Confidence Part 2: When others fail you...

Last week we took a moment to answer the question "How can I believe in my self when it's so hard to hit my goals? Today we will review how to rebuild a waining confidence in our company and the people we work with when we feel they have failed us.

The two keys to restoring confidence in others are similar to having it restored in ourselves. Now it seems that we have no control over our opinions of others and some times this may be true but I prefer to remain focused on the larger percentage of time where we do in fact have control over our thoughts towards others.

So, what can we do? Well first in situations where it is possible to just let it go and give the offending party a little latitude this is the best and quickest way to move on and restore confidence in others. People make mistakes, people forget, people fail us on a daily basis. If we learn to move forward on a daily basis with forgiveness and grace we have the ability to keep from becoming jaded and cynical.

For an example I was doing my own quote for Auto Insurance the other day. I was running reports because I was impressed with the price and after I ran them I was instantly reminded of two occurrences that I forgot. Now why would I intentionally lie to my self. Is it possible that when our customers call us they are not being intentionally deceitful? Even if they are, who suffers the most if they are caught? I think it's us. Sure their rate goes up that's no big deal either they will buy the policy or they won't. But I think the one who suffers the most is the one who allows these "errors" on the part of the customer to cause them to become jaded and cynical. If we give that kind of control to them we lose every time.

Now, let us turn our attention to our organization. This one is a little more tough. When our confidence is broken in the organization that we work to serve we can become depressed and anxious. I think in the marketplace it is critical that we live with realistic expectations. This is the greatest place where we still have control. Here are some things to expect:

1. Things will change...All the time!!! - A business is like a human body... "if things aren't changing it's probably dead.
2. Each part of a business has different objectives...don't be surprised when people in your business stand in the way of your business objectives for example processors and underwriters. we have to learn to sell internally as well as we do externally. This starts by understanding the goals of the people we work with.
3. Each person we talk with on the phone has different objectives. it is critical that we uncover these objectives and sell to their desire or we will be disappointed just because they say they are looking because of price doesn't mean they are. Personally I am willing to pay twice as much as I have been for Internet service if the customer service will be there to support me, and my price will stay the same.

I hope this helps you this week as you work with people and restore your own sense of peace concerning the people around you.

This is Andy Peterson, signing off for another week. I am positively up beat and I hope you are too!!!