Venture Views
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- Prompt’s virtual technology PR trek: Around the tech world in 80 days
- Prompt Boston attends Mass Innovation Night, #MIN51
- Technology PR recap: The software testing industry
- Prompt Boston hosts successful ‘Office Hours’ at Venture Café
- Read all about it! Are print newspapers fated to fold? (continued…)
- Extra, extra read all about it: Software testing and regional newspapers
- Remembering London’s colourful past
- Prompt Communications wins Equiso public relations account
- Prompt Communications appointed by Integralis to drive US media relations
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If you're in sales and you fear rejection…
If you're in sales and you fear rejection…
When I’m in ‘selling mode’ – whether it’s prospecting, cold calling, or pitching ideas for Prompt’s clients, I know it’s important to stay in the right frame of mind. Selling is a fun, interactive process of intrigue—as long as you keep a positive mindset. My personal approach is to have mini mental rehearsals to consider what the conversation might be like, how it might unfold, which questions I should ask the person I’m selling to, and how they might respond. I then think about the ideal outcome, smile and dial (yes, it’s a cliché but it’s true), and work towards that ideal outcome.
When a call doesn’t go as you might wish, it can be very easy to blame either yourself or the person at the other end of the phone. But instead, try to really see things from their perspective. Any rejection isn’t a personal slur – they simply didn’t agree with your view that you have something they need, that’s all. (Of course if you’re trying to get someone to agree to something that isn’t in their best interest, then you’re miss-selling. In which case, you should blame yourself and go and do some more thorough research. You’re not doing yourself, the prospect or us any favours).
In a normal early-stage sales situation it is highly probable that you will get rejected. After all, if sales simply involved picking up the phone once, proposing something and hearing the person on the other end saying: “Heck, yes, count me in, where do I sign up?”, then everyone would be working in sales.
So instead, embrace the entire process: the fun of sales, the sense of achievement, earning the right to work and build a relationship with someone who was once a total stranger and overall, the fact that sales is a core business activity. As another phrase I have stuck to my wall rightly declares: “In business nothing happens until somebody sells something.”
So what are you waiting for? Smile to yourself, think what you want to say, and pick up that phone…
I have this scribbled note-to-self stuck to my office wall.
Posted in Boston, Communications consultancy opinion, Hazel Butters: Opinion, London | Comments Off
