The Courage to Sell: When Rejection Becomes Your Greatest Teacher

Editorial note: This reconstructed journal-style retrospective reflects the owner's October 2008 business experience. It is archived by historical period; its publication date records when it first appeared on this site.

The courage to sell is something I am learning one conversation and one rejection at a time.

Every morning, I wake up knowing that somewhere out there are people who might benefit from what we're offering at Entrepreneurs Accounting Academy (EAA).

The challenge is finding them, reaching them, and convincing them to give us a chance.

I spend much of my time thinking about sales and marketing. There are educational programs to promote, potential customers to approach, and ideas that I hope will eventually turn into opportunities.

Some days are encouraging. Other days leave me wondering whether I'm doing enough.

One thing is becoming increasingly clear to me: running a business requires more than having a good product. It requires the courage to introduce that product to a world that may not be interested.

The Fear of Hearing No

Nobody enjoys rejection.

You prepare your presentation, explain the value of your product, and hope that the person listening will understand what you're trying to accomplish.

Then comes the familiar response.

Not interested.

Sometimes, you don't even receive an answer.

It's easy to take rejection personally, especially when you're deeply involved in developing and marketing the products yourself.

But I'm learning that rejection is not always a judgment of my ability or the quality of our work.

People have different needs, priorities, and circumstances.

A person who rejects an offer today may simply have no reason to accept it.

Perhaps the real challenge is discovering what those reasons are.

Selling Begins With Understanding People

At EAA, we offer education, which means we're selling something that people cannot immediately hold in their hands.

We're asking them to invest their time, money, and effort in learning.

That requires trust.

A prospective student may be thinking about the cost of enrollment. Another may be worried about finding enough time to study. Someone else may not yet understand how the training could help.

If I keep talking about the features of our programs without understanding those concerns, I'm probably doing more talking than selling.

Good marketing should begin with listening.

What does the customer need? What problem are we helping solve? And are we offering genuine value?

These questions may sound simple, but answering them requires humility.

Sometimes, the customer understands his problem better than I do.

Hard Work Is Not the Same as Progress

There are days when I feel busy from morning until evening.

But being busy and making progress are not necessarily the same thing.

I can spend hours preparing marketing materials, contacting prospects, and improving a sales presentation. Yet if none of those activities brings us closer to understanding the market, perhaps I'm only repeating the same mistakes.

It can be uncomfortable to admit that an approach isn't working.

After all, changing direction means accepting that I may have been wrong.

But what is the alternative? Continue doing something ineffective simply because I've already invested time in it?

I would rather learn an uncomfortable lesson than waste more time defending a bad decision.

A Sale Should Never Be More Important Than Trust

There is another danger in selling: becoming so desperate to close a transaction that we forget the person making the purchase.

It is tempting to promise more than we can deliver, especially when business is difficult.

But what happens after the customer discovers that the promise was greater than the product?

A sale may help us today, but broken trust can hurt us for years.

I'd like EAA to be known not merely for the number of students who enroll but for the value they receive.

We need revenue to keep the business operating. There is no denying that.

However, I believe there should be a difference between earning money from people and earning money by genuinely helping them.

The Entrepreneur Must Learn to Listen

As I continue working on EAA's sales and marketing, I realize that courage isn't only about approaching another potential customer.

It is also about listening to criticism without becoming defensive, admitting mistakes, and changing an approach when necessary.

There will always be people who say no.

There will be plans that don't work and opportunities that never materialize.

But I cannot allow every rejection to become a reason to stop trying.

A customer who says no may close one opportunity, but the lesson behind that rejection may open another.

Tomorrow, there will be another person to approach, another idea to test, and another opportunity to learn.

And perhaps that is what entrepreneurship demands of me today.

Not the ability to make everybody say yes.

But the courage to keep learning whenever somebody says no.

Related 2008 journal entries

Continue with November's reflection on creating products people need, December's reflection on hard work and adaptation, or browse the 2008 archive.