As a Sales Manager we face many challenges on a daily basis, and none of them are more important than helping our sales people hit their targets and KPIs.

So, when you think of your sales team:

• Are they winning enough NEW business?
• Are they reluctant to pick up the telephone to call people they don’t know?
• Do they struggle to make appointments with senior decision makers?
• Are they unable to get past ‘the gatekeeper’ or overcome objections?

A core component of Sales Management Training and Coaching is helping Manager to drive the correct QDQ of their sales people’s activity –

• The Quantity of sales meetings as if your sales people are not speaking with enough new customers and prospects, chances are that they have not learned to overcome their sales fears;
• Their Direction of activity including ‘fishing in the right ponds’ and in the right market segments, industries and levels of Decision Making contacts;
• The Quality of their conversations, and being able to discuss the customer’s’ business, not just their own products, problems and prices

They are different common sales fear that all successful salespeople must overcome – the fear of rejection, the fear of not making quota, the fear of being humiliated or embarrassed; call reluctance; imposter syndrome; positional or intellectual intimidation; or just a lack of knowledge, these are all real fears.

Just like any other type of fear, sales fear can be uncomfortable, crippling and limiting.

So as Sales Managers we need to be able to recognize when our sales people are exhibiting fear triggered behaviours and help them overcome it.

Archaic attitudes like telling them to ‘HTFU’ or “I was thrown in at the deep end and it didn’t hurt me” needs to be replaced with Sales Training and Coaching to help your people become successful

Sales people don’t have to wait to feel less afraid; they only need to learn how to work around it to their advantage. Successful people are not fearless people; they are people who have learned that courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.

According to Neuropsychologist and brain-training expert, Theo Tsaousides, “being fearless doesn’t mean eliminating fear. Being fearless means knowing how to leverage fear.” Sometimes the object of our fear is unfounded that’s why someone once defined fear as False Evidence Appearing Real.

There are many ways to help your sales people overcome their sales fears and following are 3 proven tips that participants in KONA’s Australian Sales Training programs have found to help them overcome their sales fears:

Identify and acknowledge the fear

It’s the first step to dealing with every kind of fear. Being in denial about the fears that comes with a sales role will only impede the process of learning how to overcome it.

So have an open and honest conversation with your people and share your sales fears experiences because by doing so bringing their fears into the open are an excellent starting point to change

Demystify rejection 

One of Thomas Edison’s famous light bulb quotes reads: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” “…The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

Rejection can be a great learning experience. The fear of rejection in sales almost always leads to cold call reluctance —when sales people come up with excuses to put off calling a prospect.

What sales people need to understand is that when a prospect says no, it has nothing to do with who they are as a person.

Instead, for every time they get a no, managers should help them to analyse their call method and think of what they could have done differently or better and apply that in their next call.

Build confidence through sales training and practise sessions 

As a manager you can take note of the weaknesses and strengths of your team and ensure they are receiving customised Australian sales training that caters to them. This will ensure they are well-equipped with all the necessary tools and soft skills that can boost their confidence as they carry on with their sales activities.

With the right sales training your sales reps can develop confidence and conversational sales skills, overcome objections and ‘gatekeepers’, gain appointments, sales and commitments, and more.

The KONA Group is Australia’s Leading Sales and Sales Management Training and Coaching company and provide customised training programs that include: Sales Strategy, Sales Training & Coaching, Call Centre Training & Coaching, Negotiation Skills Training & Coaching, Motivational Speakers, and more.

So contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or email: info@kona.com.au to discuss how we can help you to improve your business result.