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subject: Top Sales Speaker Says: Don't Call It Rejection When a Non-Buyer Says No! [print this page]


Top Sales Speaker Says: Don't Call It Rejection When a Non-Buyer Says No!

Calling into a company the other day, a person told me with some certainty, "I'm sure that isn't something we'd be interested in."

Instead of taking that as final, I decided to probe:

"And may I ask who you are, what's your title?"

"Uh, I'm the person that answers the phone," she replied.

An utterance worth quoting and meditating upon, I was being daunted, not by a qualified purchaser, who in my case would have been someone with a pertinent occupational title and the clout to go with it.

A person with NO POWER TO BUY was slamming me. She probably gets away with this behavior, day in and day out.

Carlos Castaneda would label her a "petty tyrant."

There are countless folks in companies that are just like her. They cannot say yes, but they won't hesitate to say no. Technically, I do not consider the obstacles they cast in our path as rejections.

To be rejected, you must put your offer into consideration. It must be fully presented to someone that can purchase what you're selling.

I say "fully," because being cut off by an actual buyer, before you can articulate your proposition, is also something other than a rejection.

It is a declination to listen, at that specific moment.

Call back, an hour, day, or week later, and you may be permitted all the time you need.

By mistake, I phoned back a person the very next day after he raged: "Never call me again!"

Apparently, I failed to delete him from the list.

He said yes, less than 24 hours later, without added commentary, or excess emotionality.

If you're talking to the wrong individual, one that cannot accept, by definition, she or he cannot reject, either.

They CAN frustrate, humiliate, and negate. Many do.

Which raises a very important question: Why is it that slumping salespeople and novices seem to dissipate their limited energies, pitching these very folks, the ones that are powerless to buy?

Sometimes, it's because they're nice, these "Never-Say-Yeses," so chatting with them, over and again, can be pleasant.

That's a reward, like money, but far less useful.

Non-achieving sellers choose this secondary gain, what I'll label a "process" variable, over the primary gain of a clear-cut sale or rejection.

For them, communication enjoyment is elevated above sales results.

Occasionally, giving a brief pitch to a gatekeeper, or at least providing enough of a rationale for your call to the actual decision maker, is required.

Then you need to deputize the intermediary, telling him or her you know that their executive's time is valuable, so you'd appreciate some guidance as to how best to communicate with them, directly.

But don't kid yourself. A non-buyer cannot ever say yes, or write you a check.

So, never consider their negativity as legitimate feedback. And by no means think of it as a genuine rejection, or as final.

If you buy into it, then the wrong person has made a sale, one she didn't deserve to make.




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