Fear: The Secret Weapon of Successful Salespeople

If there is one thing a great salesperson does well, it’s hiding the near debilitating terror she often feels when doing her job. I decided to drill down on the key attributes that separate top performers from the rest, and one of the constants I came across was fear and how it could help to make us better. Fear is the expectation or the anticipation of possible harm. But what is the harm in doing sales?

Salespeople are often their own antagonist playing against their success with negative self-talk and self-doubt. Am I good enough or smart enough? Will I win?

Other than poor sales performance, when people bail out of the profession, often it’s not because they can’t handle rejection, but because of fear. It’s fear holding them back from picking up the phone, pushing past their comfort level, making the cold calls, and walking into the lobby without an appointment. They simply do not do any of the things that they are afraid of, thus not getting results.

After talking to hundreds of salespeople at the top of their game, and being a top performer for two decades myself, I have discovered a few things about the usefulness of fear. Fear acts as a primer to getting great results. One would think that a great salesperson is led by courage and confidence. Although those are common traits, one of the secret weapons I came across is using fear to better prepare. The conflict is a phenomenon that contributes to every great salesperson’s overall attainment.

When asked whether fear has played a role in their overwhelming success, the answer was demonstrably and emphatically YES.

Here are 5 ways great salespeople embrace fear to outperform the competition and themselves:

1. Treat it like a signal

A CEO of a media company and an individual with a storied career puts it this way:

“Ultimately, fear is healthy, and it has helped drive my success in two ways. 

First, it serves as a reminder that fear is a sign that I need to step up to the plate and take on a new task that seems intimidating at first. Stephen Pressfield espouses that view in his book The War of Art, and I wholeheartedly agree with it. 

Second, experiencing feelings of fear helps me to check in with the people that have looked to me for leadership (both formally and informally). I check in with them to set a vibe where they know it’s perfectly fine to be fearful about Project X or Situation Y because I feel the same way from time to time. When people feel like they aren’t the only one experiencing something, then above-average teamwork and productivity occurs.”

2. Get anxious to get prepared

A stand out saleswoman that has been a top performer for nearly a decade in her field, (breaking annual records, doubling and sometimes tripling her nearest peer’s results) uses anxiety for a preparedness check. She states, “I do anxiety really well. By envisioning worst possible outcomes, I can do things to prepare regardless IF whatever could happen never actually does.”

Anxiety may cause nervousness or unease when we’re faced with an uncertain outcome. But in preparing for that uncertain outcome after invoking the fear of what could possibly go wrong, she prepares for what is possible to go right and wins time after time. 

3. You can fix wrong decisions but not indecision

Fear of making the wrong move is a healthy one but not making a move at all is devastating. A real estate investor, author and sales guru puts it this way:

“There are many things that require lots of thought before action but ultimately you have to make a decision and dial up a sales call and start sending prospect emails.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz coined the phrase “Paradox of Choice” to describe his consistent findings that, while increased choice allows us to achieve objectively better results, it also leads to greater anxiety, indecision, paralysis, and dissatisfaction.

One must begin flexing the just do it muscle, then tweak the results. Being afraid to start the process will lead you nowhere. However, making decisions, learning from the mistakes and moving forward is the difference between commotion and forward motion. So get ready, fire, aim!

4. Kill the monster while it is small

Taming the fear is not as much of an art form as it is a mental exercise. Identifying that fear is present, labeling it for what it is and then determining if it is useful or not is one strategy a clinical psychologist advises us to try. The physiological presence of fear sends a signal to the adrenal glands in your torso causing them to send out cortisol and adrenaline. The fear response also releases glucose into the bloodstream - a power up to engage your fight or flight response. And truthfully, there are no bears chasing you in the board room. Fear is the expectation or the anticipation of possible harm. So, when you begin to feel the sensations, greet the fear and welcome its effects on your body. Use it to your advantage and do not let it consume you or prevent your next move. Just know that you are in the right place and remind yourself that nothing bad is happening. You are just crushing deals!

5. Breathe through it

The most precious thing you have is your breath. The gentlemen at “Think Great Lose Weight” teach a very valuable lesson: the average human can live up to 3 weeks without food and 3 days without water, but we cannot survive 3 minutes without breath.  Remember to breathe. Meditation teaches to focus on breath as a form of moving your focus away from the chaos of the outside world. This is true in a tough sales situation. Things may not be going your way but just remember to breathe before speaking, breathe before reacting to the thoughts, breathe before saying something desperate. Just breathe and focus on the task at hand. 

Fear is useful. When you are in danger, fear creates a heightened awareness of the senses. When you notice the emotion is present, harness its ability to sense if something is wrong, out of place, needs to be said or not be said. Use the alertness to determine how to respond to the situation. Don’t be afraid of the fear but acknowledge its presence to help guide the next compelling event. It is a useful tool and the successful ones use it that way.

There are hundreds of sales methodologies and even more tactics to get the sale but understanding your body and mind and what contributes to your success is a certain path to bigger and better success.

I hope you found this valuable. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section.

Written by: Gabe Biondo - Sales Leader | Transformational Coach | Mentor

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/gabeb/