10 practical steps to overcome your insecurity when you sell.

Selling is a tricky job because it requires the ability to influence at two levels: internal and external.

You can't be successful at a scale if you're not able to dominate your belief system and your emotions; and of all the emotions insecurity is the most dangerous one.

Well, actually insecurity is more than just ONE emotion because as historian Tiffany Wall Smith says : "often our emotions crowd and jostle together until it's actually quite hard to tell them apart".

So what do you do when you must make a living selling and deep inside you feel you're not as confident as you should?

In 20 years in international sales I've tried and tested everything I could to overcome my insecurity, and I found out that the following steps are the most efficient ones:

1. Acknowledge it. Take a sit, close your eyes and get familiar with it. Don't fight it and, most importantly, don't hide it. Nothing like an hidden emotion (because that is what insecurity is) pops up at the wrong time and gets in your way when trying to overcome a client's objection. Don't be judgmental when acknowledging your insecurity, just look at it objectively and relax.

2. Reckon that everyone in this world has, at one point, been insecure about themselves. Even the more confident people may, deep inside, be less confident than they seem to be. You're not alone in this and the fact that this is such a common state of mind should make you realize that it can be changed.... and with time you will.

3. Assess your company and your product or service. Are they great? Do they solve your prospect's problems? Are they people worth working with? If the answer is YES you can skip step #4

4. Change company. The longer you stay, the more insecure you'll become.

5. Make a list of all the (little and big) achievements in your life. Focus on those achievements and reckon that you have had the resourcefulness to make them happen and that you can do it again. Let me say it clear : you deserve being confident regardless of your past achievements because every human being is gifted with talents and resources, but the mind is a demanding spouse and it needs constant reassurance.

6. Put yourself in your prospect's shoes. Get familiar with the benefits of your product /service and enjoy them for a while. Build a feeling of satisfaction.

7. Make a list of all the objections you usually hear from your prospects, and think of some more. Answer them in writing, one by one, and read the answers every day before you go to work.

8. Read. Read something related to business, sales, human behaviour, economy every day. Build a wealth of knowledge that makes you fell comfortable with any client. This slow and constant progress will erode your insecurity and before you know you'll feel much more confident and ready to grow. 

9. Don't expect to succeed every time. Failure and rejection should be your constant expectations because, as Alibaba's Jack Ma says, they are what selling (and entrepreneurship) are about. If you expect rejection you can't be disappointed and when you happen to make a sale, you'll be happier than ever.

10. Don't sell, serve. Meet a prospect with the genuine intention to help. If they accept to be helped, it is a win-win situation, if they refuse.....you'll still be happy to help them in future. With a servant mentality you don't even need to feel confident because your focus goes outside of yourself. 

Insecurity is an emotion, a past belief, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and an unrealistic fear. You can get past it and you should.

Life is too short to live it in fear and fear doesn't serve you, your family and your clients.

Try the 10 steps above for a month and see it fading away.

Not only will your business benefit from it, but your overall wellbeing will increase.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Thank you for your time!

Be well,

Carlo