By Jim Connolly
To successfully grow a business or achieve sales success, you must learn how to handle rejection. Rejection is something that can hurt even the toughest of people; unless they know how to handle that rejection. That’s what this blog post is all about - how to handle rejection!
None of us like to feel rejected!
So, what do we do? We avoid situations where we are likely to encounter rejection. Makes sense doesn’t it?
Well, not if you are in sales or responsible for growing a business!
I am yet to discover a way to increase business without encountering some rejection. Not everyone you speak with is going to want to buy your product or service. Not everyone you write to advertise to is going to want to respond to your offer. However, the only way to locate those that DO want to spend their money with you and your business, is to ‘prospect’ regularly - and that means leaving yourself open to rejection.
Prospecting
The term prospect, is borrowed from the original gold prospectors; who would head off with their sieve and ‘prospect‘ through gravel and soil until they struck gold. They knew that in order to find a nugget of pure gold, they would have to sieve through a lot of rubble first. A prospector who was not prepared to sieve through enough rubble, was never going to make it rich.
How do you feel about prospecting; making the ‘phone calls, attending the meetings, writing the emails or letters etc?
If you are responsible for generating new business, your attitude to prospecting and the sales process will literally determine how far you can go - it really is that important! One of the best ways to deal with the rejection that comes from prospecting is to understand that in order for you to gain a client; you must first gain some rejections. See each rejection as an indicator that you are being active enough to start getting some “yes’s”. Now, I am assuming that you already know all about your service or product AND that you have developed the very simple, basic negotiating skills required to make a sale.
If business is quiet for you right now, stop blaming the time of year and the economy, get off your bottom and make something happen RIGHT NOW! Pick up your phone and call someone who has either the potential to be a client or the potential to introduce you to a client (or 500 clients). Send out a great marketing email to the people on your email list (you do have an email list don’t you?) Get new products or services, which you can sell to existing clients and call or write to them with an irresistible offer - but do something NOW!
In business, YOU are always the master of your own destiny!
There are legions of people, right now, DESPERATE for your product or service. YOU simply need to get a few more ‘No’s’ in your ear and you can achieve anything you want! Place rejection in it’s rightful place and learn to accept it as a valuable part of the sales and marketing process.
If you found this useful, there are dozens of other free articles, guides and even a free audio program on my main website: www.jimconnolly.com
Filed under: Business development, Marketing, personal development, small business | Tagged: Marketing, prospecting, rejected, rejection, sales, small business
