Whether or not you're a sales person, you need to sell to others. If you're a parent, you need to sell your kids on eating their vegetables. If you're a leader, you need to sell your team members on doing a good job. Whenever you want to get your point across, you're using sales skills. In business and life, sales come up a lot.

So what happens if you're sales phobic?

Is Sales Phobia a Type of Social Anxiety?

It typically is because you're worried about how someone else will judge you. It may also be that you're worried that you won't be successful so you don't want to try.

In most cases, sales phobia is a normal type of anxiety. Almost everyone has social anxiety from time to time-speaking jitters when giving presentations, trying to look their best when talking with key business partners, or feeling nervous about making cold calls.

Social anxiety disorder, on the other hand, is more intense anxiety, comes up more frequently in different situations, and causes significant impairment. Social anxiety disorder (now called social phobia) affects 7-15% of people and is equally common among men and women. Someone with social anxiety disorder would probably have anxiety in several situations, such as talking with new people, going to parties, and so on.

Are there some people who have diagnosable social anxiety that shouldn't even try to sell?

Discomfort with selling can be overcome with practice and sales coaching. Social anxiety disorder is very treatable, so people with the condition may want to receive cognitive behavioral therapy, (CBT) or medication before reaching a conclusion about whether they can sell.

I've had several salespeople clients who were wonderfully talented at sales but the anxiety got in the way. Once they got rid of the anxiety, their performance was stellar. And one of the best ways to overcome social anxiety or sales anxiety is to do it (i.e., sell) more often.

Anxiety is a condition (or a state) whereas personality is a set of traits that tend not to change. So if someone has personality traits like introversion, or the need for stability and predictability (esp. in income), sales as a career may not be a good fit.

How do I know if my sales phobia is likely to change?

It's probably temporary if:

- You're new to sales or to the current industry or business and are not yet comfortable in a sales role. You simply don't have enough experience to be confident yet.

- You don't think sales is the right fit for you- not necessarily because you're nervous about it, but because someone else could do it better. This means that you could get over the sales phobia but maybe you don't need to because you don't want to be in a sales role.

- You're nervous because you have so much on your plate that you don't have time to devote to developing your sales skills.

What should I do?

The most important thing is to remain focused on your objective in a conversation. If you know what you are hoping to get out of it, then you can achieve your goal. Remember that you're not there to force someone to do something they don't want to. You're simply delivering information that can be helpful and providing an invitation for someone to take you up on it. Staying focused on your goal and your prospect's needs, you will accept the risk of discomfort when you take on the sales role. You'll go for it and be likely to have great success. You will be more successful and have greater confidence the next time.

The second most important thing to do is to get plenty of experience. The more you do, the better you will be. Sales calls and conversations are just like anything else: they are difficult until you gain practice and as your skills increase, they become more productive and fun than frightening.