“How can I get out of my comfort zone in sales?” Enlarge your vision. If your mind can’t handle the figure, your pocket most certainly won’t
A one million shilling sale. Does that intimidate you? What about 10 million shillings in sales? Maybe 100million shillings? Intimidated yet? Are you getting out of your comfort zone? Financial experts say that we all have our financial flash points. The point at which our mind obliterates any remote possibility of envisaging a financial figure which is not consistent with what we think is possible.
This is tragic in selling. It limits the seller. It is the reason why many sellers present only the cheapest item in their menu believing that people will only buy if it’s lowly priced and won’t if it’s not. They have convinced themselves that a payment of 1,500shs per month for insurance is easier than one of 15,000shs. And so they simply don’t present the latter; not only don’t they present it, it doesn’t even cross their mind to do so.
Reasons for not getting out of comfort zone
Three reasons lead to this.
First, such sellers see themselves as the buyer. If I can’t afford it, neither can they, they reason, illogically. If my rent alone is 15,000shs, surely no one can spend that in monthly payments. And so the seller prospects in the 1,500shs market and simply does not “see” those in the 15,000shs per month bracket.
And that’s the second thing: not seeing. Have you ever noticed an uncanny thing? That when you get introduced to someone and, say, you discover you work in the same building, suddenly you tend to “see” them in the lift, the parking, the washroom, yet before that you weren’t seeing them, but they were always there? This happens because they come into your zone of possibility. Sellers who limit themselves to the cheapest product will not even follow up a hot referral that is beyond what they “see” as possible. Their flash point simply singes the referral. It might as well have never happened.
The most tragic of limitations
The third tragedy with limiting oneself is that even when you stumble on a “15,000shs” prospect you will still insist on selling the “1,500shs” product. Your jaw drops when he asks to buy the 15,000shs product. You don’t see the sale, you see the “problems” associated with it. It will lapse; it will mean wasting time ensuring he goes for a medical checkup; the payment will drag before it comes through (because 15,000shs is too much money, remember?).
The example shared is that of an insurance agent. But the principle applies to all sellers. For those in Business to Business selling, it limits their entry point of sale to clerical staff for a purchase that requires board approval because of the amount involved. And so the seller keeps pushing the clerk to find out progress on the proposal. And the clerk strings him along because he doesn’t want to be seen for what he is: toothless.
How to grow out of comfort zone
Growth is stunted for such a seller. She will always play in little league years into her career and the lack of personal growth is frustrating. She may be getting by financially, but it is personal growth, not financial, that gives us a feeling of movement through life.
What to do then? Get out of your comfort zone. Go browsing in a high end mall (Village Market, Galleria, Garden City) and ask to fit a shirt way beyond your means. Sit at a restaurant there and ask for a soda or cup of tea. Visit a car dealership and ask to be shown the features of the V8 Land Cruiser or your dream car (if you have ever dreamt that far). Better still, climb into the driver’s seat and rev the engine. Or, start small; apply for a passport even if you don’t need it and, next time you are shopping use your Visa card and not cash. Repeat these actions until you are comfortable; and then raise the ante. None of them will cost you financially; but, all, will grow you phenomenally.
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