Strategies to deal with the big r – ‘rejection’ in sales

Have you ever noticed when you are at a café and the waitress or waiter come and ask if you’d like another coffee and you say ‘no thanks’ it doesn’t affect them at all?

Why is that? You’ve said no thanks and they go to the next table and the next with no worry at all. They are not taking it personally you said no. So why is it we tend to take ‘no’ so personally in sales?

Here’s a few reasons I believe rejection can knock us around until we understand the truth!

1.   We think it’s about ‘us. We think the client doesn’t like us, trust us, enjoy spending time with us, doesn’t like our service or product. Truth is people don’t usually buy from people they don’t like. I was in the process of purchasing a laptop for my dad. The salesman was extremely knowledgeable on all things computer, hardware everything to do with technology, which was great. The problem was he wouldn’t stop talking. I could hardly ask a question for the next moment I was held hostage for his diatribe and was starting to not enjoy the experience of having to listen, because he was going on about stuff, we were not even interested in. I made a comment ‘you certainly know your stuff and love talking about it’ I was annoyed but was attempting to get him to stop talking as much, sort of trying to bring it to his attention. Long story short he began telling us that he has a brain tumor which causes him to be ‘over the top’ and he works three jobs and isn’t sure he will survive after he has surgery in four months’ time. We bought the laptop, a printer, cables and other stuff we probably didn’t need. The moral to the story here, is you never know the full story so don’t take it personally. If you’ve done your best job to get rapport, engage with the person, ask them questions to help them, overcome their objections and they are not buying, it’s ok. There could be something else going on you just don’t know about.

 2.   Normalise it. What I mean by ‘normalising’ is expect it to happen. Simply put you don’t get to be an entrepreneur or business owner without having to lead from the front. Leading from the front means you’re going to experience people not liking you, not resonating with you or your message. Guess what? That’s totally fine and good. Why? Because you don’t want them as a client, they are not a tribe member. Life is too short to work with clients you don’t enjoy. Trust me I’ve been there, and it sucks! If you believe in what you’re doing or the product you’re producing? Guess what? That’s ok, they are not your tribe members’

 3.   Sometimes there can be an ‘uneasiness’ as soon as you first meet the prospect. This used to happen a lot. It was like ‘here comes the salesgirl’ what’s she going to try and sell us. I sort of understand people feeling this because I’ve thought this way too sometimes. As I understand both sides of the equation these days I do my best to take my ‘I have been in sales too hat’ off and be a consumer. One of the ways I used to deal with this is allow it to be there, and just to be myself. I remind myself in the proceeding moments that I’m not there to ‘sell’ them anything. I’m there to connect with them as a human being. I allow their ‘uneasiness’ I don’t resist it or take it personally. It’s their fear not mine. Be with the person, not their fear or judgement. This always works for me, even with the more resistant type clients.

 4.   I’m not at all invested in the ‘outcome’. I have a core value of being genuine and authentic when I meet with prospects. That includes being clear on if I think I can help them with my service or offerings. If I can’t or I think they need something else, I’m pretty directive and will say something. Do I want them to be my clients? The answer is I’m not sure yet. I’m also interviewing them, just like they are interviewing me. This organically allows me to feel empowered and ok with whatever the outcome is. If the exchange is genuine enough and connective with real conversation, then the objections can come out and I can go to work on helping them overcome obstacles and purchase. If I go in with ‘I’m going to get this sale, I’m going to make this money, I’m going to be the winner’, guess what? They feel it, even if they are not the feeling type, they sniff it out. Get real get authentic and don’t be invested in the outcome. You’re responsible for the effort, with effort results come naturally.