When you enter a room, are you striding in or tripping with hesitation? Do you greet others with a wide smile and firm handshake, or glance at the floor? It’s not easy to feel positive and assured about ourselves, but it is an essential ingredient to our personal and professional success.

You can discover every business strategy under the sun, but you won’t get far if you don’t have the confidence you need in order to successfully implement those ideas.

Self-confidence is a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgment. How strongly you believe in your ability to learn new skills, perform at a certain level, or reach the goals that you set for yourself matters more than you may think.

On a psychological level, confidence has a direct impact on your performance. You can have tremendous skills and capabilities, but you can’t use them to reach your full potential without confidence.

Why Confidence Affects Sales Outcomes

As an entrepreneur, I know the fundamental role confidence has played in determining my own success in sales. When I felt unsure of myself, business suffered. But when I felt self-assured, I generated more leads and referrals and sales blossomed.

That’s because confidence is intertwined with another quality that impacts your performance: composure.

Composure is a calm, self-controlled state of mind that might also be described as polish, grace, or poise. Regardless of what you call it, you know composure when you see it. And your clients do as well.

Composure is the way you carry yourself at networking events and on sales calls. It infuses everything from your posture and handshake to your tone and volume.

To demonstrate the importance of your confidence and composure, let’s examine how these two qualities can impact your ability to successfully handle objections in a sales conversation. If you lack confidence and composure, you will likely address an objection meekly, reinforcing your prospect’s belief that you’re not a safe or worthwhile financial investment.

But when you respond to that same objection with self-assuredness, you give your prospect the information and reassurance they need to invest. Because after all, when a prospect makes a purchase decision, they aren’t simply buying your product or service. They’re investing in you. Your confidence is part of what gives them the confidence they need to invest.

Could Lack of Confidence Be Limiting Your Success?  

Over the years, I’ve had quite a few clients come to me for coaching who felt stuck or unable to break through barriers to success. When we work through their challenges, what we discover is that lack of confidence is the real barrier they face.

While it’s true that some people are naturally more confident and composed than others, self-assuredness is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. By working to implement these four tips, your confidence and composure will grow – and so will your business.

1. Stay Positive

The people around you can sense your overall demeanor the moment you walk into a room. Confidence and composure are two elements of your demeanor, and the third equally important element is positivity.

Is the narrative you’re telling yourself inspiring, strong, and enthusiastic? If so, you will appear more composed and confident than if you allow yourself to get discouraged and trapped in negative thought patterns.

2. Respond, Don’t React

There is a subtle but important difference between reacting and responding in conversations.

If you react emotionally, harshly, or with volatility, you create a stressful environment for the people around you. They feel they need to “walk on eggshells” and shield you from bad news or important information.

The more composed choice is to respond instead of react by keeping your emotions in check, pausing to think before you speak, and then decisively share your thoughts in a way that shows respect for the people you’re speaking with. That conveys that you are poised even under pressure and feel confident in what you say.

3. Be Prepared

I don’t have to tell you how important first impressions are. In today’s competitive marketplace, you have to make your first impression count in order to capture the attention of your target audience before they are pulled in a different direction. Of course, you go into any sales meeting knowing which effective sales strategies to use and how your product or service will serve the potential client’s business goals.

But it’s equally important to be confident in your professional image, whether you’re delivering a sales presentation, distributing marketing materials, or networking at an event. If you aren’t confident in yourself, you won’t instill confidence in others.

For that reason, it’s important to invest in authentic ways to improve your self-image. This can include joining a mastermind group to work on your public speaking skills, taking part in a leadership training program, building a sharp professional wardrobe, or investing in professional photography for your bio and branding materials.

4. Act Like You Belong (Because You Do)

One reason many professionals noticeably lack confidence and composure is that they feel intimidated. Perhaps it’s feeling like an outsider in a networking event or tradeshow where everyone else appears to have someone to talk to. Or it could be a sales call or meeting where you feel that you don’t measure up professionally.

I’m never one to encourage my readers or clients to be fake, but in this case, acting as if you belong in the room is exactly what you need to do. After all, you were invited there, your presence is wanted, and you bring something no one else can bring: you.

Not only that, but remember, you have come equipped with a game plan that you can feel confident about.

Confidence Has No Competition

Confidence will ignite your business like fuel to a fire, and there will be no stopping you. If you’re ready to develop the confidence it takes to achieve outstanding results, contact me today.

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Celeste Giordano’s mission is to help business owners develop the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to “DoublePlus™” their income and become effective and inspirational leaders in their fields. Whether it’s taking your successful business to the next level or starting a new venture, she will teach you the exact skills and strategies you need to enroll more quality prospects, build a rock-solid team, and break through obstacles to achieve real profit and lasting success. Celeste is a professional business growth specialist, a master sales strategist, and dynamic speaker with more than 40 years experience in direct sales and managing high-performing teams.

To learn more about Celeste, click here.

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