Fear of selling: Here’s my powerful antidote

...and how to develop it

By TC North
 
An antidote is defined as a remedy that counteracts poison. And fear can be one of the most
potent emotional poisons to your success. Fear of selling is likely your greatest obstacle in
selling more effectively (whether you're selling yourself, ideas, products or services).

The good news though, is you can develop a powerful antidote to fear. The antidote to fear of
selling is confidence. Before giving you a powerful, proven technique to develop your selling
confidence, take this awareness quiz on how many ways you sell, either currently, or in your
past, in your business and personal lives:

1. Sold an idea to a co-worker, team or boss?

2. Sold yourself in a job interview?
3. Sold yourself to gain more responsibility or a leadership role? 
4. Sold a product or service?
5. Sold a spouse or a friend on doing something together?
6. Sold a child on cleaning up after him/herself?
No matter what your job or social standing is, you sell. Most days, you actually sell in multiple
ways, so by gaining more confidence to control your fears of selling, you also gain more
influence, more success and more happiness in a well-rounded life. Below is a powerful
exercise to help you develop your selling confidence.

30 Days to Selling Confidence!

Yes, this does sound like one of those infomercials you might see at 2 a.m.! But it's true. This
technique has been proven to greatly strengthen sales confidence in almost everyone - in 30
days or less. Here's how to do it:

DAY 1

Step 1 Remember a time when you were confident selling an idea, product, service or
yourself (like in a job interview). It could be from your childhood, teen-age years or adult life.
It could be personal or professional. It doesn't matter what the selling situation was, but
rather that you were confident in doing it. This takes you into the part of your brain (the
neuronetwork) that is confident in selling.

Step 2 In a journal or other place you dedicate to private thoughts, record your confident
selling memory. Include the situation and how you thought, acted and felt when your
confidence level was high. Write as much detail as you can about how you experienced this
confidence. Even allow yourself to get so absorbed in the memory that you begin to re-
experience the feelings of confidence, Some of you will experience a lot of feelings while
thinking about your confident memory, while others will experience only a little bit, both will
work. As long as you bring back any amount of the feeling of confidence, you know you've
stimulated the part of your brain that you want to strengthen, your confident in selling
neuronetwork. The more you stimulate this particular neuronetwork, the bigger and stronger
your neuronetwork of selling confidence becomes, thus the more confident you become
selling.

DAY 2

Step 1 Repeat the two steps of Day 1 with a new memory of having been confident selling in
your business or personal lives. You will now have two memories recorded.

Step 2 Reread and remember your first memory until you can bring back some of your
feelings of confidence in selling. Each time you review a selling confidence memory, your
confidence in selling neuronetwork gets stronger. You increase your confidence in selling.

DAY 3

Step 1 Repeat the two steps of Day 1 with a new memory you haven't already used for this
exercise.

Step 2 Reread and remember the memories you've previously recorded, bringing back your
feelings of confidence with each one.

DAY 4 through your last day (I recommend engaging for 10, 20, or 30 days in total, the
longer you continue the stronger your selling confidence.
Step 1 Repeat the two steps of Day 3.

Practicing this level of repetition is like going to the gym and working out one muscle group
harder and harder each day. Except here, you're working out the confidence neuronetwork in
your brain to make it bigger and stronger!

This confidence building technique is well proven to increase your confidence in selling both
professionally and personally. Although about 95 percent of the people I have surveyed want
more confidence, at least some of the time, most of them won't put the effort into developing
it.

Will you?
Empower yourself! Commit to doing this exercise described above for 10, 20 or 30 days.
What have you got to lose? More importantly, what have you got to gain?