Confidence is often the missing link when it comes to personal development and sales performance improvement.
You launch a new internal sales training session…the learning happens…the actions and new ways of working are agreed…but when it comes to performance, you might be surprised that even your most proactive of salespeople aren’t performing as you thought they would.
But why?
It may be down to your sales training delivery methods. Let’s unpack this by thinking about the way we all learn.
How training programmes usually work
When any of us attend a sales training session or workshop, we discover new ways of thinking or doing things that motivate us to change our habits, as we desire the outcomes these new ways of working should deliver.
However, we are not yet proficient in our new approach, so we need to practice. The problem comes when salespeople only practice something for the first time after the training has ended and they are back in their day job.
It’s at this point they might have a question, or things might not be as straightforward as they seemed when they were explained by the facilitator. We’re willing to bet many of you have experienced this. When you sat in the workshop, it sounded so easy. Why isn’t it like that in real life?
This disconnect often leads to frustration and missed opportunities. It’s a scenario that many sales leaders will recognise.
What actually needs to happen
Motivation will get us started but confidence development comes later. It is built after you’ve made some progress and proved to yourself that you’re able to achieve the outcomes you learned about.
Dr Benjamin Hardy explains this in his video about The Secret to Building Confidence and Overcoming Your Fears. There are three main takeaways when it comes to building confidence:
- Experiential learning: Our brains need experiences to cement learning. It’s not enough to listen to someone speak about their experiences and then take their words away and implement them.
- Reflective learning practices: Reflecting on what we’ve learned from our day gives our brains space and time to cement its learning. This solidifies concepts and supports behavioural change in sales.
- Skill reinforcement: The primary way to build confidence is to complete things. Confidence grows when salespeople complete tasks and witness tangible results, creating positive neural pathways.
The role of experiential learning in confidence building
The concept of experiential learning / experiences being a part of learning is nothing new. However, its value in sales training is often underestimated. Role-playing is often delivered as part of the training mix (although we prefer our own version, Real Play, which you can find out more about here) and for good reason.
By acting out new ways of working, sales professionals can start the process of experiencing something different and, of course, ask questions or correct inaccuracies within the safety of the workshop. This prevents a bad experience when facing clients – damaging confidence – at a later date.
Putting our learning into action also enables the brain to process and cement the new information because doing things creates the neural pathways we need in order to remember information.
Our top three tips to help your sales professionals build their confidence
Let’s summarise. Lots of the information we consume, the courses we attend, and the books we read are about motivation. Motivation gets us started. But we need confidence to finish and get the benefit of improved outcomes.
Here are our top three tips on how to ensure you help your sales professionals build confidence:
1. Incorporate experiential learning into all sales training methods
Ensure any training is designed with experiences, or ‘doing’, at its heart.
2. Provide a safe practice environment
Give people time and space (once they’ve done their learning), to practice as much as possible in a safe environment.
3. Track and celebrate progress
Ask your learners to keep a record of their progress after attending training. By journalling or noting what they’ve achieved, they will be more aware and therefore build their confidence faster. This will reinforce the sales team’s productivity.
One of our clients saw remarkable success after we adopted this combined approach. As the Global Head of Learning at GfK-NIQ shared:
“We’ve been able to attribute the behaviours and skills from the programme to business wins totalling £15M in new business and £6.5M in retained business.”
Global Head of Learning – GfK-NIQ
Turning motivation into long-term success
Motivation sparks interest, but confidence in selling skills drives results. With the right blend of practical sales exercises, safe practice, and continuous support, your team can overcome challenges and thrive in any sales environment.
As usual with behaviours and beliefs, this isn’t rocket science. It’s about being disciplined and setting the right expectations. Actions need to be achievable and linked to the learning so that each time you provide some training, your sales professionals attend, experience, practice, finish and gain confidence.
Schedule a free consultation with us. Let’s explore how we can help your sales team build confidence, develop impactful skills, and drive outstanding results!
