Rejection in sales is hard to face sometimes. When you offer a product or service that you believe in, it’s difficult to get shot down instead of getting the chance to win over a prospective customer.
So how can you avoid this?
Whether you have a B2B or B2C business, rejection happens with both and it often ends with customers saying “no for now” to your campaigns. Here’s why and how you can convert these interactions into future sales.
1. Why “No For Now” Can Translate to Future Sales
Since 73% of B2B leads prematurely receive sales pitches, this proves that a vast majority of prospective clients often end up rejecting a sales pitch simply because it occurs too early in the customer experience.
Sometimes a “no” from a customer just means “no for now.” That means there’s an opportunity to win the customer’s interest in the future. The problem isn’t your product or service, it’s the timing.
First-time customer interactions don’t always last very long. So if you’re rejected, that can sometimes be the end of the interaction and the customer moves on.
Instead of focusing on how to win customers over within one interaction, you can achieve this through multiple interactions.
This allows your prospective customers to become more familiar with your products or services and develop long-term interest for future sales.
Since timing is the primary problem, you have to find the right moment to pitch to customers. You need sales strategies that allow you to control the timing and allow your customers to respond to your offers on their own time.
These methods allow your target customers to reach out to you and express buyer interest. If they’re interested, there’s less opportunity for them to reject your offers.
2. Create Email Alert Opt-Ins for Promotions
Email marketing is one of the best marketing methods to generate long-term revenue. It’s got the highest ROI out of all the other marketing channels and it’s still widely used, despite its age.
Best of all, email marketing allows you to control the timing of your marketing campaigns so that you can appeal to those “not now” customers at the right time.
Email marketing often enables you to tailor promotions to individual customers. This is otherwise known as personalization, and it allows your promotions to operate on the customer’s timeline so that they’re less inclined to put off your offer due to timing.
Here’s an example. If a customer expresses interest in a product but doesn’t make a purchase, you can invite them to share their email info to receive promotional offers or information on that same product.
With this strategy, you encourage the customer to look out for a product with a discount they could’ve otherwise missed.
Not only does this benefit the customer, but it keeps them engaged with your product and allows them to purchase when the time is right for them.
Email marketing also works for business platforms other than eCommerce stores such as in-person or service-based business.
If a prospective customer walks in requesting information, you can offer to give them regular updates on that information via email. While this doesn’t promise you future sales, it does increase your chances of getting those future sales.
3. Use Sales Funnels
Sales funnels are fundamental tools to use, especially if you have an online presence or you’re trying to build that presence.
In addition to increasing customer retention and building customer loyalty, sales funnels also help you attract new customers.
While sales funnels don’t always offer a lot of control over timing, they do allow you to control how the number of interactions with your products and services.
This is because they’re uniquely designed to handle upfront rejection. In a sales funnel, “not now” customers have more opportunities to reconsider your offers.
For instance, if a prospective customer declines an offer in a sales funnel, you can promote another offer of interest immediately after without overstepping.
This other product can either be a fraction of the original product’s price to incentivize the customer’s purchase, or it can simply be another related product that adds value.
You can also use a similar strategy like an upsell or cross-sell to increase the average customer value (ACV). After a customer adds a product to a cart, you can promote an upsell or cross-sell to add to their purchase.
If the customer rejects the first upsell, you can always provide a second one. However, you don’t want to overwhelm customers with too many upsells.
Upsells and cross-sells are particularly popular for eCommerce stores with products and most of them use a basic formula similar to this:
- attention
- interest
- decision
- action
This is the ideal buying process for a successful sales funnel, but don’t be surprised if you face some rejection here too. The trick with funnels is to intercept the point of rejection between the customer’s moment of interest and moment of decision.
4. Offer a Free Product or Service
The price tag can often deter a potential customer from buying. That’s why offering a product or service for free can pique customer interest in your brand. This sales strategy allows you to introduce customers to your brand first before promoting an actual sale.
For businesses that offer services, you can provide a free quote for those services to help prospective customers make more informed purchasing decisions.
For businesses that sell products, free giveaways allow the customer to own a piece of value without paying upfront.
One perk with free giveaways is the ability to combine it with funnels and email marketing. A free quote may require contact info, which prompts the prospective customer to share their email.
Meanwhile, a free product may involve a shipping address or contact info for a receipt which can also prompt an email opt-in.
Some businesses choose to make free items opt-ins a feature on their website and they can use them to handle those rejection interactions. You’ll commonly see email opt-in requests pop up before a site visitor attempts to click away from the website.
While the customer’s attempt to leave the site is a form of rejection, asking the customer’s permission to send them regular information or updates is a way to salvage that customer connection.
Start Increasing Your Chances of Future Sales
There are no guaranteed results, but learning how to turn a “no” into a “yes” can set you up for future sales.
These interactions are all about establishing connections with your customers so that you can provide value to them later and tracking the progress of your campaigns.
If you need a hand with sales reporting, contact management, or content creation, we can help with that. We want to help you manage and grow your business, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
