Make Rejection a Goal

Rejection is demoralizing, it saps you of your energy and can stop you dead in your tracks.

We, therefore, seek to avoid Rejection.

But rejection is part of the journey to success. So, if you want to succeed, you need to get comfortable with being rejected.

How?

Seek Rejection, as if it were a daily goal.

Example: Joe and Jane are in sales. Part of their job requirement is for each of them to make thirty cold calls to prospects, every day. So, every day, they are given a list of thirty phone numbers to call.

Joe, after a day of getting nothing but “Nos,” cannot wait until he is finished with his required thirty cold calls. After a week of rejection, Joe becomes demoralized. When the morning alarm clock sounds, it’s like someone punched him in the gut. He just can’t stand waking up in the morning to face another day of rejection. It will not take Joe very long before he is fired or quits.

Jane, conversely, cannot wait to wake up and begin another day making cold calls.

Why?

Jane sets a daily goal of getting thirty rejections. As a result, she enthusiastically calls each prospect, expecting a “No”. And when she gets a “No,” she is satisfied and moves on to the next number on her list, expecting another “No,” moving her closer to achieving her daily goal of thirty rejections.

Every now and then, Jane gets a “Yes.” In her mind, she must now increase the number of cold calls she makes, in order to reach her goal of thirty “No’s.” So, she frequently goes to her supervisor, asking for more numbers to call. If Jane gets too many “Yes’s,” she will even work overtime in order to reach her goal of thirty rejections.

After a few months of this, Jane leads all cold-callers in the number of “Yes’s” she received. The CEO of her company is surprised and begins to take notice of Jane’s “resilience” and “hard work ethic.”

You can apply this strategy to prospect meetings, email pitches, etc.