Embrace Rejection - Every No Puts You Closer to A Yes
The last two weeks I have been waiting for an answer from a
potential client on a large piece of business. While playing the
waiting game I have been thinking a lot about the sales process.
I realized I have not been turned down much lately. Before I got
too excited I also realized I had not been asking for the
business much lately either. My excuse was I had been busy with
speaking, coaching and writing assignments and had taken my
attention off generating new business. Ask yourself, are you
asking for the business often enough? Are you too busy
delivering your product or service this month that you have not
been thinking about what business you will bring in next month?
If this rings true for you that would be about normal. Being
busy is an excuse. The truth is it is easier to stay busy with
any project than risk rejection. The biggest reason we do not
ask for business, try to close the sale, or insist on taking an
order, is because we do not want to be rejected. Especially if
what you are selling is you. Think about it, you can sell 100
raffle tickets for your child's school, sell chocolate bars for
your church, or ask people to write a check for a good cause,
but when it comes to asking people to give you a check, a big
check how do you do?
Often we do not ask because we project in our mind that the
answer will be no, and for most people our biggest fear is
rejection. Sure, it can be scary to get turned down. Here is an
important secret though, the more you do it the easier it gets,
and the less scary. To be successful we have to embrace
rejection, know it is a part of the process of getting what we
want, it must not be avoided instead it must be sought out.
This is not easy to do, in business there is always plenty to
keep us busy or shall I say plenty to distract us from what is
one of the most important aspects of business- selling. Instead
of selling people will do just about anything, schedule
meetings, organize their desk, respond to emails, take a longer
lunch, go to a networking event, even write articles. While all
these things are helpful to the success of any business they are
less of a priority than the task of selling. Selling, let us
define for our purposes as the process of qualifying prospective
clients, identifying their needs, presenting our product to them
and closing the business. This process must be completed with
each potential client for any selling to be successful. To stop
anywhere in the process is a waste of time.
Being successful in business is the result of finding enough of
the right people and asking them to buy the products and or
services they need from you. If you are not asking you can not
get agreement to provide them with products or services.
If you realize that every no is closer to a yes and you are
ready to embrace rejection, here are some things to do to help
you start asking more.
o Write down or review your annual and quarterly income goals.
Break that down further into monthly income goals.
o Then decide how many houses, policies, hours or consulting,
cars or whatever, you have to sell each month to achieve that
goal.
o Decide what is your Prospect to Client Ratio, ie: on average
how many people do you have to ask for the business before you
get a yes. In most cases depending on your product service and
industry you may have to offer the opportunity to between seven
to 25 or more people before you someone actually says yes and
gives you an order.
o Once you know your Prospect to Client Ratio, you can calculate
how many qualified prospective clients you have to ask for the
business every week to achieve your goals.
For example if you need 5 sales a week and you have to ask 25
people on average before one person agrees to buy then you have
to ask 25 people 5 days a week to buy.
When you do these calculations the number of people you must ask
for the business could be up to five times greater than what you
are doing currently. Do not be discouraged. Sales is like any
business skill and like any muscle in your body, it takes time
to develop and strengthen. If you hold steadfast to your goal
and figure out how to generate the necessary number of prospects
coming through your sales pipeline, eventually you will find it
workable to meet with the number of prospects you need to
achieve your goal.
Once you are asking enough people every week for the business,
the next thing to look at is how are you asking. Are you asking
timidly, can your prospects hear fear in your voice or do you
convey confidence and enthusiasm when you speak to your
potential clients? I hope you do the latter. Even if you are
making 100 sales calls a day if you are conveying anger,
confusion or frustration in your voice no one will say yes. You
must make your calls with enthusiasm and confidence.
The only way to meet your goals is to successfully ask for the
business as often as you can. Do not worry about who says no and
who says yes, if you ask enough people you will definitely get
some yeses. Focus on your goal, making your predetermined number
of sales. When someone turns you down do not dwell on it, that
depletes your energy and your self-esteem and makes it harder to
ask the next time.
At one of my recent public speaking workshops a participant gave
me a page from a calendar that said on it "Hurrah, I did the
thing I feared the most. Excuse me while I cheer. Now here I
stand a stronger soul and all I've lost is fear. " Embrace
rejection, remember every no is closer to a yes and you will
gain more success for yourself and all you will have lost is
fear.