You’re probably 100% confident for 80% of your process (#318)

The Confident Leader

BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

David had no problem getting the conversation started. 

As Chief Sales Officer, he could prospect all day—reach out, build rapport, understand needs. 

Everything in his pipeline worked until step four. That’s where deals died.

“You don’t have a sales problem. You have a step problem.” – Coaching wisdom

This Week’s Edition

Map your process. Rate your confidence at each step. Now you know where to train your confidence.

Clarify Your Thinking

David wasn’t a weak sales leader. He was a leader with two specific confidence gaps.

He just wasn’t aware of what those gaps were until our coaching revealed them. 

Without that awareness, he was tempted to believe he wasn’t cut out for sales or at least not a natural. 

With awareness, he now knows precisely where to train his confidence. That’s a leadership gift borne from the coaching he humbly submitted himself to.

Confidence isn’t built once. It’s built step by step. When you map the full process and rate your confidence at each step, the gap becomes obvious. 

Not vague. Not character-based. One specific step that needs work.

Old Thinking: I’m not good at sales.

New Thinking: I’m 100% confident in eight steps and 60% confident in two. Those two steps are where my training lives.

Thoughts Lead to Actions

You’re building a story that you’re weak in sales when the truth is simpler: two steps in your process aren’t trained yet. Every day you skip this audit, you’re leaving deals on the table.

Here’s your ten-step business development process. Rate your confidence at each step from 0-100%.

Step 1: Can you make a list of prospects?

Step 2: Can you reach out and call that prospect?

Step 3: Can you have a casual conversation with that prospect?

Step 4: Can you convert that casual conversation to one about business?

Step 5: Can you understand the prospect’s need?

Step 6: Can you fit your offer to meet that need?

Step 7: Can you ask them what questions they have?

Step 8: Can you field their objections and hesitations?

Step 9: Can you ask them for the business?

Step 10: Can you close the sale?

Find the steps where your confidence sits below 100%. Write them down. Those are your training steps. The steps that need work.

When a step sits at less than 100% ask yourself: 

• Is this a skill gap or a thinking gap? 
• Do I not know how to do it, or do I not believe I can do it? 

The answer tells you whether you have a thinking issue or a skill deficit. 

David mapped his ten steps. Step four was 60%. Step nine was 60%. 

We trained ONE sentence for each of those two steps. He practiced in the field. His close rate doubled in 30 days. His confidence rose. #naturalsalesman 

Boost Your Performance

Learn how to map your ten-step process and identify exactly which steps need training in this week’s video.

What’s Your Opinion?

Which two steps in your ten-step process are sitting below 90%?

I’d love to hear it: robin.pou@robinpou.com

If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders. 

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.