THE biggest myth in selling is that salespeople quit or fail because they ‘fear rejection’.
Give me a break; fear of rejection is totally bogus.
Managers and sales trainers try to smooth it over by telling you: ‘They’re not rejecting you. They’re just rejecting the offer you made them’.
Rubbish. People reject both people and offers.
The myth is: Salespeople don’t like to cold call because they fear rejection. Hey Sparky, salespeople don’t like to cold call because it’s the least effective method of selling.
The truth is: Salespeople aren’t in fear. They’re vibrant people who make the economy run. As Red Motley said in 1946 : ‘Nothing happens until somebody sells something’.
Fear of rejection is an easy way for sales managers and leaders to explain why their turnover is high. ‘Bob quit because he feared rejection’. Really? I doubt it. Bob quit because your leadership is weak and your soft skills training are weaker.
Fear of rejection and its evil twin fear of failure are best described as excuses. What you’re looking for, as a would-be successful salesperson, are reasons and answers why a sale does not take place.
So what (other than fear) are the 10.5 reasons rejection takes place? And how can you decrease your rejection rate? Read on ...
1. Lack of attitude. Not just lack of a positive attitude, but also the lack of a winning attitude.
2. Lack of preparation in terms of the customer. You may know what you offer, but you may not know what the customer wants, or (more importantly) why he wants it.
3. Lack of belief. Belief is the most important and most complex, yet least understood emotion in the science of selling. Belief is broken down into five parts.
Part 1: You have to believe you work for the greatest company in the world. Part 2: You have to believe that your products and service offerings are the greatest in the world. Part 3: You have to believe you can differentiate yourself from the customer in a manner that the customer perceives as valuable. Part 4: You have to believe you’re a great salesperson capable of transferring a message and understanding customer needs. Part 5: You have to believe that the customer is better off having bought from you. Not believing it in your head. Rather, believing it in your heart. Belief is both painfully obvious and completely ignored when teaching salespeople how to be successful.
4. Lack of sales skills. Since most companies provide poor sales training, it’s the responsibility of the salesperson to gain their own knowledge by investing in books, seminars, online courses, and all other means to gain sales wisdom, not just sales knowledge. Caution: Do not learn a ‘system’ of selling. Sell in a way that makes you feel comfortable.
5. Lack of personal self-confidence. Self-confidence and preparation go hand-in-hand. It’s amazing to me that salespeople think they’re nervous when actually they’re just unprepared.
6. Lack of resilience. This is a key element in the rejection-failure syndrome. Resilience is your inner strength to react to what happens to you, your outer strength and mental strength to respond to what happens to you, and all your strength to recover from what happens to you. Building resilience wipes away fear.
7. Lack of personal pride in your work. Lack of attention to detail. Consistent lateness. Missed appointments. Cynical comments.
8. Lack of personal pride in yourself. This will be a direct reflection of the pride that you have in yourself and your performance. Think back to the time you made your biggest sale, and recall that memory and that feeling each time you’re in a sales presentation.
9. Limiting self-thought. (I’m not good enough.) Most self-thought comes from the negative side, worried about what might happen versus dedicating yourself to changing the outcome. If you walk into the sale believing it probably won’t happen, or you probably won’t get it, then you’re probably correct. If you want to change your outcomes, you have to change your thinking.
10. Low self-esteem. Someone told you that you’re not that good, or not that smart, and you (like a fool) believed them.
10.5 Limited self-image. You don’t consider yourself equal to the buyer, or good enough to sell the buyer.
Fear of rejection? Totally false. Fear of failure? Equally false.
Avoid people who espouse these false fears.
