Selling Past the Fear
A large number of salespeople live in fear. I am not talking about the screaming and running away kind of fear. This fear is a lower level fear that doesn’t cause a full out fight or flight response. Instead it causes things like procrastination, self sabotage and other avoidance techniques. It can be very difficult to get a sales person; especially new ones, to do many of the tasks that they need to do to be successful.
Tasks like prospecting, follow up and making presentations all involve a possibility of rejection. This fear of rejection, along with a fear of making presentations and fear of failure are the three common fear states that stop many in sales from succeeding. Overcoming a fear of this type on your own can be challenging. What typically happens is procrastination in doing the feared tasks and this creates a snow ball effect of not reaching sales goals. When someone allows fear to control them the fear becomes stronger. The problem grows and begins to feel overwhelming. Soon instead of just a few calls you now have hundreds. At this point guilt and regret over lost opportunities kicks in and this will slow you down even more.
If you experience this kind of fear there is help. The best way to overcome procrastination and start to feel more successful is to break the task down into small steps. Almost anything can be accomplished in small steps.
Take for example making cold or warm calls. Most people make the goal too big to start. So have a goal of 3-5 calls a day. This may sound like nothing, but if you are not making any calls, it’s a start. Every day you add a few more calls. You allow yourself to get comfortable with this level of rejection. Stay focused on making the calls instead of pressuring yourself to make a sale every call. Just make the calls. This will have a positive effect of taking action and therefore feeling productive which then gives you feelings of higher self esteem and confidence.
Fear and procrastination are always going to be part of a career in sales. So notice the fear, stop thinking and worrying and instead take action in small steps and soon you will be moving forward and selling past the fear.
