How I Learned to Handle Sales Rejection

In a previous post, I wrote about Handling Rejection in Sales: When “No” Is A Good Thing. I believe that getting a “No” in sales can be a great thing for a salesman (or woman) by allowing them to move onto to another prospect that they can help. Also, no isn’t forever, it’s just for right now.

Work in sales long enough and you’ll eventually get a call back later from your prospect saying, ”It’s time!”

That said, hearing the word “No” is still not easy to handle for most especially for those who are early in the sales careers. If you are going to make a career in sales, you are going to have to get comfortable with receiving the word no.

I thought it made sense to ask some of our Acquirent teammates on how they handle no. The following are some great comments and feedback from our team on their thoughts on how to handle getting the “No” in sales.

HOW I HANDLE “NO” AS A SALESPERSON

“Tell the story about me and Jennie.” – Jeff Purtell

Jennie is Jeff’s wife, but unfortunately we don’t have enough time to tell that doozy, but talk about a story of perseverance and not taking “No” for an answer!!!

“The best way I’ve handled rejection is to focus on my victories. Every time I get rejected and negative thoughts creep into my mind I make it a point to remember my most recent sales success. It helps me to overcome the rejection, focus on positive results and maintain a positive attitude. In other words, mentally flip the negative into a positive.” – Nick Hogren

“I have learned to handle rejection by being honest about it. I’ve had to learn the hard way that rejection can weigh me down like an anchor if I don’t properly manage the way that I react to it. After all, I wouldn’t try to swallow a strip steak without chewing it first! This is all to say that by allowing myself the natural side effects of being human, I am able to take ownership over the way that I react to rejections instead of letting my reactions taking ownership of me. “ – Brett Merle

Personally I have dealt with rejection all my life. I am not going to insert a joke referring to my past dating life…. Purtell has that one covered!

My rejection started early as I got heavily into sports at a young age. As a wrestler, when I lost I had no one else to blame but myself. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I looked at it as a learning experience and grew and got stronger from the experience. Those lessons learned in athletics bleed over to my sales career.

Rejection in sales is inevitable. How are you going to deal with it?

Happy Selling!