Sales managers have a number of roles to fill. One is sales coaching, which is like playing sales doctor, trying to properly diagnose the root cause of poor sales performance. There are several places to examine during coaching sessions, but one area that is often overlooked is understanding how the emotion of fear affects the actions or inactions of the salesperson.
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Fear of failure inhibits the application of logical sales behaviors that guarantee success. You have told your sales team the value of turning to the C-suite. However, they may be afraid of turning to big titles, big offices, and being presented with big questions.
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Fear of looking stupid. He has taught his team proven sales tactics; however, salespeople fear appearing stupid because they haven’t mastered the new skills.
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Fear of not having what it takes. The salesperson called the C-Suite and it was a disaster. Tried this before and it didn’t work.
Fear is not a logical emotion and develops from two areas of thought: 1. Perception: making up stories about a sales situation that never happened. But the salesman tells himself the story for so long that the fictional story becomes the truth. 2. Fear of a past experience. The salesperson mentally rehearses that failed sales call over and over again, creating resistance to take action.
Sales managers, it’s time to apply the EQ skill of self-awareness. Recognize when to teach and train consultative selling skills, and when to change course and train salespeople through the emotion of fear.
In many coaching scenarios, it’s time to stop telling salespeople how to sell and address the root cause of bad sales behaviors: fear. Change the questions you ask and you change the answers you hear, helping you and the salesperson work on the right end of the sales challenge.
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What is your biggest concern when calling at this level of the organization?
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What is your biggest fear when executing this sales strategy?
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Are your concerns based on perception or past experience?
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What lessons did you learn from the last deal you lost? How will you apply the lessons learned to prepare for success on the next call?
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Are you smarter because of failure? What are you going to change?
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What’s the worst that can happen if you don’t know the answer to a question?
Sales managers are sales doctors. Be good at diagnosing the right end of the problem. Change the questions you ask and work on the right end of the sales performance challenge.