Dear Tony, I am a very positive person and I always look on the bright side of life, my glass is always half full!
However the past few months I moved into a new job selling printers and am really struggling. I’m working really hard and doing all the things I used to when I was selling data in my last job, however in the past 10 meetings I have only managed to covert 3 of them and I can’t help getting down. What can you recommend to help pick me back up?
Rest assured you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t get frustrated or down by losing business; this clearly shows you are passionate about what you do and are hungry to be a success, which speaks volumes about your determination. The fact you monitor and measure you’re conversation rates is also a positive, as you clearly are receptive to personal development.
So what I would recommend you change is how you are viewing things. I read something quite recently by a great motivational speaker called Richard Denny, who said “you win some, you learn some, but you never lose some!” I agree with this entirely and I’m an advocate for the fact there is no such thing as failure, it’s all feedback. So rather than view it as you lost 7 deals, change that to I learned 7 new lessons that will help me win more business in the long run. Equally focus on what you did gain from these meetings or presentations, as opposed to what you didn’t gain. Would it be fair to say you’re better at presenting the 10th time, rather than your 1st attempt?
You have gained new prospects for your pipeline, built rapport with new contacts who know other people that they could refer you too, if YOU ask!
The key is to gain feedback. If you don’t already, I would strongly recommend you create an email template and call the subject line ‘Your valued feedback’. In the email write ‘I appreciate you have not chosen to use my products or services at this juncture and I wish you the best of luck with the route you have chosen. I am always looking to learn, grow and develop, so with that in mind can you be so kind to provide me with your honest feedback as to why you decided not to progress with me at this stage. I will not take any offence to your comments whatsoever, quite the contrary, as I will use them to improve myself for next time.
I really appreciate your time in providing me with your comments and if I can be of any further assistance in the future please get in touch. I will diarise to call you in the next few weeks to see how things panned out for you.
Warmest Regards
Tony
