Sometimes we may have to pretend we're more confident than we really are, hence the saying, "Fake it 'til you make it." I've seen plenty of people of only average to mediocre ability influence more effectively than others who were more naturally gifted than they were simply because they exuded higher confidence. The people we admire and look up to the most are usually the type of people who know what they want and how to get it.

People who doubt themselves and lack confidence in themselves will always struggle to effectively influence others. If you're perceived as doubtful or unconfident, your prospects will feel that way, too-about your product, about your idea or about anything else you might ever try to present to them. It is said that the most lasting impression is made within about the first four minutes of an encounter. So, be sure you demonstrate confidence in those first four minutes because the cement dries fast! Realize that nothing can replace a bad first impression, even if you try to make up for it later. Fixing a first impression is like fixing a wrecked car. Even after exhaustive time, effort and expense have been exerted, you still know it was wrecked, and you're even more apt to detect anything else that might be wrong with it.

Avoiding Too Much Confidence

It is important to know that coming across as too confident will likely have the opposite effect on your audience than you intended. That is, rather than gaining people's confidence, you'll turn them off, quite possibly alienating them for good. In fact, if you make a mistake or do something inept, people are more likely to be won over by you if you can laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously. Coming across as self-absorbed or egotistical will make you appear incredibly unbecoming in the eyes of your prospects. Being more sincere and natural, on the other hand, will make you appear more approachable and likable. According to Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerilla Marketing fame, confidence is the number one reason why people are persuaded to buy. When the buyer has confidence in your selling strategy, your ability to influence him increases.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.

Many customers when they are out shopping for cars go to a car sales lot and walk up to the front. The first thing they see is about 10 guys nicely dressed standing there like vultures trying to sell them a car. At first glance they look rather lazy and waiting for easy prey. As a sales manager it is important to make sure that your sales force does not act like vultures. It is essential that you hire the right people and train them to work the lot in a zone defense pattern, rather than standing together and looking intimidating to the customers who walk up.

Running a car sales lot is not easy and it does take a lot of hard work to keep the salesman in line. If a salesman is to harassing to a customer they may simply leave and come back later or never returned and buy a car from a different sales lot. Unless you know for a fact that you are particular line of automobiles is so popular that it doesn't matter how your salespeople act you will lose lots of sales.

It behooves each and every one in the automotive industry to treat the customer with respect and not as prey. All too often we see car salesman at automotive dealerships simply standing around and waiting for someone to walk up for an easy sale. That is no way to sell cars. Please consider this in 2006.

It is not easy to manage and RV sales lot because the sales lots are so large and people can easily come up and start walking around and you may not even ever see them on the lot. Many times these customers will have lots of questions, but they may feel it emanated to walk up and ask questions because they may not appreciate the high-pressure sales tactics which are so often used by recreational vehicle sales people. Selling recreational vehicles is not so easy and it is a fairly big buying decision for most consumers due to the cost.

Of course easy financing for up to 20 years makes the payments low and affordable for many folks. However, when managing a sales force on an RV sales lot it is important to make sure that the salespeople get out and talked to the potential buyers. It is important to higher salespeople who have been on motor home trips in the past. The best recreational sales people are those who have lived in RVs on extended vacation. They can best adequately explain all the particulars of an RV and why so many of the features are important.

A very big part of maintaining a successful sales program in a recreational vehicle sales lot is the training of each salesperson so that they understand each and every system that is in the recreational vehicles which are being sold. A knowledgeable salesperson has a lot better chance of being able to answer all the prospects questions. Please consider all this in 2006.

Any owner of a bicycle sales shop will tell you that the number of customers who come into the store goes in spurts. Sometimes you may have very few customers in the store and other times you may have 10 or more customers barraging you lots of questions. Without an adequate salesforce be bicycle shop will lose sales and yet if you have too many salespeople on the floor then it looks intimidating for those people who are casually shopping for bicycles.

The casual shopper who is somewhat serious actually makes the best prospect and therefore those people need direct attention. Each member of the bicycle shop team should be very knowledgeable of each bicycle been sold and have it leased some sales training. When it gets really busy be bicycle mechanic in the back perhaps should come up front and start talking to potential customers.

Often there will be serious buyers and casual buyers asking questions about the same bicycle sometimes even three people. It makes sense to learn how to talk to people in groups and explain it to them all at once.

Managing the floor of a sales showroom in a bicycle shop can be handled with as few as three people, although sometimes during the weekends it pays to have an extra person on the floor so that no one walks out the door upset because their questions were not answered. Please consider this a 2006.

Or "Why Joan isn’t seeing the rewards for her effort!"

One of the reasons people aren’t successful in building their business is they have no reason to call a customer.

You know the scene - call a customer back to just "stay in touch". And that ISN’T a reason at all.

I was speaking with my "Joan" the other day and she mentioned that she calls 3 customers per day. At first I thought "Wow! She is committed!"

Then I asked what she calls about. We pick up the conversation from there ...

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"Oh, nothing in particular, just to see how they are going." She knew as soon as she said it she was holding the wrong end of the stick.

"How long have you been doing this?" I asked.

"About 3 months."

"Won a lot of business?"

"Not really."

"So why are you doing it?"

"I have to. Directions from above." As she looked heavenward.
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I really can’t think of a WORSE reason to stay in touch with customers - just to say "Hi!" I would argue both we and they are way to busy to have a casual chat over the phone.

So what do you do? Have a REAL reason to call, write, email or drop in!

The reason many businesses struggle with this is that they don’t do their research. And that may be due to time (lack of), poor data capturing facilities or just a general lack of knowledge about the customer.

Whatever it is, it’s FIXABLE!

Research will tell you quite a few things:

1. whether the customer is in a position to purchase again
2. what their attitude is to growth or consolidation
3. what they may be looking to buy

A whole lot of information that will add value to your call. IF you do the research!