8 Ego Driven Emotions that Harm Sales - Part I

1. Desire - Some sales reps become too focused on meeting their targets and become obsessed with booking a meeting or closing a deal, even if the lead has not been qualified and a clear pain or need has not been identified

Curiosity is the best antidote to desire. When you are genuinely curious about your prospect's goals, challenges and current situation, you focus on helping. Paradoxically, you are more likely to meet your target if you detach from it and focus on your customers and not on your product.

2. Fear - fear of the unknown may stop you from cold calling ("I don't know what they are doing right now so I many interrupt their day"). It may also stop you from trying new channels - "I've never used SMS for work before so it may be deemed unprofessional."

Hope is a way to overcome this. Think about a time when you were successful cold calling if you have fear of it. If you have never made a successful cold call before, reach out to a team mate who is a cold calling wizard and ask for some tips, and even if they can mentor you.

3. Anger - even if you are the most empathetic, customer-centric sales person, you will have people that are rude to you when selling. "Why are you calling my mobile?". My favourite was when someone requested our playbook template on LinkedIn, and after I emailed them, they said "unsubscribe", even though they requested it ??. After I said he had requested the content, he apologized and said he says "unsubscribe" to all new email addresses!

4. Resentment - resentment usually follows anger. Once someone is rude to you, you first become angry, and then you resent that person and do not want to speak to them again.

Forgiveness is an antidote to both anger and resentment. This is easier said than done. However, don't let someone's attitude affect yours. Often, a prospect will be going through something behind closed doors - they have had a family bereavement, are going through a divorce or they have a manager who is harrassing them, and they'll take it out on you. Contact them again in a month's time and they may act like a totally different person.

On next week's newsletter, we'll cover the remaining 4 emotions and antidotes for them.