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911: Rejection Helps a DSR Focus on Better Preparation

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DSRs, how do you react to rejection, and what actions are you taking to avoid more rejections tomorrow?

You might want to look at each rejection as a lesson on how to prepare yourself differently for a sales call. Don’t take folks saying no or not now personal, it’s business. You need to think about and discover why they rejected what you were offering.

Every DSR who’s growing their business with current customers and with prospects usually runs into some kind of rejection. It might be with a current customer when you’re trying to sell them an item you don’t currently sell to them, or with a prospect that won’t budge from their current DSR.    

When a prospect says that they’re happy with who they’re currently buying from, that’s NOT a rejection! That, my friend, is the prospect telling you that you’ve not done enough research and work up to that point to entice them to take any other action with you. Think about it, why in the world would a successful business person change what is currently working for them just because you walked in? Now, if they told you to NEVER come back, well that IS rejection. So in that case, go get your car washed, turn on some Bob Marley and chill because there’s so much other business out there that needs to buy from some DSR.

You certainly will have a better shot if you walk in armed with market research you’ve done on that prospect. Reports you built with comments from Yelp, Urban Spoon, Trip Advisor, Google, etc. listing the top 5 positive customer comments and the top 5 negative comments customers posted about their experience will be proof you are willing to go the extra mile for customers. Also, if you add in research you gathered from kid’s menus of similar restaurants located around them (because kids decide a large percentage of the time where their parents eat), and you had a sample in hand of the product they DON’T have on their kid’s menu that they maybe should offer, you are offering concrete ideas and solutions

You might get rejected if you ask one of your current customers to buy an item from you that they’re currently buying from your competition, even though you lowered your price this week to get the business, they still may say no. Most good operators would see that you’re thinking short-term with no real plan on how you’re going to help them make money, because we all know you can’t just save your way to financial success in this business.

In this case, you need to provide the customer with a good reason why they should try a product your company is really good with and hope that they like it. As usual, if you work harder and smarter to help customers make money, they’ll want to buy everything you have and price will not be as big of factor.

If you want to be rejected less, you need to learn how you need to prepare differently; prepare better. Start by listening to your customers and prospects twice as much as you talk. I promise they will tell you exactly what to do, or not to do next. 

DSRs, Be a Resource…and Sell Something!