How to Increase Your Confidence in Selling

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term that clearly explains some of the problems salespeople experience. Problems like call reluctance, low closing success and job turnover.

Simply stated, cognitive dissonance means that an inner conflict occurs when a person views behavior that is expected of him or her to be inconsistent with his or he ability or values. And often this conflict negates or torpedoes creative performance.

To salespeople this means when they view the sales process or their expected sales behavior as being inconsistent with their values or skills, a conflict results that derails their effectiveness. We see this destructive force at work in many sales organizations.

With this in mind, let’s think for a few moments about these two subjects:

1. What causes conflicts within salespeople?

2. How is their performance damaged?

In studies we’ve found where the sales process is taught to salespeople as a bag of tricks or gimmicks, a natural dissonance results. Even in the most manipulative selling, salespeople don’t feel good about what they’re asked to do to people. They feel an inner conflict.

This dissonance causes an extremely high rate of turnover. That’s how salespeople ordinarily deal with the conflict. Where salespeople aren’t taught to regard customers’ wants or needs, but to sell them whatever they can sell them, a dissonance results.

This dissonance increases call reluctance and a failure to ask closing questions. Most of the time when salespeople are taught strategies and techniques, with little regard for ethics, their selling becomes manipulative. And…manipulative selling causes cognitive dissonance.

On the other hand, when salespeople are taught values and ethics – when they see the sales process as creating value for people – they tend to feel good about themselves and what they are doing for others.

Then the result of this value-focused selling is congruence, the quality of agreeing or coinciding. The salespeople feel good about themselves. They feel good about what they’re doing. They feel good about feeling good!

A result of this integrity selling is that salespeople experience reduced call reluctance as well as reduced job turnover. They want to share what they have with people because they know that people will respect them and eventually be glad they dealt with them.

Their performance is enhanced.

Here are three suggestions that will reduce salesperson conflict and increase confidence:

1. View the sales process as one that creates value for people – a process where you do something for and with someone instead of to someone.

2. Set goals that specifically state the value you’ll create for customers.

3. Take regular inventory of the value you’ve created for real people in the past.

These suggestions can help you develop a positive mind-set. As you internalize these ideas and they become values you possess, your selling habits will be influenced.

You’ll feel better about yourself. This will translate into greater self-confidence, which will translate into increased customer respect.

Ron Willingham, author of the book The Best Seller: The New Psychology of Selling, published by Prentice-Hall, works as a sales and marketing consultant conducting Psychology of Selling and Goal-Achievement Seminars.

For further information, contact: Ron Willingham Courses Inc., P.O. Box 8190, Amarillo, TX 71909, 806/372-5771.