Rejection, NO’s and failures are a major obstacle that many successful entrepreneurs (or as I like to call us, 24/7 salespeople) to stomach. Even if we hear a NO multiple times a day, it doesn’t always make it easier to stomach.
However, as much as you may not enjoy hearing the word NO, it becomes important to learn how to not take it so personally. When people tell you NO, it often has nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with where they are. Maybe they don’t have the finances to work with you or buy your products, or maybe they just aren’t ready to take that next step.
Whatever the case is, it has nothing to do with you!
Many of you know that back in March of 2017 I closed my last company, FITzee Foods, but what some of you may not know is that very recently I was working to bring back the FITzee protein bars, which were a fan favorite!
It was hard work to find investors who would help bring the protein bars back to life so we could start serving our past customers again, but on March 30th, 2018, I received a NO on this project.
The investors that we were hoping to work with ended up backing out and I received feedback that our packaging needed a huge overhaul (something that would add in even more expenses).
In the end, we had to put the idea of bringing back FITzee protein bars to rest. Just another major NO to add to my library.
I could have been devastated and let it bring me down, but I’ve been around the block a few times and am familiar with hearing those NO’s. While it is disappointing, it isn’t personal. They didn’t say NO because of me, or my product but for many other underlying issues.
If I look at the data points, I can easily see that there was too much to do to bring the protein bars current, to make it worthwhile for any investor at the current time.
So, what can you do to accept that hearing NO isn’t the end of the world, that there are so many other opportunities out there? Keep reading!
Track Your Sales Ratio
Are you pounding the pavement every day and getting frustrated because you keep hearing NO after NO and you don’t have a support system in place to keep your spirits up?
That’s okay, there’s a way that you can keep yourself focused on the end goal (hearing a YES) and manage to learn from your NO’s.
Track your NO’s using a spreadsheet!
By using a spreadsheet to track your NO’s and your YES’s, you can find the patterns that are working for or against you. It also allows you to remove yourself from the equation, which can sometimes be a lot easier said than done.
A guest of Success Unfiltered, Amanda Bond, is a self-proclaimed spreadsheet nerd and numbers geek. She’s experienced A LOT of NO’s over her sales career, so she’s had to learn how to remove the emotion from the experience.
Initially when she hears NO, she wants to react with emotion. She’s not superhuman, the NO’s actually do affect her, but she’s learned that it’s important to use your muscle and remind yourself to step back and have a process for reflection.
Give yourself the time and space to feel the feelings from hearing NO, and then once you’ve done that, it’s time to analyze the data!
Amanda shared a real-life example from when she was doing freelance social media marketing; she was working with a local politician who was going door to door knocking, trying to elicit more votes in his favor.
Amanda and her team literally tracked and analyzed the results on spreadsheets. They paid attention to which areas were the most responsive, which were saying YES most frequently, and what commonalities or trends were showing up from that data.
By doing this, they were able to practically ignore the NO’s they were receiving and instead focus on which neighborhoods were hot, giving them the most bang for their buck.
When you put the data on a spreadsheet, you can see what’s actually occurring, rather than making assumptions.
You can use a spreadsheet to create a list of 100 prospects you’d like to get to know better, or maybe as a way to fill your sales pipeline with customers that you’ve been following for awhile.
Spreadsheets are a fantastic way to remove the extreme emotion from the sales process.
Hearing NO Isn’t Always a Bad Thing
You all know many of the stories of me hearing NO. I don’t keep them quiet because every single NO that I’ve gotten has led to a bigger YES, in some way.
For instance, I loved FITzee Foods. It was my baby for 10 years, but if it weren’t for the many NO’s I experienced at the end, The Pitch Queen would never have been born.
So, when I heard a NO from Shark Tank, or from Marcus Lemonis from The Profit or when John Lee Dumas told me he wasn’t interested in investing in FITzee Foods, they all may have hurt in the moment, but looking back they were all a blessing in disguise.
They all led me to something incredible that I am able to create for you today!
Reminding myself in the moment, and even now, that these NO’s were a good thing, helps me to not take them personally and know that there is a greater opportunity coming to me via these NO’s.
In Conclusion
Even the most successful entrepreneurs still hear NO, they’ve just developed a system to overcome them much quicker.
Ask yourself, are you focusing your energy on clients or customers that aren’t a good fit for yourself or your business and are telling you NO?
I encourage you to take some action, create a spreadsheet and start tracking your NO’s and the commonalities there are, then be sure to leave me a comment sharing what you’ve uncovered. I want to support you!
