I have been doing sales for about 6 months and every time I think I’m getting better I get rejected and knocked back down again and don’t think I can handle picking myself up again and again. Any suggestions?
One inevitable part of sales that can never be avoided is – rejection. However, it’s only rejection if you label it rejection. Many people say the person is not rejecting YOU, they are rejecting the idea, product or service that you are proposing. I completely disagree with this concept and they are 100% rejecting YOU. So, you need to review the call and think, did I sound boring? Did I sound disinterested? Did I have a good enough opening gambit that engaged the prospect and created some desire? Think about it, if the person wasn’t rejecting you, then why do some people take a sales call, and some don’t? Is it purely on the product or service that’s being offered? Of course not!
It’s imperative that you do not take it personally, otherwise sales are not right for you. If you get upset every time someone puts the phone down on you or is rude to you, then you are in the wrong profession. It’s like saying you enjoy boxing, however you hate getting hit. You require rhino skin, yet equally you don’t keep calling and getting rejected until one person is receptive to you. You review, tweak and dust yourself off and try again. Remember perfect practice makes perfect. Not what most people believe, practice makes perfect. If you saw me hit 100 golf balls badly in the range and then saw me mess up on a golf course you’ll understand that if I kept on practicing my awful swing I would not get anywhere fast, however if I was shown by a professional how to swing properly then it’s worth practicing that; make sense?
It’s only rejection if you label it rejection. So, if my objective of the call is to make an appointment and I walk away with the decision makers name and number, then that’s a result. Alternatively, I may make fifty calls, in all of which I may decide they have no requirement for what I’m selling. Now rather than walk away feeling rejected, I view it as I had to make those fifty calls at some point, and at least I have got them out the way and can move on.
‘Failures not the falling down, but it’s the staying down’
As I mentioned earlier, there is no such thing as rejection, its feedback. Change ‘I failed’ to ‘I’ve learned what never to do again’. Many sales people view ‘no’ as one step closer to a ‘yes’. When you get rejected go back to the prospect and say, “I appreciate we are not doing business at this juncture, however, so that I can learn from this, and my company can improve and develop, what could I have done differently to be successful?” The day is not bad unless you name it bad. Rather than invest your time and energy moaning about something, use your creativity to think up a solution.
