other after another they failed again and again. No one could run this distance in less than four minutes. The idea of breaking that time was thought of as “the unbreakable record.” At least that is what it was called until an Englishman crushed the record and did his mile in 3:59.4. His name was Roger Bannister. What happened once he broke the record? Others broke his record. Again and again. That time became history. Why? Because other runners now knew it was possible. People started to believe it wasn’t impossible. So, confidence is creating a vision for your sellers where they can see success. Today the record is 3:43.13.
People Believe What They See
The great managers create confidence by showing what is possible. After all, if you can see it, you can do it. This isn’t just for sales, but it’s very powerful in sales. That’s why many of the greatest sales managers sell products and services themselves and share what they know in real-world settings with sellers on their team regularly.
These top-flight sales managers teach sellers that no opportunity is perfect. There are always excuses for not doing something – a sales call, a cold call, seeing potential clients with great repetition, or reaching out to a client who has had a bad experience with advertising. But if you have an opportunity and don’t take it, you may limit everything about your future.
That is why accountability and encouragement together are so critical.
Where Does Growth Come From?
Growth comes from reaching beyond what is comfortable and sometimes beyond what is known to be possible. In many ways, radio is limited by our imagination. What we believe limits us or sets us free to bust all the records. You can’t do that without confidence. That’s why encouragement and helping people see the path to success is so important. 100% of the time that is about showing sellers the real power is in consistently performing the prep and the activity that is known only to result in higher sales success.
It’s time to make the donuts. Don’t forget to add confidence to the ingredients.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). They help local radio with ratings and revenue. Reach him anytime at 864.448.4169 or [email protected]. Read Loyd’s Radio Ink archives here.
