Tough Times Overcome Demotivation


In the JOHN ALEXANDER


Old timers will tell salespeople that selling starts when you hear the first no. True, but not always. Often, no matter how good you are, the first no can lead to a final no – and you’re out of a sale you’d hoped would be in your pocket.


There’s Always a New Beginning Ron Terry, a sales and leasing consultant who specializes


in corporate fleet leasing but also handles individual sales, says that, like Reggie Jackson, who struck out more times than any other player in the history of baseball, “Even the most accomplished salespeople don’t hit a home run every time.” To Ron, the critical point comes when a home run


drought starts straining the law of averages. “Any amateur can tolerate three or four unsuccessful presentations in a row. But how do you react when that stretches to 10 pre- sentations without a sale? Or 15 or even 20 or more?” How does Ron handle times like that? He follows a time- honored prescription from Zig Ziglar. “I do a ‘check up


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from the neck up,’ and try to stay focused on the positive. The worst thing I can do is to let even the most brutal re- jection – or series of rejections – affect the attitude I have toward the next prospect.” Ron’s been with his company for five years. He’s been very successful but he’s occasionally had times when the middle of the month came and he got no paycheck. “That’s when rejection really hurts,” Ron says. “But each prospect is a fresh opportunity, a new beginning. And I always try to treat them that way: with enthusiasm and optimism and commitment to making the sale. For all I know the next person in the door could be the biggest sale I ever had. But, sale or no sale, I always try to remem- ber that I get paid for every prospect I talk to – eventually. If I talk to nine people and they all turn me down, but I sell the tenth and I make $500, then everyone I talk to is really paying me $50.”


See Rejection for What It Is Obviously, that doesn’t mean you should accept rejection


quickly and easily and simply wait for the next prospect. Sometimes what seems to be complete rejection is any- thing but. “Sometimes,” Ron says, “the customer is simply putting the ball back in your court, testing you. You have to recognize that and meet it with confidence instead of becoming deflated or panicking and making too much of it. Sometimes it’s simply that you haven’t been able to uncover and answer a hidden objection.”


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