MORE WORDS ABOUT FEAR

It’s inevitable during the stage of Having Sales Conversations that you will experience some fear. Throughout this chapter, you have been encouraged to initiate live conversations with prospective clients. In most cases, this will require you to pick up the phone and call people you don’t know well, which many people find to be challenging. When you ask prospects to take the time to speak with you about your services, you expose yourself to the possibility of rejection. It’s likely that more people will say no to you than will say yes. Knowing this, you may feel quite apprehensive about putting yourself in this situation. Under those circumstances, you may avoid and delay reaching out to prospects, often without acknowledging to yourself that fear is at work.

If you notice that you are putting off contacting your prospects, calling when you’re sure they won’t be there, e-mailing when you know you should call, or any other signs of avoidant behavior, take some time to read through the section on self-confidence skills in Chapter 7. Choose one of the approaches described there and dedicate some time to working with it.

You can do this.