When I first started in sales, I was very nervous at every single appointment. Driving to see a prospect was daunting and on the way there I would be stressing out about the negative possibilities. What if I didn’t get a sale! God forbid! I remember driving to my appointments full of trepidation. Scared to death. Twenty years later in my career and it is still difficult to admit my initial level of nervousness when I began sales. You are supposed to be that slick, confident extrovert right? Is anyone really that confident though?

Well my palms would get sweaty, I would get sweaty everywhere infact… Even my god damn lips would turn dry. You know that when your lips turn really really dry it makes presenting actually quite difficult. I used to prey they had water available in their office. Every meeting I would go abit early and ensure some water was at my table if we were dining out at a cafe or something. I would have a few sips of water pre going into a meeting to lubricate my lips(That sounds abit questionable doesn’t it) to try get as long as possible before they made like the sahara desert. I even wanted to see if the pharmacy or my GP could supply me with some kind of over the counter drug or gel that could help me with this problem.

I remember going into a prospects office with my Boss to discuss a big contract. I was nervous about this one… I know that this Boss wanted to “see me in action,” I had been winging the role the whole time… I had no real big deal experience. To be completely honest, I should add that I also had daily-smoking-of-marijuana-addiction that used to make me sweat two times worse than usual! I knew that I was doomed. And I was right, in the meeting I sweat it up like a pig in a pork shop. My well fitted designer business shirt soon became a wet towel. Even sweat was pouring off my forehead. Let’s face it if you are so nervous you have sweat pouring off your forehead during negotions chances are you aren’t going to get the deal. I felt so dejected afterwards and seriously questioned if I should do a sales related role.

In my first year sales I would always think about my level of nervousness, usually I would measure it on a scale. When I started sales I would say that I felt around 20% nervousness. As the early years went I felt this level of nervousness decreasing. I would intentionally throw myself into situations without having prepared when I was in my 20’s. Sounds silly doesn’t it but what I felt I was doing at the time was just teaching myself how to handle any social situation under the most difficult set of circumstances. Well… That was my excuse in my own head for not being prepared anyway. Perhaps I was just lazy.

In my later years of my career I feel my nervousness level has decreased and now sits around 0.05%. This decrease in nervousness and subsequent raise in confidence certainly helps ones close rate. It comes with age and maturity really. I’m introverted so perhaps it took me longer that your typical sales extrovert social butterfly.

“Feeling anxious, uneasy or worried is a natural reaction to stressful or uncomfortable situations.The body is anticipating some form of danger and is preparing for it.Your body releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.The physical symptoms can include increased heart rate, faster breathing, headaches and even feeling sick.Think of it as the body preparing you for a challenging situation.The problem arises when it happens regularly and you have no control over it.It can affect your mood, your confidence, even your thinking ability.” From “Ways to combat Nerves before a sales interaction”

According to ‘Science ABC’, when your neocortex (your thinking brain) attaches extreme importance to an activity, it triggers a part of the limbic brain called the hypothalamus and the signal is misperceived, as though there is some sort of danger, since your situation is not considered “normal” in your brain.

The hypothalamus thus triggers the fight or flight response, in which the sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles, and directs the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline and noradrenaline into the bloodstream, which increases heart rate and blood pressure.

Nervousness is fear.. It’s anxiety.. I had to learn how to deal with this biological response and so will you. Some never do, I did. So, how do you not get nervous? How do you decrease your nervousness scale? Below are some thoughts of mine that I hope might help anyone out there who suffered like I:

1. Don’t pressure yourself to get a sale every single appointment. As Mark Wayshak says “Some will, Some won’t, So what? Next!”
2. Remember that the prospect is just a person like you with likely good intentions
3. Counter your negative thoughts with rational counter statements with positivity and reassurance. For example if you are thinking “I’m not going to sell here I’m not technical enough for this prospect,” counter it with: “I don’t have to be a technical expert; I need to be a strong generalist and focus on the business application of my products.”
4. Look at yourself in the mirror and remember your best qualities
5. Write, Adjust and constantly practice your script, once you have memorised it with time it will go a long way to you coming accross as an expert
6. Use crappy prospects that you know won’t buy as a chance to get experience, like a roleplay and you have nothing to lose. It’s basically sales sparring.
7. Be enthusiastic about your product, make sure you are working with a company that sells a product that actually excites you. Selling a piece of shit will only make you more nervous.
8. Write out the main objections you get and think of one to three rebuttals for each. Read them at the start of every few days so they become memorised.
9. Faizah Imani a writer from the CHRON suggests roleplays with friends or coworkers to improve confidence
10. Imagine yourself with the prospect and think about possible scenarios, picture yourself saying various statements confidently
11. Go for a small walk before seeing a prospect to clear your mind and make some final mental notes
12. Notice what sort of nervous body language you had and focus on redirecting that habit in your next meetings. Make it a priority to focus on it and correct it. For example when I used to sell or present or talk in public I had a terrible habit of swaying. Such a habit like that will make it very obvious you are nervous, sending off alarms in the prospect’s head that you are nervous and probably a fraudster.
13. Don’t worry about being perfect every single time and always sticking 100% with your script, trust your instincts and listen to clues your prospects give you. Such as “The last quote we got this woman could talk a leg off a chair.” So what does this tell you… This prospect doesn’t want a salesy bullshit artist, relax and get to the point.
14. Place your attention on your prosect. How can you help them? By doing this you switch off the negative internal dialogue and just focus what is the customers issue and how can we help them.
15. Also written by Fairzah Imani, “Instead of creating a nervous disposition, ask yourself what you would like to feel instead. Replace fear with courage. Replace nervousness with excitement. Replace anxiety with confidence.”