How to Be Confident (Not Arrogant) and Win Over New Clients

Let your experience, track record and satisfied customers do the talking.

By Ben Walker, CEO for Transcription Outsourcing, LLC

When you’re running a business, you need potential clients to believe that you’ll be great at what you do and that you’re absolutely the right person for the job at hand. This means that you need to be confident because the client needs to be confident in you, too.

That being said, there’s a fine line between confident and arrogant, and you definitely don’t want to be the latter. We’ve all interacted with a smug salesperson who clearly thinks they can talk anyone into anything, which is an immediate put-off. 

Understanding how to be confident and not arrogant while attracting new clients is key to running a successful business. In this article, I’ll share a few tactics to help you strike that balance. 

Be self-assured, but don’t indulgently brag.

Confidence is self-assured; arrogance is outright bragging.

Confident statements, such as “I can absolutely help with that,” and then mentioning your past experience or why you’d be a good fit will work well here. Keep it simple, and stick to the facts, though; you don’t need to insist that you’re the best there is, especially if you’re relying on empty platitudes that don’t really mean anything.

If you’re not sure how far is too far, a simple “Yes, we’re great at this and can definitely help you” is all you need. 

Back up your claims with data and experience.

Experience and any data that you may have will do the talking for you in the best way possible.

When a potential client is asking about whether or not you’re a good fit, mention your past experience. Let them know that you’ve helped another client with a similar task in the past, and offer to show them the results obtained in a case study.

Demonstrating that you’ve delivered great results in the past and can do it again will allow your work to speak for itself.

Mention the features and benefits of your business.

There are likely plenty of reasons potential clients want to hire you. These are often features, or unique aspects of your product or service that can benefit your clients. Explain what they are and how they’re advantageous.

This puts the focus on your brand, the process and your product or service instead of you directly, which is a great way to display confidence without coming off as personally arrogant. 

Welcome questions.

It’s common for clients to question you and your claims during the “courting” process while they’re getting to know you and considering what’s next. 

This is OK, and you should embrace that. If you immediately shoot down anyone who has questions with “Oh, but trust us, our way is best,” without further explanation, it comes across as insecure and arrogant all at once. 

Take the time to answer their questions. This will improve their perception of you and help you demonstrate your expertise. 

Let your clients do the talking for you. 

Sharing references, reviews and testimonials is always a great way to win over new clients, and when it comes to being confident without being arrogant during the lead nurturing process, this is a great tactic.

When you have a long list of testimonials, you can let them do the talking for you so there’s zero risk of you coming across as arrogant. My references are real clients that can tell you what we’re like to work with from the clients’ perspective, and they’re one of the best sales assets that we have. 

A strong way to go about this is to have testimonials and reviews on your site with real names attached to them, so you can share a link for potential leads to review. You can also have live references, meaning that clients can call a past customer for verification that the work you did was stellar. The latter is more common in large contracts (like those for major corporations or the government). 

No one wants to work with a business that lacks confidence. If you aren’t confident in yourself, there’s no way prospective clients will believe that you’re up to the task at hand. They’ll quickly find someone else instead. All of these tips will help you strike a powerful balance of being confident without extending into arrogant territory, giving the client the best impression of you possible. 

Ben Walker is the CEO for Transcription Outsourcing, LLC and has made contributions to Entrepreneur Magazine, The Associated Press & Inc.