No one intangible has more power over your potential success or failure in your business career than CONFIDENCE.
When you have it things tends to come easily to you but when you lack it… you never seem to be able to obtain what your reaching for.
What exactly is confidence?
Confidence can be hard to put your finger on but to me it boils down to this as far as being a business owner is concerned. You need to be able to convey to others that you are capable of solving their problems. After all, that’s why they called you. They have a problem!
What many people don’t grasp is that your body language, posture, appearance and tone of voice all play into how others view you and by default… your abilities. It may not seem fair, but that is how the game is played.
Your primary role when first meeting people is to get them to BELIEVE you are the one that can make their PAIN GO AWAY. If the potential customers you meet don’t think you are confident in your abilities they won’t hire you. That’s not my opinion, that’s a cold hard fact.
So that brings us to the topic of “how to act confidently”. As I mentioned earlier, confidence is no one thing per say, as it’s more a “collection” of many elements working in harmony. I’ll briefly cover the most important aspects to appearing confident below. Be honest with yourself and improve each one!
Three tips for appearing confident
Body language – The simple act of not walking around looking at your feet will pay quick dividends for you. Hold you head up high and be mindful of your posture. Don’t forget to make eye contact and always smile when meeting others.
Personal appearance – WHAT you wear and HOW you wear it go a long way in determining how others view you AND YOUR ABILITIES. I know that may not seem fair, but that’s life. The moral here is look your best, as that inspires confidence silently.
Tone of voice – Speak loudly and clearly enough for others to hear you easily. Many people speak as if they are in a library and might get scolded for talking too loud while others speak too fast for people to comprehend. People need to UNDERSTAND what you say!
If you can tackle the three tips I provided above you’ll be on your way to appearing confident. The real treat is that once you start ACTING confident you will soon BECOME CONFIDENT. This is so easy AND so important to your success.
Trust me when I say confidence is KEY to getting accounts in this business. Newcomers try to convince themselves that it’s price, competition, favoritism or some other reason they can’t get accounts when in fact it’s mainly a lack of confidence. Look and act the part, as that’s the KEY!
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oluwafemi julius says
This is actually working for me Tom. Thanks a lot.
Tom Watson says
Hi Oluwafemi! I’m happy to hear your having success. Keep up the good work!
Brandon says
Hi Mr. Watson,
I have a quick question I would like to ask you. Do you have any experience cleaning funeral homes, and what’s the best method to market to them?
Tom Watson says
Hi Brandon! I actually tried very hard to market to that group. Thought it would be an easy place to clean. I had absolutely no luck however. It was probably because many of these places are family owned (though that trend is changing) and they do it themselves as a result.
As far as getting in front of them, I went the direct mail route and mailed a sales letter / flyer and business card package to these places. You could stop in and drop off some info, but that may be a tough road to go down (door to door isn’t for everyone).
Brandon says
Thanks for your response Mr. Watson. I figured that it would be extremely difficult to break into that particular market, because I noticed that a lot of the funeral homes that are family owned, they don’t like to venture outside of their family nucleus for anything business related.. Oh well..
I have one last question for you. When marketing to the doctor, dentists, and chiropractor offices, if I decide to just personally drop off my company info to these offices, do I just hand it off to the receptionist, or should I ask to speak to the person that’s in charge of hiring outside services? Thanks
Tom Watson says
Hi Brandon! Odds are not in your favor if you try to talk to an office manager in person. They are very busy, and you will get much better results via direct mail. You could drop off info at the front desk (We’ve done a lot of that over the years). I tend to go with my favorite however, and that’s a good direct mail piece.
tobore says
Hi Tom am looking at starting off my cleaning business in the next month or two. My question is when you mail your business flyers and letters who do you address it to? do you just write the office name and mail it because i wonder how would i be sure that the right person(person charge of outsourcing cleaning) is going to receive it?
Thanks
Tom Watson says
Hi Tobore! When mailing to commercial properties, I addressed them to “Office Manager”.