Savvy business owners/managers know that REJECTION should not be accepted as a normal component of selling. The problem is most managers are stumped and do not know how to stem the rejection tide. They are held hostage by outdated selling methods and can only watch helplessly as their sales people suffer more rejection today than at any other time in recent memory. Why? We have little time or respect for salespeople.
Decades of traditional, adversarial selling, where employers have encouraged their sales people to walk into offices uninvited, telephone at the most inconvenient times and persist until a sale is closed … has finally backfired. Today’s sophisticated buyers are fed up with traditional selling tactics. In today’s time-starved markets buyers have little time, patience or respect for traditional salespeople. Today’s buyers need trusted advisors, partners, allies not more me-centred salespeople. The antidote for adversarial selling is ‘selfless selling’, where the needs and wants of prospects and customers come first. Selfless selling turns salespeople into buyer-allies.
Teach salespeople to become selfless allies; back them up with sound selling education and support; then work these concepts hard. Your salespeople will not only gain the respect they need, they will eliminate rejection and produce the sales your company needs, better, faster and easier.