Hello ladies, gents, cartoon animals, and others.
Big one when it comes to Sales and being successful. Learning how to deal with rejection. The rejection as a part of the game starts quite early.
The first rejection most often starts during the interview process. You will be hit with an obstacle once you try to break into the chosen role. Obstacle in the sense that you will get rejected. It’s normal.
Most do bomb the first few interviews. Why? Many reasons, but rarely it’s personal. It’s not because of what cologne you put on before the interview or because you didn’t go to the hairdresser that week (you should).
Sometimes another candidate gets lucky.
Let’s not make this intro part any longer than necessary. To be transparent if you get discouraged easily. Maybe sales are not the right path for you.
If you are still struggling and fighting on. Keep reading you are not alone.
You Should Not Take It Personally
As earlier mentioned above. One of the biggest mistakes in Sales you could make is to take the rejection personally. Because the rejection you are going to experience is everything but not personal.
Unfortunately, many can’t help themselves with it. Associating rejection with themselves and their perception. Not seeing the bigger picture it is.
What’s the big deal with someone hanging up the phone on you?
One of the reasons most take it to their heart is because of the amount of energy they are putting into it. Individuals take their cold outreach so seriously.
Putting all the unnecessary energy. Hyping themselves endlessly and ending up sounding like the squirrel on crack. You know how bad it sounds when you are nervous + energetic simultaneously…
The whole point is that it’s nothing more than picking the phone up or sending a few cold emails. Will it produce money if done right? Yes, it will. But the bigger picture is much larger than hitting your quota at the end of the day.
There is a reason why most associate rejection with negativity and take it personally. Think for a second about a few positive emotions and a few negative ones.
It’s psychological.
We all know that negative emotions and associations with them are much stronger than positive ones. Now put it into a sales perspective → most time, you will deal with rejection.
Creating sort of a negativity-based loop where you will be reinforcing yourself. Throw into the mix taking rejection, as mentioned above and you are in for the ride.
Rejection can only hurt you how much you let it hurt you. You will notice the more volume and work you put into it. The rejection part will be easier, plus you will end up with thicker skin.
One tip young guns should take into consideration
If you are yet to break into the sales role or looking to get into sales you have to set yourself up. Being clear and honest with yourself. You are going to experience loads of rejection along the way.
From your first week up to daily activities such as cold calling.
Can't stand it, or you are too emotional about rejection? Try to recognize it early.
Give yourself 6 - 12 months of working in sales. At that point, you should realize whether you are built to perform in sales or not.
Dealing With Rejection And Going Forward
So how does one deal with rejection?
One of the easiest ways to get out of feeling bad for yourself is to remind yourself most prospects will not even remember you 24 hours later. We all have our lives going on and things happening constantly. Meaning no one cares about you and your offer. Simple as that.
Remember the last time you got the cold call?
Probably you were not interested in their service. But that rejection was nothing personal. Not because the sales rep was a bad human being or was speaking too fast. Because their offer was not something you needed at that moment.
Did you think about it the next day? Most don’t even remember who call or how it went. Again repeating ourselves. Prospects are not holding anything against you.
What you could do is think for a moment about how blessed you are to be working from home. Doing outreach, booking meetings, and admin stuff while getting paid 70 - 80k out of college (at least). They all are huge benefits we take for granted.
No need to get any more motivational…
Understand rejection is a part of the game, and it will happen. Especially if you are a young SDR hitting cold outreach daily (which you should).
Most will not do what we have recommended above. Being transparent and honest with themselves in the first place. Most don’t cope with the reaction well, and in the end, they blame it on themselves.
You are guaranteed burnout in the long run.
One of those? We understand sales are not for everyone. You would be better off going the coding route. Another amazing path where your life quality could be even better than in sales. More on that in later articles.
Planning to stay in sales → one of your priorities should be to separate rejection from the association of being a personal one. To finish off?
Your best would be to become emotionless to rejection.
Will make your outreach easy and help you eliminate your self-beliefs. It’s not easy, but you will have to “practice”.
For some individuals comes with experience for others it never comes. Like with everything, it will come down to learning to play your strengths and discovering your capabilities.
An additional material that could help you understand some points.
Trying to find email addresses for your cold outreach? Findymail - affiliate
Trying to break into Tech Sales? Break Into SaaS - affiliate