Never Get Rejected Again

Getting rejected is part of every sales position and every sales professional has to go through it - there is no way around it; however, it doesn’t have to be something you live with forever… in fact, I have the formula for never being rejected again.

Rejection is a mental response or “the state of being rejected.” Are you going to get what you want everyday working in the sales profession? Nope. In fact most of the time you’ll hear “no” more than “yes” and “I’m happy with who we’re using now” more than “I’d love to start working with you today.”

So why don’t all sales people feel depressed? Well many do… and some have thick skin, some don’t really care about their careers and others just don’t take rejection personally – but most of us do – or we certainly don’t like it.

What’s the formula? Have Multiple Objectives.

In every aspect of the sales process have multiple objectives to gauge success. This primarily relates to prospecting and presenting. For example, let’s say you’ve been networking your business and you receive a referral into an account you would love to do business with…
You schedule an appointment and finally have the opportunity to sit face to face with the decision maker. After 30 minutes of what you think is a really good conversation, the most dreaded string of words ever put together is unleashed on you “let me think about it and get back to you.”

After doing your best to move past this “stall” nothing changes and your time is up. You walk out without any concrete decision and you feel ______ ______. (You insert the two words)

Now watch this, same scenario, but you go into the meeting with multiple objectives:

1) Secure new business
2) Secure permission to market to the decision maker
3) Create a positive impression of yourself and your company

Since number three is something you have total control of, no matter how the appointment goes, you cannot be rejected.

This works great when cold calling. My multiple objectives when cold calling are:

1) Secure an appointment
2) Secure contact information and permission to market
3) Always leave a professional impression of myself and my company

Referrals are also fantastic secondary and tertiary objectives. I may not be in need of your product or service at the moment you approach me, but if you ask, I may know of someone else who is and is ready to make a decision now.

Always have the objective of being professional and positive in your selling interactions. It’s no secret that most human beings in this country have negative impressions of sales people. By exuding “positive professionalism” in all situations you’ll do more for your future opportunities and the selling industry than you can imagine.

I know this is a very basic principle… most brilliant concepts are pretty simple once they are practiced consistently. Have multiple objectives and eliminate rejection from your selling career!

TK