How To Prevent Stage Fright From Affecting Your Sales

So much of what we learnt at schools seems irrelevant in real life. Some of the good lessons come from your whacky drama teacher, of all people!

Ahhh, school days… the smell of damp locker rooms, musty classrooms and those mean kids making fun of your name.

And the annual school play, where everyone had to act, sing or be a “crowd member”.

One year I actually got given a few lines to say. Oh, the pressure of remembering lines, and saying them without fluffing them and at the right time. With everyone’s apprehensive eyes on me, torn between willing me to do well and simultaneously waiting for me to stuff it up.

Remember those, um, happy days?

Chances are, if you’re in business, and you aren’t blessed with a natural sales flair or the gift of the gab, you probably have similar experiences most weeks.

Those terrifying sales presentations where – at some point – you have to ask for the sale. To see if the client will buy from you, after you’ve spent time with them demonstrating your knowledge.

But somehow the words just get stuck in your throat, and you sound like you’ve got a cold. (You haven’t.) Or like you’ve accidentally swallowed your cough lozenge. (You haven’t.)

Heck, most days you can’t even remember which words to say! Should it be “which one would you like?” or “are you ready to make a decision on this?”, or some other question which seems as foreign to you as French did in your first year of high school?

After all, you got into business to practice your craft, not to be one of those cheesy sales people that pressures people into buying stuff! Aaarrghh!

Keep rehearsing…

Back at school Mrs Drama Teacher made you keep practising, practising, practising until those lines rolled of your tongue, fluff-free, Arial you even thinking about them. It meant learning things parrot-style. And it drove you nuts… but it did the trick.

Well, my friend, now is the time to re-visit those days and those techniques.

First of all, you need to figure out what your lines are. (There are excellent sales training courses and books that can help you figure that out.)

Then you need to practice them. In every client meeting or sales presentation possible.

If you’re not good at remembering lines, write them down and read them in the car before you get out. Maybe even write a few trigger words on your note pad to remind you. There’s nothing wrong with that… so long as you do say the lines in your meeting.

And when a customer says “yes” and makes that all-important purchase, you’ll probably feel just as proud of yourself as you did up on that stage at school, where you said your lines perfectly and your parents glowed with pride – and a relief.

So go find your lines and learn them!

Keep at it

Do be sure to keep rehearsing and using the lines. And add new ones too. If you’re not a natural at sales, then continually updating your skills and techniques will help you feel and act more confident. And customers feel much happier about buying from a confident business person than a shrinking violet.

It’s OK to be shy naturally – just learn your lines and act the part of Ms Confidence. People often confuse actresses with their alter egos. After all, in the 1990s we were all talking about the “Rachel” hairstyle – never the “Jennifer Aniston” hairstyle.

Use that to your advantage, and be that smooth-talking, confident sales person… and make that sale!