Sales and Fear cannot go hand in hand
Let’s talk about the different fears that we have as salespeople. And then, we will talk about how we build an immunity to those fears.
Spend time around one who has overcome the fear — your sales leader.
It’s easy to say — don’t be afraid, it’s ok. We are in sales, we have to do it!
It is highly unlikely that you are convinced with those lines. If you are afraid, it is likely that there is a real danger attached to that fear. You may fear making cold calls, asking for referrals, asking for commitments, or revealing that you have a higher price early in the sales process. This is very common. When you sit with someone who has overcome such fears, first you will understand that there’s nothing bad that can happen, at least personally. Then, you would learn how they think about what they’re doing, how they approach it, and how they succeed in taking action without fear.
List down your Fears
Pick up a pen and paper, start writing what you fear in descending order — what you fear the most on top and so on! Then write down the dangers invited by those fear factors. Now rate them based on their occurrence as you anticipate. While you do this exercise, you are parting the fear to some extend already. You would start to realize that the dangers aren’t as damaging as you think it would be.
Now, What’s the Real Danger?
Let’s be honest — the real danger is
- To let your opportunity run to alternatives
- Deprive your potential customer from your amazing offering
- Losing your business and your commission
We fear while we make calls that we will be rejected, we will be questioned about our value, existence, benefits blah blah blah but in reality the real danger is that by not making the call, you don’t produce the results you are capable of, for your company, or for your prospective client.
We are afraid to ask the potential buyer how serious they are about the product/service we’re discussing and whether or not they’re going to be able to get the support and necessary budget. There’s the risk of offending your contact, but the greater risk is in not asking and later finding out that you’ve both spent months on an initiative that’s not going to happen.
There’s no harm in discussing the associated cost beforehand. That helps you and your potential buyer to set expectations and acts like a factor to continue/discontinue the initiative. Remember, it’s a loss on both sides if potential buyer figures out that he/she cannot afford your service at a latter stage.
Fear is a powerful motivator. It can motivate you to avoid taking an action that may harm you. It can also motivate you to act, while not taking the action will harm you.
