Does selling fear control you?
Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions; its grip is strong and pervasive. To maximize your success in business and selling, you must learn to control your fear of sales, or it controls you.
There are four kinds of sales in business: products, services, ideas and yourself. In the corporate world, you sell ideas up to your boss, down to your team and across to your peers. If you’re a CEO, you’re the lead on selling … your vision and strategies to the whole organization. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always selling yourself, along with the products or services you’re selling to your customers.
Benefits of gaining control of fear of sales.
No matter what your job, you sell. When you gain control of your selling fears (fear of selling), you’ll be more influential, happier and more successful in business and in your personal life. Yes, you sell ideas in your personal life all the time, for example, “How about pizza tonight?” “Jonny, brush your teeth.” “Sara, be home by 11.”
The fear of sales is a highly multidimensional fear, and it may include fear of … failure, success, rejection, self-promotion and embarrassment, as well as fear of being disliked, pushy and judged.
A sales secret — the best way to control fear of sales.
The best way to minimize fear of selling is to create a belief about selling that has no fear. What if you truly believed selling was a great and loving service? The most successful, relationship-focused salespeople I’ve worked with do. “Love ’em and serve ’em” is a great mantra to help create the right thoughts and feelings for selling. It’s hard for fear to coexist in a mind filled with love and service.
High-performance selling framework.
Another way to decrease fear of sales is by using this four-part framework for high-performance selling:
1. Show up. Be completely present with your potential customer. Have a clear focus and a single agenda. Love ’em and serve ’em.
2. Tell the truth. Always. Your reputation is everything. Not only tell the truth with the big things but also tell the truth with the little things!
3. Play to win. Find ways to wow! Exceed what’s expected of you. Be creative in finding ways to win. Great salespeople are like great athletes; they find a way to win.
4. Don’t be attached to the outcome. This will seem counterintuitive, but it’s a sales secret of the highest performers. When you focus on the outcome of a sales discussion, it takes you out of the present and into the future. It causes selling fear, anxiety and stress. You don’t control the outcome (someone buys or doesn’t); you only control the process. When you focus on what you control, it’s easy to stay in the present and relaxed. This is not only a sales secret but also one of the most empowering changes you can make in your life. The present is where all of your power is.
Two techniques to control selling fears.
Using these techniques will also help you minimize fear:
1. Give yourself a reality check.
What’s the worst-case scenario, and what’s the probability of it happening? When you can accept the worst case, you no longer need to fear it, which keeps your mind in reality. Olympic downhill skiers accept that paralysis or death is their worst case, but they never allow themselves to focus on it. Accept and come to peace with the worst-case scenario, and then put it off to the side and don’t empower it by focusing on it!
2. Control negative thoughts of selling.
An Olympic boxer once said, “I don’t have the luxury of having a negative thought. One negative thought creates a moment of hesitation, leaving an opening for my opponent to throw a punch that could kill me.” You have the luxury of some negative thoughts, but if you want to be great, you don’t have the luxury of many.
Negative-thought control technique.
Here’s a simple yet powerful negative-thought control technique to help diminish the fear of selling:
1. Recognize that you’re having a negative thought. There are three ways:
- Hear the thought in your mind.
- Notice how you feel. If you feel tense or anxious, identify the thought that’s creating your anxiety.
- See yourself procrastinate. Procrastination is usually the result of fearful thoughts.
2. Stop the negative thought. It’s stealing your confidence, self-esteem and happiness! A negative thought that I’ve actually heard from sales professionals is, “I’ll never make another sale!”
3. Replace the negative thought with a positive thought that’s true and in your control. For example, a replacement thought for the negative thought above could be, “I have a great product/service that people want, and I have an excellent sales process.” Stick to the process and relax.
4. Acknowledge yourself for taking control of your thoughts.
This negative-thought control technique gives you more control of your negative thoughts, thereby giving you more control of your negative emotions (fear, anger, frustration and so on). Unfortunately, most negative thoughts come from a belief and thought pattern you’ve probably had for a long time, possibly since childhood. You must continually stop, replace and acknowledge them until you can build a new thought pattern. It takes a lot of repetition!
By following the above techniques, you can control your fear of selling and maximize your selling success! And when you have great integrity, high-performance selling can be an act of service and love.
Fear is one of the greatest blocks to your success. Do you have conscious and/or subconscious fears? Have the courage to set yourself free! Click here to learn more.
