Business Growth Archives

I heard Steven Bartlett talk about embarrassment being the price we pay for visibility.

And I think he’s absolutely right.

Whether it’s posting a video of yourself on LinkedIn, walking into a room full of strangers at a networking event, or picking up the phone to speak to a potential client, putting yourself out there can feel bloody uncomfortable.

We’ve all been there.

You know you need to make some sales calls. You’ve got a list of people you want to speak to. You might even have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to say.

Yet somehow, you find yourself reorganising your inbox, making another cup of tea or convincing yourself that the website needs updating before you can possibly speak to anyone.

Sound familiar?

There’s actually a pretty good reason for this behaviour, and understanding it might help you do something about it.

Your brain would rather you stayed home eating cornflakes

There’s a small part of your brain called the amygdala that plays an important role in how we respond to threats.

It’s particularly good at sounding the alarm when something feels dangerous or uncomfortable. The trouble is, your brain can respond to social threats, like rejection or embarrassment, in some of the same ways it responds to physical danger.

Think about it.

Yesterday morning you got up, had your cornflakes, checked your emails, avoided making those awkward sales calls and survived perfectly well. Nobody rejected you. Nobody told you to bugger off. You didn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of a conversation going badly.

From your brain’s perspective, that was a pretty successful day.

So when you wake up this morning and decide you’re finally going to make those calls, part of your brain would quite happily prefer you to stick with the cornflakes. It’s familiar. It’s comfortable. And there’s very little chance of embarrassment.

Of course, you and I know that avoiding sales calls for the next six months probably isn’t going to do your business much good.

Unfortunately, your amygdala isn’t particularly interested in your sales forecast.

There are two fears that I often see holding business owners back

Having worked with hundreds of small business owners, I’ve noticed that reluctance to sell often comes down to one of two things.

The first is fairly obvious, the second can be a bit more surprising.

1. The fear of failure

This is the one most of us recognise.

We’re worried about rejection, looking foolish or being told that what we’re offering isn’t worth the money, and this fear can show up in all sorts of ways.

You spend 45 minutes writing a LinkedIn message that should have taken five.
You convince yourself that you need another qualification, a better website or a few more testimonials before approaching that bigger client.
Someone doesn’t respond to your email and you immediately assume you’ve said something wrong.
Or you avoid following up with a prospect because you don’t want to come across as pushy.

I’ve seen some incredibly talented business owners tie themselves in knots over this stuff.

They’re brilliant at what they do, their clients love them, and they’ve got something genuinely valuable to offer.

But the thought of picking up the phone and being told no is enough to stop them, and here’s something I remind our members of regularly.

A rejection is rarely personal.

Sometimes the timing is wrong. Sometimes the budget isn’t there. Sometimes the person simply has other priorities. And yes, sometimes they genuinely don’t want what you’re selling.

That’s business.

It certainly doesn’t mean you’re rubbish at what you do.

2. The fear of success

This one’s interesting because it can be much harder to recognise.

You’d think that landing a big new client, increasing your prices or winning a substantial contract would be something to celebrate.

And of course, it is.

But success can bring a whole new collection of worries…

Suddenly you’ve got to deliver on the promises you’ve made.
Perhaps you need to employ someone, invest in new systems or take on responsibilities you’ve never had before.
You might even start questioning whether you’re really good enough to handle the next stage of growth.

Psychologist Gay Hendricks explores something similar in his book The Big Leap, where he describes the idea of an internal limit on how much success we feel comfortable experiencing.

I think there’s something in that.

Our beliefs about money and success are often shaped long before we start running businesses.

Perhaps you grew up hearing that wealthy people were greedy, that money was difficult to come by or that you shouldn’t get above your station. Those beliefs can influence how comfortable you feel charging what you’re worth.

I’ve seen business owners quote a perfectly reasonable fee and then immediately start offering discounts before the prospect has even opened their mouth. Others take on extra work for free because they feel guilty charging for it. And some will put off sending a proposal to a brilliant prospect because there’s a part of them that’s quietly terrified the client might actually say yes.

It’s fascinating, really.

We spend years trying to build successful businesses, and sometimes our own thinking gets in the way when that success starts arriving.

How we disguise fear as being busy

Here’s where I think things get particularly interesting.

Most business owners are extremely good at finding something useful to do.

There’s always another job waiting.

The website could do with improving. The brochure needs refreshing. The email automation isn’t quite right. Perhaps it’s time to have another play around in Canva. And all of those things might genuinely need doing.

But I’ve met plenty of business owners who’ve spent days perfecting their marketing materials when what their business really needed was for them to speak to ten potential customers.

It’s like hiding behind technical marketing (which is way more creative and full of dopamine anyway…).

It’s a wonderfully convenient way of feeling productive while avoiding the thing that’s making you uncomfortable.

I’ve been guilty of it myself.

You can spend an entire day working your socks off, get to five o’clock feeling absolutely exhausted, and still have done nothing that’s likely to bring a new customer into the business, or at least not any time soon.

And the really clever part is that you’ve got a perfectly respectable excuse.

You’ve been busy!

The challenge is recognising when that busyness has become a hiding place.

So how do we get past it?

I wish there were a magic switch we could flick to make the fear disappear.

Sadly, there isn’t.

But there are a few things I’ve found genuinely helpful, both in my own businesses and in the work we do with our Mastermind9 members.

1. Stop thinking about selling and start thinking about helping

This is probably the biggest shift you can make.

If you go into every sales conversation thinking you’ve got to persuade someone to buy something, you’re putting yourself under an enormous amount of pressure.

Instead, try approaching the conversation with one simple objective.

Find out whether you’ve got something that could genuinely help the person you’re speaking to.

That’s it.

If you can help them, brilliant. Explore how you might work together.

If you can’t, that’s absolutely fine too.

We teach this approach in our Sales Accelerator because I believe the best salespeople are problem solvers.

And having a clear process makes an enormous difference.

At Mastermind9, we use our Playbook to help give structure to the way we support business owners, with clear goals, practical actions and measurable progress.

Knowing what you’re offering, how it works and the results you’re trying to help people achieve gives you confidence when discussing it.

You’re having a conversation about solving a problem rather than trying to convince somebody how wonderful you are.

2. Have a proper sales process

It’s amazing how much mental energy we waste deciding what to do next.

You have a good conversation with someone at a networking event.

They seem interested.

You promise to get in touch.

Then a week goes by, followed by another, and eventually you start wondering whether it’s too late to follow up.

A simple sales pipeline can prevent an awful lot of this.

It doesn’t need to be complicated.

Know who you’re approaching, when you last spoke to them, what stage the conversation has reached and what needs to happen next.

Then make following up part of your weekly routine.

We give our Mastermind9 members templates and resources to help them do exactly this.

Because when you’ve got a clear process, you spend far less time wondering what you should be doing and more time actually doing it.

3. Get someone to hold you accountable

Now, this is something I’m particularly passionate about.

There’s a well known study by Dr Gail Matthews at Dominican University that looked at the relationship between writing down goals, making commitments and reporting progress.

The findings suggested that people who shared regular progress reports with someone else achieved considerably more than those who simply thought about their goals. And that makes complete sense to me.

Imagine you’ve promised yourself you’ll make ten sales calls this week. Thursday arrives, you’ve only made two, and suddenly you remember that very important job involving the colour scheme on your website.

It’s remarkably easy to tell yourself you’ll make the other eight calls next week.

But imagine you’ve got a 20 minute call booked with another business owner on Friday morning.

Last week, you told them you were going to make ten calls. And tomorrow they’re going to ask how you got on.

Suddenly, those sales calls feel a little more important.

That’s why our Mastermind9 members have accountability check ins with another business owner.

It’s a simple opportunity to talk about what you’ve committed to doing, how you’re getting on and where you might need a bit of encouragement.

I’ve seen how powerful this can be.

Sometimes all we need is another person who knows what we’re trying to achieve and cares enough to make sure we actually do it.

4. Get comfortable being uncomfortable

This is probably the least exciting piece of advice, but it might be the most important.

At some point, you’ve simply got to pick up the phone.

Your heart might beat a little faster.

You might stumble over your words.

Someone might say no.

And you know what?

You’ll be absolutely fine.

The more often you do something that makes you uncomfortable, the more familiar it tends to become. You learn how to deal with rejection in business.

That doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly love making sales calls, but you can build confidence through practice.

Start small if you need to.

Make one call today. Follow up with someone tomorrow. Send the proposal you’ve been putting off.

Then do it again.

Every time you take action, you’re giving yourself another bit of evidence that the thing you’ve been avoiding really isn’t as frightening as you imagined.

One final thought

Running a business requires us to do an awful lot of things that don’t always come naturally.

Selling, putting ourselves in the public eye, charging what we’re worth and dealing with rejection are all part of the job.

And I suspect that even the most successful business owners occasionally find themselves looking for excuses to avoid something uncomfortable.

The important thing is to recognise when it’s happening.

Because the website will always need another tweak.

There will always be emails to answer.

And there will always be another perfectly good reason to put off that sales call until tomorrow.

But if you genuinely believe in what you do, and you know you can help people, I think you owe it to yourself and your potential customers to have those conversations.

So here’s my challenge to you.

Think about the sales conversation you’ve been putting off.

The prospect you haven’t followed up with. The proposal you haven’t sent. The person you’ve been meaning to call.

And do something about it today.

Your cornflakes will still be there tomorrow.

And if you’d like to build some proper accountability around your business goals, come and experience one of our free Mastermind9 Virtual Tours or Networking sessions, to see what we’re about.

You’ll meet other ambitious business owners, see how our groups work and discover what having the right people in your corner could do for your business.

Onwards & Upwards