Confidence Sells. Knowledge Facilitates

In an intriguing TED Talk given by Simon Sinek, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, he revolves his lesson around the theory that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Essentially Sinek makes an argument that almost every, if not all, great movements in history were spurred by leaders who understood that people aren’t as interested in the “what” as they are in the “why.”

Sinek provides examples that range from Dr. Martin Luther King’s march on Washington to the brilliance of Steve Jobs’ vision for the iPhone. Each example illustrating how they “pitched” their ideas in a way that inspired others to take action by illustrating what the purpose was rather than the action itself.

While I agree with Sinek’s theory, it left me wondering. I know many people and organizations that present a strong “why”, that aren’t as effective as the examples he provided. Why? After contemplating, I considered another factor…confidence.

Have you ever sat in a room with two people, both pitching essentially the same thing but one stands out while the other doesn’t? Why? From my experience it comes down the to the perceived confidence of the speaker.

Confidence Builds Trust

It’s no secret. A person that presents with confidence has a strong influence in the room. They generally make good eye contact, maintain a solid posture and are helpful with questions. Their very presence alone makes the audience more comfortable and confident with the topic being covered and the suggested solution. Essentially they are more likely to believe and buy-in to what’s being proposed.

How then do organizations help facilitate their teams (especially sales) to be more confident?

How Can I Build/Facilitate Confidence?

Building confidence is no easy task. For some, confidence just comes naturally. For others, it must be facilitated (and may never fully develop). Whether or not your team members have natural confidence, you can help equip them with one simple step…provide them with knowledge.

Think about that for a second. Walking into a room with professionals without the proper information is intimidating and can turn even the most confident person into a bumbling fool. Part of being confident is being able to provide answers to the questions being asked intelligently or at the very least properly admit that you don’t know the specifics but will find out.

Some of you may be saying at this point “Duh. If I didn’t know the answer I would simply say that.” Kudos to you, but for others it isn’t always that simple. For you it should be your goal to make sure that everyone on your team knows how you would handle the situation. Do so in example and via documentation.

This isn’t the only example of situational confidence though, so let’s cover some other areas where you can help your team. After all, it may lead to some additional sales.

Providing the Knowledge for Building Confidence

1. Provide Your Team with Detailed Product Knowledge. Prior to getting anyone more confident in their “business social” skills, they must know what the hell they’re selling! Outline product/service offerings, value(s) of the product/service, any terms that go along with the offering(s) and so on. Remember that any detailed left up to interpretation is an opportunity to drop confidence levels.

Remember that highlighting the value of the offering is key. The better your team understands the value of the offering and how it applies to the audience, the easier it will be for them to convey that.

2. Build Your Team’s Connectivity Skills. Once product familiarity and value has been established, your team must be able to connect with potential clients. THIS IS TOUGH! Reaching out to people that you don’t know and who most likely don’t know you is an awkward situation but it’s done every day.

Illustrate to your team how to do this properly. Document best practices such as opening lines, who to speak to, how to address the different touch points they’re likely to encounter along the way and so on. When done correctly, your team should feel confident in what they’re selling and how to make the initial conversation a successful one.

3. Prepare for a Meeting. Once a meeting has been set, the situation gets real. Whether you’re meeting your potential client in person, via a video conference or simply over the phone, your presentation needs to be on point and convey confidence.

Be sure to educate your team on introductions, laying out the meeting properly, cover valuable touch points and next step layout post meeting completion. In addition, prior to the meeting be sure to layout any and all materials that will help facilitate a stronger meeting and always remember backups (for backups)!

Get to Work!

Armed with suggestions on how to improve the confidence of your team, the heavy work begins. All of the documentation in the world won’t help your team if they don’t have access to it when they need it. Look for a solution that helps your organization document and distribute relevant information to your team wherever the job may take them.

Build confidence, convey your message, get more sales!

Hungry for more insight? Check out our blog for more tips on process building how-to’s and implementation. Our most recent post goes more in depth about improving sales with SOPs.

Best of luck!