Stop Apologizing. It’s Your Job!
As I was growing up, everyone wanted to be friends with this one particular girl. Her name was Lexie and she wasn’t particularly pretty. In fact she was slightly big-boned and certainly didn’t have great hair. But you know what did have? Confidence. She walked into a room and didn’t mind sitting alone. She never apologized for her looks or asked if something made her look fat. She never questioned if she should’ve worn something else or complained about people not wanting to sit with her.
She exuded confidence without even meaning to. This made her completely irresistible to everyone around her. As far as everyone was concerned, she was the prettiest, most popular girl in the room.
When I first started in medical sales, I always felt the need to apologize for bothering my customers, especially if it was someone important. It would go something like this:
“I’m so sorry to bother you, I know you’re super busy. It’s just that we have some new technology I’d really like to show you.”
I thought this was a good strategy because I DID know they were busy and I really DID think I was bothering them and I felt bad and wanted to be transparent and honest with them. But you know what that did? It showed them right off the bat that I didn’t really matter. That I didn’t believe in myself or my products. I wasn’t confident and they weren’t drawn to me and didn’t feel like it would be worth their time to even talk to me. I realized I needed to be more like Lexie because the truth is that customers DO need to know about new technology. It’s part of their job to buy things and find out what’s new. Once I started having confidence and stopped apologizing, things turned around for me.
Never apologize for bothering someone. Believe in yourself. Believe in your products. The rest will follow.
