Member Article

Halloween Scares: Top Fears of Salespeople Facing 2021

The spooky season is in full swing and as salespeople are preparing to look at the past year in review to best prepare for 2021, there are common fears that salespeople are expected to grapple with heading into the new year. An unprecedented year full of tough business decisions and cutbacks have drastically impacted the sales industry and changed the way that sales representatives must work. From virtual pitches to inconsistent data, salespeople have had to become adept at navigating new day-to-day challenges. While it’s natural to feel worried about the uncertainty of the next year, identifying and preparing for these top sales anxieties will put salespeople one step ahead of the competition.

Here are the five most common fears that salespeople will experience, as well as tips for overcoming each to have a successful 2021.

• Fear of keeping up with constantly changing customers. Good salespeople know their customers’ businesses and industries inside and out–but Covid hasn’t just changed the customers, but entire industries. Solution: Understanding the ongoing shift is key. Salespeople should continue to do their research and educate themselves on the latest changes and trends in their industry to help best identify the top pain points faced by customers and figure out what problems their solution can help solve most

• **Fear of not finding enough leads. **Everyone is online or social media hunting for the same leads. Solution: Salespeople need great strategies to stand out, and must incorporate the benefits seen from using a CRM. The most useful platforms will have powerful integrated lead generation tools, which gives salespeople instant access to hundreds of millions of leads that meet specific requirements.

• Fear that the length of the sales process will become longer and longer. Solution: Data shows that sales cycles for won deals has actually become shorter compared to pre-covid times and average win rates are back to what they used to be during “normal” times. A good CRM will help qualify leads, so that salespeople can only focus on the ones with highest potential, therefore keeping the sales cycle on track.

• Fear that the customer will ask a question you can’t answer. It’s normal that every salesperson wants to close as many deals as possible to earn commission. Sometimes they choose to hide product weaknesses or know that the product will not serve the needs of the potential customer, but sell it anyways, hoping that the prospect will not ask about it. This is not sustainable in long-term thinking. Solution: A lack of transparency and setting false expectations lead to disappointment and may potentially do a lot of harm to the product as well as the salesperson. We live in the era of social media where feedback and reviews reach to millions of people around the globe within seconds. Be honest about your product’s capabilities and what it can and can’t solve for the prospect, and build a solid relationship that you can nurture over the long run.

• **FOMQ (fear of missing quota). **This can create a lot of anxiety for sales representatives. Quotas are created by managers and are based on company goals but have to be met by the hard working rep. If a salesperson is solely focused on meeting quotas, they will lose track of everything else, including their own performance and focus. If quota attainment takes over the attention span, they will never achieve it. Solution: It’s like the old saying: “How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Salespeople might get intimidated by their quotas and think they’re unattainable. Instead, they should not let themselves be drowned by that fear, and structure their days, one by one. Taking a step back to focus on account by account, they will be able to reach that target. FOMQ, should not be a nightmare or an anxiety-generating engine and should be mastered with planning and structure.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Raul Perdigão Silva, Head Of Global Sales, Pipedrive .