By Brian Sullivan, CSP
Explore how fear and avoidance – not lack of skill – keep top salespeople from closing deals.
I’ve been in professional selling for 35 years. I’ve trained thousands of salespeople across medical distribution, manufacturing, healthcare, technology – you name it. And after all that time, I can tell you with absolute certainty that most struggling reps don’t have a skills problem. They don’t have a product knowledge problem. They don’t have a territory problem.
They have a courage problem.
There. I said it. And I know it stings because it’s supposed to.
Let me paint a picture you’ll recognize. You’ve got a rep who knows the product catalog inside and out. They can quote GPO pricing in their sleep. They’ve been through every training module your company offers. They show up on time, fill out the CRM, and hit their call numbers.
And yet – their results are flat. Quarter after quarter.
Why?
Because they keep calling on the same comfortable contacts, having the same comfortable conversations, and avoiding the same uncomfortable truths.
That’s not a skills gap. That’s a courage gap.
Here’s what courage looks like in medical sales. It’s calling on the surgeon you’ve been avoiding because the last conversation didn’t go well. It’s walking past the friendly materials manager who loves to chat and has zero buying authority, and instead asking to speak with the VP of Supply Chain who intimidates you. It’s telling a prospect, “I don’t think this is the right fit for you,” when every fiber of your being wants to chase the deal. It’s asking the question you’re afraid to ask because the answer might be “no.”
I see this every single week. Salespeople trained to ask high-value questions – but won’t. They know they should lead with something that hits – a Value Hook that earns attention or a Pain Hook that exposes a real problem – instead of “just checking in.” But they don’t. They understand that handling indecision is where deals are won or lost – yet fold the moment a buyer says, “Let me think about it.”
They’ve been taught disciplined questioning frameworks like CLEAR – to ask what’s Currently happening, what they’ve Looked At, what’s Effective, what they’d Alter, and who’s Responsible – but when the moment comes, they skip straight to the pitch because asking real questions takes courage.
They have the tools. They lack the guts to use them.
And nobody fixes that with another webinar.
Before the sales managers reading this start nodding and pointing fingers at their teams, let’s talk about you for a second. Because courage isn’t just a rep problem. It’s a leadership problem.
Do you have the courage to ride along with your reps and give them honest, direct feedback – even when it’s uncomfortable? Or do you sit through a mediocre call and say, “Good job,” in the car afterward because you don’t want conflict? Do you have the courage to put underperformers on a plan – or do you let them coast because they’re “nice people”? Do you have the courage to sit in the front row of your own team’s training and fully participate – or do you introduce the trainer, disappear for three hours, and wonder why nothing changes?
If you’re a sales leader who won’t do the hard stuff, don’t expect your people to do it either.
Courage is cultural. It flows downhill.
So how do you build it?
You don’t wait for it to show up. Courage isn’t a feeling. It’s a decision repeated under discomfort. It’s doing the thing that makes your stomach tighten before you feel ready, before you feel confident, before the conditions are perfect.
Start small.
Tomorrow morning, make the one call you’ve been avoiding. Not the easy one. The one that makes you hesitate.
Walk into the account where you got shut down last month and lead with a new hook. Ask the decision-maker directly: “What would need to change for you to move forward with us?” And when they give you a vague answer, press a little further: “Help me understand what’s really holding this up.”
After three and a half decades, here’s what I know: the reps who win aren’t the smoothest talkers. They’re not the ones with the best territories or the most experience.
They’re the ones willing to walk toward the hard conversation instead of around it.
Most reps circle discomfort like it’s a pothole. Top reps drive straight through it.
That’s the difference.
You already have the skills. You already have the training. You already know what to do.
The only question left is whether you have the courage to actually do it.
Stop blaming your territory. Stop blaming the market. Stop blaming the GPO contracts, the economy, or the competition.
Look in the mirror.
That’s where your sales problem lives.
And that’s the only place it gets fixed.
Brian Sullivan, CSP, is the founder of PRECISE Selling and author of PRECISE Selling: 20 Days to the Top. With 35 years of experience in healthcare and medical distribution sales, he delivers keynotes, bootcamps, and outsourced sales development for companies nationwide. Contact him at preciseselling.com.