"Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” - Brian Tracy
I was finishing a recent Sales Effectiveness training when one of our participants asked me if I would be a guest on their weekly Podcast. Well…not exactly what I was hoping to hear after 2 full days of intense teaching. Oh, and the thought of being broadcast to all of the customers of this client was also very unnerving and FAR from my comfort zone. After all, I thought, I’ve never been “on air” like this and felt so unsure of what the feedback would be. But then I knew I needed to practice what we preach; how important it is to step out of your comfort zone with customers and prospects.
The graphic below depicts when over time, whether a company OR an individual, one begins to mature and become comfortable with the way things are. For your personal growth life cycle, unless you have that critical visionary moment(s), it is very challenging to reinvent or reinvigorate the level of growth once experienced.
You will notice the “point of fear” on the graphic…this is the place where the idea of doing something unnatural or uncomfortable often keeps us from moving forward personally and professionally. Those who have the ability to push themselves past the fear of change experience new, accelerated growth.
So, how can you step out of your comfort zone? Below are a few areas to consider:
Be a continuous learner
Are you investing in your own personal learning? Read books that resonate with you but push you to do things differently. Listen to podcasts that challenge the status quo and help you think in a new and different way around how you execute in your professional life. Invest in some type of training that focuses on the development of your skills.
Prospect creatively
Create unique, action-driven, customer-focused value scripts for emails, voicemails and LinkedIn. At Butler Street, we teach a very distinct framework for doing just that yet certainly feels uncomfortable when first implemented, but drives higher response rates and more meaningful, foundational relationships.
Your value statement must captivate, differentiate and substantiate your offerings
Call on company executives
Because, guess what - you should! Many salespeople with whom we work have a high level of anxiety calling on the “C-Suite”. If you stay focused on the executive’s most critical concerns and objectives, and position your value in a way that addresses their desired financial and operational outcomes, why would they not want to have a conversation with you? It’s when we sound like everyone else that we gain little to no credibility and inevitably feel like prospecting is a “grind”.
Role practice your most uncomfortable customer or prospect interactions
Focus on your biggest opportunity for improvement, whether cold call openings, objection handling, or effective questioning during the sales process. The time to perfect our craft and address any gaps in our skills is NOT when we are in front of our customer. Take the time with your teammates to set up situational scrimmages that reflect actual customer interactions. Leave voicemails for each other and critique them as a team. Share email communications and determine if you were sitting in the seat of the intended audience, would you pay attention. What objections do you hear most often and how can you best overcome them?
At Butler Street, we focus our attention every single day on helping companies and their people grow®. We do this by instilling discipline around 6 key skills of sales effectiveness and then push our partners and their teams to get out of their comfort zone. And we follow our own advice - I enjoyed the podcast and was glad I stepped out of my comfort zone. One thing we know for certain…NO CHANGE = NO CHANGE. If you are tired of the same old same old and want to grow 4X market like our best partners, let’s talk.