Speaker 1: Rejection doesn't mean no, It could just mean not now.
Speaker 1: It could just mean there's an obstacle, something standing in
Speaker 1: your way, So just be present find out what it is.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the audible Ready Podcast, the show that
Speaker 2: helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature
Speaker 2: sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create
Speaker 2: a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth.
Speaker 2: Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in
Speaker 2: B to B sales effectiveness.
Speaker 1: Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 3: Rachel Klatt Miller here with the John Kaplan. Hi John,
Speaker 3: Hi Rachel, how are you good? Good? I hope you
Speaker 3: are doing well. Today. We are going to talk about
Speaker 3: the topic of rejection. We've all had to deal with it.
Speaker 3: We want to talk about how do you handle it
Speaker 3: in a way that sets you up for less rejection,
Speaker 3: moving for it, and more success.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you're a salesperson, you figured out
Speaker 1: that this is just a way of life. So if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this and you're already in sales, you
Speaker 1: already know that rejection or barriers or hurdles are all
Speaker 1: part of being a seller are all part of really
Speaker 1: being I think a human. But I will tell you
Speaker 1: that being able to handle rejection and how you look
Speaker 1: at rejection is certainly a characteristic that I think is
Speaker 1: the elite sellers. They just kind of have a different perspective.
Speaker 1: So obviously rejection can be difficult because if you take
Speaker 1: it personally or you put a motion into it, customer says, no,
Speaker 1: you have to take yourself out of it, and it's hard.
Speaker 1: Like I like to tell people, you got to be unoffendable.
Speaker 1: I think people that are undefendable, they're just like, it's
Speaker 1: not about me, It's about the situation that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1: And maybe the truth is they didn't see the value
Speaker 1: in our solution as it relates to their business challenges,
Speaker 1: or they didn't see the value of taking a meeting
Speaker 1: with me, or whatever. You know, Rachel, One of my
Speaker 1: favorite stories about Kobe Bryant, who was an incredible professional
Speaker 1: basketball player in the NBA, tragically was killed in a
Speaker 1: helicopter accident with some families and children of a team
Speaker 1: that he was coaching. But a story that happened after
Speaker 1: losing one of the championship games. I forget which championship
Speaker 1: it was, but it was for the end of the
Speaker 1: year championship. He stayed on the bench, he had his
Speaker 1: head in his hands for quite a while, and you know,
Speaker 1: the media started to afterwards he walked off the court
Speaker 1: when it was all over, he stayed there for a
Speaker 1: while with his head in his hands, and so the
Speaker 1: media is like, Oh, he's emotional, he's down, he's this
Speaker 1: is tragic, blah blah blah. And so when he got
Speaker 1: to the media table, they started asking all these questions
Speaker 1: about how he was feeling, and that they noticed that
Speaker 1: he was upset after the game. And if you just
Speaker 1: go look at any YouTube clips of Kobe Bryant, he's
Speaker 1: pretty serious character about competition and competing and really what
Speaker 1: it takes. And I just his response was awesome. He
Speaker 1: said upset. Yeah, yeah, I'm upset. I'm upset we lost.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't emotional after the game with my head
Speaker 1: in my hands on the bench, I was replaying the
Speaker 1: entire game, in the entire series, and I was identifying
Speaker 1: what I needed to do to improve to win the
Speaker 1: next time. And that's why he won all the time,
Speaker 1: is that he looked at rejection or loss. Yes, it
Speaker 1: fired him up, but he looked at rejection or loss
Speaker 1: and looked for areas of improvement to make sure it
Speaker 1: didn't happen again. So I think that's just a really
Speaker 1: good theme for us as we're talking about rejection.
Speaker 3: Yeah, learning from it and like you said a little
Speaker 3: bit earlier, it really it doesn't have anything to do
Speaker 3: with you, particularly in sales, right. It's often the circumstances
Speaker 3: surrounding what you're asking, whether that be for a meeting,
Speaker 3: a po whatever, But it can be a motivation killer
Speaker 3: when you're trying to grind and get those meetings and
Speaker 3: fill that pipeline. You talked a little bit about this, John,
Speaker 3: But how do you encourage people to handle rejection in
Speaker 3: the ways that you mentioned.
Speaker 1: I think first of all, you just got to kind
Speaker 1: of reframe the word and the connotation of rejection. So
Speaker 1: maybe it's a hurdle, maybe it's a but it's not
Speaker 1: an end. So instead of seeing it as like a failure,
Speaker 1: you view it as a learning opportunity, And then each
Speaker 1: rejection or hurdle or whatever it is, is a chance
Speaker 1: to understand what didn't work and how you can approve.
Speaker 1: Like I think the greatest success stor is on the planet.
Speaker 1: I don't care who it is. I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's warm Buffett, I don't care who it is Henry Ford.
Speaker 1: You just look at the number, Abraham Lincoln. You look
Speaker 1: at some of the greatest minds on the planet, and
Speaker 1: it's arguable that they failed way more than they succeeded.
Speaker 1: So you've heard me talk about playing where your feet are.
Speaker 1: What I really mean by that is to be in
Speaker 1: the present. So wherever you are in your situation, try
Speaker 1: to be in the present of it. So when people
Speaker 1: feel rejection, they typically start to project, well, what's this
Speaker 1: person thinking or what's going to happen in the future,
Speaker 1: Versus I like to be in the present and I
Speaker 1: ask for feedback from the buyer. So if the buyer
Speaker 1: gives me some feedback like I don't think we're going
Speaker 1: to be able to do this at this time, or
Speaker 1: a lot of times people's minds race forward and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you know I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: this deal. I'm not going to make this forecast, Versus
Speaker 1: asking for feedback right in the moment and say what's
Speaker 1: causing that to happen? So I don't look at a finality,
Speaker 1: A final I look at it as that's where I
Speaker 1: am right now, in the present. That's the information I have.
Speaker 1: Let's go dig in. That's the time to dig in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's important to remember that, I know may
Speaker 3: just be a no right now. So when you get
Speaker 3: that feedback and you're responding, John, what are your best
Speaker 3: tips for leading the door open for conversations down the road.
Speaker 1: I think that's so good. I've heard you say this.
Speaker 1: It's not you said this to me before on something
Speaker 1: when we were doing I can't remember what we were doing.
Speaker 1: You say, well, that might not be mister right for
Speaker 1: something we were looking for a solution. He said, it's
Speaker 1: not that it's not mister right, it just might be
Speaker 1: that they're not mister right now. Yes, I think that
Speaker 1: was actually one of your sayings that when we were
Speaker 1: dealing with something out of partnership or something. And I
Speaker 1: like that because no rarely means no forever. And I
Speaker 1: like to qualify by asking in the customer and qualify.
Speaker 1: Are we just is this a timing thing or is
Speaker 1: this just a total miss on requirements or culture? And
Speaker 1: I think when you speak words that are spoken from
Speaker 1: the heart and to the heart to all who hear them.
Speaker 1: When you ask somebody a question like that, an authentic question,
Speaker 1: you're more likely to get an authentic answer. And people
Speaker 1: we're not designed to be ugly to each other. So
Speaker 1: if you're miss hearing something and somebody is saying, no,
Speaker 1: your culture sucks, then you follow up. They're probably going
Speaker 1: to give you good feedback on your culture. If they
Speaker 1: say it's not right now because we've got other things
Speaker 1: going on, and if you try to assume that it's
Speaker 1: more about you and you authentically say is this something
Speaker 1: that we've done in the campaign, those things typically kind
Speaker 1: of work themselves out because people like to be authentic
Speaker 1: with each other. That's how we were designed to communicate.
Speaker 1: So I just think, call it out. No rarely means
Speaker 1: no forever, figure out what it means.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. And you know another part of this, John
Speaker 4: I wanted to bring up. I'm thinking about people in
Speaker 4: like a BDR type role where they're cold calling, and
Speaker 4: rejection is.
Speaker 1: The meaning every day, right, every hour?
Speaker 3: Yes, So you need to become used to that.
Speaker 4: Understand it's might not be a no now, but it's
Speaker 4: just a no right now.
Speaker 3: You have to be resilient.
Speaker 4: And I know you've talked a lot about that concept, John,
Speaker 4: talk about the importance of being resilient as a salesperson
Speaker 4: as it relates to rejection.
Speaker 1: Well, I think in those roles, the more at that
Speaker 1: you have, the more times you're going to fail. Sales
Speaker 1: is about pipeline, and pipeline in the very essence is
Speaker 1: you're not going to get all that pipeline. So some
Speaker 1: of that pipeline is going to fail. And let's just
Speaker 1: put it in perspective, like I always like to think
Speaker 1: about Ted Williams. Sorry about these sports analogies, but I
Speaker 1: think this one. I think this one really hits home
Speaker 1: from a percentage standpoint. When you think about this, Ted
Speaker 1: Williams is considered to be the greatest hitter of all time,
Speaker 1: and he's got a lifetime batting average of three forty four,
Speaker 1: the highest of any baseball player that ever played. Three
Speaker 1: forty four. So if you know something about averages, it
Speaker 1: means if you hit three hundred for a lifetime, you're
Speaker 1: guaranteed to be in the Hall of Fame based upon that, right, Well,
Speaker 1: what that always meant to me is that you got
Speaker 1: to understand that you're going to fail seven times out
Speaker 1: of ten means you hit the ball three times out
Speaker 1: of ten. There's three hundred. You're going to fail seven
Speaker 1: times out of ten. But in this you're still considered
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time. Okay, so I got to
Speaker 1: get my mind right. The greatest of all time fails
Speaker 1: seven times out of ten and it's successful three times
Speaker 1: out of ten. So what does that mean. It means
Speaker 1: that I have to try to get as many bats
Speaker 1: as I can get. I have to get the biggest
Speaker 1: pipeline that I can get, And that analogy has always
Speaker 1: worked for me. It's the people that don't have any
Speaker 1: pipeline or that don't have any other at bats. They
Speaker 1: get in at bat and they fail, and they don't
Speaker 1: look at it as kind of like a three out
Speaker 1: of ten thing. They look at as a one out
Speaker 1: of one thing. And I failed, and I got up again,
Speaker 1: and I failed again and I got up again. Well,
Speaker 1: you're probably going to do that seven times, but if
Speaker 1: you don't get ten at bats, you're not going to
Speaker 1: add three hundred. And so it's always about pipeline. I
Speaker 1: just want to encourage people. You know, when your bosses
Speaker 1: are telling you about building pipeline and doing PG days
Speaker 1: and doing activity days and making it all about activity.
Speaker 1: The reason why they're doing that is because it's the natural.
Speaker 1: It's the law of nature in sale else. That's why
Speaker 1: we call it pipeline. There's a pipeline. There's a line
Speaker 1: of opportunities they are feeding in a funnel, which means
Speaker 1: not all of them come through this funnel successfully, so
Speaker 1: you have to have more in the pipeline. And so anyways,
Speaker 1: I think that that's just if you think about your
Speaker 1: life that way as a seller and you're hitting three hundred,
Speaker 1: that's pretty dog gone good. You're going to the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. It means you're also going to not be
Speaker 1: successful seven out of ten times. So it's just perspective.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great perspective.
Speaker 4: When you were saying that Ted Williams stuff, I was
Speaker 4: thinking about Roger Federer, the tennis player, and his commencement
Speaker 4: speech where he talked about, you know, he's like one
Speaker 4: of the greatest tennis players in all time. Obviously, I
Speaker 4: think they say he won eighty percent of the matches
Speaker 4: he played, but in that speech he said he only
Speaker 4: won fifty four percent of the points in his matches.
Speaker 1: That's it. You should link that somehow. That's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite I didn't see that until about a year ago.
Speaker 1: I think it's a wonderful explanation of what we're talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, great perspective on You are going to get rejection,
Speaker 4: You're going to mess up, right, It's all about what
Speaker 4: you do next that matters. John, you gave us some
Speaker 4: great takeaways here. Do you have another bottom line or
Speaker 4: are we dropping the mic with that?
Speaker 1: Well? I think just the summary, okay, summary for me
Speaker 1: is maybe just reframe the word rejection for me is
Speaker 1: not a final point. It's a hurdle. Rejection or a
Speaker 1: hurdle or an obstacle is probably the right word if
Speaker 1: you reframe that and then realize that we are in
Speaker 1: a business through activity, which includes pipeline, and the reason
Speaker 1: why we have that is because we are going to
Speaker 1: fail more often than we are going to win. But
Speaker 1: that's not a problem because we can still make it
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame if we win three out
Speaker 1: of ten times. And I don't know what the number
Speaker 1: is the pipeline, that's pretty good one like you have
Speaker 1: to have three to four times the amount of pipeline
Speaker 1: in order to be successful in order to hit your number.
Speaker 1: It's not one for one on pipeline. And rejection doesn't
Speaker 1: mean no, it could just mean not now, it could
Speaker 1: just mean there's an obstacle, something standing in your way,
Speaker 1: so just be present find out what it is. But
Speaker 1: we are in the business of rejection, and really business
Speaker 1: kind of starts when the obstacle gets put up, and
Speaker 1: that's really just kind of the law of the land.
Speaker 4: That's why they pay you so much, right, that's how
Speaker 4: you earn your buddy.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: Thank you, John, You're welcome.
Speaker 4: Go get them, and thank you for listening to the
Speaker 4: Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
Speaker 5: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 5: elite teams. Are proven methodologies, deliver programs that build company
Speaker 5: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth of your teams the
Speaker 5: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 5: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 5: Let's get started. Visit us at forestmanagement dot com.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to the Audible Ready podcast. To not
Speaker 2: miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite
Speaker 2: podcast player. Until next time.