Managing Rejection: Key Strategies Every Entrepreneur Should Know from Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang
Rejection Proof is our April book club book (reading the book is optional). If you’d like to connect with other supportive, kind entrepreneurs while learning valuable strategies for your business, join us in April! We’d love to meet you!
If you’re like most people, rejection is something you dread. Hearing no can be painful and drains your confidence and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, rejection is an inevitable part of entrepreneurship. There is no way around it. Potential customers will say no, investors and lenders will say no, potential partners will say no… the list goes on and on.
But if you let all those no’s discourage you, you’ll never find the people who will say yes. And those yes’s are so essential to the success of your business that you can’t afford to lose them.
To help manage the inevitable rejections you’ll experience as an entrepreneur, I recommend reading Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang. Full of stories and concrete strategies, this book will help you reduce the likelihood of rejection and manage rejection when it happens.
Increase the likelihood of getting a ‘yes’
While rejection is an inevitable part of entrepreneurship, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of it happening. For example, imagine you had met a woman at a conference that you greatly respect and want to ask her to be your mentor. When constructing an email or preparing to pitch her, you should plan to address two key issues.
1. Acknowledge her doubts
A lot of people expect mentors to act as their teachers, building a curriculum and planning all the work for each meeting—something almost no one has time for. To manage her doubts, tell your potential mentor about the areas of business you would like support in, and let her know that you will come to each session prepared with your own questions and topics to discuss. This will show her that you are willing to do the heavy lifting, and that her role will be as a guide, rather than an overworked teacher.
2. Tell her why you’re asking
It might seem obvious why you would be asking for a mentor, but including your need in your request is scientifically proven to increase the chance of someone saying yes. You might tell her that your growth has slowed, and you need assistance scaling your business. Or, you need help increasing your visibility with major industry partners to get large contracts.
What to Do After a Rejection
Rejections are going to happen, and they can be painful. But continuing to engage after a rejection can change the result. Imagine your potential mentor writes you back and says, “I really enjoyed meeting you at the conference last spring. Unfortunately, I’m not available to be your mentor. Best of luck with you search.” After you receive that ‘no’, use three strategies to turn that ‘no’ into something of use.
1. Ask Why
After you receive a no, politely ask why she turned down your request. You never know what you may learn. You might discover that she has just had a new baby and doesn’t have spare time for mentorship. This information will not only remove the sting of being rejected, but it could also open the door for a future mentorship once her life has slowed down.
2. Collaborate
Armed with an understanding of why you were turned down, you are now ready to collaborate. This is where you ask for help solving your ‘lack of mentorship’ problem. You might ask how she found mentors to help grow her business, and if she has any recommendations of other people that may be a good mentor fit. Together you could collaborate to find a different mentor.
3. Retreat
The last strategy is to retreat. While retreating might sound like running away, the idea here is to back off and ask for something smaller than what you originally asked for. You might ask her to recommend useful business books, conferences to attend, or email lists to subscribe to. These recommendations would be very helpful for you and are something she can do quickly.
Understanding the Truth of a Rejection
Regardless of the success of your collaboration and retreat efforts, you may still feel deflated by a rejection. It’s hard to not take no’s personally. So remind yourself of a few key things every time you get rejected.
When someone says no to you, they are rejecting your request, not you. Your worth or value is not being rejected. They are simply unable to fulfill your request.
The rejector’s no is just their opinion. It does not mean that your request was unreasonable or that your idea is a bad one. You just need to find someone else who is willing to say yes. This may mean pushing through more rejections, but with effort your ‘yes person’ is probably out there.
A rejection is more about the rejector than about you. This is the reason you should ask why they said no. The other person likely has circumstances that you haven’t considered making your request the wrong fit for them.
Small Business Book Review: Rejection Proof
As someone who dreads sales and avoids asking for help, I really related to Jia Jiang’s Rejection Proof. I know my fear of being rejected has a negative impact on my ability to grow my business, and it’s something I need to overcome.
If you’re like me—and I’m guessing many of you are—read Rejection Proof. It’s full of engaging stories, but also offers great concrete strategies. I give Rejection Proof a 4.5 out of 5 stars for small business owners. Pick up a copy, give it a read, and then start asking for what you need!
