During a recent training session, I was a bit surprised to hear the speaker say, “What sales people fear the most is rejection.”

Huh?

It’s mind-boggling to me that sales people would fear rejection. Rejection is simply part of the sales process and sale people experience more rejection than they do acceptance. If you fear rejection, then sales may not be your cup of tea.

After all, if you’ve never been rejected, then you’ve compiled quite a stellar sales record and have sold homes to 100% of your prospects.

What’s much more likely is that when you call a prospect after they’ve visited the sales office, there’s a strong chance they will ignore your calls, hang up when they figure out you are calling, tell you that they bought elsewhere or say that they’re simply not interested in your product.

Please understand that they are not rejecting you personally. They are just not interested in the product — for any number of reasons.

For example, the timing may not be right for them. They may not have saved enough money to purchase a home. Or they may be just browsing for the future. Then again, there also are people who just like to look at new homes as a hobby.

When you meet a prospect, you just never really know serious they may be. But please don’t write them off — even if they show little or no interest. I have seen seemingly uninterested folks — including those who won't even provide a name — change their mind and come back to the model for a second look.

I’ve also worked with people who believed they were unable to buy. Not too long ago, one man who visited our sales office thought he wouldn’t be able to buy a home for at least two years. He had recently sold his home on a short sale and thought that Virginia’s written guidelines about short sales precluded him from buying a new home anytime soon.

That didn’t stop him from looking, though. He understood the value of owning a home compared to renting one and was anxious to buy because interest rates were so low. But even though he wanted to buy, because he said he couldn’t, he was not a top prospect.

My initial thought was to file this prospect in the “unable to buy” folder. But instead, a few weeks after his visit I called him to see how his home search was coming along. He again told me that he was unable to buy and was putting his home search on hold.

A little while later, I called him again — despite the fact that we clearly understood that he really could not buy. Again, he said he wasn’t interested because of the state’s guidelines. It was time to put his visit in the inactive file.

A week later, quite literally out of the blue, he walked into the office to look at the models one more time. Again, he told us he could not buy; he just wanted to take another look.

Before he left, though, we had the lender on the phone, got his credit pulled, wrote a full loan application and got him approved.

Still, even though the lender gave him plenty of assurance, he was still doubtful — so doubtful, in fact, that while we were writing the contract, he held his head in disbelief and kept saying, “I don’t believe this is happening, and I won’t believe it until we actually close.”

It happened because we ignored early rejection and, instead, followed up with him several times.

We try to survey all of our buyers after they close to get their impressions of the entire sales process, and when I called him for permission to be surveyed, he told me, “I just want you to know that you guys have outstanding customer service.”

He told me he had visited another builder, but once he explained that he was unable to buy, he was never called back.

If it hadn’t been for our follow-up calls, he said, he would not have considered revisiting our sales center.

So, no matter who walks in your door, don’t fear rejection. Instead, make that follow-up call and see what happens, even if they’re not a “hot” prospect. You just may surprise yourself.

Claudine Ellis, MIRM, MCSP, CMP, CSP, Realtor®, is a new homes manager with Rose and Womble Realty, representing the Terry Peterson Companies in Virginia. Ellis is a member of the 2010 IRM Board of Governors and chair of the New Homes Council of the Hampton Roads Realtors® Association. She also is the author of “Removing the Fear of Investing in Real Estate.” For more information, e-mail Ellis, or call her at 757-935-9010.

This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel. 

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