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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2648 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Get Over My Fear of Sales?
00:12:25
If selling makes you uneasy—if you freeze up, avoid the conversation, or worry you’ll sound pushy—you’re not alone. This lesson is here to help shift that mindset and turn hesitation into confidence.
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Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. This episode is brought to you by Tim, who asked today's question on Q and A Wednesday how do I get over my fear of selling? This is a great question from Tim because it's one of the biggest blockers for new and seasoned entrepreneurs. By the way, a lot of people don't reach their full potential because of their fear of sales. And guess what business is sales. That's it. It's selling something that people need and want in exchange for their money. That's what business is. And you can't really do exceptionally well if you try to avoid Sal. We're going to get through all the details. Hang on with me for the next 10, 15 minutes and you'll get over your fear of sales and become better at it before you know it. In fact, I can almost guarantee that you will feel empowered and more equipped to be a better salesperson right after this episode. And of course, if you have a question that you want to ask, don't hesitate to ask it. Just go to 100mba.net q and you could submit your question that we can answer right here on Q and A Wednesday. I first wanna address why anybody would be afraid of sales and why that's normal. Okay? Fear of sales is not weird. Sales itself is a little bit strange. It's something that we're not used to. We're never taught sales in school. You know, we went to math class, science class, you know, pe, physical education, but never had a sales class, right? So it's not something that we're used to doing. Sales trigger some of our deepest emotional insecurities, right? Things like fear of rejection, fear of judgment, fear of looking pushy or even manipulative. Fear of asking for money. A lot of people have this deep seated fear of like, I shouldn't be asking for money. Most of us were never taught anything about sales. We were not taught in school. We're not taught by our parents. We associate it with sleazy tactics. But here's a reframe I want to give you upfront. Sales is not about pushing. It's about helping someone make a decision. And you do this every day already, even outside of your business, right? You recommend restaurants to friends. You tell people about your favorite show or movie that you just saw on Netflix. Sales is the same thing, just with a price tag. Okay? You're just cutting out the middleman, right? Instead of you telling your friends about a great restaurant you went to and the restaurant making money, you're just working for yourself and telling other people about what you offer. And in this example, you'd be the restaurant, right? Telling other people about your great food and service. Sales is education. Sales is helping people make a decision. That's really all it is. And I was fortunate enough to learn this from my father. My father was a salesperson. He was a car salesman, right? It's typically what you think about when you think of sales. And I learned this because I used to go to work with him on Saturdays because my first job was washing cars at the wash bay at the dealership. And my job ended at 3pm, but my dad continued to work from 3pm to 9pm when the dealership closed. And I used to watch and observ of him. Now, my dad's an immigrant from Egypt, right? English is not his first language. He doesn't have the gift of gab. He doesn't have, you know, that typical charisma that you would think from a really well seasoned salesperson. But he was the top salesman for the brand of car that they were selling in the east coast for 10 years straight. Okay. And what I learned from my dad is that it's not about being slick or being charismatic. It's about helping people. It's about educating people and helping them make a decision. Whether the decision is to buy or not to buy. At the end of the day, you really can't force anybody to buy anything. Pressure sales is never a good idea because it results in refunds and a bad reputation, bad reviews, all that kind of stuff. So your best bet is just to be a helper, to be a consultant. But that's not just it. Let me tell you a quick story. Before I launched Webinar Ninja, before I started the $100 MBA we're talking about, over a decade ago, I ran live workshops. One day, after a two hour workshop that I was giving on website design, I made an offer for an in depth weekend where people can go deeper on that topic. And I offered them a course. I was nervous. I remember my hands were sweating and I rushed through the pitch and I said, so if you're interested, it's $500. I know it's a lot, but it's probably worth it. You can sign up in the back of the room or not. You know, it's totally up to you. No pressure. Guess how many people signed up? A grand total of zero people. Okay. Not because my offer was bad. Actually, looking back at it, you know, with hindsight, what I was offering was actually pretty good for $500. Not because they didn't like my workshop that I just did for two hours. Right. I actually got really good reviews on that workshop, but because I didn't believe in what I was offering. Okay. Very important. Sales is a transfer of confidence. If you sound unsure, they'll be unsure about what you're offering. Your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. Square can help you turn your business idea into a huge success. Yes, even that brilliant idea for Ugly Lamp Market, the shop specializing in gloriously hideous lamps. Square isn't just a point of sale for local businesses anymore. What began as a little white card reader is now a behind the scenes powerhouse, helping you manage finances, schedule your team, and cover cash flow gaps when they come up with Square. You can keep things at Ugly Lamp Market running smoothly, even when somebody tries to return a lava lamp shaped like a flamingo because it's too refined. And whether you're expanding to new cities or growing a loyal following of light loving fans with questionable taste, Square is with you every step of the Way Square helps you tackle today's to do's and bring that big light bulb idea to life tomorrow. Literally. Go to square.com go mba to learn more. That's s q u a r e.com g mba square. Meet you there. Listen, we're all trying to figure out how to work smarter, not harder. Whether that's automating post meeting follow ups or streamlining how we communicate and collaborate across teams. That's why I'm excited to tell you about Fireflies. It turns your meetings into action so you can focus on achieving results. Fireflies is the number one AI teammate that transcribes, summarizes and analyzes your conversation so you can get the most out of every meeting. Basically, it's a smarter way to work, helping you understand what was said, generate personalized notes, find information, but also take on action steps that come next. But more importantly, Fireflies will help you develop workflows to create internal efficiencies. I talk about this all the time, how it's so important to document your systems in your business because it adds value to your business. So when you're discussing in a meeting with your team how to do anything in your business, any procedure, it will help you develop that workflow and get all the information in one place. What I love about Fireflies is that when I got started, I got started quickly. So when I signed up, I integrated it with my Calendar, which I use Google Calendar, so it automatically had access to all my meetings. I knew exactly when I was going to have a meeting and when to start doing its magic. I find that it helps me analyze my own meetings to know if I'm being efficient or not. Are we going off base? Are we talking about things that could be talked about outside the meeting, offline? That alone is a game changer. And right now, when you sign up for a yearly Firefly subscription, you get your first two months free. Just go to Fireflies AI mba. That's right, two months free when you go to Fireflies AI mba. That's Fireflies AI mba. The next thing I want to share with you is a shift that changed everything for me. And that change was me understanding one simple truth. People are not paying for your product. They're not paying for your service. They're paying for a result, a transformation, a solution. So when I'm selling now, I remind myself I'm not asking them to buy a course or a ticket to an event. I'm helping them solve a painful problem. I'm guiding them through a better version of themselves. Huge difference. This mindset switch flips the pressure from you to them. Because your job isn't to sell. It's to present a clear decision. You can say yes, and your future, your life, the experience you're going to have will look like this. Or you can say no, and things will remain the same. When you do this, you've done your job with integrity. So I want to give you three practical tactics that you can practice now. Number one, start selling in conversations. Don't wait for a launch or a webinar. Just talk to people about their problems. And when your solution is relevant, offer it to people. Keep it casual. Something like this. I actually have something that helps you with exactly that. Want me to send it to you? That's a sale. That's not about pressure. It's about clarity. This could be you actually selling your thing, your product or service, or it could just be you selling somebody on an idea. Okay? This could be something outside your business. For example, a buddy of mine could say, hey, I got a plan. Date night this week. I don't know what to do. What should I do with my wife? They have a problem. They don't have a good idea for date night. Maybe they've tried the dinner and the movie. Maybe they've done mini golf already twice this month. So a solution might be, hey, I just saw MJ the Musical. It's an incredible play. You should check it out. I just saw this three weeks ago. It was so high energy. It was so entertaining. The music's fantastic. I don't really like the musicals, but this was pretty entertaining. I think tickets start at, like, $99. So why don't you pick up a pair of tickets and actually, I know a pretty good restaurant that's around the corner that we went to beforehand. So you see how I'm selling this idea to somebody. I'm just getting that muscle used to just being exercised that, hey, I have a solution to your problem. Let me offer it to you. Second tactic, use the damaging admissions technique. This comes from Robert Cialdini's book Influence, and I've talked about this in a previous episode. The idea is, be honest about what you offer and what you can do and what you can't do. For example, this program isn't for you if you're looking to get rich overnight. It takes real effort, but the results are worth it. When you say that, people actually lean in because now they trust you, because you're actually admitting what you don't do, you're not desperate. You're transparent. So for example, if I was selling a used car, I would say to the buyer, hey, this car doesn't do great gas mileage, just like 21 miles per gallon, it's not so great, but the 0 to 60 is 4 seconds. It's so fast and it's so fun to drive. Third tactic, detach your worth from the outcome. This one's big. If someone says no, it doesn't mean you're not good enough. It means they're not ready. It's not the right fit. That's it. Nothing deeper than that. I've had people say no to every offer I've ever made. That's just how business is. You're going to get some no's. And I've also had the same people come back that said no to me before. Six months later they come back and they're ready to buy. Your job is not to close everyone. Your job is to present the opportunity with clarity, with integrity, with confidence. So I want you to get better faster. So this is what I recommend. Start small. Pick one product that you have, maybe a low priced offer, and challenge yourself to make 10 personal offers. Listen, the sales are really not in your control, but the offers are. You can make 10 offers, you can make 20 offers. Start with 10. Email 10 people, DM 10 people. Have a webinar with at least 10 people on it and make an offer. Call them up if you want to. Don't worry if you fumble, don't worry if they say no. The goal isn't to sell right now. The goal is to practice, is to make an offer. Because business is a numbers game. The more offers you make, the more sales you make. And the fastest way to get over your fear of sales is, you guessed, it is to keep selling. Fear of sales is not a flaw, it's a sign that you care. It's a sign that you're maybe a little bit outside your comfort zone. That's fine. You care about how you're perceived. You care about not letting people down. That's a good thing. Now use that care to serve people by giving them the opportunity to say yes to something that will improve their life or their business. And if you want to build something great, truly great, then you really need to work on this. If you want to build something that lasts, you need to master the skill not perfectly, just confidently. You have to just get into the groove of making this part of your regular practice in life and business. This is just like getting into exercise, okay? This is just like you building that muscle of offering what you have for people making that recommendation. Educating people about how to solve a problem. Thanks so much for being a subscriber, for being a listener. If you made it to the end of the episode, I know you're a doer. I know that you are serious about building your business and if you want to take things to the next level then I highly recommend you sign up to our three Things newsletter. Our newsletter is absolutely free and what I like to do this newsletter is I like to go a little bit deeper. I like to coach you from afar by sending you three things every single week. One Something to think about to build a stronger mindset. Number two Something to do so that you are progressing week after week. And lastly, something to learn which will allow you to make sure that you are skilling up that you are improving every single week. All you got to do is go to 100- MBA-NET, sign up for any of our free guides or any of our freebies and you get added to our newsletter automatically. That's it for today's episode. Big thanks for Tim and his question and I'll see you in the next episode. Take care.
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