curlyfries99

VP Engineering

How do you deal with rejections?

Few years ago I founded a company and I did a bunch of cold calls personally to see how this process goes. I was surprised by the number of rejections and it was pretty demotivating for me as a leader. How do you guys deal with rejections and what are the best practices here?

📞 Cold Calling

7 comments

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ColdCallPro

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

1. Understand that your value has nothing to do with someone’s response on a call

2. Have a reasonable expectation going into making calls. You will have X amount of connects, of those connects you will have a mixture of angry/immediate no responses, not the right contact, calls that go great but for some reason aren’t the right time/lack of budget, and then you have the ones we are waiting for, the successes. Sadly the successes are the smallest percent. Keep smiling and dialing and know the more calls you make the closer you are to the next yes.

3. Their no has nothing to do with you. They don’t know anything about YOU. They are saying no because they are busy, they don’t understand your value or maybe they’re just jerks. You will never (hopefully) see or talk to them again, and crazy thing is, you could probably call them again in three months and they won’t remember you.

The more someone cold calls, the easier it gets. you start perfecting your objection handling and your pitch so you get a few more at bats, but the no’s will always be there. I tell myself, if I can do this job successfully, what can I do once I start having conversations with people who are excited about my platform??

curlyfries99

Opinionated

VP Engineering

Thank you! This is the great answer!

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

May I recommend curling into the fetal position and screaming “Whyyyyyy?!” into your pillow. Works for me!

RealEstateVeep

Politicker

VP of Real Estate

You mean apart from drugs and alcohol?

One thing I think is easy to forget is that they aren't saying no to us or even our companies, but when we call we are interrupting their day and their workflow to push our agenda - of course that more often than not will receive a negative response. When you've been doing this long enough it just won't matter anymore.

sebs

Politicker

BDR

Yep sounds like the average day in a BDRs life. The more you do it, the less awkward it is and I don't think there's a solution other than really getting in the rhythm of it and figuring out what works best for you.

One thing you can do is think about how you'd react if you received the same pitch you're making. If you wouldn't answer your own cold call script, chances are other people won't either.

Rejections are just feedback on how you're communicating and they're opportunities to get better. It takes a couple hundred calls to get there but you learn to not take things personally!

GraceDaleEnterprises

Good Citizen

Enterprise Sales Executive

It really is the type of thing that you have to do in such high volume and with enough consistency that you become a little 'numb' to it. But some tips I find help that are sort of mental checklist/reminders. Take a deep breath while the phone is ringing if you are feeling nervous for whatever reason...just remind yourself you're calling a person just like any other type of phone call conversation. Feeling confident in what you are going to say will help ease nerves, AKA go in with a plan. Also, remind yourself there are easier ways out of the convo, or to achieve what you are hoping to get out of it. Cold calling to pitch and think you are going to get someones attention long enough to have a full intro conversation is not super likely. Calling someone, connecting, and saying "I know I'm calling out of the blue, so can we book a time to properly discuss [blank]." is a much more disarming ask for you and the person you're calling.

wahmsales

WR Officer

SDR

It depends on the rejection. But if they're really rude, I like to imagine that they literally just shit their pants.

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curlyfries99

How do you deal with rejections?

7 comments

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