Terrified at the thought of sales?

Acting legend Henry Fonda was still throwing up from nerves before every performance when he was well into his seventies. Even after years of experience, the fear never goes away, not for any of us, we just learn how to push through it and do what’s required. 

As solo-entrepreneurs, we must market our products and services and bring them to the world; that is our mission. Even if you have a sales team working for you, leading by example in your business is key to winning respect and engagement from your team.

It took me years to learn and adopt cold calling approaches in sales, both in person and on the phone. For a while I was so scared that I took my Dad, an accomplished salesman in his own right, along with me to cold call businesses. Can you imagine? I look back now and laugh, but you know what? I was simply terrified at the idea of walking into a business to hand out a sales flyer, or to book an appointment. Sure, it came from my past conditioning; although I imagine many people you ask wouldn’t even consider physically cold calling businesses or picking up the phone and dialing cold.

Eventually I mastered that fear and learned how to govern it. I learned how to cold call effectively for myself, and even came to enjoy the opportunity to meet with new people and knowing each day would be different. I still felt the nerves at the start of the sales day, but over time I developed a set of strategies that I used.

Here are some of the things I did that might also help you overcome your fears around selling:

1.   I reminded myself that sales prospects are people just like me, and if I’m kind and smile they will probably be helpful too. If not, it wasn’t personal. Most likely they were just having a bad day. The key was to be compassionate to myself and to them.

2.   I always set a goal of how many calls I would do in a day, regardless of outcomes or rejections. I knew from experience that if I did a certain number of calls it would lead to a percentage of bookings, which would in turn yield a number of new clients. If I wanted twenty new clients, I knew I had to call a much larger number of people. I was diligent with my numbers.

3.   I set myself rewards throughout the day. So, once I’d done a certain number of calls I’d take a coffee break, have a look at the shops (whoops there’s my shoe addiction out of the bag lol), sit in the sun for ten minutes, read a few pages, and sometimes even have a little nap if I felt like it. Rewarding myself always gave me more energy, happiness and a little kick start to continue with the next task. It also reminded me that I was free, my time was my own, and I was choosing to meet more people and offer them my services.

What would it take to overcome your own blocks around sales? What new strategies are you willing to try to help yourself through the fear? How can you reward yourself for meeting your sales goals, and stay energized and focused even when you feel that tiny knot in your stomach? Journal around these questions and continue to come up with and implement ideas that work for you.

Do you struggle with confidence? Get nervous before sales? Think your no good at it?

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