Selling is all about converting big ‘NO’ to ‘YES’.

Fear of rejection is the biggest obstacle in the success of our sales career. It holds back us from seeing more and better prospect, and translating those calls into more and better sales. The starting point of overcoming fear of rejection is to realise that it is not to the individual. Rejection has nothing to do with you as a person. The prospect does not know you well enough to reject you as an individual. To repeat: rejection is simply not personal. Everyone is bombarded with so much sales proposals in our commercial society that ‘NO’ is a standard response to any sales proposal.
Selling is all about converting big ‘NO’ to ‘YES’. As mentioned above ‘NO’ is the standard response in every proposal as our prospect does not know to what he/she is saying ‘no’. Therefore the first step is to convert our prospect from ‘NO’ to ‘KNOW’. To convert ‘no’ to ‘know’ we should take the initiative to know him. If I take the initiative to know him, then he will also come forward to know me. Every action has got equal and opposite reaction, that’s the law of the nature. We can make rules but not laws. If you take the initiative to know your prospect, the prospect will also take the action of knowing you. It may take time; therefore patience is another trait to be developed by sales professionals. People are not interested in the product or services; everyone is interested in themselves. First you have to take interest to know your prospect. To know our prospect, we should respect our prospect. To respect them, we should respect their decision. To respect their decision, we should appreciate or complement of their possessions and what ever they are good at. Every individual is having some bad qualities as well as good qualities. Our job is not to focus on their bad qualities but on their good qualities. This is to be done genuinely. Some of us may not have the skill of appreciating others, but this can be developed through practice and taking a conscious effort over a period of time and later on it will be a habit for you to appreciate others.
You can appreciate anything and everything whatever you find good in other person: We can travel in an ordinary car or wear an ordinary dress to cover our body or live in an ordinary house. Why does a person take so much pain, effort and initiative to decorate his house or office? Why does a person go for a designer’s dress or expensive car? There is an inborn craving to be appreciated by others. Does it cost you anything to appreciate others? No, but rarely we do that. We always try to find fault in others.
If you appreciate a person, he will feel good and happy. If a person feels good & happy, he will also find the ways to make you happy (Action ↔ Reaction).
Below I am mentioning a magic formula which I have used during my sales career. You can appreciate anything whatever you find good in that person. If don’t find anything specific to be appreciated but everyone is having a family, everyone does some work and everyone takes part in some activities to recreate him. We can enquire and show interest in their areas of interest. But you have to be careful while asking questions. You must respect their privacy. It should not create an embarrassing situation.