In the high-stakes world of B2B sales, rejection and competition are not just challenges but opportunities for growth. Discover how transforming your approach to rejection, learning from losses, and managing sales pressures can not only improve your mental health but also significantly boost your sales effectiveness. Dive into practical strategies and insights that empower sales professionals to bounce back stronger, close more deals, and cultivate a positive, resilient mindset for lasting success.
How to Bounce Back from Rejection in Cold Calling for Sales Professionals
One of the most frequent questions young salespeople ask is “How do you deal with rejection?” This question suggests that the prospective client is rejecting the salesperson when the contact is only rejecting the request for a first meeting. Only a few sales leaders explain that salespeople shouldn’t take these rejections personally, as prospective clients don’t know the salesperson well enough after a cold call to reject the salesperson personally.
A sensitive salesperson may give up on making cold calls and move on to another job, one with less autonomy and a lower total compensation. When a salesperson drops out early, they have no idea how close they were to becoming desensitized to cold-call rejection. If this is you, please pick up Andrea Waltz’s book Go for No, as it will prevent you from giving up too soon.
Strategies for Overcoming Sales Losses to Competitors and Enhancing Deal Closure Rates
It is never good to lose a deal, especially one that you believed you had in the bag. You booked the meeting, built rapport, spent time with your sales champion and their teams, all of whom talked like you were already their chosen partner. Your sales manager has forecast that you will win this client before the quarter ends.
When the phone rings, you expect to hear your sales champion confirm that you are their choice, only to be crushed to hear the contact tell you, “We decided to go another direction.” You feel terrible and your sales manager is disappointed that the deal fell through.
There are exactly zero salespeople who win every deal for which they compete. There are two ways to look at losing a deal. The first way is to see it as a loss. In reality, you can’t lose something you didn’t already have. The second way to look at not winning the client’s business is as a lesson.
Given a long enough timeline, the deal you lost will come back around. Instead of looking at it as a loss and giving up, do the work to prepare for the next opportunity. Ask your sales manager to help you to uncover the reason or reasons you lost, and figure out how to ensure you win on the next go-round.
Managing Sales Quota Pressure: Techniques for Sales Teams and Leaders
If you are a sales manager, you feel the pressure of quota attainment. Your sense of pressure can seep into your sales forces, causing them to feel more negative than positive. If you are a sales manager or sales leader under pressure, you will lead your team more effectively by being positive, as negativity isn’t the right approach for improving your sales results.
If you are a salesperson, all you can do to attain your quota is to do the work to create and win your client’s relationship and their business. If you have fallen short in the past, sit down with your sales manager to help you improve your sales effectiveness, or should you want to take things into your own hands, start getting the training and development you need.
Whether you are a sales manager or a sales rep, do your best to be positive and focus on doing the work that will cause your clients to buy from you, moving you ever forward towards your goals.
Coping Strategies for Sales Reps After Losing a Client to Competition
You have had a long relationship with your client, but lately, things have not been good. Your team has continually had problems taking care of this client, and now you found out they are letting you go and replacing you with the competitor you come up against most of the time. You did everything you possibly could to retain the client, only to have acted too late.
Your commission took a hit, and now you need to pick up the pieces and start replacing the lost client with a brand-new customer that will help you to build back your portfolio and your commission check. It’s important to remember that displacement goes both ways. There are times when you take a dream client away from your competitor, who feels like you do when you displace them.
Handling Stress and Anxiety in Sales: A Guide to Staying Positive and Productive
We have something scientists call a negativity bias. We tend to be more negative than positive because our mind is constantly looking for anything that might harm us. We evolved to detect negative events, like a saber-tooth tiger stalking us, before we’re in danger. We are not designed to have a constant load of events or fears that cause anxiety and stress, and for some, depression.
There are practical strategies that can help you be more positive:
- SHED: This stands for sleep-hydrate-exercise-diet. Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, hydrate, exercise, and eat a healthy diet.
- Mental health: Meditate, pray, journal, or do anything that will remove your negativity.
- Practice gratitude: Gratitude will reduce your negativity, help your body, and improve your cognitive functions.
- Stop watching the news: Watching the news is ingesting poison every day, making your environment toxic.
- Stay away from negative people: You have a little chance of turning the negative people positive, and a better chance of the negative folks dragging you into the dark side.
If you want a deeper dive into how to stay resilient in a world with more than negativity, you will find a list of strategies that will help you be more positive more of the time in the book: The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success.
