Call reluctance, fear of buyers telling you no and rejecting you, is a challenge for most salespeople. You, as their leader, can help your team manage call reluctance in several ways.
One way is to make sure they understand customers saying no are not rejecting them personally, they’re rejecting their business idea. When a customer says “No, I don’t like what you’re doing here…” you don’t have to take it personally. Your buyer is challenging how you do business or what your approach is compared to your competitors.
It takes a lot of no’s to get to a yes in any sales job. Sales trainer Tom Hopkins years ago asked his audience how much they earned when they made a sale. Let’s assume you make one hundred dollars in commissions for an average sale, the next question is, how many people do you have to talk to before somebody does buy from you?
If you need to talk to ten people to make one sale, every time a customer tells you no you’ve made ten dollars toward making your hundred-dollar sale. It takes a lot of no’s to get to a yes. It’s not a negative part of sales, it’s just a part of your job.
A third idea is to make sure everybody understands call reluctance is a normal and common emotion in sales. Most reps dealing with call reluctance believe they’re the only one with this problem and are afraid to talk about it.
Join me as I offer ideas you can use to help your team better handle a buyer’s rejection. Because the more no’s your reps can take…the more yes’s they’ll likely get!