With each rejection, you’re closer to ‘yes.’
I read this blurb this morning in Business 2.0 and thought it was cool. It’s like what I talk about… how persistence through failure and rejection increases the odds for success. The article was about making cold calls for sales (calling someone unsolicited to try to sell them something) but it applies 100% to trying to get a job, or really any type of goal-reaching.
In baseball, even the best hitters make outs 70 percent of the time. Likewise, cold calls usually end in a “no,” no matter how skilled you are at making them. The key, therefore, is to remember that with each rejection, you’re one call closer to a “yes.”
“People get discouraged because they don’t understand how many ‘nos’ they need in order to be successful,” says Stephan Schiffman, author of five books on cold-calling.
Schiffman estimates he’s made more than 100,000 cold calls in the past 30 years and still makes 15 a day to CEOs and sales VPs to expand a client list for his training seminars that includes companies like Nextel and CompUSA. He claims his own batting average is pretty good: getting 150 people live on the phone for every 293 numbers he dials. On average those calls lead to 9 physical appointments, from which he closes 10 sales.
“People have a fear of cold-calling only because they don’t anticipate those kinds of numbers,” Schiffman says. “My motivation increases with each ‘no’ I get.”
That last part is powerful. Look PAST the failure, the ‘no,’ and look forward to the success, the ‘yes,’ you will ultimately reach if you keep trying. Most people won’t even do this.
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December 16th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Nice post dude. It reminds me of a previous post you made about applying for jobs. Something about not getting down on all the rejections, and to continue sending out your stuff. This kind of mentality has always worked for me in the past too.
Of course, you have to be passionate about what you do. I did the cold calling thing once, and I lasted all of 2 days. :)
December 19th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
I knew a guy who would never have a problem finding a date. No one could understand how this guy could do so well when anyone else could be considered a better catch.
I hung out with him for a few days, and I realized it was a numbers game for him. If five girls reject his advances, there would always be a sixth, or a seventh, or a thirty-ninth! As he put it, “If she doesn’t come home with me tonight, someone else will.”
As crude as it might have been, it was also insightful into what it takes to chase and catch success. Fear of rejection can kill ambition, which guarantees rejection, whether it is girls, business, or school.
December 25th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
“Fear of rejection can kill ambition, which guarantees rejection”
Spot on.
ing
It’s so funny how I’m finding evidence of this that applies to everythingin life. One corollary I’m starting to discover is the whole waiting-until-I-know-everything-first research attitude, something I once held to be holy, also runs counter to this probability-of-success-through-persistence concept. :)
Isn’t it weird when you do a lot of research, come to one conclusion, then unintentionally run into another conclusion you know to be right but absolutely destroys everything you thought you knew was right before? How many people can actually accept that and keep moving forward?