How to Overcome “I Can’t Do That” Fear!

By Faye Murray

Fear of not achieving is a stumbling block that therapists face every day.

Fear is a thing that we would like to live without, but we all experience it.

Public speaking is generally high on most people’s list. “I would rather jump from a plane without a parachute than stand up in front of people and talk.”

However, I personally love doing it and have no fear anymore. The first time I did it, I am sure I was afraid, but because I have now done it many times, I don’t feel the fear.

So, what causes that fear? Simply it is doubt. Fear occurs when you doubt that you have the ability to succeed, so you worry that you will fail, and others will notice.

Sometimes, I believe we feel that we fail because it seems to us that expectations are too high.

Let’s look at an example. In your salon your manager has told you:

“You must recommend to each and every client.”

The first thing that comes to mind is: “There is no way that each and every client will buy. I will come across as being pushy, The clients won’t like me.”

Set yourself three goals: -

GOAL ONE

Talk don’t sell to every client and share your knowledge and experience.

You will be confident to do this, because you have the knowledge to share and educate. You know so much that your clients will benefit from. They will appreciate what you share.

GOAL TWO

Set a goal for the number of rejections that you may get. (A bit unusual, you are thinking)

You are going to look after 35 clients this week. You will expect to get 15 rejections. If you expect that is the reality, when a client says no you will just say to yourself:

“I expected that, so that is ok”.

GOAL THREE

• Set a goal for the number of ‘yes’ clients. 35 clients….15 rejections….20 yeses.

• When you set your expectations at a level that is real you will have less disappointment and more “wow I did it!”

• Talk to everyone, don’t pick and choose

• Set a goal for the number of rejections. Convince yourself this is ok

If you want your clients to respond in a positive way, you must give off positive energy.

CAN’T YOU OR WON’T YOU

This can be applied to anything that you do in life and in a salon situation.

“I can’t get my clients to say yes to rebooking… other therapists do it, but I can’t”

The question is can’t you, or won’t you? You absolutely can’t if you don’t have the training and the knowledge. If that is the case ask someone for help but if you have all the knowledge and you have been trained and you aren’t getting your clients saying yes, I suggest it is because you won’t.

See if this might be you:

• You pick and choose who you invite to rebook, and it probably feels like you are inviting 7 out of 10 but it is probably more likely that you are asking 3 out of 10. You will always get a low score on this if you don’t offer it to each client because the reality is some will say yes and some will say no.

• You do it at the reception by saying “Would you like me to organise your next appointment?” This is not offering a service; it is just asking a question that is almost an afterthought.

• Worse still is this one “Would you like to make your next appointment, or would you like to just give me a call?”

If you want to get rid of the fear and the doubt, you must also recognise that to achieve success you must do things in the right way and combine this with a good positive energy and lots of enthusiasm.

I CAN’T SELL…I AM JUST NOT GOOD AT IT

Every one of us is a salesperson and we learnt it at a very young age.

We learnt as a baby that if we cry, we can usually sell to our mother. “I want to be picked up”.

We learnt as a little girl, that if we look pretty in a new dress, we can sell our special look to daddy and get a compliment.

We learnt that if we sell an excuse to the teacher, we can probably get out of trouble for the failed deadline.

We learnt that if you want to sell the idea of buying a new car to your husband you need to come up with some good reasons why. Not just I want one.

Think about it. Each and every one of us are fantastic at selling. We have no fear of day-to-day things because we have been practising it for years and we now do it instinctively. When we get a “no” we usually think of another way to “sell” what we want.

In your salon, you just have to keep practising.

This article was written by Faye Murray from Your Coach. For more information about business coaching and the Zoom training sessions Faye offers contact: 0409 342 653 faye@yourcoach.net.au www.yourcoach.net.au