Dealing with REJECTION in Sales

by Dave Kahle

Q.  Here’s an issue that I confront with my salespeople all of the time.  They are afraid to press for the next step, because they don’t want to experience the rejection of hearing a “NO.”  So, they try to keep the sale alive by not asking for resolution.  This keeps them involved with customers who aren’t interested and prevents them from moving on.  Any thoughts?

           A.  Great question.  There are two issues here.  First, dealing with the sense of rejection that very often comes with hearing a “no,” and, second, pushing for a resolution so that you don’t waste time with people who aren’t going to say “yes.”

           Let’s deal with each of these issues. First, the sense of rejection. Very few salespeople have such thick skin that hearing a “no” doesn’t bother them at all.  On the other hand, having people say “no” to you is a regular part of the job.  Given these two realities, which means that every professional salesperson, if he is committed to a career in sales, has to develop a strategy for dealing with the continuous stream of “nos” that comes with the job.

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  I’m not sure this is a training issue.  I think it is a self-management challenge, in that, regardless of how sensitive and impacted a salesperson is by hearing “no”, he/she still must develop his own means of handling it.  Every salesperson can have a different strategy, but it is important that they do have a strategy.

           It sounds like your guys haven’t developed their strategies.  I suspect that they have never really thought about it.  If that’s the case, then you have a role to play in helping them identify the issue and develop self-management strategies to cope with it. 

           You may want to bring these issues up with your sales force in a frank discussion at a sales meeting.  It should go like this:

           *  Hearing “no” is a regular part of the job of the salesperson.

           *  If you expect to be a salesperson, you will hear a lot of “nos.”

           *  You cannot allow yourself to be affected ... CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE