I’m a writer who has been selling for many years now. My most recent piece that won the $2,000 check was one of my first pieces in The Writer Life. It was titled “7 Ways To Deal With Customer Refusals And Their Emotions.” After this article has gone viral and has landed me a lot of new customers, here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to putting your best foot forward. These tips can be applied to anyone no matter how good or bad they are at sales, but these three will change your life:
1) Be A Person First, Not An Imposter
This is probably more applicable to introvert salespeople than extroverts. We’re wired differently. Introverts tend to have trouble dealing with people they don’t know as well as working with large groups of strangers. When you work in sales, we all go through our own emotional roller coaster of emotions which naturally leads us to feel uncomfortable around others. Therefore, I say again…
Be people first, not an imposter. You don’t need to dress up like someone else, act like a robot, walk like an alien or do whatever other people think makes you look smart. No one likes that about them. Don’t ever pretend to know something you’re not familiar with!
2) Use Your Head Up High In Confidence
People think more about what you’re saying and what they should be saying than they do about you. They also think less about who you are, what you do, where you went to college and how much money you make than they do about how great your company culture is or how great you are to their children. This means using confidence to sell even better.
This doesn’t mean being cocky or arrogant. Instead of acting confident, try to show confidence by being calm and positive. If you want to be confident, learn how to read body language and know what makes other people feel comfortable. Showing this level of confidence shows that you know what you’re doing and that you don’t take shortcuts or cut corners.
3) Know How To Say Yes
I once had a client complain that she’d never been offered any business from another person until she started working at his firm. She said if he were her boss she wouldn’t have wanted anything else at all, so how could he afford her? He didn’t want her on the team, but she loved it — she felt like part of something big and important. Now, because he’s my boss and he always says yes, she’s happy. But we both knew that she’d love what we could do together. Even though she wasn’t getting paid for doing what she loved and was only helping with marketing she still found it rewarding to see the results. Because everyone wants to help the economy as much as possible, the government keeps increasing taxes and interest rates, therefore making everything harder than it needs to be. So by saying yes to work at my clients I’m helping. There’s no harm in asking for help; sometimes it really does pay off.
So there you are 3 ways to deal with customer refusals (and your emotions) that worked for me. At least one of these can apply to you too. Remember to use these tools and remember why you’re asking for the work. Do it for yourself or for the company.
And lastly, remember that you have nothing else to lose! No one goes to work to be treated badly, either at the workplace or otherwise. You may find that some people at work are rude, demanding or hard-nosed but after a bit of time you will realize that none of those qualities will ruin you or your career. Keep going, keep learning, stay positive! Take a risk, fail, get back up and move forward. Think positively…and don’t forget to smile!
