Could Sales Anxiety Be Your Secret Weapon?

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The National Institute of Mental Health defines people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) as those who are extremely worried about things, even when there is little or no reason to worry about them. But there are many lesser degrees of anxiety that are intrusive and impede sales people in doing their jobs. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, and fear of the unknown plague many, even experienced sales people. And of course the fear of not making sales and losing your source of income doesn’t help.

I have seen sales anxiety manifest in a wide variety of forms. I see colleagues plagued by insomnia, and if I don’t watch it, I can catch myself carefully removing every trace of gel nail polish from my fingernails by picking it off at the end of a rough quarter.

Anxiety is common, it affects about 3.1% American adults age 18 years and older, and twice as many women as men. But you don’t have to let it. Severe anxiety can best be treated with medication, therapy, or both, but sales anxiety can best be managed by embracing it, understanding it, and making it work for you.

I suspect anxiety is a very early physiological response to fear of being attacked by an animal czech republic phone number library or cast out of your group. Worrying about those things and taking steps to prevent them allowed our early ancestors to survive and thrive.

Studies from as early as the 1950s show anxiety has a debilitating result, for example, in making a cold call. People fear rejection and fear looking like a fool.

But are there ways that anxiety can be harnessed, managed, and dare I say, leveraged? Some people have described feelings of anxiety as “I just couldn’t let something go.” For better or for worse, this can be a real asset in some professions, particularly sales. Many sales are not closed on the first, second, or third call. They are closed when the sales person is persistent enough to get the buyer's attention and when they have a need that the sales person can fulfill.

If the sales person is familiar with most likely outcomes of the call, anxiety drops. When they have confidence in their sales skills, they are more likely to be comfortable and relaxed when the call does occur. Being prepared for most likely outcomes and understanding that rejection is not personal makes a sales person perform better. Sometimes rejection is beneficial in pointing you in a direction from which you can succeed.