Dealing with Rejection

Yesterday, I started this topic with a list of Don'ts for dealing with rejection in sales: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/dealing-rejection-andy-balderson/?trackingId=K%2BS8OnEaKIdOrKLWm1tVBg%3D%3D - Starting with the Don'ts was quite intentional as I think the Don'ts have a larger impact - by not making the negative moves that I described, you've already gone a long way to handling the Rejection professionally and keeping yourself in the game for the next battle! Moving on to the Do's lets us set ourselves apart even further from our competition. So let's get down to it:

My first Do is really simple, but is a must: Do EXPECT REJECTION One of the worst things I've seen in new and young sales reps is the expectation that every deal will close 'won'. It's simply not true, you will lose more deals than you will win and you must learn quickly that Rejection is part of how the game is played. If you aren't getting rejected, you aren't trying hard enough! It's simple, but powerful to just accept that your role will include a lot of no's and rejection and sometimes you will be sure that the customer or prospect is making a mistake and they may well be, but it's still THEIR CHOICE.

The next is always good advice in sales, but LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE WHY. If you have been following my articles for the past month or so, you'll see LISTEN come up a lot - That's because it's really the most important sales skill there is - Most customers will tell you what's important to them if you just stop and listen. Listening to the why will uncover one of several possibilities:

• They haven't understood the value that your product brings to their situation.
• They've understood the value that you offer, but they see more value in the solution they are choosing.
• Their decision is actually a 'No Decision' - essentially they aren't implementing anything right now due to budget or other resource constraints or because none of the solutions presented delivered an acceptable ROI or payback.
• They are sticking with the status quo despite the superior value of your product or solution. Often indicating that they see risks or hidden costs in switching.
• They usually won't say it outright, but they just liked working with the other company or their representative better. Sometimes, they'll say something directly, but others you'll get a feeling.

The first why - where it becomes clear that they just haven't understood the value your product brings is just about the only one where I'd recommend exploring another shot at the current opportunity. In this case, I'd recommend carefully seeking permission to review their Pain points and how your problem solves them effectively against the payback expectations they shared with you. Asking a question something like this: "Mr. Customer, I'd really love to review the issues and challenges you are seeing and how {Your Solution} can help you solve them, would you mind giving me 5 minutes to discuss that." --- Follow their lead - If they agree: Reiterate the pain points that you've discovered and get their agreement on these problems and their organizational costs. Re-introduce your product and its ability to solve their pain points - Quickly review the ROI and payback calculations and make sure that this still meets their expectations. Focus on the elements that you discovered weren't clearly understood and try new examples or references to drive home your value. Do all of this respecting the time allotment that you've asked for! Sometimes things will turn in realtime when the realization occurs to the customer, others you'll need to send the calculations and data one more time to help them review offline or with other team members, but the bottom line in this situation is you may have just made a 'Diving Catch' on this opportunity.

When they've found a better solution and make no mistake about it, if they see more value in another solution, it is better, at least for the criteria that are important to this customer. It's important to remember that the only features and value that matter are those that customer sees as important and are willing to pay for! This is a moment to be gracious, thank them for their consideration, and let them know that you appreciate being invited to participate in the process and that you hope you can work with them on another project again! This is that bridge I'm talking about - the bridge that builds trust so that you and your company get invited back in the future. If you can bring yourself to do it, it's great to even compliment their decision, something like - "You know Mr. Customer for the needs you outlined for this project, I have to admit I think you made a great choice in Brand X". You'll be remembered for being objective and you will also likely increase their trust in you for the next project. In fact, given my preference to focus time on those projects that are most likely to close, making the recommendation for the competitor early in the process if they clearly have the better solution, can be a powerful move in building your credibility for the future!

When their decision is actually a 'No Decision' - your objective is really clear. You want to explore what the true objection or blocker is in order to determine if there is something you can help overcome. Often, the 'No Decision' will be delivered in vague language like: 'We've decided not to do anything about this for now' or 'We've got bigger problems elsewhere that are going to get our attention at this time' --- Deciphering what these vague statements really mean is critical to your next steps. You can ask open questions like: 'So, tell me a bit about what is getting your attention now?' or 'Can you share what went into the decision to stop work on this project?'. It's again time to listen carefully, You may find that there really is a budget constraint that's stopping things for now, which will allow you to explore when the next budget cycle occurs - or you may find that there really is a larger more urgent problem - and sometimes you can introduce another solution from your company into the mix, but even if you can't - you want to leave with an understanding how CapEx projects are selected when there are competing needs like this. This knowledge will help you qualify early in the game next time and give you a better understanding of what questions to explore to ensure that you are working on a priority project!

When they choose to Stick with the status quo - you want to use some of the open-ended questioning techniques found above in order to determine why. This is very similar to the 'No Decision' but I differentiate it because there is less vagueness in this call - the customer is usually really clear that 'We are going with what we've always done' or 'We don't want to make a change at this time'. When you explore, you want to find the reasons why - but in this case, I'd look for perceived hidden costs or challenges. In the software world, I'd run into 'Sunk Cost' concerns a lot with this type of No - they already had a team trained on the competitive software, they already had a library of routines that could be shared and reused, they had a large install base that would still need to be supported, etc. All of these elements would result in increased hidden costs that were real. In exploring these reasons over time, I learned to question them early and present mitigation strategies from the start when they were concerns in the mind of the prospect. It's really hard to overcome these concerns when they come at the 11th hour, but if you address them early and often - You can build trust and credibility in the ways you suggest to mitigate and overcome them. It also pays to include some of these costs in your ROI calculations - making them more realistic and still showing a reasonable payback.

When they really just prefer to work with another company or another rep, there really is only one solution that works consistently - let's face it some things are out of your control - if the buyer is going to purchase from his brother-in-law to keep the peace at home, there's not a lot you can do! The one thing you can do is act with persistence and consistency (Okay that's two - Kill me) - Eventually, you will get the win that I call 'the thin end of the wedge' and that will allow you to build credibility as a trusted advisor which will lead to other opportunities. I've lost A LOT to buddies, family members, and other long-term relationships over the years and I've learned that sticking with it and building your own long-term relationship is the best antidote.

My final thoughts are on exiting in a gracious and professional manner no matter what the outcome - so a quick bullet list of 'Always Do's':

• Thank the customer or prospect for their time, attention, and consideration.
• Compliment the prospect on their process and methodology and even their end decision if you can.
• Let them know that you WANT to help them again in the future.
• Stay close to the prospect in a friendly way through the implementation phase of the competitive product. I've often won deals back when a competitor has over-promised their ease or installation time.
• Touch in from time to time to see what your customer's latest challenges are.
• Try to determine as early as possible in the process challengers to your solution that may offer similar or even better value. If there's a competitor that is VERY CLEARLY better - Seriously consider graciously exiting early.
• Go ahead and recommend another product if you know of a solution that is clearly better for their problem than what you have to offer. We are playing the long-term lifetime value game not the short-term hustle and the trust that you build by making this recommendation will pay off many times over in time.

There's so much more that is applicable on this topic - but I'm trying to keep each read to roughly 5 minutes - so it'll have to wait for a future post!