by Julie Roman
Savvy Saleswoman

You’ve got five minutes until your meeting and you feel nervous. Here are three easy ways to calm your nerves and feel more confident: affirmations, acknowledgments, and visualisations.

You can use affirmations to replace any negative thoughts that may be making you feel nervous. Catch the thought as it happens and turn it around with a positive affirmation. The only ‘rule’ with affirmations is that they need to be in the present tense. For example:

• I embrace my nerves and let them go
• I allow my true personality to shine through
• I choose to be confident and calm

You can use acknowledgements to focus on the positive, on the things that you do well, so that you can let go of any negative thoughts that may be reducing your confidence and causing your nervousness. Acknowledgments are most powerful if you practice them daily. Ask yourself ‘what did I do well today?’ and write at least five things in your journal that you’d like to acknowledge as your accomplishments for that day.

You can use visualisation to picture a sales meeting in your mind in a way that gives you the best possible outcome. For example: you can visualise the meeting going smoothly, the people in the meeting being receptive to what you say. You are looking confident and are feeling calm.

You can also use visualisation to change a negative state that you are currently experiencing (nervousness) into a more positive state (confidence) that you have experienced in the past. Each time you feel nervous take a deep breath, relax, and focus on a time when you were feeling most confident. Make it as vivid as possible using all of your senses to relive the experience. Focus on what you see, what you feel, what you smell, what you taste and what you hear.

Each time you feel your nerves taking hold you can use these three quick techniques to turn your nervousness around and feel more confident when meeting with potential clients.