major ways: it keeps you from feeling discouraged when you get a“ no” because you can see clearly that the call wasn’ t a waste of your time; it just means you’ re that much closer to getting a“ yes” in the future. It also empowers you to help prospects end conversations that clearly aren’ t going anywhere, rather than drag out a process that won’ t end up benefiting either of you.

CELEBRATE AND REWARD

YOUR WINS. You’ ll experience countless rejections in your work as a salesperson— but you’ ll also land wins that make every rejection feel like a necessary building block. Those sales will demand hard work, and when it pays off, you and your team should absolutely be rewarded and celebrate your successes.

We’ ve drummed up quite a few incentives for our own sales team when someone makes a sale: we ring a bell for our team to hear and celebrate, and our sales team leader sends out a message to the entire team to congratulate us. We’ ve also rolled out a“ Sales Call of the Month” contest to highlight salespeople who do truly awesome work on their calls each month and to learn from each person’ s approach.

Knowing what kind of praise, rewards and other incentives motivate you and your fellow salespeople is critical to moving past rejections and focusing on the next opportunity. The better you know the feeling of getting to a“ yes,” the more motivated you’ ll be to continuously strive for the next one.

Rejection is a fact of life for every salesperson. And while rejection sounds negative on the surface, it doesn’ t have to be a bad thing. Handling sales rejection is all about looking at the silver lining of each“ no” you receive. There’ s opportunity all around you— you’ ve just got to be in the mindset to see it. n

Remember these quick tips when analyzing your sales rejections and preparing to take on your next challenge:

AUTHORS

Don’ t take it personally. Hold yourself accountable by focusing on the parts of the process you can control.

Learn from your mistakes.

Uncover the reasons behind each rejection; you might find valuable information to help your team and the company as a whole improve.

Don’ t be afraid to ask a lead who said“ no” to give you a referral to someone else who might be a better fit.

Always stay top of mind; you might not be a good fit now, but you could be down the road.

Know your numbers and the value of each call, email and touchpoint.

NATALIE STEZOVSKY currently serves as the vice president for Influence & Co., which is a content marketing firm that specializes in creating engaging content that fuels companies existing content marketing efforts to position key employees as influencers in their industry. Her role is centered around establishing valuable partnerships with agencies, companies and brands to support their clients with their content marketing initiatives.

MORENA MOUSER is the assistant vice president at Influence & Co. You can find Morene getting a deep tissue massage or sipping an iced caramel macchiato at the local coffee shop.

38 PULSE ■ July 2017