In discussing different aspects of a salespeople’s growth last week, the sales director and I debated the fundamental gaps that continue to emerge.

We agreed those gaps included instances where the ability to speak with senior contacts was lacking, how addressing groups in a corporate presentation lacked compelling involvement, vital information was being left on the table because salespeople weren’t able to articulate questions well enough, the ability to translate benefits that were openly discussed internally  into external commercial value was getting lost and the list goes on…

So what is it that prevents salespeople from going the distance?

Well there are, believe it or not, psychological reasons. No, I’m not going to “Dr Phil” you, I am going to share with you those combined fears common amongst  ALL salespeople and don’t tell me you haven’t experienced any of these.

• Fear of not having the right answer or any answer at all
• Fear of not being able to reach into the memory banks, find the answer and articulate it clearly and fast enough
• Fear of actually saying the completely wrong answer
• Fear of stuffing up completely and saying something that is totally irrelevant and socially unacceptable
• Fear of looking like you don’t know what THEY are talking about
• Fear of ‘what if I didn’t hear them correctly’ and I have missed a vital piece of information

The primary fear all humans have is the fear of not being loved, followed closely behind and feeding into it anyway, is the fear of not being enough.

So get over yourself, understand that you can change with the tiniest of tweaks here and there, find someone to work with who gets this at a grass roots level – then you’ll be unstoppable!!

Be Bold, Brave and Brilliant

Bernadette McClelland is CEO of 3 Red Folders – a modern day saleswoman and keynote speaker on business growth, personal leadership and sales performance.

BIO: Business environments wanting to increase their revenue and profits, and differentiate themselves in a competitive market, ask for Bernadette McClelland because of her thought leadership on sales performance, her ideas on thinking beyond resilience and her fresh perspectives surrounding personal leadership skills — all designed to master the outcomes that matter.

Bernadette has proudly coached Harvard MBA students on their sales enablement curriculum, been the Master Asia Pacific coach for Anthony Robbins across twelve countries, authored five books on leadership and sales transformation, won a coveted Telstra award for Business Excellence, and continually shares her ideas around behaviour, the brain and business growth on stages in the UK, Europe, Thailand, India, NZ, Australia and North America.

Believing that sales performance is a leadership issue, you will also find her heading Melbourne’s human potential based sales performance consultancy, 3 Red Folders, as she navigates lead generation, message to market and digs deep into sales process activities with her clients in the mid-tier sector as well as founding ‘Women Who Sell’, an initiative designed to bring more women up to speed in their sales success.

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Image courtesy of Quicksandala