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 Embracing Rejection - 6 Strategies to
Successful SalesBy Illiki Rai - Publisher of Rising Women Magazine Fact: When operating your own business, you are subject to becoming a professional in many areas, including sales. Fact: Selling is one of the hardest professions to become accomplished in as it relies heavily on your confidence when dealing with an eclectic pallet of people. Fact: One of the quickest ways to destroy self-confidence is rejection. Why? Because it is human nature to view rejection as a personal failure, thus we become fearful of it. Rejection is however, as many professional sales experts stress time and time again, a window of opportunity when performing sales. Following are six strategies for turning rejection into promising accounts: 1) View Rejection as a Reward of Time. Although you may not be able to change some emotional repercussion of rejection, you can change how you view it. For instance, generally sales are based on numbers; the more contacts you make, the more likely you land a sale. If you were to consider each rejection as an opportunity to move on to a fresh new lead, you will instantly reduce your fear of cold calling. View rejection as a sport similar to fishing if you will; every fish you put back awards more time for you to pursue a bigger fish. Power Strategy: Always end the conservation courteously and with a ‘feel good’ statement: “Thank you very much Mrs. X for your time. I respect your decision and appreciate your immediate response. It shows me that you value my time as much as I value yours...” 2) View Rejection as a Training Field. Henry Ford said, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” By viewing rejection in this context, you turn it into a tool to help you improve your approach with future sales. Most often when we are prospecting, we are concentrating on one particular industry at a time. In sales, listening is key because nine times out of ten what the prospect is saying is not what they mean. If you were to clearly listen to the needs of each prospect you converse with, you will be able to pinpoint specific needs that are a concern within that industry. Taking this new found knowledge one step further, include in your next conversation with a new prospect that you understand that this ‘need’ is a concern within their industry and you have a solution. Power Strategy: Let’s say you contacted three prospects and each of them rejected you because of timing. Begin your conversation with the next prospect by stating, “Hello, Mrs. X, I am aware that your company requires ______ this upcoming season. I specialize in _______. I am calling you to let you know that we have a special right now where if you book in advance, you will receive ____% off and a three month payment plan...” Not only have you taken care of rejection due to timing, you have offered a solution to price! 3) View Rejection as a Presentation Critique. Prospects base their buying decisions on many factors, and your presentation of yourself and your product/service makes a huge impact. A powerful strategy to assist you in fine-tuning your presentation is to write down each objection. By doing this you will reveal a list of the most common objections you receive, and give you a clear understanding of what aspects in your presentation need to be adjusted. Power Strategy: Beside each objection write down a solution. Review it often. It will help you to create a ‘script’ that you can use whenever the objection comes up again in conservation. Also, reiterating what the prospect stated after their rejection will help you to determine what they truly mean. For example: “Just to clarify Mrs. X, it is my understanding that you are not interested in my product/service because of my price. Is this correct?” (Mrs. X) “No, the price is reasonable, it’s just that I have not prepared my budget for the spring season...” (Your chance to save the sale revealed - price is not the issue!) 4) View Rejection as an Opportunity. Consider each contact you make as a path to a better sale. You have already spent the time to develop a relationship with the prospect by learning about them and sharing information about yourself. This is an ideal time to ask for a referral. It is human nature to help one another in most cases, so don’t be afraid to ask. Power Strategy: End the conservation like this: “Thank you for your time, Mrs. X, and your honesty. I appreciate you for being upfront. If you don’t mind me asking, now that you are familiar with what I have to offer, perhaps you know of another company that could use my product/services?” 5) View Rejection as a Window to a Future Relationship. Asking for a referral is a strong sales practice and offering one is just as powerful. Simply by conversing with a prospect, whether they are interested in your product/service or not, builds a pathway for future business related communication. Pursue keeping a window open for future contact by offering referrals to them. Remember repetitive contact builds rapport. Power Strategy: End the conversation like this: “Thank you for your time, Mrs. X, I understand your position. Perhaps I can support your business another way. I am in contact with many different companies daily, is there any type of product/service that you are in need of? If I run across one that is of interest to you, I will contact you with their information.” 6) View Rejection as a Confidence Builder. The more we are subject to a certain situation, the more we become familiar and comfortable with it. This is also the case with rejection. It is important to recognize that not everybody is going to see the value in your product/service, and each of his or her objections may vary. Embrace it, don’t take it personally, and arm yourself with experience the next time you pick up the phone or walk into a sales meeting. Illiki Rai, publisher of Rising Women & aspiring Sales Professional thanks to Alice Wheaton - www.alicewheaton.com Illiki may be reached at 403.228.7874 & don’t be surprised if you find yourself buying something from her!! publisher@risingwomen.com |