Hey there, this week’s blog is coming live to you from Sydney, out front of AMP’s office. Now here’s my question for this week. How much confidence do you have in your personal ability to add value to people’s purchase of whatever product or service it is that you sell? More importantly, how fragile is that confidence? Now I’ve been having some really interesting conversations with a lot of my banking and insurance clients that revolve around the impact of all the negative press that’s flowing from the Royal Commission right now and will keep flowing for quite some time. In particular the impact this is having on their confidence to be out in the field, engaging new prospects and chasing growth.

I had a conversation with a very successful advisor recently, who told me he wouldn’t be able to sell anything new in the coming quarter because AMP, the big Australian brand that his licence is attached to, has had so much bad press. But here’s the thing, six months ago exactly the same advisor told me he expected 100% of his clients would follow him if he left the brand because they’re all loyal to him on a personal basis. So which is it? Do people buy from him or do they by from the brand?

I’d argue that it’s actually both, but let’s consider this from a confidence perspective. This guy’s focus was 100% on everything in the newspaper, 100% on all the stupid and greedy things a small number of advisors and very senior managers had done wrong. Now, there’s no excuse for that they did, and it’s great by that the Commission and the media are highlighting these very bad behaviours. But for my advisor—who really is one of the good guys—focusing 100% on the newspaper was sending him into a performance death spiral, and it was taking his focus away from the opportunity and his clients.

He’d lost focus on his belief in the need for great financial advice. See, just because there’s a Royal Commission happening, doesn’t mean every Australian got out of bed without the need for financial advice. He wasn’t focused on the opportunity to reconnect with all of his existing clients, and if there’s ever been a great reason to engage every client, this has got to be it. He’d lost focus on all the great advice he’d recently provided to his new clients that he’d onboarded. I actually made him take me through the last three new clients he’d brought on, and tell me why the advice he’d given them was valuable to those people.

So look, I managed to talk him off the proverbial cliff, but I’m really wondering how many other great banking and insurance professionals are out there right now are struggling because they’re totally focused on what they can’t control—what’s in the papers—and losing focus on all the great things that they have done, and could be doing for new clients and customers. Here’s why this is so important to you, no matter what: if your focus isn’t in the right place, you’re destroying your confidence. As I discuss in my Sales Growth Blueprint, confidence and the ability to remain confidence is one of the Seven Sales Growth Accelerants, and if you want to grow your sales, you need to grow and protect your confidence.

So here are a few questions that you might consider to build a bit more confidence into today and the week coming up. What do you love about the company you work for and sell for? AMP is a great company. Just think about the day you joined and why you were so excited to be selling for them? What do you love about the solution that you sell? What makes you really passionate about the difference it makes in people’s lives? Remind yourself, you don’t sell mortgages, you help people own their homes. You don’t sell insurance, you help protect and provide for people’s families. You don’t sell solar, you shield people against the insane price of energy and its increase. I don’t know what you sell but the more you remind yourself about what it does for the people you sell it to, the more confident you’re going to start to feel about getting out there and selling it.

Well, that’s my rant for the day. If you know someone who needs a boost, please make sure you share this with them. Also, please keep an eye out for my new eBook on the Sales Growth Blueprint, and if you’ve enjoyed this, subscribe to my blog. Really looking forward to the next segment. Speak soon.