Sales is a rejection profession but we salespeople do everything possible to avoid it.
Nobody fails more than salespeople — not even baseball players, where a 70% failure rate is considered exceptional. And yet, we salespeople go to great lengths to avoid being “no” by our prospective customers. We don’t call them proactively. We don’t ask for the business.
Because we don’t want to be told no.
Here’s the thing: if you’re in sales, and you’re not hearing “no” a lot — you’re probably not hearing “yes” very much either.
The reason is that if you are getting many rejections, I know you are trying to sell…frequently, and correctly.
But if you tell me you rarely or never hear the word no, I know immediately that you are not out there trying to sell very much.
Every no bring us closer to the next yes.
So here is a way to reframe our fear and avoidance of rejection:
Chase the rejections.
Every one is valuable.
Every one brings you closer to next yes.
Consider them a success.
Hearing no is critical to our success.
Consider them incremental wins, each of which bring you closer to the ultimate win: the sale!
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