Having Confidence

First, some background: I recently had a home improvement company come out to my house to quote me on vinyl siding. This company has been in business for decades and has a certain level of name recognition throughout Rhode Island because of it. The salesman had an impressive pitch -- A well done PowerPoint presentation describing the company itself, a little chemistry experiment on our table and  a very nice product to show us. All in all the salesman spent about 90 minutes building up his company and his product. At the end of the presentation he asked us 3 very leading questions, the last of which was essentially asking when they could begin the project. I noted that I was not ready to sign (he hadn’t even given me a price yet!), because I was getting quotes from 2 additional companies. He had some pressurized counters attempting to overcome my objections, but when he realized I was not signing, he gave up -- not just in getting me to sign, but on the sale entirely. As he left my house (without even providing a formal proposal or leaving a business card), the last words out of his mouth were “good luck with your project”.

Wow, what a defeatist statement. He employed high-pressure tactics to try to close the sale, and then folded like a deck of cards when faced with the prospect of competition. What does that type of behavior say about your product and your company? If he believes himself to be from the best company, to sell the best product and have the best support, he should have no problem with a little competition -- if anything he should have embraced it as it would only solidify his position as #1. Anything less shows a serious lack confidence in what he's selling. And if he lacks confidence in what he's selling, then I'm very concerned as a potential customer, and he limits how successful he can be in that capacity. How much do you think confidence plays into high-pressure sales, or sales in general? Can you be successful and lack confidence in what you’re selling?