DOUBT is an insidious thing.
Like a monster under your bed bigger in your imagination than whatever you’re doubting could be in real life.
Of course when I googled “overcoming doubt” all of the resources are for SELF-doubt. Most of them from sites about therapy, positivity, and the like. Here is the thing; that’s not the kind of doubt I’m talking about today – although it too is an important inside sales topic.
The most insidious doubt an inside sales manager / leader can face is their doubts about: salespeople, organizational obstacles, and external challenges.
Lack of Confidence in Your Sales Team
People outside of sales may think that team doubt would most often show up in challenging times – of course it does show up then – but MOST often when speaking with front line inside sales managers (in particular) their team confidence seems to be a bigger issue when they’re successful.
- can we make goal AGAIN?
- are “they” going to replicate their success?
- will this winning streak continue?
On the surface all three are actually productive questions to ask. Yet there isn’t action involved. Let’s change those questions slightly:
- what can we do to make goal AGAIN?
- how are “they” going to work on replicating their success?
- which things won us the deals that put us on this winning streak we could continue doing?
By making the questions about ACTIONS to make, doubt will recede.
Hesitation caused by Organizational Obstacles
In every organization there are obstacles to inside sales success; some technical, some political, others because of the organizations structure, lack of skill sets, lack of time/staff, blah blah blah.
No organization is perfect, yet if they are still in business… still around… still going – something works.
Regardless of what the internal roadblocks you face may be ask yourself TWO ACTION questions:
- how can I reduce the impact of __________________ (insert obstacle here)?
- what can I do to get around it?
Again the key is looking for actions to take that may not eliminate the organizational obstacle – rather look at the detours you can take.
Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask… how can I get rid of __________________ (insert obstacle here)?
Misgivings due to External Challenges
There is always a lot going on in the outside world that impacts inside sales: economic – political – industry (both yours and your prospect/customer’s) – weather – the list is never ending.
Living at “what if” which is the address of doubt when it comes to misgivings due to external challenges, isn’t driving action. It’s wallowing, without forward movement.
- who is the least impacted by ___________ (insert challenge here)?
- what activity can the team make to move forward?
- how can we minimize ___________ (insert challenge here) for our prospects/customers?
It’s All About ACTION
As I was working through the insidiousness of doubt it became clear that determining ACTION was the key. Stop worrying if there is a monster under your bed… lean over and look.
Now that you know what monster is lurking there – you can figure out what to DO.
Plus, there might not even be a monster!