Do Salespeople Really Fear Rejection or Is It All A Myth?

Did you know that Greensboro was actually named after the green apples that used to abound in Guilford County? That Winston-Salem was named after John Winston and Mary Salem, two early Moravian settlers? And that High Point was named by early founders who were experiencing problems and wanted to replace a low point in their lives with a high point!

Of course, none of these things are true. They are clearly myths that I have made up for the purpose of this column. Unfortunately, there is another myth that is just as much a myth, yet a lot more believable and potentially destructive.

The myth is the belief that most salespeople who don't perform, fail because of a fear of rejection. Over the course of several decades our firm has assessed thousands of salespeople for hiring, training and coaching purposes. Surprisingly, less than 10% exhibit a fear of rejection (yes, we actually measure this)!

If rejection is not the culprit, what is? Is it a lack of selling skills? Inadequate product knowledge? Lack of motivation? Poor self-starting capacity? Why is it that salespeople sometimes have trouble getting started?  

It is my belief that the answer is like a lot of other issues that relate to successful selling. It all starts with a realistic, honest and objective appraisal of your own situations.

Let's take a look at a few questions:

• Do you have total and complete confidence in your product or service  to do what you say it will do?
• Do you have 100% confidence in your support and customer service team?
• Do you have a solid, proven sales system that allows you to move through the sale with confidence and ease?

• Do you call on prospects you can feel good about calling on regularly?

• Do you have sales aids and tools that help propel your sales performance?

• Do you have a pay plan that fuels achievement, performance and results?

• Do you have adequate administrative support to make processing of orders easy, efficient and non-intrusive on your sales effort?

Do you get the picture? It is not just a fear of rejection that can cause a sales meltdown! In fact, when it comes to the rejection issue, the rejection is rarely the real cause, anyway. Instead, it is the embarrassment of the rejection. That is the culprit...it is not the rejection that causes the problem.

Instead it's the gut wrenching embarrassment that occurs when things don't go right. When you feel as if you have represented yourself as less than professional. When you don't get the respect you feel you deserve...when systems, procedures or actions don't go the way they're expected to go. That's the problem!

In fact, the real issue and fail point for most salespeople is centered around these very issues over and over again. It is the outright terror of being embarrassed in front of prospects or customers that drives the failure.

Some symptoms? Let me give you a few that are the tip of the iceberg and are really nothing more than a reflection of the embarrassment issue. Here we go:

• Complaints about lousy service
• Complaints about poor delivery
• Complaints about billing errors
• Complaints about inadequate knowledge of the prospect
• Complaints about improper or inadequate training

All of these are nothing more than symptoms that reflect a clear and present fear of embarrassment - and embarrassment in front of either a prospect or customer! Real or imagined, actual or anticipatory, in either case the reality is that the ever present embarrassment issue lurks and shows its ugly head.

Some solutions? Some are organizational. Some are, clearly, out of your hands. But, at least knowing the cause and accepting what you can and cannot do about them is half the battle. Others are things you can do something about. The secret is to take action with the things you can control, learn to accept those you can't and move past myths.

Instead, deal with facts. Deal with reality. You and your sales career will both be well served by it.