How to stay motivated and handle rejection

Welcome to Selling for Success — your go-to sales podcast for strategies, tips, and inspiration to help you close more deals, generate leads, and grow your business.

In this episode, we’ll cover: 

• The performance realities for most sales people
• How to step back from the "downward spiral"
• Specific steps you can take to improve your performance

Whether you’re in B2B sales, B2C sales, or just starting your sales career, this podcast gives you the tools, tactics, and mindset you need to succeed.

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Please remember to like and subscribe. Visit the website to download the free PDF "Seven Ways of Closing" and register for the free 45-minute webinar that shares three implementable strategies to improve your sales results.

Drop your biggest sales challenge in the comments — we might cover it in a future episode! 

AND... check out my online course "Consultative Selling" where I dive deeper into these techniques. I offer a one-year guarantee – if you do everything in the course and still don't see results, I'll give you your money back.

Welcome to the podcast!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Setting Context
• 2:29 Understanding Sales Statistics and Benchmarks
• 5:30 The Power of Referrals
• 8:12 Why Salespeople Miss Targets
• 10:45 Practical Strategies for Improvement
• 15:20 Following Up Effectively
• 20:11 Closing Thoughts and Course Offer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello and welcome to another podcast. My name is Graeme Elliott, and in this podcast I'm going to talk about how you stay motivated when things are going badly, and to some extent, I'm also looking at how you handle rejection in sales. But because I want to keep this to about 20 minutes, in the last podcast that I released I did talk a lot more about what to do when you get a no and what a no means, so I'm going to leave that there, and so I'll skip over that rejection part, in that sense at least, for the purposes of getting through the other points I want to cover in this podcast. Now, the chances are that if you're listening to this, you may well be struggling a little bit, or your numbers certainly aren't where they need to be, or you might be getting into one of those downward spirals where it feels like nothing you do is actually having any results and every time you do something you get a fail and your opportunities are dwindling. You're not getting sales and you're really concerned about your business prospects if you are running your own business or keeping your job if you're working for somebody else, and these are very real fears and I think a lot of sales people go through this in their careers. I certainly have, and it's it's really difficult to know where to turn.

Speaker 1: 1:22

So one of the things I will say at this point and I'm going to plug my course consultative selling, because this is one of the aspects that I go through in some detail. And just going back to my experience as a sales manager, having been quite experienced as a salesperson, when I was working with the sales team there was one I took over that had been performing quite badly. We had lots of issues. I won't go into all of those, but the bottom line is, by after I think it was about a year took me about a year to turn everything around, but after and I actually put uh targets up because I felt some of them were too low and all of my sales people were hitting 100 or more. So those techniques that I use to create or create the environment, let's say for that turnaround to happen is what I teach and I'm going to share some of that with you now. So the first statistic I want to cover is that the average close rate missed across all industries and that's business to business, business to consumer is only 20%. So in other words, of sales meetings, sales discussions that happen, only one in five on average will result in a sale. So I think it's important to know that because it gives you an instant benchmark on how well you're doing, and if you feel you're struggling but you're closing better than that, then you're actually not doing too badly. But there are always things we can do to improve what we're doing. However, if you're closing less than that, then clearly some work needs to be done and there's always room for improvement in sales. So we're going to cover a few of those points.

Speaker 1: 2:57

The other statistic that I like to look at I'm just flicking back to my notes here is also how many people, how many salespeople, are afraid of asking for the business. Now, in the research I've done, I don't have an actual figure of that. I've heard 60% in a study some years ago, but obviously it's difficult to know because a lot of people aren't so open in owning up to that. But the bottom line is the majority of salespeople, or certainly a very high proportion of them, are afraid to ask for the business and so they don't Of those people, so of all salespeople across the board. What I do have a number for and this is from Fundera is looking at, salespeople give up too quickly and 44% of salespeople give up after just one no. So that means that nearly half of the sales people out active at the moment, when they get a single no, they'll give up. And while I don't know what's behind that no if you'll excuse the expression, I would say a lot of it is down to not actually understanding what no means. Now to dive into that in a bit more detail. So 44% give up after one no, 22% after two, 14% after three and 12 after four. Only eight percent of salespeople actually persist beyond that. Now you can argue for and against that number and without knowing the actual circumstances. And one of the things I like to do and I did with my, my own sales people, I've done it with other people and I've been coaching is to watch people in action to see how, how they conduct a sales meeting, how much they're listening, um, how much they're taking on board, how much they're identifying where the key benefits are to the client, the key sales points, to lean on and understand how well they're doing all of that. So obviously I can't do that with you. I do go through a lot of that again in the course, but that's more than 20 minutes.

Speaker 1: 5:13

But to give you another statistic and this comes back to referrals and referrals are really important because when you get a referral from someone, you've got a hot lead. This is not just a cold lead coming into your organisation, somebody inquiring about a product, and which you then need to qualify. You would need to qualify a referral, but basically the person who's doing the referring has been through the sales process with you. You would normally ask for a referral at the point they place the order. Then there are a couple of other points after that, but that's the first one. So they know what it is you're selling.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Now, as I say, you still have to qualify, but certainly in my experience I would say the majority of salespeople don't ask for referrals and in fact, the numbers I've got here it says that 91% of customers are open to giving referrals, but only 11% of salespeople ask for them. So, first thing, in terms of action plans, things to move forward with, if you are struggling and you're struggling to get good leads make a note to ask for referrals and if you're struggling at the moment with leads, just look at clients who you already have assuming that you have some and just go back to them, do a follow-up visit, follow-up call and just ask how things are going. If everything's going well, ask them for a referral. It's one of the points to ask and basically you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So that's the first step in the action plan from this particular podcast if you want to make an immediate change to your results.

Speaker 1: 6:56

So while we're on statistics, one other statistic or two other statistics I just want to um share with you which hopefully um will hopefully make you feel that you're not doing perhaps as badly as you think you are, and that is the proportion of salespeople that made the annual quota and typically, from the work I've done, it's 50 to 60 percent. 50 is generally regarded as kind of an acceptable level. Obviously you need to be a bit higher than that ideally, but 50 to 60 is good. Only 24 percent of salespeople make their target, their annual target. So you're looking at just under a quarter. That's from Salesforce. 55% of salespeople typically will miss their target and 50 to 60, so again, those kind of numbers, that sort of feel, will hit the monthlies. So in other words, at least roughly halves of the salespeople out there are not making target and in fact, you could argue that up to three quarters are not making annual target.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Now, there are reasons for this. I'm going to dive into these, but the point I want to make is this as I said, the people that I coach all of my salespeople were hitting target and several of them at least half were hitting 110% of target, which was a point in our bonus structure, if you like, our commission structure, where they got additional commissions. So it definitely is possible to hit target if you're in the right organisation. Let's put it that way, because there are things that contribute to this. So the first thing that contributes to these numbers is that quotas, targets are just too aggressive, and this could be that the people who are setting the targets and just don't understand how competitive they are. They don't understand the industry, they don't understand trends, that kind of thing. So when I was setting targets, I would always make sure I understood that for each of the people I had working for me.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Another area is lack of training and support, and I know there are a lot of companies that don't believe in training and support or the support is pretty miserable, that don't believe in training and support or the support is pretty miserable. I work for one guy as a salesman and he our sales manager told the internal sales staff not to tell the salesperson if they've got an order unless they specifically asked, which I thought was absolutely crazy. But there are people out there who are really bad managers, really bad sales managers, and they create these environments that do not help salespeople at all. So, again, this is why there are things like consultative selling, my online course, and there's a community around that, so there are other ways of dealing with that if you're willing to step up and own the situation. If you're in an industry or selling products that have complex and long sales cycles, these again tend to have lower conversion rates. The salespeople in those industries tend to, or they're less likely to, hit their target.

Speaker 1: 10:09

In my opinion, that comes back to understanding the business and setting appropriate targets, but it's just something from the statistics. And finally, the psychological impact and that's what I really want to focus on in the remainder of this podcast, which is the situation I've already discussed with you where you feel like you're getting into that downward spiral and I've definitely worked with people where that's been the situation and there are things you can do to turn that around, but it's a lot harder if you're trying to do that on your own. So let me give you some practical strategies now to that you can jot down and apply. So the first one is to don't just focus on the results, but focus on your sales activity and your sales process. So, again, what I mean by that is understanding your customer's journey, from initial inquiry through to signing the order. What are the steps? Are there significant steps in there? You really need to focus on each one of those in turn, and this is where knowing your numbers is so important, because you've got a real measure that you can apply and you can see changes for better or worse, hopefully for better. So, first of all, just focus on each activity in turn. So it may be your qualification process. How much time are you spending with people who are never going to buy from you? So you need to look at questions that qualify people out as much as you qualify people in, because you want to be spending time only with the people that are likely to buy. So you really need to have that right Debrief notes when you get a no or when something doesn't go well, just when you leave the meeting.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Spend a few minutes, either in your car or sitting over, just get a cup of coffee somewhere and just step through objectively. This isn't about beating yourself up about making yourself wrong, doing the oh whoa, I'm a victim that nonsense. You don't do that. You just step back and look at it. Okay, the meeting I've just had. What could have gone better? Did I screw up anywhere? And if you own that and the reason for doing this is it stops you doing it again next time. It's really important to learn when things go wrong.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Get feedback, if you can, from a prospect, if there's someone that you can ask feedback. Look, I know you haven't. You know it could run along the lines of I know you decided not to go with us this time, but I would really appreciate it if you could give me some feedback on perhaps things I could have done better, or maybe I lost you somewhere, or just any feedback I can use to improve personally. Just try that. Some people will help you, some won't. That's just a way of it. If you have colleagues who are doing well, maybe ask if you can just follow them and go with them on a sales call just to learn how they approach, because we all have approaches that are different. They're more the most effective if they sit with our personality, because we come across as more authentic. But you can always learn from other people where you get into healthy daily routines. So just good morning mindsets, affirmations, if that works for you.

Speaker 1: 13:21

Uh, celebrate the wins getting, um, you know, an appointment with someone, getting a demonstration. Celebrate those, because these are all important steps in the process. They're all steps towards getting the order. It's like being in a, let's say, a soccer game, for example, soccer players celebrate scoring a goal. Now, it doesn't mean they've won the match, but they have achieved an important step on the journey to winning a match. So start approaching it that way and, where you can surround yourself with positivity, get people who get your cheerleaders around you, get people who will support you.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Now, one of the things I want to just focus on here. If you'll bear with me a moment, I'm just running back through my notes. I finished up with quite a few of them, so part of it is confidence issues. This is why we don't ask for orders. So if you're one of those people who are not asking for orders or not asking for referrals, the simple thing to say is just get over it. But I'm not going to say that. The thing to recognize is this is your job. If you're in sales, your job is to ask for the order, it is to ask for referrals.

Speaker 1: 14:30

So whatever reluctance or resistance you might be feeling around that, the important thing is to just feel that, acknowledge that it's there, that you've got an element of fear about it. Maybe even if you want to just look at what that fear is For most salespeople, it is the fear of getting a no and what that means to them, which could be losing another order, losing their job, whatever it might be. But step past that and then just ask anyway, because what's the worst that can happen? You can get a no and I've already, in the previous podcast, explained what that might be about and what you can do about it. So just get real about what the no means. Don't make it personal. Use it as something you can learn from Now.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Another thing that you can do if you are afraid of a no is to ask a trial close. Go for a trial close early on, and this is where you're not asking for the order out and out, but you are trying to get a yes from somebody. So it could be along the lines of while you're having a discussion and there might be an issues come up which which you might be concerned about you, but you can just use something as simple as if we can address whatever the concern is, would you feel comfortable moving forward? Now, that's not asking for the order, but it's getting what it's doing. A couple of things. One is it's getting them moving forward and it's getting them to say yes. And this is really important because, psychologically, we like to be consistent and once we've decided, once we've made a decision on something, we will tend to stick with that decision. We will tend to be consistent. So the more times you can get someone to say yes to you and your product, even if it's over a very small thing, that starts to lean them psychologically towards saying yes to the big things. So get them to say yes to the small things. They'll say yes to the big things. That's first part of it.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Um, the second part about moving forward is if you, if so, getting that agreement, if you can address whatever this concern is, can you move forward? What you're starting to do is to get really specific on what the potential issues might be that might stop the sale and if it's just one thing, then you know that's the thing you've got to resolve. There might be two or three, but it's really important you understand what they are and that they're there, because if you don't, this is where a lot of salespeople I've seen lose business because they just miss things. A lot of salespeople I've seen lose business because they just miss things their conversation with the client, their questioning, their conversation to understand exactly what the issues are, exactly what the resolution is the client wants. That's gone wrong. So these kind of things are really important.

Speaker 1: 17:09

Be direct. A lot of salespeople dance around being direct again because there's fear of a nose. So again you can ask something like based on what we've covered, are you ready to move forward with this solution? So that's going for a harder close. And in fact I've given you there's a PDF. If you go to my website, you just sign up to the mailing list and you get a free PDF which gives you seven closes that work. They're all soft closes or assumptive closes and they make closing really easy. So have a look at those.

Speaker 1: 17:38

And then there are some other things you can do. So maybe do a personalized email after you've had a call with somebody, whether whether it's a telephone call or if it's a meeting, I tend to write up a summary and send it to the client, just so that we're all in agreement and have a written record and that all goes into the CRM. So all the details for that customer, these emails, will go in there, because an email is documentation. I don't use emails to sell. Particularly I don't use emails to have the conversations you don't want to do that. That needs to be face-to-face. But you do summarize in emails. So I don't use an email to try and set up a meeting. I know a lot of people like to do that now, whatever generation you are, but to me the best way to set up a meeting is by phone call. But your Gen Zs might not like that. So if you're Gen Z selling to Gen Zs, then go with that, but do keep a record of the confirmation and then definitely keep a record of details that are discussed, whether it's on the phone or face to face.

Speaker 1: 18:45

So that would be the day of the meeting or the day after, no later than that. On the third day, follow up with another call or a LinkedIn message just to follow up on whatever needs following up. So that might be to ask, answer a question, to come back, um, maybe to set up a demo, pardon me, or to clarify some point. Um, a week later and again this depends on the environment you're in there might be another resource that you can send, so it could be a case study, an article, something that would be a benefit to the client, and day 14 or after that so this is two weeks later, obviously, maybe just a light check-in, that kind of thing, just update on some news that may have happened relating to this product. But this is where you get four points contact, so you remember that a lot of people give up after one. No, this is I mean you're going to have to read this situation because it will vary from industry to industry and person to person.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Again, with the personality types, I'll take you through that in the course you can get a lot more savvy on that, but these are just methods you can use to increase your chances of getting that sale. So really, that summarises the primary things I wanted to cover in this email, email, in this podcast, because I don't want to go on too long, but I hope you find that useful. Do have a look at the website and the seven ways to close, and do take down these action points, do them um and, of course, the the the online training is there. If that's um, something that might be of use to you, you get a chance to have a look at it. Also, give a um, a one-year guarantee.

Speaker 1: 20:26

So if you do everything in the course and you're still not getting your results, I'll give you your money back. And so I'm carrying the risk on this because I genuinely, genuinely believe in the techniques I'm teaching, because I know they work. I've used them for years and they definitely work. Okay, that's it from me. I hope you found that useful. Please like, subscribe, share all of that and I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.