Supremely Successful Selling: Discovering the Magic Ingredient

Chapter 22

The Horrifying 10

IF YOU DON'T MAKE THE SALE—and sometimes you won't—there is often 1 of 10 reasons you were turned down. There may be more than the 10 when you don't get a yes, but these are the primary ones.

You may find it takes a sales call or two before you're able to avoid them all. I know in my own solicitations, when I failed, my immediate instinct was to pull the shades and devote the rest of my life to reading the collected works of Emily Dickinson.

But I soon learned that the mark of a motivated and supremely successful salesperson is the ability to distinguish a temporary setback from a defeat. I've been blessed with an invincible spirit. You will be, too, if you stick with it.

It's not a matter of whether you get knocked down. You will. It's whether you get up again. And I do.

I've made sales calls where I've had them dancing in the aisles. Yes, dancing in the aisles—running for the exit. I struck out. But I just kept making my calls.

One of my students at a seminar told me he couldn't figure it out—why he lost the sale. “I had them laughing their asses off.” I told him that was the problem. “You weren't selling asses.”

Giving up is the ultimate tragedy. Failure is not the crime—low aspirations are.

Here are the 10 tragic reasons to avoid.

1. You Didn't Make the Call to Set Up the Visit

You committed the most grievous act of all. You never telephoned to set up the visit. You kept putting it off.

You stared at the phone. And you stared. And you stared. You ...