Sales reps everywhere experience the same challenges when handling sales rejection. It’s natural to want to avoid this pain, but it’s a fact of life and a significant part of the job that every rep must overcome.
Your team must be able to promote themselves and balance multiple objections to make sales and improve your bottom line. The question is, how do you handle rejection in sales?
In this article, we’ll share tips on dealing with rejection in sales and help your team shift their mindset from fearful to fearless.
Why the fear of rejection happens in sales
Rejection is part of everyday life, but when there are quotas to meet and sales careers to make, the pressure to succeed can feel even greater.
Wanting to avoid a dismissal or refusal is natural. Several well-researched psychological principles explain why salespeople fear rejection.
Here are three of the cognitive biases humans share that play a part in avoiding rejection:
Negativity bias. We tend to let unfortunate events impact our mental state more than positive events. Avoiding sending that cold email protects us from feeling the negativity of a poor answer, or none at all.
Loss aversion. The pain of loss is more potent than the joy of gaining. A lost lead will impact us more than when we gain a lead.
The Ostrich Effect. Instead of dealing with negative information or feedback (even constructive criticism), we avoid it and bury our heads in the sand. Putting off that call to a lead who seems unlikely to close is an example of this effect in action.
Note that each rep will react to and handle adverse situations differently. For example, one rep may take a deep breath and shake off the rejection before heading to the next opportunity. Another may take it personally and let their anxiety impact later meetings.
As a sales leader, it’s up to you to help sales reps reshape their thinking and reduce the fear of rejection.
9 tips to help your sales team handle rejection
Every sales manager knows that rejection is inevitable. Once your salespeople face their initial fears and make the call, how can you help them deal with hearing “no”?
Follow these nine tips to help them overcome rejection, stop self-criticism and boost self-esteem.
Here’s how to handle rejection in sales:
1. Deconstruct sales perceptions
Encourage your salespeople not to make assumptions about anyone’s abilities and keep an open mind.
Don Surath, author of Conquering Cold-Calling Fear: Before and After the Sale and a multimedia solution developer at CBS, rarely gave anyone in his university courses a grade higher than a 93.
However, one student who wasn’t a “stereotypical salesperson” got a 98 and was the only one of 50 to land a sales meeting. The student didn’t seem to fit the mold, yet outperformed expectations. Help reps let go of constricting self-beliefs and know that they can still succeed.
Limiting assumptions can also apply to potential customers. For example, reps qualify prospects by determining whether they’re a good fit for the company’s product. However, it’s worth taking the whole person into account.
Your team should enter each sales activity with an open mind to avoid misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
Remember, sales is about listening. Understand the prospect’s perspective and adapt your sales approach accordingly. Ensure the team knows to take each objection as it comes and use it to refine their pitch or offer a more tailored solution.
2. Shift the focus to activity metrics
Instead of putting pressure on broader sales goals, shift reps’ focus to celebrating quick wins or individual sales activities. Doing so helps reps shift their focus from the result they can’t control (a closed sale) to the action they can (picking up the phone and making a call).
According to Surath:
Implement customer relationship management (CRM) software like Pipedrive to help reps keep on top of their activities:
Use it to help your sales team keep track of outreach and break down sales success into bite-sized activities like video calls and emails.
Activity-based selling keeps reps focused on actions rather than outcomes. Removing results from the equation can help your team feel more in control and increase confidence by focusing on small, achievable daily goals (e.g., making a set number of calls).
It’s also easy for reps to assume they’re the only ones experiencing this fear of rejection, which can worsen things.
As the business owner or sales leader, you know sales is a numbers game, and by extension, how many calls it takes to get a “yes”. Share this information with your salespeople so they feel less alone and learn that rejection is part of the sales process.
3. Show salespeople how your products help customers
Share evidence of customer success to prove your products help real people and companies. That way, you can get sales teams excited about delivering their services.
Some reps may feel uncomfortable coaxing people into spending money. To help them succeed, you must reframe this thinking into a more positive mindset.
For example, create and distribute case studies to convey your product’s real-world impact on customers. Give reps confidence that they’re offering value and help them sell better to specific groups with relevant customer stories.
For example, these case studies, use we use for lead generation, can be found on Pipedrive’s website:
Potential customers can read through your case studies and relate to similar situations.
Let’s say you sell social media services, and one of the case studies focused on a small business owner who saw a massive increase in their LinkedIn following. If your rep is pitching to another entrepreneur who wants to boost their LinkedIn numbers, sharing those results could help clinch the sale.
Giving your reps targeted content allows them to pitch more accurately and effectively while reducing fear and rejection.
4. Build your reps’ confidence by investing in sales training
Help your salespeople build self-confidence by training them in soft skills to qualify prospects. That way, they’ll learn to explain your product’s value, handle objections and follow up more efficiently.
For example, when Don Surath challenged his students to arrange a sales meeting, “a lot of people picked the president of Google or Facebook”. However, none of them landed a meeting. The only student in the class who got one chose the president of a local brewery.
While the other students had high aspirations, the successful student used soft skills like critical thinking, adaptability and creativity to pick a more realistic subject.
Arrange specific sales training for reps to build their confidence, such as:
Workshops (e.g., sales pitch training)
Guest speakers (e.g., an expert on cold calling)
Role-playing exercises (e.g., extreme negotiating)
Free learning resources (e.g., video series and e-books)
For example, here’s a video from the Pipedrive library on handling the “It’s too expensive” objection:
To organize the most impactful sessions, ask your reps which part of the sales process could benefit from training. That way, you’ll allot time to beneficial coaching that your team values.
Note: Look at the Pipedrive Academy learning platform for more free sales training resources.
5. Let reps practice on low-risk prospects
New reps fearful of rejection should avoid dealing with the highest-value clients immediately. Instead, have them practice with lower-risk prospects to hone their negotiation and pitching skills.
These people have less potential impact on revenue or sales quotas, reducing pressure for reps. The interactions are valuable lessons and learning experiences to boost your team’s confidence.
For example, low-risk prospects can include:
An employee who isn’t the company decision-maker
One of multiple decision-makers within a business-to-business or B2B sales company
A contact at a smaller business that isn’t a significant revenue driver
After successfully navigating these interactions, they’ll have the experience to communicate, answer a prospect’s objections and close deals with higher-value clients.
You can also give new salespeople a script to refer to during phone calls or emails. Sales talk will become second nature when they move on from low-risk learning opportunities and begin calling high-stakes prospects.
6. Help salespeople analyze their calls
Sometimes your salespeople reach a prospect at a bad time, but take a “not right now” as a firm “no”. Listening to sales calls can reveal the source of the rejection.
For example, reps may analyze the call and realize the prospect was about to head into a meeting.
Reps shouldn’t panic if they call at an inconvenient time and get rejected. Implementing software that allows salespeople to listen to calls can help them pinpoint ways to improve.
For example, you can use Pipedrive’s call-tracking and insights software to help reps refer to specific conversations:
Integrations like JustCall and CloudTalk enable your team to automatically log all text and call data (e.g., activities, recordings and voicemails) within Pipedrive to streamline sales communications.
Ensure reps analyze calls from different sales pipeline stages to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses from prospecting to closing. Doing so can help them plan calls more effectively and improve future results.
7. View every “no” as one step closer to a sale
Sales managers must remind reps that they’re strong people. Overcoming insecurities is part of the game in sales, so every objection is a chance to control the fear of failure.
Phrase it this way for reps:
If it takes you an average of 100 calls to close a sale, facing your fears and making one call means you only have 99 calls left. After the next call, you’ll only have 98 calls left to make and you’re one step closer to the next sales opportunity.
The best advice for overcoming the fear of rejection in sales is to put one foot in front of the other and take another step. Successful salespeople face the next activity head-on, even if it’s scary.
Surath offered this advice for reps with self-doubt:
To be successful in sales, one must have perseverance and a growth mindset. Ensure you give reps credit for pushing on in the face of adversity.
8. Remind your salespeople of the job’s benefits
Sales jobs (especially outside sales roles) can offer some of the most desirable perks and benefits. When reps fear rejection, remind them of the fun they can have along the way.
For example, your company may offer a commission or compensation plan. It may also give reps perks like:
Company cars
Flexible working
Wellness memberships
Private insurance
Paid meals
Surath explained:
Of course, learning to love a job in sales and getting past what’s holding reps back won’t happen overnight. Team members must nurture low self-esteem and social anxiety over time.
As the team or company lead, reframe the risk of rejection as an opportunity to improve sales skills and well-being.
Explain how facing rejection helps reps learn. Eventually, what once seemed overwhelming can become more manageable.
Prevent failure with your guide to handling tricky sales situations
9. Understand sales rejection isn’t personal
Clarify that reps shouldn’t tie rejection to their self-worth or take this natural part of sales as a reflection of their character.
While a bit of apprehension can help focus the mind, too much of it can impact sales performance. To avoid these issues, reps must understand the reasoning behind objections.
When someone objects to your pitch, they’re signaling a gap in understanding or a pain point that needs to be addressed.
When reps view rejection more objectively, it doesn’t feel personal or critical. Instead, they can see opportunities to qualify prospects further and hone their sales strategy. The emotional response is natural but misplaced.
The ABC model is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) framework that helps reps break down these feelings and reshape them positively:
Activating events. The adverse situation takes place.
Beliefs. We create an explanation for why it occurred.
Consequences. Our beliefs trigger certain feelings and behaviors in response.
Once salespeople learn to handle rejection and realize it’s part of the sales process, they can find their footing and develop healthier responses to these events.
Final thoughts
Fear of rejection is a natural instinct, but every sales professional must learn to deal with it. Instead of viewing each rejection as a personal affront, reps can bounce back by developing their negotiation or pitching skills.
As a sales leader, level the playing field by highlighting the multiple activities it takes every team member to make a sale and providing targeted content to make selling more seamless.
In addition, track your team’s progress with a CRM system like Pipedrive to highlight successes as reps conquer their fears.
