Seven steps to beat your fear of selling and become more confident

Not everyone is a natural salesperson. In fact, it's pretty rare. Business owners normally have to actively work on their approach.

That was my experience. I’m an introvert with no background in sales, but went on to sell to brands like Vodafone, PwC and Currys Business as a business owner.

Do you find telling people about your business intimidating? Are you great at starting conversations but fail to push sales over the line?

This article shares practical tips you can use to build your confidence.

1. Understand what kind of salesperson you are

It’s easy to assume everyone’s aggressive or overly confident, but salespeople come in all shapes and sizes.

There are lots of different types of selling. Identifying the approach that works for you makes the process easier. Here are a number of examples:

• Transactional selling: Focus on completing quick, one-off sales.

• Solution selling: Identify and solve specific customer problems.

• Consultative selling: Spend time understanding the customer’s goals and guide them towards the best solution.

• Provocative selling: Introduce new insights or perspectives that challenge the customer’s assumptions.

• Collaborative selling: Work alongside the customer to co-create solutions.

Emma Meheux, director of Brand Planning, pushes business owners to look for situations where they’re going to meet people who need their services:

“The best sales people are the people who do consultancy-type sales. You build the relationship over time and know that things won’t happen immediately.

She doubles down on the importance of building relationships:

“It’s showing an interest in other people. It’s not just about trying to sell your service. It’s about building a rapport and showing an interest.”

2. Know your industry and customer

Business owners understand their customers and the problem they are solving – you’re the expert and need to take confidence from that.

3. Practise explaining what you do

Being able to confidently explain your business makes it easier to start conversations.

Practise a short introduction that explains who you work with and how you help them. Once you have it memorised, you can tweak it for different situations.

Emma advises starting by creating a really good 60 second pitch.

“You can bring that down to 15 seconds and up to three minutes. Elevator pitches are so important and they are hard to get right.”

If you’re looking for support developing your pitch, you can book a free discovery call with Emma or work with one of our expert advisers.

4. Picture yourself answering questions

Properly preparing for sales meetings and networking events will make you feel more confident.

Visualisation is the process of creating vivid mental images of a situation. Picture yourself answering the questions, think about what the room will look like and how people react.

5. Understand what people want

Christhl Scharing argues that people don't buy when they understand your product, they buy when they feel understood.

“Selling is not about explaining or over explaining a message. It's about connecting. Connecting with your clients, your audience, at the infancy stage.”

The Stylehappy founder spoke about selling with confidence on a recent Lunch + Learn.

6. Build a routine

It’s easy to put off networking and doing sales outreach if they feel intimidating. You need to build a routine that you stick to.

Katharine Mainprize, founding director of Formed Consultancy, says that quality and consistency of sales activity win over volume.

“Regularly dedicating time to this will pay dividends over the long term. Again, utilising networks and partnerships works best as most companies buy on advocacy.”

That means setting yourself simple targets for the amount of work you do.

7. Create content to support your sales process

The touchpoints people have with your business define what they think. Presenting to the world in a clear and convincing way creates a solid foundation for your conversations.

Audit your social media channels, website and business listings:

1. Is it immediately clear who you serve and what you offer?

2. Does your content provide valuable insights, education or inspiration?

3. Do your bio, website and pinned posts clearly outline your services?

4. Do the references to your business feel cohesive?

Sales coach Rachael Howourth stresses the importance of creating content that can attract high-value customers too.

“These premium clients don't just appear out of thin air. You need to attract them with high-quality, strategic content that establishes your authority, builds trust and nurtures them through the buying journey.”

Get yourself out there!

Sales is a skill that’s developed with practice. You know your business inside out. You care about what you do. Now you need to start telling the world about it.