The Silent Struggle of Sales Professionals : "Self Doubt and ways to manage it"

Regardless of your age, experience, portfolio, or nature of business, all sales professionals face this once every while. You have achieved your targets exceptionally well for this quarter however as the quarter ends the counter and scoreboard reset and everything starts from zero all over again. The sales cycle seems never-ending, new and newer challenges keep evolving, rejections are increasing and you go through the same whirlpool again and again and again.

Regardless of what you have achieved in the past or what you are capable of you eventually start questioning the basics: Am I doing it correctly? Is everything OK with me? Am I even made for this? Why am I doing this?

Welcome to the silent battle that all sales professionals go through. Welcome to the world of "Self Doubt". All of us agree that sales is a very demanding profession and you need to be at your best game all the time. And since sales is a game of numbers there will be plenty of instances and moments when your numbers will be against you. You will always be chasing one number or the other. Struggling to manage the broader target and outperform your previous performance. A salesperson experiences a similar cycle to a sportsperson, you will have your ups and downs. The sooner all of us accept that "Self Doubt" is a common experience among sales professionals, the easier it will be for salespeople to overcome this, speak about this, and most importantly have minimal impact on their performance. Let us look at how this common experience affects our performance:

1. Self-doubt creates confusion and hesitation:

When self-doubt kicks in, you end up doubting your own abilities. One common ability that takes a toll is the ability to close deals. Your confidence takes a huge blow and eventually you end up confusing yourself and your prospect with hesitation and second-guessing yourself. You doubt your own ability, doubt the product, doubt the prospect's intention, and eventually fail to have a meaningful conversation resulting in missed opportunities and lost sales.

As a sales professional, you should always focus on your strengths and the abilities that are in your control. Here as well, recall your own journey, your past accomplishments, and your past success. If you are a fresher, reach out to your senior, leader, or colleague at the earliest and discuss this. They can share their experiences which can help you again. Momentum is super important in sales so just keep moving, also celebrate small wins. This does wonders for your momentum and eventually your confidence and sales success.

2. Self Doubt can lead to Procrastination:

When you doubt your abilities, you will try avoiding activities that make you use those abilities. Here, with you doubting your skill you end up avoiding that meeting or making that follow-up call, or avoiding sending that email to the client. Once you fall trapped in the act of procrastinating you end up missing out on possible conversations which compromise your momentum and eventually lead to lesser conversions.

As a sales professional, you should make life simple for yourself and one way to do so and avoid procrastination is to break down bigger tasks into smaller chunks. Be realistic and set an achievable goal for yourself. As a sales leader be on the lookout for your team, talk to them regularly, and see if anyone is facing any problems in getting meetings or closing deals.

3. Self-doubt attracts negativity:

If there is one thing that makes self-doubting soo brutal it is the negativity that comes along. When you doubt your own abilities you go into a negative spiral and in no time the entire environment smells negative and disturbing. This directly affects your energy and enthusiasm which is extremely important in your sales calls and meetings. Along with this, with negative self-talk you end up in a sand swamp, it just keeps you sucking inside and in no time you end up in a deep hole of negativity and bad performance.

Mindset is crucial when it comes to managing negativity. Talk to your peers about your challenges, your feelings, and your concerns, Seek their advice and feedback which can be the difference in avoiding the negative spiral and self-sabotaging. As leaders generalizing failure is very important, being vulnerable and honest with your team will encourage them to share their issues and challenges which will definitely make them feel better and also will make them open towards interventions to help them navigate the problem.

4. Self Doubt leads to Burnout:

With you doubting your ability to succeed you eventually end up with feelings of Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout. And trust me you wouldn't want to get into this cycle at all. With burnout, you end up affecting both your personal and professional relationships. You have lower energy levels, aren't motivated to perform, and often seek isolation as a cope up mechanism, which eventually compromises your performance and your abilities.

As sales professionals, it is very important to find alignment in what you do. You need to trust the product, the company, its offering, and its values first. Along with that prioritize self-care and find ways to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Take professional breaks, manage vacations, more importantly, manage time for activities that you like even if they are outside your work.

Self-doubt is sabotaging, it's toxic and directly affects your performance. As sales professionals we deal with so many variables and an ambiguous environment around us, it is very important to talk about these issues. Speak up, talk to your colleagues, seniors, teams, and family but make sure

you speak up. It is a very common experience amongst salespeople but it may not necessarily have to hold you back. By focusing on your strengths, setting achievable goals, and maintaining a positive mindset, you can overcome self-doubt and achieve sales success. Remember, you are capable of achieving great things – all it takes is a little bit of self-belief and a lot of hard work.