| NO!--Bring It On! |
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Too Many "No's"? Let's face it. There isn't a person on the planet who wakes up in the morning and says, "Hot dog! Today I get to hear rejection all day!"
In fact, most of us don't wake up in the morning and say, "Hot diggity! Today I am going to go into the sales profession!" So what's the difference? Many of us never thought we'd end up in sales. Sure, we thought "finance", "health care", "computers", "biomed", and a thousand other disciplines--most of those paths leading us into SALES.If we're in sales, we're in the rejection business, too. How do you feel when you hear "no"? Does it discourage you, bum you out, or cause you to go back to bed with a pillow over your head until every prospect goes home and the lights are turned out in their offices? Do you ever find yourself looking for that "happy place"? Where you are working the deal and the customer is eating out of your hand--at list price? Well, enjoy your fantasy. This is a "No-World" we're living in. And you may think I've gone completely over the edge this time, but the reality is, I kinda like it. Hearing "no" is motivating to me. Hearing "no" forces me to be creative. To think of all the ways I can get the customer to say, "Yes". That's a "yes" to something. Anything. Let's take last week, for example. I made my sales calls. All over the phone. One prospect said, "Renee, thanks for calling, but we spent all of our training dollars in April. We're shot for the year." I'm sure he thought I'd hang up. What kind of a quitter does he think I am, I smiled into the phone. "Really. So, Jim, what did you do with your budget?" I waited. He replied, "Well, we spent 100 grand taking our salespeople to Europe for top-notch sales training." I was thinking that 100k in this economy is a pretty sizable budget. He thought I was ready to go. But, no, I had another question. "Jim, when you have new budget money for 2010, what will you need for the salespeople?" He had plenty to say. I took notes. Then, I booked a Q4 phone call with him to talk about next year. Then I called a not-so-active former client. He said, "Great to hear from you, Renee, but our business is off and we're not doing any training right now." All I said was, "Oh?" Then, he invited me to lunch on his dime. We went to lunch. As we were sipping our last few drops of iced tea, he began to tell me what he needs for Q1 and how much he'll have to get the training done the way he wants. You see, it wasn't really a no. It was a "later". Next, I contacted an old client. His job has changed, so he gave me a lead to call someone else in their firm. I did. His job has changed. He's swamped. They have all sorts of highly technical initiatives they're implementing for certification. There's no TIME for sales/communication skills training. But, boy, do they need it. When can I send him a proposal, he asked? You see, a "no" may just mean "not now". I'm OK with that. Because the future is certain. I know that when I wake up in the morning, every morning, that I'm happy to be in sales. I also know that there will be rejection. The "no's" are strangely enough, what charge me up. I like the challenge. I get excited about the prospect of moving a NO WAY to a check with lots of zeros. It's fun. And that is why I love sales. You start turning those rejection comments into opportunities. If the business won't come in for you to meet this month's quota, so what. Hang in there and you will convert more business later. Most of what I'm closing now was a "no" a month or two ago and I'm charged up about it. We're working on a new edition of "Selling to Anyone Over the Phone" and are quoting clients., If you have a technique that you're using to convert more "no's" into "yep's", send me your ideas to:
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You just may end up in our new book! (c)Renee Walkup, All rights reserved, www.salespeak.com, 678 587-9911 |
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