Reduce Your Sales Potential NOW
The e-mail that went to 50,000 of your fellow ad specialty professionals today gave a list of Sales Volume Killers: Fear, Doubt, Anxiety, Procrastination, Worry, Failure, Illness, Personal issues, Anger, Bitterness, Substance Abuse, Lack of Personal Discipline, Irresponsibility, Wrong priorities, to name just a few. I promised to deal with each of these over time, but to pick the biggest one for today. Go over the list. Which one do you think is #1 for the average sales person? Which is #1 for you.
In my 51 years of selling (I started at age 6), and 35 years of managing and teaching sellers, I would list #1 as fear. I had a salesman years ago who was over 6 feet tall, weighed at least 275, and was one of the most congenial guys I've ever met. If he made two calls and got two "no's," he was having doughnuts at 10:00, checking his deodorant, and not wanting to venture out the rest of the day.
But it isn't just fear of rejection. It can be fear from being unprepared, fear arising from being in a sales slump, fear of facing a sales manager. It might be fear of the actual client you are about to visit because it is the first time, because of their personality, or because of what you have to tell them. It can just be the simple fear of not getting a big job, thus losing a big commission or even your job.
Now that I've created all these fears in your mind, lets turn a corner and see how to deal with them.
FEAR ONLY DEALS WITH FUTURE EVENTS
Unless you are very gifted, you cannot see into the future. You can predict things based on past events, but you cannot know what is going to happen. We are not afraid of what happened yesterday or what is happening right this minute. If we are in the middle of a traumatic event, we are past the fear stage into the doing something about it stage. (Faint, run, talk fast, pray, assume the position, etc.)
In every future event their are three possible outcomes. Good, Bad, Neutral. Sure, you can put these on a continuum and say very, very good, sorta bad, but lets keep it simple. Unless you are afraid of success (and some are), two of the three possible results are nothing to worry about. That leaves bad. We are fearful of a "no" to your proposition, or worse, "no and don't come back."
Next we want to ask ourselves, how will fear change the situation. Contrary to some who write on this subject, I think that sometimes appropriate fear will cause a sales pro to rethink his strategy, do a bit more preparation, or charge up the adrenaline at the right moment. Inappropriate fear will result in anxiety, creative blocks, paralyzation, and panic during the call, not to mention sleep disorders, acid indigestion, or kicking your dog.
Here is the strategy for dealing with inappropriate fear. Getting all wound up and upset in advance of an unknown event will seem real stupid if the result is good. What a waste of energy and Tums. It will even be a waste if the result is neutral, and now if you follow your pattern, you'll be kicking the dog and the kids until the next time. If the result is negative, thereby justifying your fear you need to ask yourself: "How did my fear and anxiety change this result? Was I just not worked up enough? If only I could have lost two whole nights of sleep, then the buyer would have said yes?!?
Fear keeps us from making cold calls, follow up calls to set appointments, and even post appointment calls to get the results. All of those failures to act result in lost sales. They might say no. Get over it. Even if you can't get over the hurt from rejection, at least get over fearing a result which is totally unknown to you in advance.
In my 51 years of selling (I started at age 6), and 35 years of managing and teaching sellers, I would list #1 as fear. I had a salesman years ago who was over 6 feet tall, weighed at least 275, and was one of the most congenial guys I've ever met. If he made two calls and got two "no's," he was having doughnuts at 10:00, checking his deodorant, and not wanting to venture out the rest of the day.
But it isn't just fear of rejection. It can be fear from being unprepared, fear arising from being in a sales slump, fear of facing a sales manager. It might be fear of the actual client you are about to visit because it is the first time, because of their personality, or because of what you have to tell them. It can just be the simple fear of not getting a big job, thus losing a big commission or even your job.
Now that I've created all these fears in your mind, lets turn a corner and see how to deal with them.
FEAR ONLY DEALS WITH FUTURE EVENTS
Unless you are very gifted, you cannot see into the future. You can predict things based on past events, but you cannot know what is going to happen. We are not afraid of what happened yesterday or what is happening right this minute. If we are in the middle of a traumatic event, we are past the fear stage into the doing something about it stage. (Faint, run, talk fast, pray, assume the position, etc.)
In every future event their are three possible outcomes. Good, Bad, Neutral. Sure, you can put these on a continuum and say very, very good, sorta bad, but lets keep it simple. Unless you are afraid of success (and some are), two of the three possible results are nothing to worry about. That leaves bad. We are fearful of a "no" to your proposition, or worse, "no and don't come back."
Next we want to ask ourselves, how will fear change the situation. Contrary to some who write on this subject, I think that sometimes appropriate fear will cause a sales pro to rethink his strategy, do a bit more preparation, or charge up the adrenaline at the right moment. Inappropriate fear will result in anxiety, creative blocks, paralyzation, and panic during the call, not to mention sleep disorders, acid indigestion, or kicking your dog.
Here is the strategy for dealing with inappropriate fear. Getting all wound up and upset in advance of an unknown event will seem real stupid if the result is good. What a waste of energy and Tums. It will even be a waste if the result is neutral, and now if you follow your pattern, you'll be kicking the dog and the kids until the next time. If the result is negative, thereby justifying your fear you need to ask yourself: "How did my fear and anxiety change this result? Was I just not worked up enough? If only I could have lost two whole nights of sleep, then the buyer would have said yes?!?
Fear keeps us from making cold calls, follow up calls to set appointments, and even post appointment calls to get the results. All of those failures to act result in lost sales. They might say no. Get over it. Even if you can't get over the hurt from rejection, at least get over fearing a result which is totally unknown to you in advance.
posted by Randy W. Kirk at 2:50 AM
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