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Plain and simple, selling is all about rejection and rejection stinks! Over the years I've heard many sales trainers say that in order to "handle" rejection, "Don't take it personally."

Baloney! Rejection stinks and you can't help but take it personally. Almost everything in life is personal. Have you ever had someone say to you, "Don't take this personally, but...?" No matter what they say next, you're going to take it personally.

Now while I've just painted a bleak picture about rejection and selling there is some good news: There is one very good way to handle rejection: KNOW HOW MUCH REJECTION YOU NEED. Because only if you know how much rejection you need, can you legitimately formulate a sales or activity plan.

What is your closing ratio? What percentage of appointments, that you set up get cancelled? How many phone conversations do you need to have, on average, to get one appointment? How many times do you physically have to dial the phone, on average, to reach a decision maker?

Every salesperson has an average, even if they don't know what it is, they still have one. The best part is; it doesn't matter what your average (or what I call your "a lot.") is, what matters is that you know what it is.

For example, if Salesperson A has a closing ratio of 4 to 1 and needs to close 10 sales in a month, he or she would need to have 40 face to face appointments to achieve the sales goal. If Salesperson B has a closing ratio of 6 to 1 he or she would need to have 60 face to face appointments to accomplish the same 10 sales.

Here's where knowing how much rejection you need comes in: let's say in the next month Salesperson A has 40 face to face appointments and Salesperson B has 50. Without knowing the numbers you would probably say Salesperson B did "a lot." But they didn't'; because they're "a lot" was 60. Salesperson A did a lot. He or she did what was needed to achieve the goal. Salesperson B might have worked harder. But Salesperson A worked smarter.

Knowing your numbers is also important in that it helps you spot trouble areas. Let's say it normally takes 3 dials on average to reach a decision maker. By tracking yourself, you notice over the last few weeks it's taking 5 dials. Now, because you tracked it, you can figure out what's wrong. One thing might be that you changed the time of day when you normally do your dialing.

If you never bother to track your numbers, or activity, you would never catch something like that. Plus, by not knowing your averages (or your "a lot") you'll never be able to know exactly how much rejection you need, and then rejection will truly stink.