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Fear of Selling

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: How Bill Frysinger the engineer conquered his "fear of selling."

Fear of Selling

One of the chief things entrepreneurs are looking for is integrity. If we do things we don~{!/~}t approve of, we can~{!/~}t claim that anyone else made us act in that manner. Selling doesn~{!/~}t have to be sleazy. It~{!/~}s a way to let people know about something they can use. Yet many independents fixate on the bad experiences we have had with salespeople and resist doing what they need to do to survive.

Bill Frysinger knows that he has no choice but to learn how to sell. If he doesn~{!/~}t let people know about the value of his services as an electronics product development engineer and designer of theater sound systems, nobody else will.

Bill ran his own company for several years, then took a series of full-time jobs, and is now back on his own again. Though he realizes that he has to communicate with potential clients in order to find out what they need, and let them know he can do it, he finds himself confronting a deep prejudice against selling.

Indeed, one of the reasons he wants to be on his own is that he believed that, too often, his former employers~{!/~} sales and marketing staffs, and even their top executives, regularly tried to win business by promising more than they could reasonably expect to deliver. It was, in a sense, a vote of confidence in engineers like Bill that these execs had faith that they would be able to come up with something to solve the client~{!/~}s problem. But in Bill~{!/~}s eyes, it was really an act of bad faith.

~{!0~}I~{!/~}d rather that they fire me than for me to sign my name on a piece of paper that states that we can deliver what we cannot,~{!1~} he says. Moreover, such behavior makes it difficult, Bill feels, for someone who deals honestly to compete.

~{!0~}We product development engineers are used to ~{!.~}underselling,~{!/~} promising even less than we know we can deliver,~{!1~} Bill observes. ~{!0~}That~{!/~}s because the marketing people are used to trumpeting performance of, say, 120 percent of what they know they can deliver. We engineers downplay our capabilities so that what gets promised is more or less what we are able to do.~{!1~} Thus, even when he is being absolutely on the level, Bill tends to feel that he is boasting.

Bill has decided to deal with his sales phobia in an interesting way. He has volunteered to be a fundraiser for a charity. ~{!0~}When I do fundraising, I know I~{!/~}m selling,~{!1~} he says. ~{!0~}But I don~{!/~}t feel like a stereotypical salesman because I~{!/~}m selling something I believe in, not myself.~{!1~}

The next step, in Bill~{!/~}s view, is to be able to see what he offers not as an overblown image of himself but as something his clients need. ~{!0~}I~{!/~}m not willing to fit the image I have of most salespeople,~{!1~} he says. So he is trying to find a way to prove to himself that he can sell honestly and enthusiastically~{!*~}and still feel good about it the next morning.

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Article Tags: bad faith, execs, experiences, full time, independents, integrity, piece of paper, prejudice, product development engineer, product development engineers, sales and marketing, salespeople, staffs, theater sound systems, time jobs, top executives, vote of confidence



Related Forum Posts
Re: Fear of Success - You don't need to fear success. We should embrace it. Fear is define by a man of God as False Evidence Appearing Real. the meaning is what we fear most does'nt come to pass
Other Great Books... - Feel The Fear And Do It AnyWay - Susan Jeffers How To Stop Worrying And Do It Anyway - Dale Carnegie ('What's the worst that could happen - the worst?' Then prepare yourself for that and reality is such a relief!).
Re: Kevin's Case Study #10 - When to become an entrepreneur? - When the bug bite you. A lot of successful entrepreneurs started in their teens or at school. Selling sweets to fellow students or lemonade to firends in the neighbourhood.
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Blog pinging - Thanks Martin - yes, I do ping and it has been very effective. I'm currently on the first page of Google for Mastermind Group and on the second page for Selling to Small Business.


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