Do you have the courage to make it in sales?  Fear wraps its ugly talons around the throats and legs of many a sales professional.  You know the actions you want to take, however, the fears you hold keep you from doing what you know you need to do.

It’s so frustrating and it’s killing your sales success.  What do you do?  How do you get courage?

Realize that courage is not something anyone can give you.  Courage isn’t something you either have or don’t have.  It isn’t something you’re either born with or you aren’t.

Courage is a character trait you develop.  Every day you’re given opportunities to develop courage.  You either choose to take advantage of those opportunities or you don’t.

Have you discovered that you’re very brave in some situations, and in others you’re like a frightened little kitten hiding mewing loudly hoping your Mommy cat will come to your rescue?  Revisit the circumstances where you are brave.  Why are you brave in that situation yet not so brave in selling situations?

The difference is found in your long-held beliefs.  Now rather than berating yourself for acting like a coward turn your fears into a positive experience.  Identify the sales situations you fear.

Ask yourself, “how would a brave person act in this situation?”  Notice I didn’t ask you how they felt I asked how they would act.  The courageous may very well “feel” just as fearful as you do in the same situation yet they have the “courage” to act in spite of their fears.

How could you act brave even when you aren’t feeling so brave?  If you took those actions what’s the worst thing that could happen?  What’s the best thing that could happen?

Is the worst thing that could happen so bad you couldn’t recover from it?  If not, then how bad is it to do that very scary thing and see what happens?  Weren’t you afraid at some point of the things you’re so brave about now?  Didn’t you discover that your fears didn’t hold water in that situation?  What if your fears don’t hold water now either?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.