Dealing with rejection: a step-by-step guide on how to get over rejection the right way (for SDRs)
A 5-step guide you can start using today.
Read time: 2:36 min
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Today, I’m going to show you the 5 step guide I use to deal with rejection.
No one teaches me how to handle rejection and I struggled a lot with this when I started at Chili Piper. Before
At Chili Piper, I was out of my comfort zone (I’m still out of it), and I started to get a lot of rejection because I was talking to more prospects than my previous jobs.
I was getting a lot of:
No replies
“Unsubscribe”
“Stop emailing me”
Prospects ghosting me
Prospects hanging up on me
Someone yells at you on the phone
I was stressed because of that.
Sales is the hardest job in the world.
Because you deal with rejection, every single day, and no one teaches you to how to handle rejection.
If you compare the SDR job to sports.
SDRs have a 1% success rate.
VS in basketball the average Effective Field Goal Percentage 49-55% of NBA teams.
So it means that 99% of the time you miss, and you face rejection.
And I didn’t find a solution until listen to KD’s podcast a few weeks ago: The Biology of Rejection and I started to research this topic. So that’s why I’m doing this newsletter today.
On LinkedIn you can read a lot of bad tips to handle rejection:
Don’t take it personal
Rejection is just a part of you, deal with it
If you get rejected, the best thing you can do is: make another call
Those tips don’t take count of your biology.
But before we start, let’s see:
Why rejection hurts so much
Rejection hurts physically.
When you get:
a NO
Unsubscribe
Someone hangs up
But why rejection hurts, if it’s just words.
Because it's how our brains are wired to react.
Evolutionary psychologists believe it all started when we were tribal hunter-gatherers.
It hurts physically because it's rooted in life-and-death situations, in biology and our tribal nature.
Being rejected from our tribe was a death sentence because we could not survive alone.
So, we created an early warning system.
To let us know when we were at risk of being "kicked off the island" by our tribe.
People were more inclined to change their behavior, stay with the tribe, and pass on their genes if they felt rejection was more painful.
When you're rejected and the pain receptors are lighting up in your brain.
Your body's also releasing a massive amount of cortisol into your bloodstream, and into your system. Cortisol is the stress hormone. That's what causes your heart rate to go up when you face rejection.
Today, we still face rejection because of that.
Good news: there are ways to hack this response and offset the cortisol released when you do get rejected. And no, it has nothing to do with substance abuse and everything to do with healthy answers via movement, music, breathing, friends, and family.
How do you deal with rejection?
Here is a 5-step guide you can start using this Monday:
Step 1: Accept it’s going to happen
The first step in this is actually knowing that it is going to happen.
Rejection will always happen.
It’s like traffic, we will always face traffic and we can’t change that.
We need to accept it.
It's going to happen and just accepting that is a big step because, so often, we're actually hoping it doesn't happen which makes it even worse when it does.
Prospect hangs up.
You’ll get unsubscribed
Step 2: Don’t blame yourself
It’s natural to want to know why you were rejected.
But there aren’t always clear reasons for rejection.
If we don’t have answers, we blame ourselves; we assume that we screwed up, we weren’t enough, we’re unlovable, difficult, stupid, etc.
Sometimes the prospects had a bad day or thought you were someone else.
Everyone faces rejection: bottom, middle or top performers.
Step 3: Plan a positive action, when you face it
10 positive action ideas you can take:
Short walk.
Jump rope.
Get outside.
Talk to 1 friend
Exercise for 2 min.
Breathing exercise.
Talk to a colleague.
Watch a funny video.
Listen to a happy song.
Hug your wife or husband
Step 4: Do this positive action for 5 min (not 2 hours)
Step 5: Get back to work
That’s it.
Rejection is proof that you’re pushing your limits and are out of your comfort zone.
Expect and accept it’s going to happen.
Don’t blame yourself
Plan a positive action
Do this positive action for 5 min
Get back to work
What do you do when you face rejection?
Starting a new section on the newsletter with our podcast episodes, will add the episodes here 👇
New Podcast: #1 Buyer personas, Multi-channel, prospecting Attribution, Tips for future SDR leaders and new SDRs - Matt Roberts, SDR leader at Mosaic
In this episode, I talk with Matt Roberts about Buyer personas, multi-channel prospecting, voicemail, prospecting attribution, his 3 tips if you want to be an SDR leader, 3 books that influenced his life, his favorite career failure, and 2 tips for new SDRs.
New Podcast: #2: Building your personal brand as an SDR, burn out, start your personal brand from scratch, and his 3 favorite books - Tom Alaimo, Growth AE at Gong
In this episode, I talk with Tom Alaimo, Growth AE at Gong, and host of the Millenial Sales podcast.
We talk about the story behind the Millennial sales podcast, building your personal brand as a rep, burnout, time management, starting your personal brand from scratch, his first in-person meeting, his 3 favorite books, and 2 tips for new SDRs.
New Podcast: #3: How to be your authentic self as an SDR, prospecting memes, study your customers and have fun - Mattia Schaper, Founder, SDRs of Germany
In this episode, I talk with Mattia Schaper about how to be your authentic self as an SDR, how she uses memes in her outreach, how she put herself in her prospects shoes, how she studies her prospects, and how to have fun in the SDR role.
That's all for this Sunday. I hope you find these 5 step guide helpful in facing rejection.
Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.
See you next week.
Happy prospecting,
Elric
PS: Here're the 3 last issues if you miss them:
#25 - 11 ways to increase your SDR productivity (Without working 70 hours a week)
#24 - My prospecting process to book more qualified meetings
If you want to read the previous ones, you can here.
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