Thoughtful Thursdays – Overcoming sales fears

I was reading Thoughtful Thursdays articles from a few years ago and came across this one about sales fears. Recent client meetings have told me that these fears do not go away. This lead me to editing and re-posting the thought again.

The more experience one has, the easier it becomes to deal with them, but we are all subject to some level of sales fear.

The key to managing these annoying stresses and promoters of procrastination is acknowledging they exist, identifying the root causes and putting plans in place to address them.

• Fear of rejection
  • No one I know looks forward to rejection. One way to address this fear is to understand that not everyone is going to be your customer. As a matter of fact you will likely hear “no” many more times than “yes”. I realize that it is easy to say, but truly you must not take it personally, it is business.
• Fear of not being liked
  • Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect. How do you expect to be treated? Treat your prospect in the same manner you would expect to be treated.
• Fear of losing an order
  • This is going to happen from time to time, and for reasons often not in your control or that you can change. Use the fear to engage your enthusiasm for making the sale. Reinforce the value in doing business with your company. Focus on the positive rather than being brought down by the negative.
• Fear of not being able to answer a question
  • What question(s) do you fear the most? Take the time to brainstorm the questions and develop responses as part of your routine sales call preparation. Be the subject matter expert (SME).
• Fear of success
  • Yes, this is real as well. Don’t over commit or be anyone other than who you are. Take the order and deliver on your commitments that fulfill your customer’s needs. Don’t feel that you necessarily have to do it all yourself. Do what you do best and have others do what they do best to insure success.

Good selling,
Richard

Have a question about sales? Contact Sakanashi and Associates Inc. and I will respond.

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