Selling with Honor and Courage

Selling with Honor and Courage:

It is OK to admit you are afraid! Fear can be and usually is a great motivator. It doesn’t seem to matter what country I am in or what the market conditions are, over the past decade we've been training salespeople in the Quid Pro Quo sales approach, we've found most sales people are selling scared. The tighter the market the more critical it is we sell with honor, courage, and develop relationships with prospect and clients that are based on mutual respect!

What I haven't discovered is –WHY- the devloping relationships based muual respect scares some salespeople into clinging to their old - but ineffective - sales approaches. The world we live in has changed, how business is done so why can't so many salespeople change the way they sell?

After years of seeing this fear first hand, I’ve finally determined why so many salespeople can't change the way they sell:

1.They don’t know how to change
2.Fear of failure by trying something new
3.They don’t feel empower to get outside of the ‘box”
4.They buy into the some old methods of “how to sell”
5.Bad behavior is sometime rewarded, when a someone buys something

Often times, salespeople think of themselves as heroic figures, persevering against all obstacles, fighting the good fight day after day. But, think about this: Who are they really fighting? Fear is the real 'enemy' and think about have many times we create obstacles that don’t exist. For most of us the fear we create only is present in our minds. It is hard to fight an enemy that has a fort set up in our heads!

This is where true courage enters the picture: We have to recognize and confront our fears before we can overcome them. Here is a 3-Step Strategy for overcoming your fears. (Note: "Uncomfortable, uneasy, and anxious" are other words for fear.) To really understand how to address these issues visit www.SalesBuilders.com Our Quid Pro Quo Sales course have been taught in 7 countries with unsurpassed results.

1. Fact or Fiction?
The first thing you need to do is determine whether the fears you have are based on Fact or Fiction. You can't beat what isn't real. You can't overcome what doesn’t exist. If a fear is based in fact, facing it, then taking prudent actions will overcome the fear. If a fear is based in fiction or a fantasy, acknowledging the fantasy helps to overcome it too. If you resist facing your fears, they will persist.
Here is a fact you can understand and relate to that should cause you some fear. If you don’t display some flexibility and adopt change you are likely not to achieve the consistent results you need and want. In sales if you don’t achieve certain results the consequences can be a severe-losing your job!

2. Discover What is Holding you Back
Let’s sort out what runs through many sales people minds:

FEARS FACT
Fear of Loss The only thing you can loss is your
opportunity to succeed.
Fear of Rejection The “Subservient” way you sell causes
rejection.
Fear of Being Offensive The apprehensive way we sell offends
many decision makers.
Fear of Being Perceived If you aren’t selling like a “trusted as a sales person advisor” the fear is fact.

Fear of Being Disrespected Directness and Authenticity creates
Mutual Respect.
Fear of Missing the Numbers If you aren’t controlling the sales
activity you will not have
consistent results.

3. You Don’t have a Crystal Ball
Thinking that you know how people will react often produces negative results. It doesn't matter if your assumptions are generally negative or positive. Both are condescending and/or insulting. Both are based on some or all of the fears listed above.

Assumptions are usually based on what you believe to be fact, or what you wish was fact. Our false assumptions may be due to past unsuccessful sales experiences, or they may be relics of what has been handed down for generations- “The Rules of Engagement of Selling”-how you are supposed to sell.

The net of selling with honor, respect, and courage is we have to act honorable and get outside our comfort zone and be courageous. You can’t be subservient and get gain the respect you need and want.