Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself

Why don't you like to cold call? Most of you have told me that you hate cold calls, but why? It’s because of fear: fear of rejection, fear of bothering people, fear of making a pest of ourselves, fear that we can’t do it right, and fear that we will mess it up.

The fact is that the fear factor is what keeps most of us from being successful. When we overcome fear, we succeed; it’s that easy, isn’t it? When we’re courageous and get out there and try, generally, we succeed. It’s just getting over that fear and doing something about it; that’s the hard part.

Overcoming fear has always been of great interest to me, especially when I am doing sales training. When I saw this neat little book called Selling Boldly: Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales by Alex Goldfayn, I knew I had to buy it and read it so that I could do what I normally do—steal some ideas from the book and pass what I learned of to the rest of you 'fraidy cats.

From the book, here are five ways that we can overcome fear and start selling as successfully as we should and can.

1. Become Optimistic

Remember that you are offering a valuable solution that your customers are happy to receive. Sure, it is not easy at first with new customers, but why should it be? They don’t know you or your product, and they have no idea what you’re going to be able to do for them. But all you have to do is remember how happy your current customers are; if they are not, you have a worse problem. Build your confidence and optimism on the basis that you have already delivered this same product to a whole slew of customers who not only love it but are grateful to you for selling it to them. Always expect the best whenever you are making a sales call because your optimism shows, even through the phone.

2. Believe in Your Product

If you don’t believe you have the best product on the market today, you are not going to be able to sell it. If you believe in your product so completely, you will feel that you are doing your prospects and customers a great favor by introducing them to your product. You know that this product will make their life so much better that they should be thanking you for selling it to them in the end.

3. Let Your Customer Sell for You

If your product is truly a great product, your customers are going to want to tell other people about it. They are going to become your best salespeople. A customer talking about you and your products is much more credible than you talking about yourself and your products. The customer has no vested interest except for bragging about how smart they are for using your products—so smart that they want everyone else to know about it.

4. Ask Them to Talk About You

Don’t just sit back and let your happy customers talk about you; that’s nice but much too passive. Ask them to do it for you. Ask them for testimonials; if they are as happy as they seem to be, they will gladly write you one. But make sure you have their permission to use their testimonial for your marketing first. If you do, use them on your website, and in your printed literature, and of course, on your social media platforms. There is nothing sweeter than one of your customers talking about how happy they are to be dealing with you and using your products.

5. Build On Your Success

Once you get your mojo going, do not let up. Winning inspires more winning. We’ve all had winning streaks where everything is going right that it’s scary. Some of us tend to blame this on sheer luck, but it’s not luck; it is hard work and persistence. We’ve all heard that old adage, “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” and the reason they call it an adage is because it is true. It’s as simple as that. If you get off your butt, stop being scared, start meeting people and applying everything you know, you will succeed. And once you start succeeding, you will get some great breaks, and some of those will seem like luck, but they are not. They are simply the results of your hard work.

Please remember that fear is a state of mind designed to slow you down. Don’t let it. There is nothing more satisfying than overcoming your fear with the courage that you have in you.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.