To be successful as sales professionals we have to believe in ourselves. We have to have confidence in working with our customers, in our abilities to bring value to and influence our customers.
We have to believe in our products. If we don’t believe in our products, we can never present them with confidence or credibility. We can never defend our solutions in the face of competition.
Likewise, we have to believe in our companies. We have to know our companies will support us. That our companies will deliver on the commitments we make to our customers. That our companies will service our customers—so that we can grow the relationships with them.
Believing in ourselves, our products, and our companies gives us the ability to overcome competition and customer uncertainty. It provides us the “juice” to get up each morning and go out to find new customers we can work with. It provides the basis to keep going—even when things are very tough.
We know all of this, but it seems something is missing.
I think another critical “belief” is to believe in our customers. I’m not talking about believing what they say—sometimes they may be less than forthright. But we have to believe in the possibilities for our customers to grow and improve. We have to have a vision for their future. We have to have a passion and evangelize that vision with everyone we meet. We have to have enough confidence in our vision and what it can produce for them that we persevere. We have to be dissatisfied with them, for them—not because they aren’t buying, but because they are missing opportunities.
We need to engage our customers’ hearts along with their minds. We probably need to disrupt their thinking, possibly making them a little uncomfortable.
Until they share our belief in them, until we have a shared vision and urgency about what they can achieve, our belief and confidence in our companies and solutions is irrelevant.
But once we have a common sense of urgency about changing, the customer will be asking, “How? What do we do? How can you help us?”
This article was originally published by Partners in Excellence
Published: August 19, 2013
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