#109: How to Deal with 3 Common Types of Customer Rejections

Show Notes

As an entrepreneur, hearing ‘no’ from a prospective customer stings. Yes, it hurts emotionally, but customer rejections are also a real threat to your business’s success. 
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In this episode, Nola Boea and Lori Vajda explain three types of customer rejections: One type, you might want to consider pursuing, one you might revisit later, and the third you definitely want to ignore altogether.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• What the three categories of sales "rejections" are that every startup business owner needs to know.
• Ways you can use customer rejection to grow your startup or business.
• Which Nos are worth pursuing and which one to stay away from.
• How not to take rejection personally. 

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:
(03:36:64) Do you think you know what the ‘uninformed’ customer rejection looks like, not if you do this?
(08:18:36) What makes the ‘overwhelmed no’ harder to identify, and how doing so can tell you whether this customer is worth pursuing.
(11:46:20) When you get a ‘mindful no, consider it not only a gift, and the  3 important criteria to keep in mind.
(16:34:76) How do you create Call-To-Action messaging? Examples included. 

Resources 

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show, (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Helpful Meditation: Minimizing Self-Doubt.
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ConvertKit: Our #1 Favorite Email Marketing Platform   (This is an affiliate link)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: Hearing no from a customer or prospective client is quite possibly one of the hardest things for any entrepreneur to hear. Why? Because you work so hard on your sales pitch and you believe in what you're offering. Yet pursuing sales opportunities is an essential component of running a business. And since you want your company to be success, you're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. So how can you tell which nos are worth pursuing and which ones aren't worth your time? Friends, stay tuned as we share the three categories of sales rejections that every startup business owner needs to be aware of in order to be successful.
 
[00:00:39] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.
 
[00:00:50] Lori: If you're taking action on accomplishing your sales goals, it's inevitable you'll experience rejection. However, not every no is a rejection. In fact, with the right mindset, getting a no can actually help you improve your ideas, eliminate blind spots and even protect you from customers and partnerships that are not good for you or your business. Nola, as an entrepreneur, have you ever said yes to a prospective customer or a business opportunity and regretted it later?
 
[00:01:20] Nola: Yeah, I can say that I have, because by the time this customer made all of the changes to where they wanted it, it was something that I would never put in my portfolio. So you'll never know.
 
[00:01:34] Lori: You know, I actually have a few of those myself. And your experience is similar, I'm sure, to many new business owners. Yeah, it's hard to walk away from a perceived opportunity, particularly if we think there's a possible sale. I think that's because as entrepreneurs, we're naturally optimistic, if not hopeful. I got my fingers crossed here. And as a result, whenever a prospect even shows the slightest promise, we feel almost compelled to try and close the deal. It's natural. If for no other reason, then because we know we have a solution that can help them, and we can also grow our business. It's kind of like that mindset of win-win.
 
[00:02:17] Nola: Yeah. And isn't that what entrepreneurship is all about? I mean, don't successful entrepreneurs even just do whatever it takes to achieve not only their goal, but really to try to achieve their customer's goal as well?
 
[00:02:29] Lori: Yeah, I totally agree. And while the inclination might be to say yes to everything and put your full energy into winning over every prospect, that doesn't make it a right decision or even a productive decision. In fact, you and I are of the shared mindset that not all rejections are equal. And as an entrepreneur, your ability to recognize their differences can empower you to be a more effective decision maker. Which is why we wanted to do this episode. So whether you're a current or aspiring business owner, the tips we're going to share will help you determine which of the three types of customer nos are worth your time and effort. And I'm going to give you a little hint here. One of those nos you might want to consider pursuing, one you might revisit later, and the third you definitely want to ignore altogether.
 
[00:03:25] Nola: So here we go. The first type of no is what we're referring to as the uninformed, no. This type of rejection of your product or service typically comes from someone who's not only unfamiliar with your industry. But is also unmotivated to even invest the time to learn how your offer could benefit them or their clients.
 
[00:03:46] Lori: Yeah, so I have my own recent example of this. I had been introduced virtually to a CEO of a branding company. And he invited me to join a small group of people into what he called a networking event. So, I'm thinking typical networking, and that's not what this was all about. Initially he said we could talk at the event and I could tell him more about my product that I wanted to talk to him about. So although he and I sat next to each other, the conversation never lent itself to talking business. So, you know, I wanted to respect that this was a networking event. I was thinking it was going to be a lot of people. It turned out to be a very, very, very small group of people. So it made sense that at the event we wouldn't have an opportunity to talk. So afterwards I sent him a thank you. It was a lovely thing that I attended. It was great to meet some new people, especially because of Covid. I hadn't been meeting business owners close to where I live. So I sent him a thank you for including me in this event, and he responded and I took that as an opportunity to say, Let's schedule a time so I could tell him more about our mini podcasts and how he might be able to use them with his clients. And I was thinking, at the very least, I thought if he wasn't interested, he could at least talk to me about referrals or marketers or event planners. You know, there might be something in it.
 
[00:05:16] Nola: Yeah. Especially if he was a person that was making connections.
 
[00:05:19] Lori: Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking. But instead, I received a very, very, very short email response that simply said none of his clients were asking for podcasts.
 
[00:05:32] Nola: Ouch.
 
[00:05:33] Lori: Exactly. Now, my younger self would have not only been disappointed by the rejection, I would have taken that to heart. I would've racked my brain trying to figure out did I do something at the event? Did I say something that was inappropriate? And then because I'm so passionate about mini podcasts, I would've tried to convince him, air quote, educate him on all the ways mini podcasts could help his business. Right? But instead, experience has taught me that it's not a matter of helping him understand the growth of audio or offering up supportive data for marketing and ad spots and podcasts. It was about accepting that he didn't understand the innovation I was presenting. And, and this is a really big and, and he had no interest to learn. It really wasn't personal as far as I'm concerned.
 
[00:06:29] Nola: And that's a healthy perspective because here's the thing about people who give an uninformed no. You have to decide where and under what circumstances you are going to pursue a prospect. And in the example that you just gave, you could have spent a lot of time with someone whose interest is just cursory, if that, or you could turn your attention to people who really do want to learn more. And I would say that the latter group is a much easier sell. And we talk about people who will indicate an interest to be able to get into your funnel, and that's how you can be talking to somebody who you already know has an interest.
 
[00:07:10] Lori: Yeah, and sometimes it works just like that. I think because we had been exchanging email messages before I knew about the networking event, I actually had wanted to schedule a time so I could talk to him about the mini podcast. So in a way I felt like he was prequalified. But I think what you're saying is, is it worth trying to convince someone? It's like pushing a boulder uphill. You're spending a lot of time trying to convince somebody that you have something that would benefit them or benefit their clients. When really you have to step back and say, what did I pick up that told me they were really interested? And when I stepped back, I could see he wasn't interested. We didn't talk about it at the event when I suggested it in the follow up email, he didn't show any interest in wanting to talk and he didn't show any interest in wanting to continue our own conversation. So there were a lot of things, for whatever reason, it just didn't work out. And so, in agreement with you, it's not worth your time.


Whereas the second type of No, that might be something not as obvious either. This is what we're you and I are referring to as the overwhelmed No. The person who gives you this type of rejection is not always easy to identify. In fact, it's a little deceptive. And the reason it's deceptive is because they actually give you the time to talk to them about your product or service. However, when you look closely, you can tell that, or at least you're questioning whether they're really listening to what you're saying. And that could be because there's no follow up questions. There's no clarifying information that they're asking. I've even seen people take calls or say, just a minute, I have to respond to this really quickly, on a text message. And sometimes, and I actually had this happen on a recent pitch as well. One person was listening and nodding and showing like they were following along in what I was saying, and the other person sat there so stoic, I felt like I was on a job interview.
 
[00:09:28] Nola: Yeah. Yep. I've been to those, but I'm ashamed to say I've been the overwhelmed prospect, and now that we're talking about this, I feel so bad. Because it's true. I'm sure it's not fun to have to really try to convince somebody who's totally distracted.
 
[00:09:53] Lori: Yes. I know I have also been the overwhelmed. I think in that sense, what comes to mind is, I really want to hear what you're talking about, or I really want to get involved, but there's so much on my plate that hearing what you have to say tells me that I have more work to do. Or I have more to learn. And I really have to decide what's my priority. So when you get a no from an overwhelmed person who's either too busy or what appears to be multitasking, it's smarter just to chalk that experience up to bad timing and move on.
 
[00:10:32] Nola: Absolutely. Because the uninformed no, and the overwhelmed no, those aren't even worthy of your energy, especially in the near future. And our advice is to not get wrapped in trying to analyze them, trying to analyze what's going on with them or why they may have rejected you. They didn't reject you. Simply accept that they're not the right fit and just move on. In fact, maybe with the overwhelmed prospect, you could check back at a later date. Maybe again, it just was the timing thing.
 
[00:11:07] Lori: You could mark that on your calendar. Give them six months, I'll come back or give them another quarter. But you hit on something that I think is really, really important. They're not rejecting you. They're rejecting the product or service or partnership or whatever it is that you're pitching to them. And that's where you have to be able to separate personal from business. I hate to say that the more you pitch, the thicker your skin gets, but also the quicker you get at being able to tell which is a good lead that you're following up with, and which might not be such a good lead.
 
[00:11:45] Nola: Good point.
 
[00:11:46] Lori: Which now brings us to our third and final type of No. And this one you and I are calling the Mindful No. Because it's truly a gift. And the reason for this is that when you receive a mindful no, you know the person took the time to learn about your product, was intrigued by your ideas, asked some pretty smart questions.
 
[00:12:10] Nola: Mm-hmm. Yes. And that kind of customer, they demonstrate sincere curiosity. You can tell that they really want to learn more, and you can see that they're trying to think through how your service or product might actually apply to their business or their clients.
 
[00:12:29] Lori: Right. And that's why you and I wanted to come up with three things to keep in mind when you're talking to a mindful no. What are the three things that could be keeping them from saying yes? And really, there's probably a lot more than three, but these are the major three that Nola and I came up with. So one of them is, your business is not able to fulfill what the customer wants, and this might be because your company is too new to handle the volume. I know from our experience that I have some aspirational clients that I have marked as, when we get a little farther down, this is who I would want to go after. Because I already know that we are not going to be able to meet their needs because they're such a big established company. We couldn't do service to them.
 
[00:13:22] Nola: We're still small potatoes, but we're still growing.
 
[00:13:24] Lori: We are Number two, you can't meet all the customer requirements. So that can be location based, technology based, a variety of different reasons. But that seasoned business owner or marketer, whoever you're talking to, that seasoned company knows right during that conversation you're having with them that you're not going to be able to meet their requirements. And they share that with you at some point as well.


The third and final item you could say, keeping a prospective customer from saying yes, is they're currently satisfied with their vendor of choice. And to make that change, even though you've got something really great, it's not great enough, it's not differentiated enough to sway them to make that change.
So when you get a mindful no, it isn't about your innovative idea, your product or service not being good enough, it's more likely that it's timing between where you are and what that customer needs in the moment.
 
[00:14:38] Nola: And you know what? Even though it is a no, it's actually a gift because usually, you end up learning about how you can better your offer, how you can improve your offering. So especially if they've already told you, these are the specific requirements that you don't meet, you know, either your office hours or you need more of a certain type of a skill set or whatever. It gives you some ideas on how you can improve it. So the next time you either present to them, or pitch to somebody like them, you'll be better equipped.
 
[00:15:12] Lori: That's a really good point, and they're all the reasons why we say that, even though you got a mindful no today, you might get a mindful yes in the near future.
 
[00:15:26] Nola: Absolutely. Well, listener, we hope today's episode helped you think about the different types of nos you will get over time, and throughout your business journey, with a greater understanding. And more importantly, to understand that rejection, especially at the start of your entrepreneurial journey, isn't personal, although it may feel that way at times. And should you be anxious about sales, go over to our website because you can find a six-minute breathwork meditation there, all on Minimizing Self-Doubt. And we'll drop that link in our show notes below.
 
[00:16:01] Lori: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope it helps you understand the different types of nos you'll hear, so you can focus on the one that is worth pursuing, so you can create your best and most exciting business in life. If you found the information shared here today helpful. Let us know by posting here, where you're listening, or on our Facebook page.
 
[00:16:23] Nola: Not sure how to turn your idea into a profitable side business? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you.
 
[00:16:32] Lori: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring, and motivating episode. And remember, actions create results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[OUT-TAKE]
 
[00:16:52] Nola: But they're also okay. Take three. Sorry. I'm stumbling all over ma words
 
[00:17:03] Lori: I just had this, this, You know how they do those clacker things and you see outtakes and it's like,
 
[00:17:09] Nola: Oh yeah, yeah. We need to get one of those.
 
[00:17:12] Lori: We do. Right.