Sales Tip: Handling Rejection with Your Industrial Leads

In a perfect world, every sales call you make to a prospect would generate another conversion. But this obviously isn't the case, as many of your sales leads will reject your offer. Rejection is something that comes with the territory of being a sales professional. However, learning how to deal with this rejection can set you apart from your competitors while boosting your conversions in the process.

Don't Respond to Rejection with Rejection

As a salesperson, hearing the words “I'm not interested” coming from a prospect can be disheartening to say the least. Maybe you've invested several hours of your time and energy into nurturing the prospect, only for him or her to reject your proposal. When this occurs, you may instinctively respond with rejection of your own, cutting off the prospect. Just because a prospect rejects your offer, however, doesn't necessarily mean that they will never purchase your product or service. So, try to get into the habit of maintaining good relations with prospects, even if they do reject you initially. You simply can't afford to get emotional when you lose a deal. 

Give the Prospect Time

Another way to handle rejection is to give the prospect time to think it over. You can tell the prospect that you'll call back next Monday at 10:30 AM, for instance. Doing so satisfies the client of not having to make a decision right now, while still giving him or her time to rethink their decision. Granted, the prospect may reject your offer again during the follow-up conversation, but there's also a chance that he or she will change their mind. This also gives you time to potentially modify your value proposition. You'd be suprised with the information you can gather by simply asking a prospect "why".

Remain Silent

No, that's not a typo. Many salespersons have experienced success by responding to rejection with silence. If a prospect rejects your offer, remain silent by saying nothing. This awkward silence will often entice the prospect to begin speaking again, which may reveal clues as to why he or she is not interested in your product or service. Using this information, you can then customize your adjust you proposal in a last-ditch effort to convert the prospect into a paying customer.

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