All of us have heard the phrase, “man is a social animal.” As we want to connect with people around us and be accepted by them, one of our greatest fears is usually rejection by others including our classmates, parents, siblings, neighbor, friends and the list is endless.
Every one of us has to deal with this fear on a day to day basis whether we do it consciously or subconsciously. However, one of the most vulnerable professions when it comes to facing rejection is usually direct sales.
In a lot of industries, “cold calling” is done to attract prospective clients towards using a product or service. There are a lot of reasons why “cold calling” is difficult but what we need to focus on here is how to deal with the fear of rejection. Although the lessons that we are discussing here emerge mainly from making sales calls and have been gathered over a long, long time period but they can be quite successfully applied in general life aspects as well.
Here are six practical lessons you can learn from making sales calls. They can teach you a lot about handling the fear of rejection.
1. Don’t think in a negative manner.
This might sound like a cliché at first but trust me: this is the number one piece of advice when you don’t want the fear of rejection to bring you down. When cold calling customers, it is imperative to be positive, even if the target customer’s reply is not what you were hoping for.
Likewise, in life, think of what is going in the right direction rather than focusing on negative things. Your thoughts are very powerful and can actually make things happen!
2. Rejection of an idea is not your rejection as a person.
Every human being has a different mindset and thus we all perceive things differently. If you are presenting an idea, product or service and somebody doesn’t buy that, you do not have to think that they have rejected you. Don’t ever take rejection personally because that is the best way to reduce the fear of rejection.
3. Be sure of your abilities but not your emotions.
Let’s suppose you have negative feelings or vibes from a person or situation and you are very sure about them; wouldn’t it be better if you start “doubting” your own feelings? While being confident about your abilities and skills is a good thing, doubting your own negative emotions is an even better idea.
When making a sales call, it is great to be unsure about your negative thoughts. The call will turn out so much better. This also applies to life and work. Don’t be so sure when you have negative emotions.
4. Don’t set unrealistic goals.
If you do, you will end up disappointing yourself. Most of the time, it is not the rejection that disappoints us but the improbable targets that we set for ourselves in the first place. When making cold calls to prospective customers for sale, you are bound to be disappointed if you set your outcome levels to be too high. Likewise in our routine life, we give ourselves stringent goals and then get upset when we are unable to achieve them. This “supposed” failure worsens our fear of rejection the next time when we are in a similar situation.
Setting realistic assumptions and targets will ensure that you feel the pleasure of achievement and this will reduce your fear of being rejected.
5. See events for what they are.
Usually we think so much about a situation that we heighten our own fear. The best ways of dealing with it is to focus on facts. It is no big deal if a lot of your calls don’t get desired results. That’s not the end of the world. You can always call a new lot of target customers the next day.
That is exactly the case in other life situations as well. We inflate things just by exaggerating the negative results in our mind. Remember, whatever happens, you have a new beginning each day. Focus on it and do lots of wonders!
6. Never stop improving yourself.
There’s always room for improvement. The most successful people are those who are not complacent. The best salesperson is the one who constantly works on making their pitch better. We all should do the same. Polish your skills, improve your learning and try to beat your fear of rejection by improving yourself each day in your life.
Apply these tips in your life and work and see the difference for yourself.
Featured photo credit: Young beautiful call center worker via shutterstock.com
