What does it take to reach the top of the sales profession?
Passion? Drive? Commitment?
Maybe.
How many passionate, driven, and committed people still struggle to sell up to their potential, despite wanting more than anything to build a successful sales career?
Those of us who keep bumping up against the limits of our comfort zone. Who get overwhelmed with self-doubt, fear, anxiety, and worry. Who find it getting harder and harder to consistently do the things we know we need to do in order to reach our true potential.
Who end up playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
I know what this feels like all too well. I spent most of my career playing the wrong game. Working too hard to avoid feeling emotional discomfort instead of facing it head on. Thinking that mastering technical sales skills would protect me from the emotional pain I felt from uncertainty and rejection.
What I didn’t realize was that I was actually fortifying the limitations of my comfort zone. All of my attempts to outsmart and outwork my anxiety were forms of avoidance that kept it locked in place.
So what changed?
I finally woke up to the fact that my aversion to emotional discomfort, not lack of selling skills, was the true bottleneck holding me back. So I shifted the focus of my training from “sales techniques” to “emotional fortitude.”
I needed to overcome my struggle with the fear, anxiety, worry, and self-doubt that kept me from pushing through my comfort zone, so that I could finally take the action needed in order to make my vision a reality.
How?
By becoming much more comfortable with discomfort. Learning how to stop resisting and avoiding uncomfortable situations, thoughts, and feelings. And practice leaning into them in a way that wasn’t overwhelming.
Struggling to reach your own potential in your sales career?
Consider what might happen if you spent a little less energy on polishing your technical skills, and put more effort into strengthening your ability to tolerate emotional discomfort.
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