9 Positive affirmations to build your confidence

Confidence is one of those intangible emotions in selling. When you have it, you know it.  Your customer knows it. Likewise, when you are not confident, you create a sense of uncertainty.  Your customer also senses it.  That moment of doubt causes customers to second guess the choice to buy from you.  But how do we develop confidence and why is it so important?Listen in as I cover 9 positive affirmations designed for the Ag Sales Professional

1. I am a large part of the overall value my company offers. People buy from people they know, like, and trust.  They can find many suppliers of products and services, but there’s only one – Me. 
2. I belong at the point when my customers are making decisions. More than being a salesperson, I belong at the table when my customer is making decisions. I help them solve their problems and pursue new opportunities that will improve their results.  I am confident that I deserve a seat at that table.
3. I can help my customers identify areas where they can improve.  My knowledge of the industry and my customer allows me to discover areas where they can improve.  I go farm to farm, agribusiness to agribusiness all day long.  I am certain that I can either help this customer or learn from them or both. 
4. I create value for every customer or prospect who meets with me. Every sales call provides an opportunity to provide value to the customer.  Seldom do I meet with a customer/prospect and not help them in some way.
5. How I sell is as or more important than winning sales. Honesty, integrity, and accountability are non-negotiable.  This gives me a great deal of confidence in who I am as a salesperson and the company/products I represent.  Additionally, my consultative approach differentiates me from my competitors. That differentiation gives me the confidence to call on my customers and consult with them on what’s best for their business.
6. My experience allows me to bring more value.  I have a broad understanding of the industry that surpasses many of my customers.  Through my company’s resources/people and our supplier’s resources/people, I bring an army of knowledge, skills, and perspective to my customers.  In addition, my networking skills in the industry allow me to be a source for industry information.
7. I sell outcomes/results.  My products and services are the means to those results. I start the process with the results and outcomes my customer wants/needs and then pursue the products and services to achieve them.
8. As a consultative salesperson, I am a peer.  As a trusted advisor, I am not inferior to my customers or others in the industry.  I am totally immersed in the business.  Just like my customers, my livelihood depends on the growth of the industry.  I am at industry events, keep up on industry/association news, and am 100% involved in the industry.  I’m not a spectator.  I am in the ring.
9. Working with me is valuable enough that customers would consider paying for it   I know that I have helped my customers save or make thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars by working with me.  There are consultants who would charge simply for the advice/information which I provide as part of our products and services.

Confidence when selling is an emotion that can spike high or bottom out from moment to moment.  As salespeople, we need to be vigilant of keeping overconfidence from becoming arrogance and lack of confidence from instilling doubt in our customers.  Read through these 9 thought processes when you are feeling low confidence.  Pick those that seem to be causing you a problem and make an adjustment in your approach.  A small change in your perspective, even just an awareness that you are lacking confidence can be the spark you need to feel confident