Feeling a certain degree of nervousness before a business meeting or sales call is perfectly normal. The problem arises when this nervousness negatively affects your results. In the vast majority of cases, nervousness before a sales meeting stems from a fear of failure and rejection by the client. How can you overcome this fear and begin reaching your full sales potential? Here are several tips.
Be confident in your knowledge
As FastCompany states, nervousness and fear of rejection sometimes stem from a salesperson's low self confidence or lack of trust in their own abilities and knowledge. In such a case, the simplest and most effective way to address the problem is to eliminate this lack of confidence. You can do this by working on yourself, acquiring the necessary soft and technical skills, and arriving at meetings thoroughly prepared. If you trust your own knowledge and professionalism, you will appear more confident and are also likely to achieve better sales results.
Become aware of your emotions
Do not be afraid to acknowledge the problem. In order to manage your emotions and work with them, you must first become aware of them and learn how to analyse them. Acknowledge your negative feelings and, if you feel that you are spending too much time thinking about a particular negative issue, look at your psychological state from a broader perspective and try to analyse objectively what is actually happening to you.
Focus only on things you can influence
People too often focus on things that are beyond their control instead of concentrating on what they can influence. Learn not to worry unnecessarily about matters that you cannot change, and learn to work systematically on those that you can influence. In doing so, you will naturally divert part of your attention away from unproductive concerns.
Be kind to yourself and do not fall victim to impostor syndrome
Do not forget that you should not be overly harsh on yourself. Realise that negative feelings are completely normal and that what matters is how you respond to them. When you succeed, reward yourself. When something does not go well, do not despair and learn from the setback. Recognise your achievements and do not succumb to impostor syndrome.
-mm-