If a salesperson cannot instill confidence, they cannot make a sale; they cannot create a customer. Without confidence, there is no success. To succeed, you must expect to succeed, every time, all the time. Rain or shine, good hair days or bad hair days. Confidence is that external feeling we have that can be felt by those around us. If we are not confident, they instinctively know. You can’t fake it.

Confidence is an automatic response to the problems and circumstances of life. That doesn’t mean it can’t be learned. In fact, true confidence can only be learned. Those who seem to be confident without having the support of knowledge and experience are either arrogant or ignorant. They will be able to get only as far as their customers let them.

From that experience, believe you will be able to overcome any problem and thus circumvent failure. Success, then, only comes from failure. When you have failed and learned to overcome and prevent that failure in the future, you will become confident. When you are confident, you will be successful.

If you want to be successful, get started immediately and don’t worry about failing. If you do fail, analyze your failure, develop systems and procedures to prevent or overcome those situations in the future, and confidently sell, sell, sell. Sometimes this process is called paying your dues. In addition to experiencing failure (the unintentional acquisition of knowledge), paying your dues includes the intentional acquisition of knowledge: learning your product, knowing your competition, knowing your customer, and searching for new business opportunities.