In my last blog, I discussed how a properly balanced ratio of positive and negative thinking in human life ultimately improves the way humans live and act everyday. Having mostly positive thoughts with some warranted negative thoughts keeps a human motivated, content, and confident. But how does this all correlate to sales?
Salespeople are often faced with rejection (sometimes more often than acceptance). Fundamentally, rejection is associated with negative thoughts. When one is faced with rejection, it is human nature to take that rejection personally and permanent. However, in a sales environment, this doesn’t need to be the case. While negative thoughts come naturally with rejection, sales rejections are not personal nor permanent. They simply mean that the prospect has no interest in buy the product or service you are attempting to sell. Salespeople need to understand that rejection in the realm of sales has nothing to do, personally, with them. When a salesperson is faced with rejection, the best thing they can do is think positively. Rather than telling themselves that they failed, they should ask themselves why they failed. This tactic is called interrogative self-talk. Though using this tactic, it encourages the salesperson to think positively in understanding where they fell short, and how they will improve in the future. It is very easy to get wrapped up in negative thoughts after sales rejections, however it is still a choice for a salesperson on how they want to deal with rejection. So next time you face rejection, take into account how you deal with that. Hopefully the insight that Pink provides in To Sell is Human influences you in regard to how you deal with your next rejection.
BoweryJE22
This is something that can make or break someones career in sales. Going into a sales job right after college I am going to be hyper aware of how I handle failure. The interrogative self-talk seems to be a very helpful tool.