6 Expert Tips to Overcome Sales Rejection

Really appreciate Rohilesh Singh for joining me for the blog this week. Roh has written a book titled Rise Warrior Rise. According to Roh, the book is: “… for people who want it all without losing their minds. That’s essentially the best descriptive you can have because you know what’s going on in this society today. Most people do not have the self-belief, the inner love to do what they want to do and they’re losing their minds. Don’t just sit there and say, “Yep, I’m going to do something about it.” Go to risewarriorrise.com and get one. Too many people are being stingy with investing in themselves and $36 to create a super life, if you don’t do that, then you deserve what you get.” You heard it here and look the bottom line is that unless you develop the ability to take control of your emotions and take control of your mind, you are always going to be a victim in this world. Now that’s a nice segue into the topic of today’s blog which is, “How do you handle rejection as a salesperson?”. I always laugh when prospective customers, or customers, or salespeople say, “I’ve got a conversion rate of 80%”, and I laugh because I know that whether they know it or not they’re lying. The simple reality is that if they actually included all the people they spoke to that just went nowhere, never turned into a decent conversation, never turned into identifying an opportunity, the simple reality is that no salesperson has a conversation higher than 50%, which means you need to fail more often than you succeed. Roh added that if your closing ratio isn’t so high, you’re probably leaving money on the table as well so be cognizant of that. You don’t have to knock on as many doors if you’re closing and getting the maximum value or the share of the wallet. Roh has been through the different levels of sales – he has done the massive enterprise deals and he has been that commission only salesperson as well. Here are his 3 tips on how to handle rejection:

1. Know the End Game

Number one thing is you have to know the end game. You have to have a clear end game of why you’re in it, what is it that you are shooting for because when you do that then you’ll pay attention to the science. It’s about the feelings. It’s about how persuasive you are but it’s about the science as well. You have to know your numbers from how many leads I have to how many phone calls, how many phone calls turn into face-to-face meetings, presentations, proposals, close, referrals, all of that. If you have all of that, I tie a dollar value to it. One so it tells me that every time I pick up a call I know that it’s worth this much money and when I instil that thinking into people’s mindset they just become more confident and willing to get up and pick that phone rather than procrastinate.

2.You are More Than Your Job

The other thing is being on the move and realize your own self value like who are you, why you like yourself. You’re more than your job! You’re more than your result and if you’re smart you’re trying to get rewarded on your activity as well. If you take rejection too personally as a salesperson, you should get out of the industry because it’s too painful. Yeah and we’ll talk about that which is the three modes of operation, the four kinds of people when we get into doing our seminars. Once you find out that you’re meant to be in this business, that it’s in your personality, everything becomes easier. But, if you’re doing work that’s not meant to be for you, you’re always going to struggle.

3. Get feedback

I never see rejection as rejection. I see it as, “Hey, at least they’re interested in talking to me.” There must be something that I haven’t answered and what I find is the most tenacious people get the biggest wins. You’ve got to keep on going back. They’re not personally saying no to you. If they are, find out why and change yourself but the idea is to ask the question, “Okay, Dean. You’re not ready right now but mate you know I put in a lot of effort on this, right? And I know you know this so will you do me a favour? Will you at least tell me what is it that I could have done a little bit better?”   The way Roh has delivered that line – the language he uses – to gain feedback is really powerful so make sure you take note of it! Here are my top 3 tips:

1.Surprise them

Every rejection or every non-sale is an opportunity to surprise somebody. If you do something for them post them to saying I’m not going to buy from you. You create a moment of surprise. Now that might not re-engage them in a sale but it’ll make you feel better and it’ll increase the probability that they’ll reconsider you in the future or talk to their friends about you and say, “You should at least talk to this person as well despite the fact that I bought this.”

2.Get feedback

I think the other thing is every failure, every rejection is an opportunity to get feedback and I love the way that you just set that up and contextualized that to make it feel like the client whilst they’re doing you a favour actually owes you because you have put in a lot of effort in to setting them up to make a decision.

3.Move on to the next sale

I think the other one is – in failure and rejection you’ve got to develop that mentality of next. Every time you get that no, it’s got to be right next. What’s next? Where am I going to put my energy next and not forever? Today’s no is not forever and you’ve got to remind yourself of that.   Roh believes that this is why you have to have a pipeline. You have to have a list of people who will benefit from your services. You do add a lot of value to people and you’ve got to know that. If you know that you don’t go in from a position of begging, you go in from a position of authority and even if you’re a giver – it’s all going to come back. Now, a lot of people might listen to this or read this and go but it’s so old school to backwards plan how many leads, how many calls, how many meetings, how many engagements, well guess what? Why do you think CRM is such a massive global industry? It’s a massive global industry because the smartest people in our industry know that the more you understand the correlation between all the stuff you do on the frontline to ultimately earning sales and great customers for life, the smarter you are. Be a smart salesperson. Pay attention to these tips and make sure you’re deliberate about handling rejection. As Roh said, “have a science that builds you as an individual but also have a science that builds your business.” Guys, you notice that Roh and I have dressed up today. Well we’re going off for a Melbourne Cup drinks today – but despite the fact that I haven’t got my #BetterSalesLife T-shirt on, remember, it’s all about a better sales life. You got to work for it but it’s worth it.