by Robert N. Kohn and Lawrence M. Kohn

When building your muscles, no pain means no gain,
But pain when you're selling might make you refrain.
So look for the reasons why you resist,
And you'll find solutions to help you persist.

The first step in overcoming your discomfort with selling is to become aware of your thoughts about selling. Pay attention to your "internal voice," which is your stream of consciousness. Everyone has an internal voice. You may not be aware of it all of the time, but it is always with you, and it profoundly influences your feelings and actions.

If you are uncomfortable with selling, then your internal voice becomes your "negative voice." You develop a pattern of dwelling on the reasons why you shouldn't sell.

Your negative voice tends to be habitual and automatic. It's like a knee-jerk reaction. Whenever you imagine yourself doing some selling-oriented activity, your negative voice argues, "I can't do that" or "I don't want to do that." You literally talk yourself out of selling.

We are not saying that your negative voice is always wrong. Sometimes your anti-selling beliefs are valid. For example, there may be a risk of being overly pushy with some of your prospects. If you follow up with a prospect incessantly, without offering value, there is the possibility of harming a relationship. So you want to acknowledge your negative voice.

But often your negative voice is prejudiced and incorrect. You jump to conclusions that may be based on unclear and erroneous assumptions. You focus only on the negative and ignore all of the safe and effective things that you could be doing.

So avoid the knee-jerk reaction of accepting your negative voice as fact. Instead, develop the habit of challenging your negative voice. When you do, you will probably find that many of your long-held convictions about selling are untrue.

We have had many clients who were extremely reluctant to sell. Many of them told us that a meeting with us was worse than a trip to the dentist. Every idea that we suggested would be instantly shot down. But as we helped them become aware of their anti-selling sentiments and find ways to comfortably overcome them, their attitudes became more positive. They became more accepting of selling ideas and more enthusiastic about business development. They developed a proactive selling attitude.

A wonderful thing happens when you develop a proactive selling attitude. You begin to notice selling opportunities that you didn't realize existed. Selling opportunities are often all around you. You may know people who can help you meet quality contacts. There are organizations that may be fun for you to join that could also bring you into contact with quality contacts.

There are many safe and effective ways to sell. When you consistently and constructively think about ways to improve your selling, you will alter your pattern of automatic negative thinking and open your mind to solutions.

For more marketing tips, check out our book Selling in Your Comfort Zone.

Labels: marketing, selling in your comfort zone