Sales Blog: Sales Takes Courage

Salespeople have to exhibit courage at times, we are all afraid of something and salespeople are no different.  If you ask a salesperson what part of selling really scares them, the honest ones, have a pretty quick answer.  Why?  Because they deal with whatever that fear is day in and day out.  The good ones cope and strive to overcome it.  Most importantly they take action against it and attack; they force themselves to do what they are afraid to do.  The poor ones give into fear and avoid it.  Courage is not conquering new ground, it is not risking and it is not undertaking new ventures.  Courage is overcoming fears and, for most salespeople, they are faced with that challenge early and often.

So what is scary about sales?  You might hear a lot of different answers to that question.  Many salespeople say prospecting, others say getting a no, some are afraid to ask tough questions, and others are afraid of presenting.  For every reason there is an assortment of sub reasons.  Some people are afraid to use cold calling as a prospecting technique, others hate networking.  The underlying fear usually comes back to the fact that it is hard to be rejected.  Putting yourself in front of strangers and trying to convince them to do something causes anxiety.  It takes a lot of guts and perseverance to succeed.

Often times, there is a sales superstar in a sales team.  The other salespeople either admire them for having the ability to do what they are so afraid of doing to succeed or they are bitter toward them and chalk all their success up to luck.  Does the superstar have some knowledge or talent that allows them to do what so many others can’t?  Probably not.  Through past experience, knowledge, and pain they found the courage to do what they were afraid of.  The good news is that the more you do something the less you will fear it.  Sooner or later you won’t need any courage to do what you are afraid of; it simply becomes part of what you do.  Have the courage to face your inner fears.  You will find it is hard to start but the more you do what you are afraid of the less you will fear it until one day you aren’t afraid anymore.