There’s something about sales that scares you.  No matter how big and brave you are in other aspects of your life deep down inside where no one else can see you’ve got a place that’s very scary.  For some reason this scary place only surfaces when you think about specific aspects of sales.

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

What is fear anyway?

Fear represents an unwillingness or inability to take action.  Fear:

• immobilizes you
• keeps you trapped in the unpleasant now
• reflects perceived emotional harm not real physical harm when it comes to sales

Those ugly little fears create a brick wall that blocks you from sales success.

Success Demands Action

The only way to get the sales success you deserve is to take action.  Because fear prevents action fear must be overcome.

Paul Petrowski recently listed 7 common fears related to making money online.  As I read his list I immediately realized those 7 common fears were also 7 sales killing fears that must be eradicated like weeds from you lawn before they choke off all potential for sales success.

Ask any sales manager or business owner with a sales force and they’ll tell you the sales people who don’t succeed are the ones who don’t take action.  They don’t take action because every failure they have increases their fear of action.  Eventually they busy themselves doing everything but selling.

The Cure

The only way to overcome fear is to:

• identify it
• understand it
• develop an action plan to remove it

That’s exactly what we’re going to do here.  We’re going to take on each of these 7 killer sales fears starting with…

The FEAR of Disapproval

Disapproval represents an unfavorable opinion or dissatisfaction.  All humans have a natural desire to be liked and loved.  If others do not approve of our actions or are dissatisfied with our actions we feel that means they don’t like US.  When in reality it’s the action or inaction that isn’t liked.

Most of us have been conditioned to disapprove of sales people.  When we think of sales we immediately think of that obnoxious manipulative car salesman even though you’ve had countless experiences where you thoroughly enjoyed and respected the sales person.  Because you enjoyed and respected those sales people mentally you didn’t put them in the sales person category.  You put those people in the expert, adviser, or knowledgeable helper category.

Think about Your Actions

List the actions you have any concern about taking now.  Yeah, grab a good old pencil and paper right now and list at least the 3 most important actions required to succeed that you feel uncomfortable doing… so you’re avoiding doing them now.

Ask These Questions

Now after each action on your list ask yourself these questions:

• Is this action legal, moral, and ethical?
• How would I feel if the headline in my local newspaper read “(Your Name) does (this action)”?
• How does this action help the people you can help?

Evaluate Your Answers

Obviously, you must answer “yes” to question #1.  If you can answer “yes” to the first question then the most important question is the last question.  List every way the action helps the people you can help.

Whatever you’re selling that product or service does something highly beneficial for the people who buy it.  When you don’t take action to help people get that benefit you’re actually harming them.  You’re like a greedy King with a splendid feast laid out on the banquet table who won’t allow the starving people in his kingdom to eat.

Action Plan

When it comes to people most likely to buy your stuff there are people who are a solid match for what you have (your A’s and B’s), and people who may or may not be a good match (your C’s and D’s).  Until you feel confident taking action it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go after your A’s and B’s.  You risk blowing it with them and keeping them from getting what they deserve.  Instead make a list of 10 C’s and D’s.

Next identify the first action you need to take to help those people get this benefit.  How will you…

• make them aware you can help them get the benefit they want?
• open a connection with them?
• help them identify themselves as potential buyers?

What is it about that action that’s uncomfortable?  There are 3 logical reasons for your discomfort:

• The action disrespects the prospect or you
• You don’t know how to take the action
• The action produces poor results

If the action disrespects the prospect what will you or how can you modify the action so both you and the prospect are respected?

If you know what to do but not how to do it then how will you learn?

• What books will you read?
• What workshop or seminar will you attend?
• Who will coach or mentor you to sales success?

If the action produces poor results perhaps you’re taking the wrong action.  How will you discover the right action?  How will you discover what isn’t working and why?

Finally, select the day and time you will start taking that action with the 10 people you listed and make an appointment with yourself to do it now.

Have you ever had a fear of disapproval?  Please use the comment area to tell us about it and what you did to overcome it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under sales 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.

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• 7 Killer Sales Fears Part 7
• 7 Killer Sales Fears Part 6
• 7 Killer Sales Fears Part 5