If You Have This, You Have NO Business Being in Business!
What is this that you have?
Hint: it’s a four letter word, starting with ‘F’?
FEAR!
More specifically, it’s fear of sales, fear of selling and/or fear of appearing pushy, aggressive, salesy. Those are all fears of different shades of the same fear. It’s a fear of approaching strangers and talking about what you do.
If you have this fear, you have no business being in business! You can have the best logo, best website, best strategy BUT unless you have sales, you have NO business. Sales are vital to your success and is the only thing that leads to a successful business.
IF you have this fear, then you need to get over it or give up and get a job!.It really is that simple. Unless you’re so well funded that you can hire a VP of Sales and a sales team to sell for you -as a small business owner or entrepreneur or solopreneur you MUST master selling your stuff.
IF you’re not your own best cheerleader – then who is?
This became quite clear early in my small biz consulting practice which I started in 1992. I’ve encountered fear of selling in about 40-50% of my clients. For some it’s overwhelming, paralyzing them from growing their business.
What to do if you have this sales fear? Fear not – it’s easily cured. However, like all fears, it must be faced head-on and the way through is the way through all fears – start and keep going. Don’t stop and don’t give up.
The more you practice your sales skills, the better you get and the more confident and relaxed you’ll be.
#1 Pretend you’re talking to your newest BFF – best friend. We all talk about establishing relationships with our clients – would you be nervous talking to a friend? That’s how you should approach your next sales call.
Relax yourself and tell yourself, it’s JUST a conversation to take the stress out of the situation. Deep breath, have your list of questions ready and go in and be ready to make a deeper connection. That’s all that initial meeting is about. You cannot sell anything to anyone until you know if they need or want what you have to offer. Maybe they need it but don’t want it or it’s not high on their list of priorities.
Take the mindset of Aline Ayoub who I wrote about in an earlier blog post. She tells herself that she is doing others a disservice IF she doesn’t call and let them know how she can help them with their HR issues.
To be in sales is to be of service to others is my take on this sales business. If you have something to offer others, then don’t be afraid, just get good at helping people buy from you by first overcoming your perceived fear of sales.
If fear of sales paralyzes you, then get help – personally or professionally – whatever works as you have to succeed in sales in order to have a successful thriving business on your own.