I Hate Sales | 10 Beliefs that Hold You Back from Sales Success

Whenever anyone tells me they “hate sales,” I immediately assume that they’re not very good at it.

Successful salespeople don’t feel that way about selling. Often, the reason people have strong emotional feelings about sales is that they are struggling to sell successfully.

Here’s the thing, “hating” things you’re not good at cuts off any possibility of success or improvement. Hate completely closes the door to growth. In order to get better, you must reframe your beliefs about sales. Below are my thoughts on how to be better at sales by changing the beliefs that are holding you back.

"I Hate Sales:" Why Certain Habits and Beliefs Hold You Back From Sales Success

There's nothing riskier than depending your entire sales career success on your daily motivation to cold call and persistently prospect. That's why the most successful salespeople use frameworks and blueprints that break down the habits and changes in belief you need to excel at sales.

You Believe You Are Harming Someone

If you hate sales, you likely believe that you are manipulating others, not working for or with them. You believe that selling requires you to convince someone to buy something they don’t want, don’t need, and can’t afford. None of this is true.

People who try to force people to buy things they don’t want and can’t afford are generally not successful in professional sales. For starters, it’s impossible to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. And, even if you could force them, selling them something they can’t afford would be a waste of time. The best modern sales professionals hold a different belief: that they are helping someone obtain a result they couldn’t create alone. When you work with your customers, remember you are helping them make an informed decision about what they need to do and giving them the tools to resolve a personal need that they have.

You Believe You Have to Be Self-Oriented

There was a time when companies hired gregarious salespeople, people with a smile on their face and a shine on their shoes. They wanted people with charisma who could use their charm to get what they wanted (as opposed to helping the client get what they wanted). Salespeople were taught manipulative tactics to coerce prospective clients.

In the last couple of decades, the evolution of sales has mostly weeded out these behaviors. They don’t lead to success in a world where there are options. Most people don’t want to work with a self-oriented, smart, back-slapping, glad-handing salesperson, and they no longer have to.

The best salespeople now are more other-oriented than self-oriented (although there will never be any profession without its bad actors). There is no requirement that you be self-oriented. In fact, in order to achieve results as a salesperson, you can’t be self-oriented. Stop letting that belief hold you back.

You Believe You Have to Be Aggressive

If you have watched movies about salespeople, you have no doubt seen “the hard sell”, a.k.a. “high pressure” sales. If you have witnessed this type of sale, you can imagine how bad it feels. There are still laws on the books that allow the person who falls prey to these kinds of tactics that provide the right to rescind a deal within three days. The law provides for a “cooling down” period, the name is a perfect description, not because you were hot on buying something, but the fact that you need to cool down from the friction of dealing with that type of salesperson.

A good salesperson doesn't train the hard sell or use high-pressure tactics. Most salespeople who sell professionally today have never seen anyone aggressively apply pressure to convince a prospect to buy. You don’t need to be aggressive to be a better salesperson. In fact, being overly aggressive will probably do you more harm than good.

You Believe It Can’t Be Taught

You might believe that good reps are born, not made. It is true that some people are born with naturally fast rapport-building skills, high emotional intelligence, and the ability to quickly win clients over. These people, however, are the exception, not the rule.

Even some with slow rapport-building skills have other attributes that allow them to sell effectively. You can learn to be a better salesperson. It is a skill set that can be taught, trained, and developed. Like all other important skills, if you are willing to do the work, you can learn.

You Believe That Bad Experiences Hold You Back

My first experience with a salesperson ended with his sales manager blocking the door and dictating that I would not leave the dealership if I wasn’t driving the car he was trying to sell me. As you might imagine, I left in the car I drove onto the lot. Many of us have had a negative sales experience and we have allowed it to color the way we think about all salespeople.

Because we are human, we tend to remember negative experiences more vividly than positive ones, but you have also likely had good sales experiences. At some point, a good salesperson has taken the time to help you explore your choices and come to the decision that was right for you. If you’re lucky, you may have had an even better salesperson prevent you from buying something that wasn’t going to serve you.

Don’t let your negative experiences ruin your view of what a good salesperson should be. In sales, there is no benefit to providing a bad experience. In fact, it's a great way to make sure you’re the one who loses in the end.

You Believe Negative Stereotypes About Salespeople

Movies and television shows often portray the worst people in sales as villains (this is why the reputation sticks). If you spend time on the internet, you will see more than a few examples. If you wander around long enough, you will find people who embody all the reasons you believe you hate sales.  That's why so few people want to be in sales anymore.

With all of the negative publicity, you have probably never thought about all of the people you know who work in sales. You have friends, family members, even parents in sales. Good examples of good people (who happen to be in sales) surround you. Don’t let your beliefs keep you from being one of them.

You Believe Sales Is Difficult & Doesn't Come Naturally To You

Selling can feel challenging, especially at the beginning. Even more so when you have to ask for the commitment for time (i.e., prospecting). Everything feels awkward when you don’t what you are doing. Until you sell for a little while, it can be difficult. However, like anything else, you will become a better salesperson over time, but you can’t get better until you change the beliefs that are holding you back.

You Believe You Don't Need To Go Back To Basics

If you don’t know how to make a cold call, it feels dreadful. If you don’t know how to have a conversation in which you trade value for time, you might feel as if you are being personally rejected (you are not). When you don’t know how to open a sales call or control the process, you struggle to lead the conversation, and you have a difficult time creating value for your prospect.

To become a better salesperson, you must master the mechanics of selling. Once you understand how things work, it starts to feel a lot less complicated. Your competency grows, as does your confidence.

You’ve Never Been Trained

A lot of us had training that consisted of being given index cards with the five most common objections we could expect and a list of phone numbers (or in my case, the most leads you have ever seen, all in alphabetical order - a phone book). You may have been cast into the deep end of the pool without being taught to swim.

Developing sales skills is critical to any enterprise. If you are lucky enough to get a job that recognizes that and provides you with excellent training, you will spend a lot less time struggling against the water, taking into mouthfuls, while you doggy paddle to the side of the pool. If your organization does not offer sales training, in order to become a better salesperson, you must seek it out for yourself. You will feel a lot different when you have been trained appropriately.

You Believe You Don't Need A Mentor

Great salespeople have almost all had excellent mentors - people who cared deeply about our growth and development. They modeled beliefs and behaviors, and we followed their example. We also shamelessly mimicked their language choices for client conversations. If you haven’t had a good sales mentor, find one. One of the greatest possible accelerators to being a better salesperson is mentorship. If you can’t find a mentor within your organization, I encourage you to seek one out elsewhere. A good mentor will pay dividends.

The Last Thing That May Be Holding You Back From Sales Success

Neither lack of skill nor any of these beliefs or experiences are fatal. Try on some new beliefs, ones that might fit you better. Have new experiences, including the satisfaction that comes from helping people get what they want to need.

You can also get the training and development that would allow you to find greater success. The bottom line is this: if you want to know how to be a better salesperson, you have to believe that you can become one. Ready to see what a good salesperson is supposed to do? Check out our FREE Closing Simulator that shows you exactly salespeople can gain commitments from the beginning stages of prospecting to closing.