Confidence Crisis

I can’t believe that we’re almost 1/2 way through…. 2009 that is.

It’s been a tough one. Tougher for other people than for me, which is one of the things that makes it difficult to write this post. I’m someone who answers “I’m fantastic!” when asked how I am – the majority of the time I am 100% convinced it’s true.

Two weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend, a fellow inside sales professional – who was just let go from her job.

…. confidence crisis ….

We both believe in the core of our being that we are FANTASTIC both as people and at what we do. Yet while at lunch, we both had moments of self doubt.

I’m sure you can easily identify why she had a confidence crisis. It’s hard not to take it to heart when the company you work for says ” We’re following a different direction and your “focus” isn’t a priority anymore – thank you very much, bye bye.”

For me, April was my worst sales month in what feels like forever. In a “boy am I glad I have a financial cushion to pay my mortgage” kind of way.

…. confidence crisis ….

Being good friends as one person was sharing their story, the other was listening for the emotion behind it (thank goodness), and would call a time out to the story for an emotional clarification. You know what that sounds like – when a friend gives you the old, “are you telling me…?” question.

It is amazing what came out for both of us, not being one to share other people’s “stuff” here is mine.

…. confidence crisis ….

I was beginning to doubt that I am a world class, first rate, kick butt, FANTASTIC TeleSales professional.  gulp

Why? well that is easy to answer, because if my efforts weren’t producing results – that points right to ME.

…. confidence crisis ….

The key now was to figure out what to do – I truly believe that what is in our heads, comes out over the phone. If I don’t believe in me – how would my suspects, prospects, and customer?

I wish I remembered who 1st said this to me, because I would credit them right now. Your subconscious can’t tell the difference between an imaginary event and the real thing – if we tell it we are FANTASTIC, it believes us.

Remember because it is inside your head, what you’re thinking is what matters as much as what you are saying.

As I’m not a very good liar (especially to myself) I couldn’t *poof* flip a switch and have my self doubt disappear- instead I used a little trick I learned years ago. Every time I started to think “confidence crisis” I would quickly swap crisis for – crescendo!

Here is the process for that trick – replace the word you want to kick out of your subconscious with a word that starts with the same letter and means something completely different to you. It doesn’t have to be the opposite, rather it needs to replace the idea in your head.

Stopping the self doubt in my case.

…. confidence crescendo ….

It is working for me. My telesales attitude shows through and business is picking up. I may have my BEST month ever in June – so I’ve set my amplifier volume to 11.

…. confidence crescendo ….

Need help with that word replacement – ask a friend or scroll down, register, log in, and let us help you by posting your dilemma here.