Every medical sales professional understands that rejection is part of the job. However, even for the most seasoned professional, hearing “no” repeatedly can take a psychic toll.
Constant rejection can lead to stress and self-doubt, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, resulting in further rejection.
These are 8 tips for staying motivated after facing rejection.
1. Focus on inputs rather than results
Over the course of your career, you are sure to go through hot streaks and cold spells. Neither one of these periods should define your success.
The true professional understands this phenomenon and does not get too high or too low based upon their results, instead focusing on long-term goals and a consistency of effort through daily activities.
2. DO NOT take rejection personally
Every medical sales professional faces rejection. While it may be damaging to your ego, often customers reject you due to circumstances that have nothing to do with you personally they might not be sharing.
Remember, doctors and practice managers have their own stresses to deal with. Do not automatically assume that your failure to close a sale has anything to do with your abilities as a rep.
3. Build your pipeline
Another way to get over rejection quickly is to have other good leads to focus on. This requires continuous prospecting, even when you have hot leads that you feel like you can close.
Successful reps never stop prospecting and always have new clients to pivot to in the event that a hot lead falls apart.
4. Learn from your losses
A “no” is only a failure if you did not learn anything that you can improve upon. When you face rejection, it can be helpful to reconstruct your sales strategy for that client to see if there may have been things you could do differently next time around.
This might require additional studying about your product, or focus on pre-call planning so you are better prepared for your next sales presentations.
5. Ask for peer advice
Being independent has its perks, but one of the downsides for many is the lack of peers to commiserate with.
If you do not have those types of relationships, you should do your best to cultivate them. Sometimes talking out your issues with someone who understands medical sales can be cathartic and can help you gain a new perspective and improve your approach.
6. Rethink unrealistic goals
Setting sales goals are particularly important, especially as an independent rep where you likely to do not have a top-down sales quota.
However, aggressive sales goals can be counterproductive, leading to rep burnout.
If you have been putting in consistent effort but are way short of your goals, then it is likely those goals were unrealistic to begin with. Take a step back and reevaluate, establishing goals that are aggressive but attainable.
7. Take a break
Conventional wisdom is to work through your problems by doubling down on your effort when you hit a cold spell. However, if you are not in the right mindset, this can have the effect of making rejection happen more quickly.
Sometimes more is gained by doing less. If you find yourself letting negative thoughts pervade your psyche, take a day or two off where you do not think about work whatsoever. Giving your brain a little reset and sometimes interrupt those negative thought patterns, which inevitably leads to more success.
8. Get an easy win
Every seasoned medical sales professional has experienced the death spiral of constant rejection at some point in their career. This is largely due to lack of self-confidence.
The easiest way to turn yourself around and get back to a winning mindset is to find an easy win.
Is there a current client who you can sell a small add-on to? The smallest sale, even if it does not make you a lot of commission, can sometimes be the wind in your sails that you need to get your confidence back up, so you have further success.
