Here is a short excerpt from my upcoming book — just completed and submitted to my publisher Wiley — about the definition of perseverance:
A good definition of perseverance in sales is to continue to try to help customers in the midst of failure or rejection.
Let’s look at the components of this definition:
To continue to try means to keep going. Keep working. Keep making multiple efforts.
To help customers is a very important way to think about what we do as salespeople. Think of your work as helping, not selling. Because that is what you’re doing: helping so much. This small mindset shift makes it easier not only to persevere but also to do our work.
In the midst of failure or rejection means we have to keep doing the right things even when they are not succeeding. In fact, we must continue to try during failure and rejection.
Why is perseverance such an effective tool in our work?
Because more than anything else, our work is defined by dealing with rejection and overcoming it.
And, by necessary extension, success in sales demands that we apply perseverance in our thinking and our actions to overcome rejection.
Nobody gets rejected more than salespeople.
In baseball, you go to the Hall of Fame if you fail 70% of the time. A .300 hitter is among the best in the game.
In sales, we fail more than that.
In fact, a 10–20% success rate in business-to-business sales is among the very best in the business.
Which means nobody fails more than us.
Nobody gets told no more than us.
Nobody gets ghosted more than us.
People go silent and stop communicating with us all the time.
Every day, if you’re doing it right.
Which is why we must continue to try to help people, in the face of this rejection.
That’s the only way to succeed in sales.