7 Psychological FEARS professional and technical employees have around sales

How in the world can you overcome them?

The literature consistently shows that, with a few exceptions, students generally have a predominantly negative attitude towards professional selling as a career. So you can imagine that when they become lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects etc, and they are inevitably asked to “sell” what they do, there is a sense of fear, anxiety, horror and resentment.

Here are some of the real psychological fears that they face:

1. Fear of making a poor first impression

2. Fear of rejection

3. Fear of humiliation

4. Fear of not being liked (for the people pleasers out there)

5. Fear of not being all that articulate

6. Fear of a loss of control

7. Fear of experiencing fear (yep, its real!)

I have suffered anxiety and panic attacks for over 12 years. One of the areas it generalised to was driving. I felt highly anxious driving on a freeway. When I came up with a strategy to deal with it — believe it or not — I started to get anxious about not being anxious. I was calm, and it didn’t feel right. But most importantly, I avoided driving, no matter how much I knew I needed to do it. I always found another way to get where I needed to go.

The moral of the story, is that if people sense such heightened fear, they will most likely avoid the things they have to do that cause them fear. They may just find another way to get to where they need to go, or will perhaps just accept the consequences.

What to do when your employees express these fears? Here are a few do’s and don’ts!

1. Don’t throw someone experiencing enormous fear into the deep end. They will probably resign, and we have even seen them leave the industry.
2. Don’t ask them to do things they have no idea how to do. If they haven’t been trained to sell, chances are they are not going to know how to do it!
3. Don’t give them unrealistic targets when they are unlikely to hit them. Its demotivating
4. DO upskill them — particularly in the areas that they are most likely to deliver on (i.e. do not send them to conduct presentations if it seems like they are never going to be comfortable with presenting. Develop the skills that they show potential in).
5. DO work on their self belief and confidence
6. DO practice resilience with them
7. And most importantly, DO support them. If they fail, help them out!

Our Individual and Organisational Business Development Instrument (IOBDI) measures mindset, belief and confidence as a component of business development potential in order to resolve what is holding them back from being successful at selling what they do.