I’ve learned from sales that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Top sales people and managers are never prideful or arrogant. Pride leads to an inability to take feedback and difficulty learning from those around you. Arrogance leads to a defiant attitude; feeling that the hard work, performance metrics, and general codes of conduct do not apply to you. Confidence is about being certain that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. And for the first four months of my career at Meltwater, indeed throughout the course of my life, I toed the wrong side of that line. And boy, did my results at Meltwater reflect that.
I previously had success in academics, chess, cricket… and now was sitting bottom of the barrel in my sales office. I came into the job thinking that I could do things my way, not listen to feedback from my team and still be successful – and I was wrong. I was not hitting my weekly targets and was struggling to generate any interest in our services, at a time when our company was achieving record sales. I was humbled.
My initial reaction was to blame external factors: I shifted blame onto the economy, the people I was speaking to, anything and everything aside from myself. After a while, the anger and frustration subsided and I realized that if I didn’t build some confidence and seek the help of the management team, I was going to get booted. Thankfully, I was working side by side with one of the most successful management teams in the history of Meltwater.
What followed was described by my former Managing Director as one of the most surprising turnarounds he has ever seen. Following four months of banging my head against the wall trying to do it my way, I started working smart and working HARD. I finally opened myself up to feedback and started listening to my Sales Manager as he tweaked my sales methodology. I gave up my Rambo, “I can do it alone” attitude and began consulting with the rest of the team on how to deal with various sales and negotiations situations that come up on a day-to-day basis.
Being successful in sales requires confidence: confidence in your ability to do the job, confidence in the people you work with and confidence in your external peers. I now reach out to colleagues and ask for their opinions, read advice on sales blogs (such a eyeonsales.com) and read any sales related books that I can get my hands on. Within a few weeks of taking on this new approach, success came flooding in. I checked my pride and arrogance at the door, and used my newfound confidence to set me up for success.
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I found this article very useful and inspiring! Thanks Sahil