When you hear about your competition falling down on the job and providing poor service, isn't it tempting to want to tell everyone on your prospect list?

Most sales people agree that you don't knock your competition, but some how sales people keep doing it, and even get dragged into it by the unsatisfied customer.

We all know that Mud Slinging is not a professional thing to do, and here is an even more important sales reason not to do it. When you start talking negatively about your competitors, the prospect immediately starts to think about the positive attributes of your competitor.

It may be your best approach when a prospect starts knocking the competition is to not understand him. You may want to suggest that ABC company has been around for some time and you thought they were pretty good. You may want to ask, “What’s the problem?”

Typically the prospect will give you details of his dissatisfaction with the competition. This allows the prospect to reflect on the competition’s weaknesses but more important, it will tell you what the prospect’s expectations are of you.

Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or view his website at www.glennon.sandler.com

Have you ever lost a sale?

Did you take it personally and walk around thinking and feeling like a failure for awhile?

The bad news is that failures will probably continue to happen in your life.

The good news is that you can choose to see your failures as opportunities from which to learn.

If you failed at a goal, a task, a sale, or anything else in your life, know that you as a person did not fail. You, the person, are made up of your character, and you, the role, is the role you are committed to (mother, father, teacher, friend). You as a person do not fail, but you in a certain role might not succeed at everything you try.

The real you is defined by your self-identity, and maintained by your sense of self-worth. For example, you might be determined, have integrity, follow your heart, or listen well.

The role "you" is defined by your performance in a specific role, and sometimes those roles can be confused with the real you (for instance, as a spouse, a parent, a coach, or a salesperson). Even though you might not always exceed expectations in those roles, that doesn't devalue your self-worth.

Even if you might acknowledge this reality intellectually, it can be a lot harder to accept it emotionally. So before you can learn from your failures, first, you need to learn how to fail. Or rather, how to react when you inevitably do fail, by putting the situation in perspective.

Not meeting an expectation or goal does give you the chance to define where there's room for improvement.

As a salesperson, this means that not getting an appointment or closing a sale does not mean you have failed, it just means you have room to improve your sales approach.

To stop taking failures personally, begin to try to think about them objectively. If this happened to someone else, while you would sympathize, you would also likely give advice on how to do better next time. Do the same for yourself. Analyze your approach, the behavior of your prospective(s) during conversations, and the decision-making moments. Think about changes you can make that might bring different reactions each step of the way.

You will know when you have learned to accept failure as a necessary step in improving your skills, rather than taking it personally, when you start thinking about each situation as a lesson to learn from.

Once you realize that you as a person have not failed, you can come to terms with your results and begin to use them to accelerate your success.

Recognizing failure as an experience to learn from gives you freedom to try new methods, explore different creative options, and make goals outside of your comfort zone.

Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com

There’s no getting around it…rejection is part of the selling experience.

Photo: Contributed

Not every prospect you contact will want to talk to you. Not all of those who do talk to you will have enough interest in your product or service to grant you an appointment. Not all of those who do grant you an appointment will buy from you.

There’s nothing you can do about it.

While you can’t eliminate experiencing rejection, you can learn to deal with it. And, you can learn to overcome your fear of it. But first, you must identify what it is that you’re afraid of. Is it failure?

Everybody fails at something…at many things. Failure is simply part of the human experience.

And, success rarely comes without accompanying failures. Often, the greater the success, the greater the number of failures encountered along the way. Record-setting home-run hitters, for example, also have their share of strikeouts. Super Bowl Champion quarterbacks throw more incomplete passes than completed ones. Grammy winning songwriters write numerous songs before one hits the charts, much less makes it into the top 10. In almost any endeavour, including professional sales, failure is just another stepping stone on the path to success.

You may never completely eliminate your fear of rejection, but, you can certainly learn to deal with it and minimize its negative effects.

How?

Put it in perspective. Rejection lasts but a moment, and then it’s over. Let it go! Dwelling on the disappointing experience serves no purpose other than to dampen your enthusiasm for meeting the next challenge. If a cold call uncovered a prospect who was interested in your service and was eager to meet with you, you would likely be enthusiastic about making your next cold call. Should you be any less enthusiastic about making a subsequent call if the prospect had no interest? Of course not. There is no causal relationship between the two events. Each new challenge is just that…a new challenge.

Examine your self-talk. What do you tell yourself when you experience rejection? Are you telling yourself something like, “Nobody will listen to me” or “I’ll never be any good at this”? Blaming yourself for someone else’s thoughts and actions—lack of interest or inability to see the value in what you have to offer, for example—is counterproductive. Before you start “talking to yourself,” take a step back and analyze the situation from an objective position. Then, re-frame your self-talk to something more positive. After an unsuccessful attempt to stimulate a prospect’s interest, for instance, rather than telling yourself, “Prospecting is a waste of time,” tell yourself, “I’m glad I didn’t waste my time with someone who isn’t qualified to become a customer.”

Analyze your actions. Rejection may be unpleasant, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from it. Sometimes, the rejection you’re experiencing is a warning sign…an indicator of your need to change your approach, perhaps. Make sure that you are thoroughly prepared when you call on prospects and customers. Being thoroughly knowledgeable about how your product or service addresses their challenges, needs, and goals will reduce the chances of being rejected.

Understand your needs. David Sandler warned against using “selling” as an activity for getting your emotional needs met. You are much more susceptible to the fear of rejection if the objective of your interaction with your prospects and customers is to obtain their approval rather than their business. You must recognize that your self-esteem is not tied to your sales performance. It’s not tied to the number of appointments you schedule or the number of sales you close. You’ll have some good days; you’ll have some not-so-good days. Regardless, at the end of the day, your self-esteem is still intact.

Rejection is simply part of the sales game. Sometimes you have good experiences, sometimes you don’t. It’s not the experience that’s important. It’s how you think about it and how you react to it that determines if rejection holds you back or pushes you toward success.

Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com

In The Art of War, Sun-tzu wrote, "The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities…It is best to win without fighting." The same holds true in the "art of sales." Even though the prospect is not always right, he or she is the judge and jury. So, how do you respond when you are under attack - being reprimanded for something, rightfully or wrongfully? Rather than stand your ground and attempt to explain, justify,or defend your position, fall back.

For example, your company missed a promised shipment date and the customer called to let you know how upset he is. Rather than try to explain about the trucking company's delay, which was out of your control, you could fall back. Here is what that sounds like: "Bill, I know that you must be upset about the order arriving a day late. And, I'm sure it wouldn't do any good to try to explain what happened. I don't know if you've issued a 'shoot on sight' order, or if I should show up in your lobby, but I would imagine that you've made up your mind never to do business with our company again. Would that be a fair statement?"

It's hard to fight with someone who surrenders up front. In this case, the customer would likely reaffirm his displeasure about the late shipment, but would just as likely back away from "never" doing business with your company. He might even ask you to explain what happened. After explaining the situation and the measures you have taken to make sure it doesn't happen again, you could ask, "Bill, if you were in my shoes, and I know that's the last place you would ever want to be, what would you do to fix the situation?"

By using this technique, you've made the customer part of the solution, and more likely to stick with you.

 
Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com.