DO WE AS WOMEN SELF SABOTAGE OUR SUCCESS DUE TO FEAR OF SALES?

Picture Source: Pixaby

A recent article by Harvard Business Review discusses how lack of confidence is a primary cause one of the main causes women stunt their career unintentionally.  A study released in 2011 by Europe’s Institute of Leadership and Management revealed that women report having lower confidence in regard to their careers.

According to Data from Gong.Io analysis some of the main challenges we as women face is also due to the following reasons;

• Men on average had a 42:58 talk-to-listen ratio, while women averaged 46:54, talking 9% more often than men.

• Men interrupt their prospect an average of 4.2x per hour. Women? 6.3x per hour -- about 50% more often.

• Men also pause before responding longer than women on average: 1.5 seconds versus 1.3 seconds.

This blog post idea was inspired by numerous feedback from women in my network have provided about the main challenges they experience with their Online Business. Often the highest and main concern usually pertains to them struggling to find new customers and in being able to sell their services/products. I can also relate to this experience and believe the challenge is not only limited to women and impacts men too. 

For the purpose of this blog post, I chose to purposefully focus on women within the online business sector, in order to discover if there are any specific solutions to address this ongoing concern.  

It appears that we as women lack self-confidence in  online business growth and sales due to the following factors;

• Fear of rejection from prospective clients. Emotively we some of us women do not feel confident enough in overcoming the fear of rejection. In fact, some of us become emotionally impacted and believe that you have either failed or are not good enough. 

• Fear of judgement from prospective clients and potentially not being good, or skilled enough to present your sense of self-worth.

• Not feeling confident of one’s value and what you have to offer, including results you can deliver for your ideal prospective clients. Which consequently, in some cases may lead to you in, underselling yourself and the true value of your business services/products.

• Lack of confidence with Direct Sales- being afraid to sell directly to prospective customers over the phone, or in-person due again due to fear of rejection or not knowing how to describe the services you offer without coming across as being too sales-focused. 

• Fear of Self Promotion feeling embarrassed by self-promotion and not wanting to be seen as being overly confident, or boasting about yourself. Or not wanting to been seen as being associated with the sales industry; due to misconceptions from other people about the sells.

• Not asking for help, due to the perception that you might be perceived as not being capable, knowledgeable and incapable of being able to manage independently.

• Sacrificing own ability and availability, for instance, focusing more of your energy on helping other people and not putting your needs at the forefront. This then eventually impedes on your personal and business growth.

The following tips could potentially help you with personal and business growth and in overcoming self-limiting beliefs in sales;

1. Understand your own strengths as something no one else cannot replicate. Being confident does not mean you are being boastful; it just demonstrates how skilled and knowledgeable you are. This is especially if your intention is to genuinely help your prospective clients.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with self-promotion, after all, we are living in the digital era whereby everything has become visual. People prefer to buy you first before they even consider to buy into your products. This is due to them having access to more choices and preferences of services and products to choose from.

2. Be proud pf your credentials and own it, without feeling as though you are showing off. There is a difference in showing off and coming from a heart centred place. If your intention is genuinely to help people without asking too much back in return you will eventually receive a lot more in abundance.

3. Invest time in learning new modern sales techniques, beyond your current business venture or business opportunity you are involved in. So that you can begin to feel more confident in approaching people and also sell with the right approach.

4. Focus less on how great your “Company is” that is the last thing that prospective clients want to hear.

5. Be consistent in establishing your Brand Personality and Strategy, so you can automatically develop Attraction Marketing techniques where clients come to you. Based on the solutions and questions you offer to address some of their problems.

6. Create Sales Scripts which can help you to see through the sale consultation process during a discovery call, or meeting with a prospective client until you become confident. The sales scripts should focus more on knowing your clients better rather than being heavily invested in how great your products are. are key prompters which enable you to focus on getting to know your client better, including their limitations and fears they are seeking to overcome as examples.

Keen to know your thoughts. What has your experience been like including challenges you have experienced and overcome?

Source for Analytical Data: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/men-vs-women-selling and Gong.Io analysis

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