“Fear of rejection” is talked and written about every single day in the selling universe, but there are two concepts mentioned in that one short 3-word phrase. “Rejection” is an event, and like a single bee sting it is over as quickly as it began. On the other hand, “fear” is, “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is likely to cause pain.” Listen to this:
In the summer of 1950, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., renowned publisher, turned down the English-language rights to a Dutch manuscript after receiving a particularly harsh reader’s report. The work was “very dull,” the reader insisted, “a dreary record of typical family bickering, petty annoyances and adolescent emotions.” Sales would be poor because the main characters were neither familiar to Americans nor especially appealing. “Even if the work had come to light five years ago, when the subject was timely,” the reader wrote, “I don’t see that there would have been a chance for it.”
Knopf wasn’t alone. “The Diary of a Young Girl,” by Anne Frank would be rejected by 15 other companies before Doubleday published it in 1952. More than 30 million copies are currently in print, making it one of the best-selling books in history.
These two paragraphs should point out the differences outlined in the opening. If the editor of the manuscript had succumbed to “fear”, he would have quit trying for publication after the original turndown by Knopf, Inc. But what he experienced and endured was “rejection”…16 times! Remember, even a blind squirrel will eventually find an acorn.
Shifting gears to the world of sales, I don’t have to tell you that you will never receive enough company sales leads to be able to avoid having to perform a certain amount of cold calling to create the balance of leads necessary to achieve your mandated sales budget. Sure, you will experience a lot of rejection by those who don’t need or want what you are selling, and your will certainly have some anxiety and nervousness, or fear about making those calls and visits. Rejection will naturally decrease as your communication skills improve as a result of improved execution and increased repetition.
Professional speaker, author, and thought leader Brian Tracy suggests a simple technique that he named, “100 Calls Method” to banish the fear. He says you simply resolve to make 100 sales calls as quickly as possible. Some would be phone calls, some in-person visits. Additionally, Tracy suggests you combine this activity with a decision not to care at all whether the people end up buying.
It doesn’t matter whether they respond in a positive or negative manner. Your goal is simply to make 100 sales calls as quickly as you possibly can. If you make 10 sales calls per day, you accomplish your goal within two weeks. If you make 15 calls a day, you achieve your goal of 100 sales calls in less than two weeks. I think you get this works.
Tracy says what ends up happening is that when you don’t care whether or not you make a sale, most of your fear disappears as you develop a sense of emotional detachment that allows you to remain calm and positive, regardless of what anyone says. You will begin to treat it as a game, wondering how many people you can touch and talk to, and how fast can you do it.
A great byproduct of this activity is that by making 100 sales calls as quickly as possible, with no concern about whether or not people are interested; is that you actually begin to uncover some good prospects and start to make some appointments that will naturally lead to sales. By itself, this process will decrease your fear which was the objective from the beginning.
—————————–Bucket List Revelation——————————————————————————–
In the year 2000, Doug made the following entry on his bucket list: Write a book for sales people that would help them improve their face to face communication skills in order to sell increase their sales while sounding and appearing less “salesy.” In 2012 Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word was published. See the Table of Contents and several FREE previews here.
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