SALES & MARKETING: Confidence Sells

There are many skills  sales professionals need to be successful. You must be very organized, attentive to details,  have passion for your work,  be knowledgeable and listen well. But one is much more important than all of the others – confidence. If you don’t have it, you are not going to be a successful salesperson.

New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez is one of the best hitters in baseball. The 28-year-old third baseman earns more than $24 million a year to be successful 33 percent of the time. Every third at bat he gets a base hit. The other 67 percent of the time he fails. Yet, Rodriguez is still considered a great ball player and gets paid accordingly.

Do you think he steps to the plate to face an opposing pitcher and says to himself, “I am going to strike out!” No way ! He says to himself, “I’m going to get a hit. I’m going to be successful.”

If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? You must maintain a level of confidence to walk into Mrs. Pepper’s house and sell her that $50,000 landscape. You must feel, deep down inside, your company is the best choice for Mr. Nelson’s office and sell him a $10,000 maintenance contract.

Plain and simple, prospects can tell if you believe in your product or service, and more times than not buying decisions are based on the salesperson’s ability to clearly and confidently show why your firm is the best choice for the job. When you don’t make a sale, more than likely  you did not prove you were the best.

I frequently hear landscapers comment, “My market is different, nobody wants to pay around me, they’re all looking for the best price.’’ Or I hear, “I can’t sell work for those kinds of prices, no one will buy it.” And my personal favorite, “We do great work, but nobody seems to care.” These comments make up a recipe for failure.

In almost every market in the United States that I have studied, there are Lexus dealerships, jewelry stores that sell Rolex watches and fancy restaurants. There are also Wal-Marts and small, private retailers doing well. If you properly position your company in a market, relentlessly communicate the value you bring to the table and then go and do what you said you would do, you will be successful. You must know what your company does best and what your clients want and need. Then you need to go out and deliver. Trying to be Wal-Mart and Nordstrom at the same time won’t work. You must have confidence to go out and sell with passion.

So how do you gain confidence? The same way Alex Rodriguez does. He practices.

Even though he is one of the best hitters in the major leagues, he practices and studies the game. And that’s what you need to do, too.

As a manager your job is to build confidence in your people. Be on the lookout for things your team has done well and recognize them in person, via writing and, best of all, in front of others. The simple technique can enable your people to thrive at your company. When someone feels good about the job they did and the role they play in the company’s success, magical things happen. People  take ownership of their work when they feel appreciated.

Former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch said it best: “I firmly believe that my job is to walk around with a can of water in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other and make things flourish.” Now, I’m willing to bet  you’re a better landscaper than him, so get to work building confidence in yourself and instilling it in others.