Confidence. Conviction. Charisma: The Art of the Sale.

Some people have it; many people don’t. But there are three attributes you need to develop if you want to master the art of the sale. They’re the three C’s: Confidence. Conviction. Charisma. If you have these attributes, there isn't a single thing you can’t sell.

CONFIDENCE

Do you have the confidence in yourself to represent your product or service so that your customer is convinced of its worth?

When you display confidence, you exude an infectious aura. When you’re confident, you’re convincing. People listen to you; people believe you, and believe in you.

When I started my first real business, I was just 16 years old. I was definitely something of an introvert. But I had enough confidence to pick up the phone and make sales call after sales call. The people on the other end of the line had no idea they were dealing with a 16-year-old schoolkid whose office was the bedroom he shared with his brother. I was polite. I was professional. And I sounded confident.

“Confidence” also means inspiring confidence in the people with whom you do business. Once they have confidence in you they will keep doing business with you and you’ll understand that ultimately business isn’t run by machines, they are run by these relationships. They can’t be programmed, they are earned.

CONVICTION

Do you truly believe in what you’re doing? Do you have the strength of your convictions? Conviction is a ‘must-have.’ It gives you the power to handle any rejections that come your way—and there will inevitably be rejections. There will be disappointments. There will be setbacks. At times things might go so wrong it seems like a major catastrophe from which it would be hard to recover.

Having conviction in your undertaking is really important when people try to drag you down for whatever reason.

A stand-out moment for me was when I was trying to raise capital for my previous business, BlueLithium. The general partner of a big firm, an MBA from an Ivy League university, cut short my presentation and told me my chances of success were pretty much zero. Then he gave me a 10-minute lecture on business basics. I often wonder if he knows that I went on to build and sell that zero chance company for $300 million. Without conviction, I could have listened to this so-called expert and given up.

CHARISMA

This is a tricky one. Having “charisma” means having a personality that attracts people to you; that makes people like you; that even makes people want to follow you. I’m tempted to say that you either have it or you don’t have it.

Maybe you don’t have the special kind of magnetism and charm that makes someone charismatic. But you can shine nevertheless. You can promote feelings of goodwill and foster positive cooperation among your colleagues. Be likeable! People only like to work with people they like.