Dump Your "Fear of Rejection" to Supercharge Your Business
Fear of rejection is that voice telling you to skip the sales call. It's lying to you — and it's costing your business real money. Here's the truth.
KickStart: STOP your fearful fretting about rejection. Your prospect simply may not be focused on and/or ready for the service(s) you are selling. Instead…
Let’s be real. You already know what you need to do as in…
1) Git yer butt out there, 2) knock on doors, network, etc. and 3) land some new customers.
You know this. Your bank account knows it. Your family definitely knows it as in, “DUH, Dad! Why are you still hanging around the house?” But they don’t say it and neither do you…
So, what IS stopping you? 😦
It’s that little voice that pipes up the second you even think about knocking on a door. Yep, the dreaded whisper, “Don’t bother. They’re going to laugh at you. You’re going to feel like an idiot.”
Who said that? It’s your Fear Of Rejection (FOR) talking — and if you’ve been in business for more than five minutes, you’ve heard it many times- loud and clear.
I’ve heard it too. More times than I can count. 😥
Why Your “FOR” Is Costing You Serious Money
Here’s what this little subliminal FOR voice actually does to you in practice. You postpone sales calls by inventing reasons to do them tomorrow, next week or, in reality… never? instead…
You suddenly find a dozen other so-called “urgent” tasks that need your attention — paperwork, equipment checks, anything to avoid walking through a prospect’s door.
NOTE: I call this deadly procrastination Displacement Activities, and it is lethal to your business growth.
Days turn into weeks that turn into months. And all that time you wasted not making sales calls? It is a HUGE “Opportunity Cost”. Why? Because it represents…
Business you could have had. Revenue you left on the table. All because of a stupid voice in your head that was lying to you the whole time! 😫
What My Mom Got Right About Selling
My mom used to tell me something I didn’t fully appreciate until I was years into building my own business. She’d say, “Steven, it costs you nothing to ask.”
Mom was right! (And it only took me 20 years to learn this!)
Think about it. What is the absolute WORST thing that can happen when you introduce yourself to a new prospect? They say “no”. That’s it. Here’s what they won’t do to you. (Hopefully!) 🙄
1) They’re not going to chase you out of their home. 2) They’re not going to post your picture on social media. 3) They’re not going to call the police on you!
They are just going to more-or-less nicely say “no”. *
* Actually, most people are too timid to even give you a straight out “NO”! Instead, they’ll disguise it with a “Let me think about it…” Trust me, folks, this is a hard “no” and we should talk about this soon!
But however your prospect couches it — and this is a key point — it’s not meant to be personal. YOU are the one making it “personal” by getting your panties all in a wad which leads to even more FOR!
So, let’s analyze how to beat your totally irrational FOR by asking my mom about them! When I was a grade schooler I woke up every day panicked so I’d blurt out to mom, “The other kids are all going to be looking at me!”
Good old mom replied, “Steven, nobody really cares!” Kind of hurtful, Mom! Now mom didn’t know it, but she was setting me up for a very successful career as a residential services entrepreneur! Thanks, Mom!
Once I put Mom’s “nobody really cares” principle to work I realized an essential truth. The two biggest forces working against me in any sales situation weren’t hostility or judgment.
My (and your) sales-killers are apathy and inertia! As in, most prospects aren’t thinking about you (or the service you are selling) at all. They’ve got their own problems, their own priorities, and their own fires to put out.
So, when you get brushed off, it’s almost never about you. It’s just “business friction”. They’re not focused on you and/or on what solutions you are offering AT THIS TIME. This means you must…
Stop taking your prospect’s lack of interest personally, suck it up, and git yer butt out your door… NOW! (And step away from those silly and very destructive Displacement Activities.)
BUT WAIT! I know what you’re thinking as in, “Steve, STOP it! Yer doing one of your patented ‘rah-rah, motivational closes’ and all I want from you is one thing! Tell me HOW to beat my Fear Of Rejection… NOW!”
Fair enough! How about in our very next KickStart I give you not “ONE thing” but FIVE tips that allowed me to ban “Fear Of Rejection” forever! Happy???
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