Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: The Fear of 'No'

Why are most salespeople scared to get out there in front of customers and potential customers? The reason they don’t want to call and connect with potential customers is that one irrefutable thing: fear of the word “no.” That dreadful tiny little word that has so often ruined sales careers.

Think about how it feels when you are about to pick up the phone to ask someone for something. There’s that little voice in your head warning you that the other person will probably say no. It can be paralyzing and keep you from doing your job. More often than not, that extreme fear can cause you to lose your job.

I don’t think I am being over dramatic. I have seen it happen repeatedly.

Some salespeople just admit it. They tell me they are afraid of and hate rejection. Well, who doesn’t? But it’s part of the job and if you live in constant fear of being rejected then you will fail as a salesperson. It’s as simple as that. But for those who admit their fears, you’re halfway home to overcoming that fear.

The salespeople who really bother me are the ones who are fooling themselves. They come up with “good reasons” why they won’t face the fear of rejection. They just chose to live with it. Actually, they come up with ways to work around it by coming up with reasons why they don’t allow situations where they could be rejected. They justify and rationalize their way out of putting themselves in the path of rejection. They come up with excuses disguised as “strategies and tactics” to avoid rejection. This is just caving in to their fears.

Perhaps you’ve heard (or said) something like this:

“I don’t bother to try to see people, they don’t want to be seen, so I don’t bother to even make appointments. They even tell me they don’t want to see me.”

Of course, they will tell you that. Nobody enjoys being sold. It is your job to make it enjoyable. It is your job to make them want to see you. That is the role you are in as a salesperson.

“Look, I am not going to bother to try to cold call new customers; they never answer the phone. Especially the millennials; they don’t use the phone at all, and they never answer it. Cold calling is dead.”

Well, isn’t that convenient for you? How disappointing it must be that cold calling is dead. I’m sure it’s not your fault, right? So, just email the person so you can hide by being one of the hundreds of emails they get every day. It will make sure that you never get to them and never make that sale. But, hey, the good news is that you won’t have to be scared of hearing “no.”

“How can I be expected to take my customer to lunch, dinner, the golf course, or the stock car races, or even the vape lounge? I do all my business by socializing with my customers and now that they’re working from home, what am I supposed to do?”

This is one of my favorites, invented during the pandemic shutdowns. Is that all you’ve got? Your entire sales pitch is about what you buy your customer for lunch? So, the company you represent, the products they produce, is not good enough? You need to take them to a vape lounge to sell them? Well, maybe the vape lounge manager will give you a job when you’re fired from this one.

Look, when you’re in sales, rejection is part of the job. It is what you signed up for. The minute you learn to handle rejection the sooner you will be on your way to a successful sales career, or any career for that matter because there is rejection in everything we do all day every day. It just comes with the territory. Your job is to face your fear of “no” and overcome it.

Look for ways to handle that fear; there are no real shortcuts to doing that. It’s all about doing what you need to do to get the sale—whatever that is. If you have a true passion for winning and being a great salesperson, you will find a way.

One simple way to overcome your fear of the word “no” is getting used to doing the things you need to do that make your fear of rejection until you get used to doing them to the point of overcoming that fear. In other words, don’t skirt around your fears. Face them head on go, right through them, and you will become a great salesperson.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is present of D.B. Management Group.