Does Salesaphobia Prevent You From Selling?

You may be someone who trips over his  own feet to prove to the world that he loves all people equally.  You may be someone who is a bigot and proud of it. You may be somewhere in between.

It doesn’t matter where you fall on that scale. We are all SALESAPHOBES to one degree or another. This prejudice stems partially from our own experience.

• Who hasn’t spent hour upon hour with a time-share representative and their aggressive, never-say-die closing techniques, so we can get two free movie tickets or a night in a $12 – dollar hotel.
• Perhaps you are still driving a 1987 Ford Escort because you can’t endure driving from dealer to dealer listening to a endless chorus of “What can I do to put you in this car today?
• Maybe your next door neighbor joined an MLM and you have started only going outside to get your mail at midnight to avoid hearing him try to explain to you that “This one is different – you need to come to a meeting.”

When you add in a lifetime of watching movies like Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glenn Ross, Boiler Room etc. it’s no wonder that you’ve developed a bad taste in your mouth for people who want to sell you things.

So it’s not a far stretch that our own image of salespeople gets in the way of selling our own products or services. You don’t want people to think that you are one of THOSE people.

It’s a real conundrum though, isn’t it?  After all, if you don’t sell the thing you do, then no one is going to buy it and your vocation goes back to being a hobby.

The cure is to realize that you do not have to change who you are, or compromise your values or alienate people in order to sell what you sell.  Just allow your own personality and your passion for what you do come across.

Be yourself.  Learn how to articulate the value of what you sell in your own words. Identify prospects who benefit by having what you sell.  If you do all of that properly you will never have to pressure people into making a buying decision – they’ll make it on their own.

If you sincerely believe that what you sell will be helpful to people, you just have to let that show through.  If you don’t believe that what you sell will be helpful to people then you may want to rethink your line of business.