This past week, I watched a video of our youngest granddaughter that Ian posted on Facebook. He captured her as she made her first efforts to stand. What a treat! She was so proud of herself and excited as she wobbled trying to learn balance. She had a good grip on the pole she’d used to pull herself up. She’d let go with only one hand just pleased as could be. Naturally, daddy heaped praise on her too.
I often think about the parallel in sales and marketing to infants learning to stand, walk and talk. It fascinates me that infants are risk takers. Survival demands it. When we learn to stand and then to walk, we spend more time falling than we do standing or walking. Yet somewhere along the line we forget that all life’s activity takes failure to succeed at new skills. This is true especially true in sales and marketing. The more complex something is, the more failure we’ll have to deal with. Good sales ability involves numerous skills, each of which we must master. [...]
When I’m consulting with clients on soft sell sales and marketing, I come alive. I absolutely love training people on how to improve their sales and marketing effectiveness. I really think that a career in sales is fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding when you help customers buy.
At the same time, it is work, lots of work. Nor is it a get-rich-quick scheme. A career in soft sell sales offers a lifestyle of hard work rewarding success with much more than money. [...]
Because I decided to take a break from the genres I normally read to relax, I finally recognized the parallel between the protagonists in my novels and making sales calls. In every genre I read, the main people in the stories must be likeable enough that the reader will care about them. At the same time, they must have some flaws that make them human. Ideally, these weak character traits will help set up the tension for the conflict that they must overcome. In many story lines, the conflict takes place within the protagonist’s mind and emotions. In other words, the central character must overcome some fear or other weakness to win the prize, which can be anything from a kingdom to a battle to a relationship, such as a happy marriage.
This is the very thing that I found when I started out in sales. Sales managers call it “call reluctance.” It’s a fear of cold calling and prospecting. Most people I know want to be liked. Some want it so badly they reject others before the others can reject them. So when we have to make cold calls, our mind starts to present a myriad of reasons not to make the effort: “I’ll look stupid”; “They’ll throw me out”; “What if they say no?” If you’re in sales, you probably have your own favorite lines your mind uses to undermine your prospecting. Part of it too is a fear of the unknown and worry about being unable to handle it.
Over the years, I’ve found the following ten actions you can do to overcome your fears to become happy and successful as a [...]
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