Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling

16

Turning Around RBOs

Reflex Responses, Brush-Offs, and Objections

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

—Mike Tyson

They say that public speaking causes the most fear in people, but in my experience, given the choice between giving a public speech and making a prospecting call, you'd have a line for the speech.

Rejection is a powerful de-motivator. For millions of salespeople, picking up the phone and calling a prospect is the most stressful part of their day. Sadly, these reluctant salespeople stifle their earning potential, get fired, or fall into financial ruin.

Prospecting, especially telephone prospecting and in-person prospecting, conjures up our deepest fears of vulnerability. Vulnerability, according to Dr. Brene Brown, author of the Power of Vulnerability, is created in the presence of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure (read: potential to be rejected).

This is why so many salespeople hate prospecting. They cannot control the situation and therefore feel vulnerable and uncomfortable.

The feeling of rejection happens the moment you get a reflex response, brush-off, or objection (RBO). You feel like you've been punched in the gut. Your brain turns off and you stumble over your words. You feel embarrassed, small, and out of control. Feeling that you lack control is an awful, sometimes debilitating emotion.

Yet, it's right here, at this very inflection point of rejection, that the rubber meets the road in prospecting and sales. It's the skill ...