Do you remember the 1st time as a child that someone laughed at you or you thought you were being made fun of? 

• How did it effect you?  

• How long did it effect you?

• Is it still effecting you?

As I think about these questions, it is very interesting to examine my memory and then realize why I may have been more concerned than needed about what people have thought of me as I've grown older.

Our belief in ourselves or lack of it, is very important to identify and make life-long plans to consistently address it. .

How does believing in something affect your business?

I love this quote from Henry Ford, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't. You're right."

This illustrates how important self belief is.  Your performance is influenced so greatly by your belief in yourself or lack of it, because wherever you place your belief will win.

There are many areas in business that must be emphasized.  Each industry also has its specific areas that are important to the success of the business. 

However, there are two specific areas that in all businesses, no matter what industry, that execution is vital to success and a lack of execution can result in failure.

Those 2 areas are:

1. Closing the Sale

2. Follow up on prospects and clients.

This sounds very simple and because it is so simple, you may look at my previous statement as being a little dramatic. Consider this:

• What percentage of the time, when a customer comes in contact with your business, on the phone, in person or over the internet, are they given an easy path to purchase or do business with you?  In the case of in-person or over the phone, what percentage of the time are they asked to purchase or do business with you?  If it's not 100% of the time - my question is why? 

• What percentage of the time that a prospective customer doesn't buy initially, are you following up with them?  If it's not 100% of the time - my question is why?

• What percentage of the time after a prospect becomes a client, does that client get personalized follow-up to assist, support and answer their questions? If it's not 100% of the time - my question is why?

Addressing the first question above: 

"What percentage of the time are your customers asked to purchase or do business with you when they come in contact with your business?"  

Whether you are in business for yourself or have a Sales Department, asking for a customer's business or closing the deal is a huge success factor. Therefore, if your customers aren't being asked the right questions at the right time that is a significant problem.  

Asking someone a closing question requires courage, which in large part comes from belief. When you ask someone for a decision, the chance is there that they will say no, and many times salespeople perceive that as personal rejection.  And even though it is not a personal rejection, the possibility of it happening creates fear and apprehension.  The best way to avoid rejection is not to ask.  

Most salespeople work with this their entire career and white-knuckle it.  That leads to people making some bad decisions about how to cope with the stress and tension. The only way to conquer the fear is with an increased belief in self and the product or service they are selling. 

So how important is believing in business?  

You must be able to close the deal to succeed in sales. That is worth repeating, you must be able to close the deal to succeed in business. You must have courage to ask for the deal. Your ability to close is largely if not almost entirely dependent upon your belief. 

Belief in what? 

I am getting there.  

Yes, closing is a learned skill, but natural abilities make it easier, a lack of these can be overcome with skill achieved through hard work on skill development and mindset.  

You can have all of the natural abilities in the world and have worked to acquire the closing skills necessary to be successful, but if your belief is not strong, ability and skill don't matter.  

The hard work on mindset is primarily aimed at building high levels of belief. In fact any significant level of success is impossible without belief. So here it is, there are 2 areas of belief:

1. Belief in self

2. Belief in product or service

Think about how many times in business, you have a person that has a lot of talent, but doesn't perform. With the amount of talent they possess, he or she should be out producing most of their peers, but instead they repeat bad choices day after day and consistently under perform.  These bad choices are due to the fear and doubt that overwhelms them and can be overcome by building their belief in themselves from nonexistent to powerful.

Belief is the Big Differentiator.

Best Selling Author James Clear wrote this:

"The biggest difference I've noticed between successful people and unsuccessful people isn't intelligence or opportunity or resources. It's the belief that they can make their goals happen."

The quote from James Clear verbalizes what I have seen as well. The belief that "I can do it", is something that successful people possess and those that are unsuccessful don't.

Belief is the big differentiator between those that succeed and those that don’t.  

If your business depends upon you, salespeople or advisors (whatever you call them) to take assertive and courageous action, then belief in your ability is paramount.  Self-doubt will destroy you.

This belief is what gives you the perseverance to keep making calls on people after the last 10 said no and the rejection is beginning to weigh heavy on you. The belief in self and the belief in your product or service has to be at a high level and can and will be acquired. But, just as important as being acquired, this high level belief must be maintained. The continual measuring of your belief and acute awareness of its level is vital, because your belief will take huge hits on a daily basis.

Learning how to believe in yourself will open up endless possibilities in your life. At times you may find this difficult to do. The truth is that we’ve been conditioned throughout our lives to doubt ourselves. We must retrain ourselves to get rid of our fears and self-doubt in order to build self-esteem and self-confidence.

Jack Canfield, the beloved originator of the billion-dollar Chicken Soup for the Soul® brand and bestselling author of the NY-Times bestseller, The Success Principles, gives what he calls

The Four most important steps to learning how to believe in yourself. 

Practice them and you’ll be amazed at the results: 

1. Believe it’s possible. Believe that you can do it regardless of what anyone says or where you are in life. 

2. Visualize it. Think about exactly what your life would look like if you had already achieved your dream. 

3. Act as if. Always act in a way that is consistent with where you want to go. 

4. Take action towards your goals. Do not let fear stop you, nothing happens in life until you take action.

In addition to these 4 steps, here are 3 Steps to gaining belief in your product or service:

1. Become a student of your industry.

2. Become an expert on your product or service.

3. Become a consumer of your product or service.

Conclusion

To conquer a lack of belief in yourself requires that you understand that this is something that we have been fighting since childhood.  The first time that we had a feeling that we might not be enough, we began to doubt and have fears of failure or rejection.  Consistently working on the issue is the secret to conquering it.  

Belief is the big differentiator in our business and personal lives, between success and failure.  Belief as part of the culture in an organization is so important that it can make or break a business.

If you want the self doubt and fear to go away, then start right now working on increasing your belief in yourself.  

Expect to Win!

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