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How much rejection do you face on a daily basis as you attempt to get more sales or increase your client base? Your mere presence in the sales or entrepreneurship arena requires the ability to get past your comfort zone and talk to people without knowing for certain whether they want to talk to you or buy what you offer. For your efforts, you are often rewarded with the most dreaded of obstacles in sales¦the word no.
I remember reading a quote that stated, If you havent been rejected lately, you simply arent trying hard enough. This statement looms prominently in my mind as its meaning is so simplistic and clear, if you desire greatness, you must fortify yourself to deal with the certainty of rejection.
Understand Your Motivation
With each sales call, each cold call, each planned presentation, your overall objective remains the same. You enter every selling situation with the ultimate goal of increasing company revenues and therefore, your paycheck. But it is amazing how quickly this goal can be abandoned in the face of adversity.
I have watched competent people walk away from jobs with six figure upsides because the harshness and frequency of rejection wore them down. I have also witnessed people lessening their productivity in an attempt to control the amount of rejection they must face even knowing the effects this is bound to have on their income and the safety of their jobs.
I have personally heard the words not interested more times than I could possibly count. But I managed to stay in the sales profession for longer than I ever believed I would. After many years and countless rejections, I can pinpoint the reason for my loyalty to sales. The sales profession is the greatest profession in the world.
Despite what you may have heard, the negativity, the stereotypes and the put downs, sales can in fact become the most rewarding and the most empowering profession youll ever have if you adopt the right mind frame.
Without a doubt, the most empowering facet of your sales profession is the power you hold over your income. Consider the positive implications of the direct impact your performance has on your paycheck. Unlike the customer service associate or accountant or shipping clerk sitting next to you, you decide how much you earn, how high your paycheck can get.
With this motivation in mind, rejection must become a mere pebble in your pathway to financial success.
Understand Their Motivation
Have you ever been rejected with a special dose of cruelty? Why is it, you may ask, that some people cant just say no. Why do they have to cut as deep as they possibly can with personal insults sure to stop your progress for the rest of the day? This question is not rhetorical, there is an actual answer.
For years I used to approach the same store manager at a well-known pharmaceutical chain with my best suit, a polished smile and great enthusiasm. This man would continually greet me with a cynical and depressed attitude. It took me a while to realize how much I must have bugged him with my optimism, my positive outlook and my request that he help me increase my income. No wonder he took such pleasure in telling me no with a hint of rudeness. There he was, stuck in a job he hated and doing nothing to about it and here I came in my fancy duds, riding high and looking for a great commission.
When you understand peoples motivations, you wield a great power. Does the man who tells you no, Im not interested, Im very busy, now go away and stop bothering me! actually do so because it was such an offense on his day for you take up five minutes of his time? No. He typically does it because he has not succeeded and he does not want you to succeed either. Why would a perfect stranger not want you to succeed? It is simple, your success would be a reminder of his failure.
Can you imagine my miserable store manager watching me pull up outside his store in a brand new, top of the line BMW and worse yet, knowing that commissions from his sales helped me buy it? Can you picture his reaction to hearing from a new sales rep that I had been promoted and given a much better territory, or an office and a sales team of my own to manage? Do you think he would be happy for me? Of course not.
When someone tells you no with a force designed to cripple your future efforts, you must not acquiesce. Consider them gatekeepers to the key of great accomplishments. When you railroad through them on a focused charge towards your reward-filled destination, you will earn your place among the very successful, all of whom jumped the same fences, never gave up and never got scared into walking away from the possibilities that a sales or entrepreneurial path can offer.
Put Things Into Perspective
Your mind is constantly playing game with you. You must become consciously aware of these games in order to control them. For example, my assistant recently tried to get some publicity in a regional business newspaper. The reporter she was talking with told her he was not interested but added an extra dose of rudeness for good measure. Her gut reaction was to stop pitching to avoid the possibility of another uncomfortable encounter.
But then she remembered that just one week earlier, she had pitched a columnist for the largest and most respected business magazine in the country and that pitch had been very well received. In fact, the busy columnist had thanked my assistant for calling and told her exactly when she should call back and that she was looking forward to hearing more.
Why was it that my assistant automatically forgot this earlier, more significant, encounter with a far more important publication in favor of the negative encounter with the entry level staff writer at a small local newspaper with nowhere near the influence and reach of the other publication? The answer¦it was a trick her mind was playing on her. She beat it by playing a trick of her own.
Among others, I teach a defense to rejection called reframing. When you reframe something, you change its meaning. When you change its meaning, you change the experience and your reaction to it.
Whenever the unpleasant encounter popped up in my assistants mind, she played the following reframing trick. The name of the small regional newspaper that turned her down appeared as though on a huge computer screen in 300 point type big enough to cast a shadow. Somewhere in the back of the screen, way out of focus was a name too small to read. After clicking a button on a PowerPoint presentation, the large and looming reminder of the unpleasant encounter shrunk way into the background with the small letters rushing to the front. Now taking up all visible space with letters as large as 300 point type and casting a majestic shadow was the name of the large, influential business magazine that had received her pitch with great enthusiasm. It was all she could think about, pushing the less significant negative encounter to the back of her mind.
We all instinctively play mind games with ourselves but most of the time, they work against us. When we walk away from challenges despite the surety of great rewards, when we focus on the negatives ignoring the positives right next to them we are playing a game that results in our missing out on the great opportunities that surround us. By understanding our motivations, understanding other peoples motivations and then paying attention to our reactions, we can build a defense system strong enough to push us through to the success that waits on the other side of defeat.
Alvin Day is a sales and personal empowerment coach. He is also author of the sales training book, Persuasion Power. Visit his website at www.AlvinDay.com
© MMVI Copyright by AlvinDay.com
I remember reading a quote that stated, If you havent been rejected lately, you simply arent trying hard enough. This statement looms prominently in my mind as its meaning is so simplistic and clear, if you desire greatness, you must fortify yourself to deal with the certainty of rejection.
Understand Your Motivation
With each sales call, each cold call, each planned presentation, your overall objective remains the same. You enter every selling situation with the ultimate goal of increasing company revenues and therefore, your paycheck. But it is amazing how quickly this goal can be abandoned in the face of adversity.
I have watched competent people walk away from jobs with six figure upsides because the harshness and frequency of rejection wore them down. I have also witnessed people lessening their productivity in an attempt to control the amount of rejection they must face even knowing the effects this is bound to have on their income and the safety of their jobs.
I have personally heard the words not interested more times than I could possibly count. But I managed to stay in the sales profession for longer than I ever believed I would. After many years and countless rejections, I can pinpoint the reason for my loyalty to sales. The sales profession is the greatest profession in the world.
Despite what you may have heard, the negativity, the stereotypes and the put downs, sales can in fact become the most rewarding and the most empowering profession youll ever have if you adopt the right mind frame.
Without a doubt, the most empowering facet of your sales profession is the power you hold over your income. Consider the positive implications of the direct impact your performance has on your paycheck. Unlike the customer service associate or accountant or shipping clerk sitting next to you, you decide how much you earn, how high your paycheck can get.
With this motivation in mind, rejection must become a mere pebble in your pathway to financial success.
Understand Their Motivation
Have you ever been rejected with a special dose of cruelty? Why is it, you may ask, that some people cant just say no. Why do they have to cut as deep as they possibly can with personal insults sure to stop your progress for the rest of the day? This question is not rhetorical, there is an actual answer.
For years I used to approach the same store manager at a well-known pharmaceutical chain with my best suit, a polished smile and great enthusiasm. This man would continually greet me with a cynical and depressed attitude. It took me a while to realize how much I must have bugged him with my optimism, my positive outlook and my request that he help me increase my income. No wonder he took such pleasure in telling me no with a hint of rudeness. There he was, stuck in a job he hated and doing nothing to about it and here I came in my fancy duds, riding high and looking for a great commission.
When you understand peoples motivations, you wield a great power. Does the man who tells you no, Im not interested, Im very busy, now go away and stop bothering me! actually do so because it was such an offense on his day for you take up five minutes of his time? No. He typically does it because he has not succeeded and he does not want you to succeed either. Why would a perfect stranger not want you to succeed? It is simple, your success would be a reminder of his failure.
Can you imagine my miserable store manager watching me pull up outside his store in a brand new, top of the line BMW and worse yet, knowing that commissions from his sales helped me buy it? Can you picture his reaction to hearing from a new sales rep that I had been promoted and given a much better territory, or an office and a sales team of my own to manage? Do you think he would be happy for me? Of course not.
When someone tells you no with a force designed to cripple your future efforts, you must not acquiesce. Consider them gatekeepers to the key of great accomplishments. When you railroad through them on a focused charge towards your reward-filled destination, you will earn your place among the very successful, all of whom jumped the same fences, never gave up and never got scared into walking away from the possibilities that a sales or entrepreneurial path can offer.
Put Things Into Perspective
Your mind is constantly playing game with you. You must become consciously aware of these games in order to control them. For example, my assistant recently tried to get some publicity in a regional business newspaper. The reporter she was talking with told her he was not interested but added an extra dose of rudeness for good measure. Her gut reaction was to stop pitching to avoid the possibility of another uncomfortable encounter.
But then she remembered that just one week earlier, she had pitched a columnist for the largest and most respected business magazine in the country and that pitch had been very well received. In fact, the busy columnist had thanked my assistant for calling and told her exactly when she should call back and that she was looking forward to hearing more.
Why was it that my assistant automatically forgot this earlier, more significant, encounter with a far more important publication in favor of the negative encounter with the entry level staff writer at a small local newspaper with nowhere near the influence and reach of the other publication? The answer¦it was a trick her mind was playing on her. She beat it by playing a trick of her own.
Among others, I teach a defense to rejection called reframing. When you reframe something, you change its meaning. When you change its meaning, you change the experience and your reaction to it.
Whenever the unpleasant encounter popped up in my assistants mind, she played the following reframing trick. The name of the small regional newspaper that turned her down appeared as though on a huge computer screen in 300 point type big enough to cast a shadow. Somewhere in the back of the screen, way out of focus was a name too small to read. After clicking a button on a PowerPoint presentation, the large and looming reminder of the unpleasant encounter shrunk way into the background with the small letters rushing to the front. Now taking up all visible space with letters as large as 300 point type and casting a majestic shadow was the name of the large, influential business magazine that had received her pitch with great enthusiasm. It was all she could think about, pushing the less significant negative encounter to the back of her mind.
We all instinctively play mind games with ourselves but most of the time, they work against us. When we walk away from challenges despite the surety of great rewards, when we focus on the negatives ignoring the positives right next to them we are playing a game that results in our missing out on the great opportunities that surround us. By understanding our motivations, understanding other peoples motivations and then paying attention to our reactions, we can build a defense system strong enough to push us through to the success that waits on the other side of defeat.
Alvin Day is a sales and personal empowerment coach. He is also author of the sales training book, Persuasion Power. Visit his website at www.AlvinDay.com
© MMVI Copyright by AlvinDay.com