Hacking Sales Rejection in 4 steps

It’s inevitable and it’s personal but you can get over it

I hate people saying no.

You’d think I’d be used to it by now, I’ve been selling in one way or another, since I was 9 years old. That’s decades of people saying no — rejecting the services I was selling, the ideas I was proposing, the products I was flogging… no always sounds the same.

No matter the tone, no matter the words — no always sucks.

And yet “no” is an inevitable part of sales and sales is an inevitable part of growing a business — especially when that business is revenue first.

I’ve been fascinated in the few years I’ve been building Blackbullion by how few founders have sales experience. This has led me to conclude that there are two types of founders; Product-first founders who are supply-side oriented and obsessed with product and engineering. Sales is a series-B problem.

And then there are commercial-first founders who are obsessed with the demand side — distribution, sales and cracking the business model.

The best tech rarely wins, the best business models do (certainly in the long term). Because if the growth model is fashion the revenue model is the little black dress.

And with headwinds coming, and sales models featuring more heavily in investors’ expectations, becoming proficient, if not expert, in sales is no longer optional.

And with sales comes…. Rejection. So 4 hacks for surviving the inevitable;

Expect it

If you know it’s coming it will be less of a blow. That’s not to say you should expect deals you were expecting to fall through — rather it’s a lesson in judging your pipeline accurately.

Where are you at in the sales cycle of prospects? What is at the top of their mind right now? If you aren’t priority one or two chances are you’ve missed the boat.

How can you make sure your business is a good fit for the prospect and that the prospect is a good fit for your business

You’ll encounter more rejection than you will encounter approvals so the rejection that happens should be expected or at least unsurprising. Learn to read (and fill) your pipeline so that when that “no” comes it’s not the end of the road

Take it personally

The idea that you shouldn’t take rejection personally is the biggest piece of crap “advice” in sales. Someone saying no is personal. Though of course none of the reasons really are; the timing could be off, the price could be too high, or worst of all, the need isn’t there.

So if you do take is personally, don’t get emotional. Listen. Because only that way will you discover if it’s an…

Objection or a Rejection

There is a big difference! An objection can be overcome — a rejection is a “piss off”. So knowing when to walk away and when to find a way is a critical skill if you are going to get good at this.

Objections are usually hurdles the buyer wants you to overcome — but you need to work out what they are. If you are good at what you do, and are treating the process as a relationship (not a one night stand) then

Rejections are a “NO” and the more you push the dumber you’ll look.

Learn what you can learn

However, if “no” is the final answer, you can still use it as an opportunity to ask for feedback in order to analyse and adjust your process for the future.

When I started my formal sales career I was selling conferences — you know those crazy, overpriced events where you network and learn some stuff? I was the person on the phone, hoping you’d come along. My first ever conference was on Carbon Trading, my last in that job on military communication.

I always sold because my driving force was to work out what people could benefit from what I was selling and then establish what the person at the other end of the line was looking for. And there was always a line, a soundbite, a fact, something that would get someone excited enough to hear more.

It was my job to put the right people together with the right patter.

The right patter makes the sale and the only way to get there is by carving the right patter out of the wrong one!

That’s impossible if you don’t listen

So Stay Motivated

Staying motivated in the face of no-after-no is hard. Especially true in the case of enterprise sales when conversions are rare and your income depends on getting yeses.

But the longer a rejection knocks you off your game the more you lose.

When I ran my first sales team I’d give $5 to my people who would be back on the phone within 10 minutes of losing a sale. Like all things in life the faster you get back to “normal” the faster the pain disappears.

If you set short and long-term goals and don’t let your last conversation determine your next then the rejections will keep coming but so will the successes