The
life of a salesperson is filled with rejection. We typically hear far more
“no’s” than we do “yes’s.” Actually, we probably hear “no” every
single day of our selling careers. Moreover, unfortunately, it isn’t just from
prospects we hear “no.” We hear it from our companies, our suppliers, our sales
manager, and almost everyone else we deal with.
Tip 1 –
Our life is filled with the word “no.” Nevertheless, in order to get to our
“yes’s,” we must hear the “no’s.” How we handle the “no” is one of the keys to
succeeding in sales. It seems that there are some people, who can just slough
off “no’s” without a second thought. But for most of us, a “no” is a personal
rejection. Decide which is you and
change your thoughts to handle ‘no’ easier.
Tip 2 -
Depending on how you market, dealing with a “no” can be a direct, in-your-face
rejection, or can be an anonymous trashing of our direct mail letter. However, all
of us must, at some point in the selling process, deal with face-to-face
rejection. If you cold call, your rejection is immediate—and if your cold
calling is done on the phone, can appear to be very personal. When you call a
complete stranger and
they
hang up on you or rudely tell you to get lost, the tendency is to take that as
personal rejection. Learn that it is not you they are rejection, instead it is
the product and it could be for many reasons, eg. Not right time of year, no
budget, decision maker away etc.
Tip 3 -
The salesperson that has sent out a thousand direct mail letters actually
suffers the same rejection, but is protected by not knowing the recipient did
not even look at it, but instead immediately threw it into the trash. In
actuality, the rejection is the same—the individual is rejecting your offer,
not you. But one salesperson must hear in a loud, clear click his rejection,
while the other never hears the soft drop of the letter into the trash. Worse,
once you get the opportunity to get in front of a prospect, the “no’s” continue
to come. You make your presentation. You get your no.
It seems we need to find a format that will give us the opportunity
to offset the rejection with success. We need to institute a program that will
allow our brains to regroup and experience the joy and positive reinforcement
of getting the yes’s that offset the “no’s.” Assess yourself and decide what
you want to achieve.
Tip 4 - If we assume we
will fail, we will not give our best effort. Why should we? We already know the
outcome before we even try to tackle the problem. After all, we are just
wasting our time. Secondly, out prospect can read our defeatism in our voice
and body language. Moreover, if we do not believe in what we are saying, how in
the world can we expect a prospect to believe it? Learn to believe in yourself
and what you are selling. Join Toastmaster for more confidence or invest in the
Xfactor Confidence Webinar programme. www.xfactorconfidence.com
Tip 5 - In order to be
successful, we must be able to take the rejection we experience and deal with
it in a positive manner. We have to find a way to eliminate the residual
negative feelings we have from the rejection that seems to be all around us. Advice
for handling rejection has generally centered on either understanding that each
“no” gets us closer to “yes,” or understanding that, since the prospect does
not know us as an individual, the rejection cannot be personal, but is rather a
rejection of the offer we made.
Both of
these are true statements. For many of us, neither gives us much relief. Change
your self and your energy. Create yourself some affirmations to overcome your
negative self talk. Eg. I am a positive salesperson with a great product
So, if the traditional methods of dealing with rejection do not
seem to work very well, what can we do to rearrange our attitudes? It seems we
need to find a format, that will give us the opportunity to offset the
rejection with success. We need to institute a program that will allow our
brains to regroup and experience the joy and positive reinforcement of getting the
yes’s that offset the “no’s.”
How can we create a method to give our brains the positive yes’s
it needs to readjust
after receiving a chorus of no’s? Better yet,
try to arrange your schedule where you have
two or more positive tasks to perform each day and
split them up so your brain is readjusted several times
during the course of the day. The more regularly you can feed your brain
positive experiences, the easier it is to deal with rejection. Rejection
becomes the exception, rather than the norm.
Tip
6 - Other salespeople use bribery to
handle their rejection. Bribery comes in all forms and fashions. The salesperson
will assign themselves a certain number of phone calls or presentations or
other tasks that they must perform and then, as a reward, they allow themselves
to do something they desire to do—work on their sales files, go to lunch, work
on marketing materials, or some such. Others reward themselves with new clothes
or some other object. Others will
allow
themselves to go home early or take a day off at some point in the future.
However
- Bribing yourself can become expensive—both in terms of the rewards you give
yourself, whether buying something for yourself or allowing yourself time off.
In addition, it really does not reprogram
your brain.
All it really does is encourage you to get through the task as quickly as
possible to get your reward. If the reward discourages quality work during the
task, it really is not a reward for doing the
task,
but is rather a reward for putting on the show of doing the task.
Tip
7 - Other salespeople have found that
detaching themselves from the rejection allows them to ignore their rejection.
These salespeople will use a number of impersonal prospecting methods, such as
direct mail, email blasts, and advertising. By not experiencing the rejection first-hand,
they believe they can be more positive.
Tip 8 -
Using an impersonal prospecting tool to replace direct prospect contact can
also be dangerous. There certainly is not anything intrinsically wrong with
Marketing
via direct mail, advertising, emails, and such—as long as the object is not to
avoid prospect contact.
Besides
being relatively expensive, these methods of prospecting should be a supplement
to your direct prospect contact, not a substitute. Unfortunately, if your
objective becomes avoiding prospect contact to insulate yourself from direct
prospecting and rejection, the task of sending out direct mail pieces, sending
emails,
constructing ads, etc. become the goals in and of themselves. They no longer
become a format for increasing your potential pool of prospects, but rather
they
become the reason for your existence—you live to create the perfect direct mail
piece that generates interest and sells your product or service without your
involvement
at all.
Tip 9 -
Arranging your schedule to allow daily activities that reinforce your positive
selling activities, including prospecting tends to be the most successful way
to deal with rejection. Certainly, if you happen to be one of the lucky few who
can simply ignore the rejection you receive, I envy you. Nevertheless, for the
vast majority of us in sales, we must find a format that allows us to reformat
our brains after experiencing sustained rejection.
Tip 10 - Allowing our brains to experience success on a regular
basis, particularly after having experienced rejection, seems to be the
attitude adjustment mechanism that works best for the majority of us. Try arranging
your schedule to purposely take advantage of the successes you know you will
experience everyday. Place them in your schedule when you know your attitude
will need their positive influence and you will see a marked difference in the
way you handle rejection. ■
Written In conjunction with Paul McCord. More tips on
being positive and confident. Visit www.xfactorconfidence.com
