CONFIDENCE VS ARROGANCE IN SALES
There’s no secret that in sales you need to be confident and self-assured in what you’re doing and what you strive to achieve, but you also don’t want to come across as boastful or conceited.
The same as micromanagement – people may not be aware of their arrogance so it’s important to be self-aware.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Recognising what makes a person confident and what makes a person arrogant can be hard to pinpoint. This may be because both confident and arrogant people may be:
Self-assured
Outgoing
Highly ambitious
But when you look at the way they approach work, see success, and treat others – it can be clear as to whether they’re coming from a place of genuine confidence or arrogance.
Confidence is defined as: belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities. Some synonyms are:
Assurance
Certainty
Courage
Determination
Arrogance is defined as: an offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.
Aloofness (distant)
Egotistic
Pride
Boastful
See the difference already?
To put it bluntly, arrogance is a false sense of confidence. In an article by Medium, arrogance is defined as being “a compensating strategy for insecurity and lack of self-confidence. A person may act arrogant because of their desire to gain respect or admiration”. These people have a constant need to impress others so they focus on the external.
Whereas, confidence is all about having faith in yourself. Confident people want to impress themselves and focus on an internal sense of self-worth and development.
IT IMPACTS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Sales is all about relationships, and whether you present yourself confidently or arrogantly can determine how these relationships go.
Whether you’re confident or arrogant can massively impact your relationship with:
Your boss:
Every Sales Manager wants the reassurance that their employee is ambitious and confident in their skills – it’s how you make sales and have the drive to push for more. Being insecure and timid will lead you to struggle massively with rejection, persuasion, and determination.
But that doesn’t mean they want someone unteachable.
Sales isn’t just about hitting the ground running and being completely independent – it’s about learning. Learning the processes, being open to new strategies, and molding your skills around the company’s vision.
If you’re not up to this, you could clash with your boss. They may feel like you’re trying to be a ‘know-it-all’ and that you don’t appreciate their help.
Respecting your boss means being open to being wrong, learning from your mistakes, and asking for help. Arrogant people don’t like to do this. After all, they don’t like to show signs of weakness, whereas confident people are always looking for ways to improve because they know it makes them better.
Your team
Succeeding in sales isn’t just about making deals but also making friends. Collaborating with your team is how you’ll get ideas, learn what works for them, and even be introduced to new clients… but if they don’t like you – this will be tough.
Acting superior in the office won’t help you to be popular among your colleagues... and if you become popular – it’ll probably be out of fear. Although some agencies still implement a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ culture, we’re seeing many start-ups drift away from this and put collaboration and ethics first.
Collaboration means sharing ideas, being open to corrections, and acknowledging that someone knows more or does something better. Acting like you’re better than everyone will make you the last person people want to collaborate with. Why? Because all they’ll feel is competition and sneakiness rather than genuine support as a team player.
Being approachable, supportive, and positive are a few of the ways you can show confidence whilst maintaining healthy relationships with your team. 86% of employees in leadership positions blame lack of collaboration as the top reason for workplace failures (Zippia). So you know the saying “it pays to be nice”? This is one of those circumstances.
Your clients:
Not only does your behaviour impact your role internally, but also externally when it comes to talking with clients and making sales.
Being able to communicate and negotiate confidently is a key part of sales and should never be underestimated. However, to do these things successfully, you have to have good interpersonal skills.
This means you listen, you show respect, and you understand the feelings of others. Emotional intelligence is a huge aspect of succeeding in sales and one huge component is empathy. Arrogant people find it difficult to put themselves in other people’s shoes because they tend to look down on others or even make fun of differing opinions.
In sales, you’re going to encounter different opinions every day and if you find it hard to understand them, you’ll find it hard to connect with clients as they discuss their queries, concerns, or objections.
Overall, arrogance won’t make you successful
People may be arrogant because they think the unfriendly, relentless nature is what’s going to make them lots of money – but with a job like sales where you’re talking to people every day, that doesn’t work in the long run.
With confidence, you can rest assured that you don’t need to exhaust yourself by keeping up your opinions, but rather, let your actions, results, and how you treat people speak for themselves.
- Written by Shannon Matthews
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