Dan Galante

Dealing with rejection in Sales, Marketing, Business, Job Search and Life is rough. I have experienced rejection in various aspects of life. It is important to not take rejection personally. When you are rejected in job search and career; remember that it applies to the specific situation, position, promotion, transfer but not you as a person. This also applies in Marketing when your ideas, products and services are not accepted by the market. When facing rejection, it important to learn from the experience, pivot and not quit. The only way you are defeated is if you quit and stop trying.

Here is a poem entitled Don’t Quit that I have turned to for inspiration.

How to Conquer Rejection in Sales

To achieve Sales, success, the seller needs to be willing to persevere, through rejection. I remember my time in outside sales in New York City. I would make a lot of cold calls or try to up-sell or cross-sell products to existing customers. I remember days in the field when the answer I received was some form of no. Sometimes no matter how perfectly we execute the sales process, the answer is going to be no.

Many people would think to themselves I can’t take this rejection I should just quit. Well their right at least in the short-term. After you have made five or six sales calls with no results, take a short break. Take a walk and do some deep breathing. Try to remember that it is your offering that is being turned down and not you! Unless the prospect says “I hate this guy”. This happened to me on one occasion.

You should take a short break after being rejected for the following reasons:

1. At this point in your call plan you are probably frustrated and are not thinking clearly. This will ruin any chances of making sales for the rest of the day.

2. Taking a break allows you to vent and refocus.

3. Reflect on past successes you’ve had. Remember, you have made sales before and you can do it again!

After you have cooled off, try to think over the last calls that you have made. Reflect on what went well and what did not. Take this information and go on to your next calls with a positive attitude as if nothing has happened. Remember, your prospect does not care about how your day is going.

During my time in Outside Sales, I would have to call on certain prospects as many as 10 or 12 times before I could make a sale. In terms of cross-selling and up-selling, you have to build relationships with your customers. It is not going to happen over-night. This is true when you are selling items that require a large investment from your customers or prospects.

Some of my biggest sales successes have come during my last few calls of the day. When you feel spent, take a short break and then keep going. You never know when you are going to get a yes. If you quit; the answer is always no. Remember, always ask for the order. I was cursed at and thrown out of buildings; if I could keep going so can you!

How have you have you persevered when you were rejected in Sales, Marketing, Business, Job Search and life?

Share your story below.

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 21,000+ on WordPress.

Dan is seeking a full-time role in Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

Launching a content marketing and digital marketing campaign is a big investment of time and resources. Before launching a campaign there are a lot of things to consider. Here are three questions that digital and content marketers should be able to answer before launching a campaign.

According to Research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs fewer than 33% of B2B Marketers who use these tactics seen in the infographic said these tactics will be successful to their Overall Content Marketing success.

Before jumping in it is important to study what type of Marketing works in your industry. The one size fits all Marketing Campaigns of the past are over. Below are three questions to ask before starting a Marketing campaign.

1.What are the best ways to market to my industry?

The best ways to market to your industry is through offerings such as whitepapers, industry events, Social Media/Content Marketing and through direct selling. As there is no single best way, all of these methods need to be integrated together and function as a synergy. The Sales and Marketing functions need to be aligned and support one other in order for any marketing effort to be successful.

Becoming a part of your industry community is one of the best ways to market to them. This can be achieved by becoming a trusted advisor. Earning the trust of the community can be achieved by demonstrating your value and becoming a resource they the turn to all of the time not just when they have a need. Understanding the pain points of this group is critical to creating and implementing the best solutions to solve their problems.

2. How you would repurpose/rewrite/market to increase readership?

In order to increase readership, I would create accounts on other social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Slideshare. Before content can be repurposed, you need to establish channels to share the content beyond a blog and LinkedIn in order for it to reach a broader audience.

Rewriting/Repurposing

The first thing I would do is to change the title in the form of a question. This way it invites the audience to weigh in. I would also ask a question at the end of the article.

A great call to action would be: feel free to comment, or asking a question of the reader at the end of the post. By having a call to action to comment, readers are more likely to start a discussion and share the content. It is important to talk with your audience and not at them.

Another, thing that I would add is an about the author section at the bottom of each post. This is another great way to showcase the author’s expertise and incorporate a call to action such as see how we can help or click here to sign up for a free demo.

Repurposing Formats

The contents of the article can be put into different formats such as a PowerPoint, a YouTube video all of which can be uploaded to Slideshare. The article can be published to LinkedIn’s publishing platform as well. The article can also be written and have presentations and videos embedded in the article itself. There are endless ways to repurpose content.

3. Imagine you could speak to a current customer. What would you want to ask them? How would you use their responses to market my product?

I would want to ask current customers the following questions:

1.Why did you chose my product?

2.What do you like about the product?

3.What do you dislike about the product?

4.Is it easy to use?

5.How long did it take to put the product to work?

6.Would you be willing to provide a testimonial in writing, on video about how the product helped your business, speak at an event?

(Questions may differ based on the user’s answers.)

I would take the information from questions to 1-5 and discuss them with the product manager and engineer to see how the product could be made better. Testimonials obtained would be uploaded to the website and integrated into product literature.

What questions are you asking before starting a Marketing Campaign?

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. He has worked on various marketing assignments that include Start Ups, Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to Teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Representative in the Dental industry. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows & in the field through lead generation of Digital Technology along with large Dental Equipment.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today.

Dan is seeking a full time marketing role in New York City. He is interested in roles in Direct, Digital, Content and Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

Things are changing in the automotive industry. These changes are from the way vehicles are bought and sold. Vehicle offerings are also different. Vehicles went from gas combustion engines to hybrid vehicles which means a split between gas and electric. Now there is going to be a shift to all-electric vehicles or EVs. The adoption of EVs will accelerate as more charging stations become available.

Source: Derived registration counts by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Experian Information Solutions https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10861

“This figure illustrates the population breakdown of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) registered in the United States as of Dec. 31, 2020. Most of the vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), but those generally operate primarily on conventional gasoline. FFVs were produced and sold as a way for vehicle manufacturers to meet their fuel economy requirements. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the second-largest population by fuel type, accounting for 70% of the AFV population when excluding FFVs. Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) include all-electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and account for about 30% of the AFV population when excluding FFVs.”

I covered The New York Auto Show which was back after a two-year pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s auto show had different types of cars, trucks, and SUVs. The show was made up mostly of electronic vehicles and hybrid vehicles. This change is because of changes in the industry and US government policy to improve the environment. Starting in 2026, all gas vehicles will need to get 50 miles to the gallon to be sold in the US. Gas engines are being phased out.  The industry pledges to sell only electric vehicles or EVs by 2035. This is a global trend.

This is information that came out of the World Traffic Symposium, at the New York Auto Show.

Guest Speakers included:

Jennifer Homendy, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board

Andrew Wishnia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation

Dr. Steven Cliff, Deputy Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

David Strickland, Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs, GM

Mark F. Schroeder, Commissioner, NYS DMV, Governor’s Representative for Highway Safety

I did a survey on LinkedIn on how people find and buy vehicles. The results are here.

People are buying and selling cars online but many sales are still happening at dealerships.

According to the New York International Auto Show, here are the demographics of people who attended and bought cars at the auto show over the last 10 years.

How do you feel about electric vehicles? How do you find and buy vehicles?

Share your thoughts.