Chances are that you hate rejection.
It’s our nature – we want everyone to like us, accept us and say “YES!” – especially when we make an offer that’s clearly in their best interest. Unfortunately things don’t always work out according to plan. If we’re honest, we probably all get a lot more “no’s” than we would like. But the best idea is to shrug them off and to keep asking.
The model to keep in mind is that icon of business, Colonel Harland Sanders. At the age of sixty-five, Sanders had an old car, a pension worth $105 a month, and a recipe for chicken that some folks told him was pretty darned tasty. So he hit the road to propose a deal with restaurants – use his recipe and for each chicken sold pay him five cents. The first restaurant owner told him no. The second said no. As did the third. The fourth. The fifth. And on and on …
Finally, after making 1008 sales calls with his proposal, a restaurant owner finally said yes. And of course you know the rest of the story. The lesson is dogged, determined, unreasonable persistence. He didn’t give up. He kept on going. Day after day. And he did finally make that first sale, and many more besides – enough to create a fortune. So a little rejection – well, that’s part of life and business.
Keep going like the Kentucky Colonel, and remember this little article every time you drive past one of his restaurants.
– Mick Peck, Finger-Lickin’ Good Auckland Magician
www.MickPeckMagic.com
– Originally published in Inside Entertainment, the monthly membership magazine of the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand.