3 Ideas For Dealing With Rejection In Sales
If you don’t learn how to handle rejection in sales, it will start to take a toll on your mental health.
When I first started in sales, I was making over a hundred cold calls every day selling internet advertising to SMB business owners in Arkansas. I was hearing “no” a lot.
Some prospects would hang up when they heard the name of my company. Others would yell about how they had already received multiple calls from my co-workers.
There were some days that I didn’t want to come to work in the morning. More than half of my co-workers quit in the first two months.
Dealing with rejection is one of the hardest parts of a sales career. But like anything else, it’s a skill that can be learned.
Here are three strategies that you can use when dealing with rejection in sales:
- Expect to hear “no” by default.
- Don’t take it personally.
- Remember: “On to the next one.”
1. Expect to hear “no” by default.
Hearing “no” is a fact of life in sales.
Some sales leaders even say that the real selling doesn’t really start until you get your first objection.
Instead of being surprised by it, you should learn to expect it.
This will help to keep your emotions in check.
I’ve especially noticed that rookie reps often become very excited when they think they’re about to close a deal. They start bouncing around in their seat and smiling ear-to-ear. And then, when the deal doesn’t close, they’re crushed. They get discouraged and slack off on their calls for the rest of the day.
This is emotional immaturity. It clouds your judgment and causes a salesperson to lose control of the sale. You should be controlling the emotional state of your prospect, not the other way around.
Instead of dreaming about your prospect saying “yes,” focus on your plan for when your prospect says “no.” What objections are you anticipating? What responses have you prepared for those objections?
If your prospect says “yes” right away, it should seem almost too easy.
If your prospect says “no,” then you’re prepared to handle their objection and ask for the sale again.
2. Don’t take it personally.
You can’t get a “yes” every time. It’s not possible. There are circumstances beyond your control.
Some deals just won’t close, and it could have nothing to do with your skill as a salesperson.
Work with your manager to parse out any opportunities for improvement, distill these into action items, and then set up a system for measuring and monitoring improvement.
No ego necessary.
3. Remember: “On to the next one.”
This was something my old sales manager used tell me whenever I was fixating on a lost deal.
It’s like having a hundred fishing poles in the water at the same time. Who cares if ninety of the lines aren’t getting bites? You’ve got your hands full reeling in the other ten.
With this mindset, you don’t have to worry as much about each individual encounter. When you hear a “no,” just remember all the other deals that you have in the works.
If you spend too much time worrying about what you could have done differently on a deal that didn’t close, then you’re wasting precious time and energy that could be used to make progress on other deals.