from time to time my travel allows me to observe people in a variety of different settings. a recent trip gave me an opportunity to listen to a salesman making calls to prospects from a table in a restaurant.
not that I was eavesdropping. this gentleman managed to make himself heard as he went down through his handwritten list of prospects, diligently calling as he ticked off the names. his voice could carry the room.
let me stop there here to comment. this guy was doing what we’re taught to do if we want to be successful. follow up on leads, hot and cold, good or bad. what we used to call “smiling and dialing.” he worked through his list with purpose. undoubtedly a sales pro, and likely successful at what he did, which was selling a specialized piece of restaurant equipment. i know that because I heard the pitch. i heard it several times during the course of my philly cheese steak and beer for dinner. like i said, his voice carried the room. and in addition to hearing the pitch, I learned his name and the name of the company he worked for. which is important to consider for the rest of the story.
because that’s not all i heard…
after several calls with prospects – specifically those that weren’t interested – this dialing machine of a salesman would utter something aloud that those of us within a two table radius of his could hear. and need i say, these utterances were far from complimentary, oftentimes involving colorful phrases and words. you know, like things you’d hear on a construction site or during a hunting trip with your buddies.
when i heard the aftermath of the first rejection call, i sat dumbfounded and shocked. after a moment i rationalized the response, thinking, “the poor guy’s on the road, away from his family, and probably having a tough day. he’s allowed to vent every once in awhile.”
but when i heard this venting on each and every call that didn’t result in an appointment – even those where the prospect asked for more information – i realized it was a pattern of behavior. and not a good pattern.
how do you handle rejection?
most of us in real estate sales deal with rejection repeatedly throughout the day. follow up phone calls to web leads that don’t want our services. sellers that rebuke our requests to re-price a property. a negotiator that shoots down our short sale offer. it comes with the territory. constant rejection.
and while our objection handling is one of the most critical skills in our sales arsenal, i believe how we handle rejection when we can’t overcome the objections is nearly as critical. it might seem cathartic to blow off steam and utter a few choice phrases after being rejected, but imagine what creeps into your mind while you’re making these calls – “don’t turn me down, cuz if you do, you’re a jerk.”
if you’re poised to vent after every rejection you encounter, pretty soon that scenario creeps into your sales psyche and starts coloring your perception of every prospect you talk to. you start thinking about how quickly you can flush out this ‘time-waster,’ this ‘tire-kicker’ and move on to someone else. except that next someone else is (in your mind’s eye) another ‘time-waster’ or ‘tire-kicker.’
change your mind(set)
my advice? get rejected and move on. don’t act out or voice your frustration. get over it and move on to the next phone call or the next door. if you’re in need of catharsis after all the rejection you’ve had in a day, go hit a tennis ball against the garage door. lock yourself in a closet and scream. or better yet, revel in the call you made that produced positive results. sure beats calling people names.
one final note: if i ever decide to get into the restaurant business and get a call from a representative of this company, i’m not buying. i already know what they think of me.
crazy.
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