4 Things Salespeople Fear More Than Anything Else

BY JOHN TREACE

Want more sales? Manage your salespeople to conquer these common fears.

To run your business well, you have to have high-performing salespeople--people who are free from the universal fears that plague, and often cripple, sales teams at companies large and small.

Here are four common fears of salespeople, and advice on how you can help alleviate them in your company:

1. Fear of rejection

Your salespeople can't be productive if they constantly fear rejection from customers. You must do what you can to instill confidence in them as they meet with prospects. Say your product is highly technical in nature; reps may be reluctant to show it if they fear that customers will react badly to all the complexity. In this case, reps need to be equipped with relevant product knowledge so they step in front of the customer without the fear of being shut down.

As another example, say your company had a bad customer-service incident and your rep is now hesitant to call on a particular customer because of the high likelihood of rejection. In this case, you need to train the salesperson on how to handle customer complaints, turning the negative situation into a relationship-building opportunity.

2. Fear of asking for the order

Related to the fear of rejection is fear of asking for the order. Many salespeople feel uncomfortable doing this--but surveys have shown that not asking for the order is one of the primary reasons salespeople fail. You can help your sales team get past this fear by arming them with easy-to-use closing questions that won't pressure the customer but that will make the sale.

3. Fear of losing territory and customers

At one time or another, you might find yourself needing to reduce the size of sales territories or take customers away from individual reps. Even when absolutely necessary, these situations can be pure poison. Salespeople see lost customers and territory as lost income, and the result will be undermined morale, less confidence in management, and lower sales performance.

What can you do? When you must reduce territory or remove customers, do it in a way that shows you care about your sales team, that you have their future success in mind, and that you understand how they feel and can be trusted. You may have to get creative here. Perhaps you could show the reps how this has happened with others before and how they quickly exceeded sales and income growth with the reduced territory, or how they saved expenses with a smaller travel area. And even if you don't have such statistics, remember that showing sincere concern for your sales team's happiness can go a long way, even when you're delivering bad news.

4. Fear of falling salaries and commissions

Salespeople don't want their income slashed. Would you? But that's what they feel happens when you reduce their salaries and commissions. They fear this happening, and when it does, it causes more grief among a sales force than almost any other situation, especially among the high performers.

Of course, sometime you have to reduce the expense of the sales force, but before you do so, make absolutely sure it's not because you or any other leader in the company is jealous of the reps' income. It's a situation I see more than you'd think. But CEOs of powerful companies recognize the contribution a well-paid sales force makes and are not envious of the money salespeople take home.

If you must make adjustments to rep salaries or commissions, do it in a way, again, that demonstrates your appreciation for the sales team. Show them how, even with the reduction, they can make more money than last year, perhaps through bonuses on growth. Or, in the case of a commissioned sales force, show how a reduction in commission rates doesn't necessarily mean they make less. They may receive a lower rate of commission but have higher income on more sales due to new products or customer incentives.

As you manage your business, keep these four fears of salespeople in mind. If you deal with them well, you'll have a happy sales team--and a happy sales team is your most powerful competitive advantage.

What do you think? Is this something you can benefit from or do you have a few tricks up your sleeve that are just as powerful? Make your voice heard by leaving a comment below. Don’t forget to hit the share button if you know others who will find this post useful.

I.C. Collins ~ Author, Educator, Trainer and President: Has One Simple Goal: Improve a Million Automotive Sales Consultants Lives with our ebook "How to Succeed in the Automotive Sales Industry"

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Permalink Reply by Brian Bennington on September 22, 2014 at 6:32pm

Hey Icy, When I read your title, I thought you'd hit on some real fears, you know, like getting kidnapped on a test drive or wrecking the boss's demo. Instead, you've listed four fears that, in actuality, are much more inclined to to affect non-sales people. Really, if a rep fears any of those things and is inclined to seek help rather than work through them, maybe they would be happier and less "fearful" if they sought out another occupation. Not everyone can sell, and stats like "20% of salespeople sell 80% of their products" bares that out. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being something other than a sales person.

As I read your post, and I did it as objectively as I could, I was surprised you lay all of this on dealership management. Really, I think the only blame on their shoulders is hiring the wrong people and I'm sure you know how common that it. As for training and "working through" the fears you listed, if a dealer was inclined to do so, they'd be better off bringing in professional help making sure that "help" is on the exact same page 100% as dealer management. And, if the trainer/psychologist is good, he'll sell the dealer the needed changes he'll discover, even if they go against the dealer's ongoing practices. By the way, when a rep is told by management they're reducing his/her "sales territory," or the budget is causing them to get rid of some salespeople, they're really saying "your not doing your job and you'll likely have to go." If a sales person doesn't make a competitive-with-other-reps $ contribution to his company after his expense, he won't last. (Unless, as is often the case, he's related to management!)

Please don't misunderstand my observations. If I didn't think this was an interesting post, I would have deleted it before ever commenting. I do wish you would have mentioned something about how important passion for your work is, and how it self-motivates to overcome most obstacles, like in "Where there's a will, there's a way." I think you'd agree that if a rep feels real passion for what he does, he's most of the way there.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Bennington on September 22, 2014 at 11:15pm

Thanks for recognizing I put some effort in my response and that I have knowledge of the industry. Your post was worth my efforts and, at my age and going "toe to toe" with some really sharp young minds, I better know what I'm talking about. (Fortunately, I'm a big believer that youth and enthusiasm is never a match for age and treachery!) Interestingly, your reply mentions a considerably more damaging "fear" than the four in your post. That's fear of asking for help. It's prevalent everywhere in business today, and it's generated by a fear of appearing weak, unsound thinking, and a general "lack of trust" in nearly everything.

I don't quite get the "acting as an organized unit," though. We're people, not ants. My experience with dealer groups is they like "ants." Reps they can clone to a relatively mediocre level of performance, discouraging independent thinking and action for the sake of organization and control. (Man does that sound boring!) You can see it when dealers advertise for people with no experience, so they can be trained the "dealership way." Weak management likes it like this, but really powerful management will seek out well-credentialed experienced sales pros and then support their efforts while keeping positive control by staying ahead of the reps. Luckily, my career allowed me to work for the latter and I worked side-by-side with some of the best, most creative and entertaining reps in the business.

Open minds in the car business are as "scarce as hen's teeth." A good number of managers are putting their time in, with their major effort being to keep their jobs. Appear more competent than they are, and they'll undermine you at every opportunity. Wise up! It's a jungle out there, with plenty of "jungle law." Please know I am not "sour grapes" about our industry. I sold something considerable more difficult than cars before I spent 10 years selling them, and I love selling because of it. Believe me, I miss the challenge of finding the convincing balance of admiration and reassurance to gain mind control, the fun of a poignant "blue skies" pitch, and the easing of tensions when my customers realized I cared for them because of regular and effective follow-up. Plus, I spent a lot of effort cultivating good relationships with my management. To me, it was all a game, and it worked because I was asked back to literally every placed I "moved on" from. The past 20 years I've spent writing relationship centered marketing letters for a small group of SoCal dealerships, so I do still spend time in the car business.