Getting used to rejection seems like a depressing endeavor, but it is actually one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself in sales or entrepreneurship. Being able to deal constructively with negativity and self-doubt in ways that do more than just build up your ego can boost your productivity and drive to succeed. Pink outlines 3 steps to keeping yourself afloat in the sea of rejection: interrogative self-talk, positivity ratios, and explanatory style.
- Interrogative Self-talk
Interrogative self-talk is not pumping yourself up to believe you’re the best salesman in the world. While many people use this technique, the better way to approach sales before you’ve even stepped out of the door is by asking yourself can you do it? I loved Pink’s example of Bob the Builder and his “Can we fix it?” attitude.
- Positivity Ratios
Being positive in a sale influences the buyer, well, positively. Nobody feels particularly inclined to buy from a Debbie Downer. Pink cited a study that showed the golden ratio of positivity is 3 to 1: for every 3 positive actions/feelings, 1 negative action or feeling is okay – and helpful. Negative emotions are, as Pink put it, feedback on our performance. Too much negativity is obviously bad, but too much positivity can stifle improvement because you refuse to see what could be better.
- Explanatory Style
How we reflect on situations matters. If we’re used to explaining bad things that happen in a very catastrophic way such as “I made this one mistake, I’m horrible at my job,” then when faced with repeated rejection we can spiral and struggle to come back up for air. A better explanatory style is to work through every possibility. “My co-worker is having a bad day, it’s not my fault,” is a much better way to work through things without making everything personal.
I do a fair amount of both autosuggestion and interrogative self-talk, but when I really thought about it after reading this chapter, the self-talk questions always give me better results than just telling myself “you can do this.” I’m forced to think through my plan of action. I think my positivity ratios during an interaction are good, but I need to work on my explanatory style. Rejection in sales is not personal – it is only a moment in time as “role you” and not “real you,” so it’s not the end of the world. What are some of the ways you deal with rejection?
testacr22 
Trinity Blank 
Caroline Marie Dawson
This post was great, and helped me understand Interrogative self talk, the Positivity ratio and Explanatory Style. Thank you!
I love the topic of this post. Being able to deal with adversity and learn from mistakes is very important not only in sales, but in all aspects of life. Having a positive ratio is very important in sales and I liked how you referenced Pink writings in this post.
Clear and concise explanation, great work. I have found myself applying these concepts not just to sales, but to all of life. Prof. Sweet is completely correct when he says ‘we are all salespeople’. Most of the concepts we are learning are useful communicating principles.