Did you know, the average cold caller is met with 100 rejections before booking a single meeting? That’s A LOT of rejection.
That tells me three things. First, it’s a drag to be “average.” Second, it tells me that sales isn’t for the faint of heart. And finally, it tells me sales is partly a numbers game. If you dial all day, all week, you’re bound to get some Yesses. It all goes back to the law of averages.
Today I want to show you why it’s critical to your success to set rejection goals. That’s right, rejection goals. It might seem counterintuitive and completely backwards. But trust me, it works. This could be the mindset shift that changes everything.
Sales Tip: Although I advocate for setting rejection targets, that doesn’t mean you can call prospects blind and unprepared. Every call counts. And you must always be improving your skills and mindset.
What is Rejection
Think of rejection as a stone. It’s up to you how you perceive this stone. How do you want to frame it?
You can either see rejection (the stone) as a stumbling block, something to trip over or stumble over.
Or you can see rejection as a stepping stone. A necessary and natural next step to ultimately win a sale.
The choice is yours! But I will say that your default — everybody’s default — is to see rejection as a stumbling block… unless they train their minds to see it as a stepping stone.
Once you reframe rejection as a positive, you can move on to set specific rejection goals.
Setting Specific Rejection Goals
Start with what you WANT. Let’s say your goal is to book 10 meetings this week. And you know that you can expect 10% of conversations to convert into meetings. So working backwards, that means you should aim for 90 rejections this week. (These are rough numbers to show how this works.)
Hit your rejection target and you will make sales. That’s the point. You WILL make sales.
Define your rejection goals. Know them at the start of every month, week, and day. And strive to hit them! Nevermind ‘sales activities’ and ‘calls logged’. Get people on the phone and ask them for a meeting. If they say ‘No’ great!
RELATED: Cold Call in Volume – Is 50 Calls a Day Enough?
Why You Should Set ‘Rejection’ Goals and Not ‘Sales Activity’ Goals
What’s the difference? Isn’t a ‘rejection goal’ the same thing as an ‘activity goal’ but just stated negatively?
No, there is a world of difference here. It’s a deep psychological difference. A rejection goal factors in the idea that you WILL BE GETTING REJECTED this week. It’s a given. It won’t blindside you. You can expect it to happen. And so you can mentally prepare for the rejection and actually look forward to it (for the reasons stated above!).
Useful Rejection Metaphors
How Cold Calling is Like Climbing A Ladder
Imagine a ladder that’s 1,000 feet tall. The 1,000 foot ladder represents your lead list of 1,000 contacts. It’s a daunting climb, but you know that somewhere on that ladder are 10 briefcases, each filled with cash. You don’t know where the briefcases are, but you know they are there. Each rung you climb makes you a little tired, but when you get to a briefcase, it powers you to climb even higher.
Every rung on the ladder that doesn’t have a briefcase represents rejection. But you know that climbing these rungs is the only way to get to the briefcases of cash. There is no other way. You could just sit at the bottom, procrastinating. Or you can get to work and climb, climb, climb.
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How Cold Calling is Like A Gumball Machine
Now imagine you have a gumball machine at your desk. It’s filled with 90 red gumballs, which represent rejection. But there are also 10 green gumballs in there, which represent meetings booked. You have plenty of quarters to turn the crank all day. Wouldn’t you start trying? You know that you’ll get mostly red gumballs — but removing those red gumballs is the only way to get to the green ones!
Got it? And THIS is why it’s so important to set rejection goals.
Here’s What I’m NOT Saying
I’m not saying sales is only a numbers game. It’s not. Cold calling is by no means a game of chance. While you must call in high volumes — and there’s no getting around that — cold calling is first a game of skill, and it matters that you master the craft.
That’s where those metaphors of the ladder and the gumball machine eventually fall apart. You can, in fact, make additional briefcases of cash appear on the ladder. And you can even turn red gumballs into green gumballs! Read that again… this is an important principle to understand and really internalize. With the right focus, training, and determination, you can turn red gumballs into green gumballs. You can turn a ‘NO’ into a ‘YES’!
RELATED: 5 Mind Hacks to Bulletproof Yourself From Rejection
Make Every Call Count! How to Turn a No into a Yes?
If you follow my blog, you know that I cover this topic in-depth. It’s what I’m most passionate about. So please skim through my library of content. But I won’t leave you hanging. Here are a few of the best ways to make every call count:
- Nail the first 10 seconds of the call
- Transfer your positive energy/emotions
- Master your tonality
- Put a strategic follow-up
- Analyze your calls
- Track reasons for rejection
- Role play every day
RELATED: 5 Rules for Successfully Selling the C-Suite
Final Words
If you want long-term success in sales, you have to embrace the grind and not just tolerate rejection, but actually look forward to it.
But before we go, I recommend you don’t count no-answers as rejections. This can get you in the bad habit of calling down garbage lists just to check off boxes. That’s not what we want at all. You should look forward to speaking with a human and hearing a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from them personally.
So with that, it’s time to get out there and get rejected… and continue to press on. Every rejection is a waypoint to a meeting booked or a deal closed. These are the trenches where legends are made.
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso