Confidence is one of the most compelling and contagious emotions in the human condition. It is easy to see why . . . life is full of uncertainty so it is unusual and immensely attractive when we run across someone who is supremely confident about a vision, an idea or a proposition.
When Franklin Roosevelt ran for office during the throes of the Great Depression . . . he did not run on a platform of defined ideas . . . he ran on his personality, which was much more upbeat than that of his super intelligent but gloomy opponent, Herbert Hoover, and on his ultra-confident message that America’s problems were solvable. The point here is not to debate the outcome . . . the point is that people flocked to his more upbeat personality and demeanor.
History repeated itself when Ronald Reagan ran against Jimmy Carter. Carter, another very smart man, had been communicating to Americans about the “malaise” the country was in. Along comes Reagan with his super confidence about Americans’ abilities to break through to higher levels and, once again, he was swept into office.
Generally when I write a blog post using political figures I get all sorts of rebuttals about outcomes but I am not trying to take any political positions here . . . this is all about communication. My point is that people love confidence, and when we are selling, if we can authentically project the benefits and outcome for the client with great enthusiasm and, most of all, confidence, it can provide tremendous emotional fuel to the customer’s decision.
Remember, more than almost anything else, prospects fear making a mistake, even more than valuing the upside. We need to offset that fear with confidence, and if we are selling a great product/service/deal, we should do so with enthusiasm, conviction and CONFIDENCE!
