Wise words from one smart cookie
This year’s birthday treat was
dinner at Yu’s Mandarin, my all-time favorite Chinese
restaurant. At the end of the meal, in typical fashion, my wife
was given the bill on a small tray with nine fortune cookies.
Always good for laughs and conversation,
the reading of fortunes has become a much anticipated family
ritual as one by one we open each cookie and share aloud the
pearls of wisdom with everyone at the table.
 | ||
Actually, the message in the cookie
highlights an important key to success in any business and, as
such, is advice that should command our attention. But first,
let’s give it a business application by adding one word
so that the message reads, “If you’re not rejected
at least three hundred times a week, you’re not trying
hard enough.”
After all, if you really want your
business to grow and flourish, you should be asking at least
300 people a week to bring you more business. Many will turn
down the invitation, of course, but at the same time,
you’ll also get a lot of takers who both want and need
your service.
After more than 15 years of promoting
drycleaners, I’ve learned that the operators who are most
determined, those who doggedly and relentlessly persist, are
the ones who truly excel and rise to the top of the industry.
So along with persistence, I would add a
few other words like tenacity, perseverance and resolve,
because these terms accurately describe the act of plugging
away day after day at what you have a passion for. They imply
committing to and sticking with the type of action necessary to
achieve a specific goal.
And, yes, that does include being
rejected over and over while continuing to try harder and
harder.
This is especially evident when it comes
to the marketing of a cleaning operation by direct mail.
For example, it’s not uncommon for
drycleaners to go thbough both the details and the cost of
starting up a mailing program only to drop the project after
just a single mailing. Why? It’s possible their
expectations were unrealistic to begin with, or maybe they
experienced cold feet when the response they got was less than
they had counted on and, in order to save money, they bailed
out as quickly as possible to avoid further loss.
Whatever the case, they feel rejected and
quit. But the message in the cookie says to expect rejection,
accept it, try harder and keep on going. So let’s stick
with the cookie.
Of course, we have to make a few
assumptions. First, the cleaner must be running a good
operation, turning out quality work, on time… that sort
of thing.
Second, the mail must be properly
targeted to viable prospects and not aimed to the wrong area.
And third, we have to assume the offer is
worthy of a response. If those three factors are present,
it’s safe for the cleaner to remain with the program in
spite of what may seem like a poor response, if not flat-out
rejection.
The truth is, many cleaners who stop
programs prematurely often decide to start them again within
two or three months when they suddenly begin to see a response
and become filled with new hope. That’s because when
business is solicited through the mail, not everyone responds
right away or at the same time. Some may not respond for a
month or two.
In fact, people who received the initial
offer may not respond until the third month and they end up
coming in with customers from the second and third mailing.
In time, the process begins to snowball
and the longer the mailing program is maintained the bigger the
snowball gets.
If one is smart and mails continuously
month after month to different market segments, they begin to
experience a steady flow of business. In fact, what seemed like
rejection was simply a delayed reaction and what had been
called a poor response is now labeled a successful prospecting
campaign.
Let me try to illustrate this another
way. For a little more than a year now, I have devoted two full
days a month to cold calling. Yes, it’s exactly the way
it sounds… I call on complete strangers from a variety of
industries. I begin with no leads, arriving unannounced with no
appointment and as you can probably imagine, I experience a lot
of rejection.
I know from first-hand experience what it
means to be turned down. But I also know what it means to start
a relationship, establish credibility, gain trust and then to
finally make a sale.
It’s a great feeling! The irony is,
the more rejection I suffer, the more successful I become. I
suppose this is why the message in the cookie makes so much
sense to me and why I’m passing it along to you.
To sum up, the message in the cookie is
this: Ask for business. Ask for business regularly. Ask for
business often and don’t be afraid of rejection. In fact,
welcome it.
Determination and resolve will give you
the focus you need to reach any goal you chogse to set for
yourself.
If you heed this advice, I guarantee you
will distance yourself from the competition. In fact,
you’ll be in a class by yourself since precious few will
ever muster the resolve or courage necessary to duplicate your
effort.
 |
