Sabrina Nennemann is CEO and founder of SHRS Consulting GmbH.
Back in the Stone Age, it was essential for people to be in a group. The group provided shelter, safety, and food. Being a group member was fundamental for survival—and if one got ostracized from the group, chances of survival for that individual got jeopardized.
Therefore, it was essential to be a distinguished group member, communicate well with others, and avoid doing anything that might result in rejection.
A Deeply Rooted Anxiety
This innate anxiety—about social rejection and ostracism—drives most people’s fear of selling. The fear of the customer rejecting you as an individual, instead of merely rejecting your offer, is at the core of most people’s antipathy for this kind of interaction.
Much of that fear comes from a poor mindset about the skill of selling. There’s a social stigma around salespeople, a stereotype that they are probably all slimy or trying to sell you garbage. But a brief examination of this viewpoint reveals that this makes little sense: People love to buy stuff. Therefore, someone has to be selling it.
However, people hate the feeling of being sold something—they’re afraid of being manipulated, buying the wrong product, or somehow ending up with something they didn’t need and can’t afford. There’s a fundamentally skeptical belief system surrounding sales as an industry—and this is a mindset in desperate need of an overhaul.
Moving Past Fear
It’s an unfortunate reality of D2D sales that most people aren’t going to say, “Hello, I’ve been waiting to talk to you,” and invite you into their home right off the bat. There is a lot of initial rejection. To avoid the likelihood of rejection dominating your interactions, I recommend these strategies:
1. Think positively.
Whether you are about to knock at the door or make a phone call, always envision the best outcome imaginable. Instead of thinking, “Oh no, I am about to call a prospect, but I know I will be rejected, and therefore I’ll never have any good business”—a spiral that is all too common and unproductive—think, “I am calling this client, and they will be waiting to hear from me. I love the clients. The clients love me. It will be a very productive call.”
It may sound hokey, but positive thinking enables you to project yourself in a confident, engaging, and appealing manner, and that attitude will come back to you. People want to interact with a person who radiates positivity. It is what psychologists and spiritualists call the Law of Attraction—the energy of our thoughts manifests in our experiences. If you want to make the sale happen, envision the sale. Visualize the best-case scenario and manifest it into existence.
2. Think in different timeframes.
The immediate sting of rejection, and the fear of this terrible feeling, hinder many people from selling effectively. I tell my coaching clients to put everything into a different time frame. When you think, “I will call the customer, but they will say no,” take a minute to reflect on how much that event will matter in the fullness of time. Ten seconds after the person says “no,” you will probably not feel so good. But 10 minutes later, you will feel a bit better. Ten days later, will you even still be thinking about it? How about ten weeks later, ten months later, or even ten years later?
It can be very freeing to quickly realize that a client’s “no” will have zero impact on your life. Because of this, you can laugh about the interaction even if they were incredibly disrespectful and dismissive. Gaining this perspective eliminates the fear of these interactions because you know that within a greater time frame, this particular instance of rejection will make no difference.
3. Stop taking things personally.
Realistically, there are a million reasons why someone will say no or issue any form of rejection, and the vast majority have nothing to do with you. For instance, if someone says “no” very rudely, many people will take this to heart and internalize that rejection as applying to them, their product, or their service.
In reality, it most likely isn’t about any of these things. Maybe the person just broke up with their significant other. Maybe their pet died. They may feel sick, have just received some bad news, or feel stressed out for other reasons.
If you are able to realize that this rejection isn’t personal and maintain a neutral perspective on the whole interaction, it can significantly mitigate your fears. Furthermore, it is very likely this person isn’t thinking about you five minutes after your conversation.
Reframing Sales
Ultimately, the people who are significantly successful in this industry have learned to think about sales differently. Rather than thinking, “I am trying to get this person to buy something, and then I will gain money from it,” they instead manifest a belief that the product or service they are selling is helping this customer. Maybe they’re going to save the customer a lot of money. Maybe they are giving the customer something that will improve their quality of life, like faster internet, a better-working washing machine, or a membership to a gym that will positively change their health.
The most successful salespeople believe in the product they are selling and can convey that belief in an honest, optimistic, and helpful fashion, leading the customer to feel that they are actually being helped instead of pressured. Ultimately, this perspective—the desire to help others—directly contributes to the desired business outcome: Bigger numbers of sales, happy customers, and a thriving entrepreneur or business at the other end.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Read the full article here
