In last week’s newsletter, we wrote to you about networking. How important it is and how to go about it. This week, as a follow up, we think it is important to write to you about how to handle rejection in networking.
The truth of the matter is that while networking and making offers to prospective clients and partners, you will get NO’s, most times a lot of NO’s and it is almost as important as networking itself, to brace yourself for the rejections. To also know how to properly handle it.
It is very easy to react to rejection by getting depressed, giving up and deciding “This doesn’t work”. While this is a natural reaction to rejection, you will not get any success if you give up after a couple of NO’s.
Here are a few tips to help you with handling rejection;
- Get more No’s
Sounds odd? But it’s true. Lets analyse real quick; Say out of every 40 people who say No to your offer, 1 person says yes. With this, if you have quit after speaking to just 10 people, no YES’s for you. The less No’s you take, the lower your chances of getting a YES. Also, if not for anything else, getting rejections and continuing regardless is a lesson in gaining experience. The more people you try to sell yourself to, the better you become at selling yourself. It’s a win win situation if you look closely at it.
- It’s about the offer and not about you
We tend to take it personally when we get rejections. We think “they aren’t open to this offer because they dont like me” while that can be the case, it is seldom it. When you get a rejection, it helps to bear in mind that the person is rejecting your offer and not you. They don’t like what you’re proffering? Well someone else will.
They simply don’t have an interest in your product or business. Let’s use an instance: you recommend a song to your friend. They listen and tell you it isn’t great. Does this now mean they dont like you? Of Course not. They just don’t like the song.
If you can approach rejection with this mindset, it’ll help you learn what you need to learn from every rejection, fix whatever loopholes might have been responsible for it and keep the networking moving.
- Everybody has experienced rejection
It will bring you comfort to note and always bear in mind that it’s not just you who has gone through rejection. Everybody has experienced the same too at some point.
With this at the back of your mind, you feel less alone. You’re not the first nor will you be the last one to go through it.
We trust that with these tips, you are able to now better handle rejection. Keep at it. You never know when it’ll click.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter, do check back every Monday for new letters.
Have a great week ahead.