[FONT=“Book Antiqua”][SIZE=“4”]That’s it! I’m going to learn to be a confident salesman. I know I have it in me because I did very well on a retail store floor selling computers. However, there were times when I bombed selling in the corporate world.
I just got back from an interview trying to sell my services to a company. They found me online. And once again, at the end of the interview I was practically whispering. I felt like I had no confidence at all. I could see them look at me like they have on the other interviews and cut it short. Why? Not because of my skills. I do good work. But because of my lack of self esteem and confidence! Well that’s going to end!
Can anyone recommend a place where I can be coached on how to come across as dynamic? I need to sell myself and my skills with confidence! [/SIZE][/FONT]
Most of it is already in you. You just have to harness it and bring it out. Being confident is a good selling point. If you doubt yourself others will doubt you as well.
Understand what it is that you have that is going to be hard for them to get anywhere else. Good designers are 2 a penny round my way so just being a good designer won’t get you far.
When you know what it is that makes you different, better, taller, longer, etc etc etc you need to learn to present it in such a way that your offer is the best they will get anywhere and it’s now or never. You need to add some urgency into the mix because for a start you don’t want to be waiting weeks with no news. So sell your skills but make sure they understand that there are only 24 hours in any day and your time is in great demand. They need to lock your skills in now or risk losing them.
The process is something like this:
Your are the best.
You are in demand
Your time is being taken up fast
They risk losing you by delaying
If they delay and lose you it’s not because you are punishing them but because you only have 24 hours a day.
So if you really are good and you add this level of urgency to the pitch, you will sell more. Some people struggle to make decisions so you are just helping them along by creating the air of urgency.
Of course this will be useless if you are not very good.
I used to love being interviewed, it was an opportunity to spend some time talking about my favourite subject - ME!!!
If you don’t have the required skills/experience etc then you shouldn’t be in the inteview anyway and if you do have them then all you have to do is get them to like you. With your sales experience, that should be easy, just use positive truthful body language, make lots of eye contact blah blah blah, they’ll either like you or they won’t.
I’m a believe in practice. Not that there aren’t good groups like Toastmasters, or even a business school class on presentations at your local university, but simply that all these methods are about practice as well.
But before you do anything you need to figure out your spin. What do you do? Why do you rock at it? What are the challenges that people will ask you about… lack of experience… age… background… short jobs… no hard results… etc. Know these and know how you answer them. Then know you sell yourself up, how you shine and how you prove it.
Once you know what you want to say try it out. If you have experienced colleagues or friends you can chat with them. If you don’t, find a chamber of commerce event, or one of the organizations mentioned before and pitch them. Get the real world scenarios that make your stomach jump. The first few will be hard, even good speakers often need to warm up if they’re out of the game, so you should need some practice… just try and do it with people you don’t need to close before you get to the one you really want.
Well you’ve certainly chosen a confident font to post in.
Where are you weak? Public speaking? Then go to Toastmasters?
General confidence? That is something you have to work on yourself, I would try some simulated interviews with friends of yours, have them ask you questions like an interviewer would and practice your responses.
