Effectiveness | Sales and Self-Belief

Effective salespeople retain their edge by firing up their self-belief. The same holds true in other areas of personal effectiveness such as persuasion, communication, presentation and negotiation. Belief in your own moral goodness is the rock upon which your effectiveness shall be built.

Are you feeling coy about your abilities, products or services? Are you harboring serious self-doubts when doing sales: Are my stuffs really good? Even if they are good, are they the right stuffs for these prospects? Am I charging more than I deserve? and so on. If you cannot convince yourself first, how can you expect to convince other people?

On a deeper level, you may even feel guilty about pushing stuffs and ideas on other people. Do you feel that sales is a self-serving activity and nothing more?

That is a dangerous situation. If you try just changing your moods or attitudes, they won't stay suppressed for long. So, I suggest changing your belief systems by changing your facts. Thus :

• What do you know, How much do you know about your products or services?
  
• What do you know, How much do you know about your customers?
  
• What can products or services like these do for people like them?
  
• What do you know about your competitors?
  What do you know about your customers' potential alternatives and substitutes to your products?
• How is your product or service superior to these alternatives and substitutes?

Once with such facts in your hand, don't do sales. Just communicate them to your customers in a friendly way.
That's Dell's definition of sales: "communicating value" to customers.

Matsushita regards it your social responsibility to advertise your products. PR, promotions and ads become a social responsibility because you are sharing something good with the fellow members of your society. I never fail to admire these noble sentiments.

You are there at their doorsteps or at a sales counter or in a store isle or at a trade show or with their board of directors -- doing sales. You are there not to dupe them, lie to them, take any advantage of them. You are there to serve them, to do something for them, to share something truly beneficial to them with them.

You are worthy of rewards in proportion to the value you add.
Yes, you are there to add value, to communicate value.