Sales Professionals: Don’t Embrace Rejection, Overcome it!

Something dramatic has happened to sales professionals around the world. Over the past six months, I have been working on several large global sales training engagements and I have noticed that a significant number of business-to-business sales professionals who once managed a portfolio of accounts and had the responsibility of growing those accounts through maintaining them and then looking for new opportunities have given up on new sales development.

I’ve been told by their managers and the sales professionals themselves that they simply are refusing to do new business development. What was once a hybrid of both farming and hunting has now evolved into an either/or role. Either you are a farmer and take orders from existing relationships, or you are a lone wolf hunter going after new business, bringing it on, and handing it off to a service team. The middle has gone away and in my opinion, that is a shame for everyone involved but most specifically the customer who can benefit from the experience and value that a true sales professional can add to an account.

After conducting dozens of interviews with experienced and inexperienced sales professionals, I discovered the reasons for so many of them giving up on the new business development part of selling include:

• “I Hate rejection”
• It’s too much work
• Impossible to make new contacts in a virtual world
• Marketing tactics like cold emails don’t work anymore
• Don’t have the time (too busy doing the administrative and other technical work because of a lack of resources)

Traditional Sales Training programs try to convince unsure sales professionals to “overcome” rejection through some very “sophisticated” methods including:

• “Don't take rejection personally”
• “Review and fine-tune your sales strategy”
• “Improve your mindset”
• “Focus on the next opportunity”
• “Observe other sales professionals”
• “Celebrate your successes”
• Rejection isn’t a failure, it’s the first step to success”

What is Rejection in Sales?

I propose that in business-to-business selling, rejection is simply the potential customer not seeing or believing in the value proposition you are offering. That’s it. The customer is not rejecting you per se, the customer is rejecting your entire value proposition. But here’s the thing; not taking it personally and “embracing” it is stupid. It’s not solving the real problem, it’s covering up the problem.

What I have learned is that the entire approach and mindset of selling is wrong if you are trying to overcome rejection by absorbing it and dealing with it. To me, the right solution is to overcome it. Make your value proposition so strong that the customer can’t live without it.

Overcoming Rejection

There is one fantastic way to overcome rejection and that is to offer the customer a unique solution by positioning yourself as a strategic business partner and not just a salesperson trying to push a product or service. Business people buy from business people so you need to do everything possible to be that valued business partner. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Become an expert in the customer’s business – invest in business acumen skills for sales professionals so that you understand the customer’s business strategy, goals and objectives, financial results and metrics, and key competitors.
• Establish C-Sute Relationships – Get out of procurement and into the boardroom. Work your relationships and earn the right to be a true valued business partner.
• Leverage your internal resources – You can’t do it alone, you can’t be Superman. It takes a team of dedicated individuals willing to make the necessary sacrifices to win together.

In summary, the world of professional selling has changed. As we hit the mid-year point of 2023, you have a unique opportunity to reset the playing field and compete with different skills and tools such as Business Acumen for Sales Professionals.