How to deal with it…
Today’s topic is one of those that’s a little painful to pull out.
It’s one of those things that we hide from, repress, and don’t want to think about ever again.
But if you’re in a selling profession or a creative-for-hire (like copywriters), it’s something you’re going to have to deal with again and again and again…
REJECTION…
Now, this is spurred by a copywriter friend of mine who wanted to know the real truth about dealing with rejection as a copywriter…
And I’m going to answer her questions…
BUT, I’m also going to try to inject a little harmony into the industry by giving my take on how clients can keep their creatives happier and more successful by minimizing the whole rejection narrative…
I know that’s a mouthful, but it’ll all make sense by the time we’re done here today.
Okay, let’s dive into this PTSD-inducing topic…
And while it was a copywriter asking about rejection of their copy ideas that spurred today’s lesson, I’m not going to start there.
I’m going to talk about selling.
Because if you’re in sales (and if you’re in business, you’re in sales), you’re going to deal with rejection.
In fact, in most businesses, for most salespeople, you’ll actually get a lot more “no” answers than you will “yes” answers.
And here’s a little secret about this, and success in sales… It’s not how you deal with “yes” that determines how successful you’ll be, it’s how you deal with “no.”
So let’s bring together a handful of different influences to help you deal with “no” in selling situations — which will be a bridge to the rest of our conversation on rejection…
– Develop a long memory for success, and a short memory for failure. I think this is actually a trait of ADHD, and perhaps one of the hidden reasons that the ranks of successful entrepreneurs are so heavily populated with folks like me who have ADHD. But you don’t have to have ADHD to apply this. Make it a point to remember all your wins. You can do this with gratitude journaling, and especially with some way you keep track of your biggest wins (in all areas of your life). And don’t stew too long on your failures. Learn from them, and move on. If you put your conscious energy on your wins instead of your losses, it will make you more resilient.
– Read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and internalize them. This book was in my house for a long time, and I didn’t know about it (my wife had bought it). Then I was turned onto it by an aunt and uncle of mine who’d both previously divorced, and in getting married they both agreed to abide by the agreements in their relationship. I respect them both, so I thought if it was that important to them, I ought to at least know what it says. And it’s good! Here are the agreements. 1. Be impeccable with your words. 2. Don’t take anything personally. 3. Don’t make assumptions. 4. Always do your best. In terms of dealing with rejection, not taking it personally is paramount — you never know exactly why someone is rejecting whatever it is you offer, and it’s most often about them and not you. Which also leads into not making assumptions — finding out the root cause of the rejection will help you recognize that it’s most often not personal. And finally, always doing your best and striving for improvement does make rebounding from rejection easier.
– Follow the lead of the world’s most powerful negotiator, Jim Camp. His book No: The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work and Home outlines a negotiating approach that emphasizes going for “no” instead of going for “yes.” Because if you can find out why someone is saying “no,” you can understand their objections. And if you want to get to “yes,” you have to understand what’s making them still say “no.” Right next to my desk, I have a card that lists John Paul Mendocha’s “Five Power Disqualfiers.” Instead of trying to get the yes when making a sale, he tries to find out the reasons someone would say “no” as fast as possible, so he can move on. And so he asks, 1. Do they have the money? 2. Do they have a bleeding neck? 3. Do they buy into your USP? 4. Do they have the ability to say yes? 5. Do you fit their overall plans? This is very much in line with Camp’s approach, and allows salespeople to get to the “no” fast so they can move past it.
– Finally, embrace the numbers approach… I’ve taught this in a few contexts. Almost anything you do in terms of persuasion is a numbers game. You’ll never get 100% “yes” answers. For this reason, you can’t be emotionally tied to any one deal going your way. While you should try your hardest to close every deal, you can’t get caught up when one falls through. In Buddhist meditative traditions, this is taught as non-attachment. It’s worth understanding. While of course you want a certain outcome, you can’t hinge your happiness on it. Meditation and learning to be at peace with your thoughts (as well as let them come and go) is a great way of cultivating this non-attachment. This is especially critical when it comes time to rebound from one situation, where you have to be back at 100% for the next.
Okay, I’ve just given you a great set of strategies for dealing with “no” especially in selling situations… But what about with copy?
Okay, let’s dive in, and we’re going to start with a painful story.
One time, I took on a ghostwriting project. And I can’t share any specific details about this, for a whole number of reasons. But what you need to understand is this was a situation where I was writing for a client that didn’t even know I existed.
I worked with my contact, and we put together an entire copy package that both of us felt hit the core of this market with a bullseye shot, and was probably the best way to sell the product in that moment in time.
We sent it to the client, who didn’t feel the same way at all.
It’s not that they thought it was bad copy. They just didn’t want to use that idea to sell the product.
Complete and total rejection.
Back to the drawing board.
And it happened again and again and again with that same client. (They’d approve an idea in concept, but throw it out once written.)
We went through probably five separate big ideas for the promotion, before they finally told my contact what idea the package had to be hung on in order for it to go out the door.
At that point, I was exhausted of these revisions. And yet, I wanted to get the promo out the door. And I still wanted it to be a success.
So I wrote it, following the client’s general story arc they were requiring.
Long story short, it bombed.
Didn’t do anywhere near what everybody had hoped it would do.
Really made me wonder if we’d gone with the original promo — which was written with a totally different energy, in a totally different way — what would have happened. Would it have also failed? Perhaps. But maybe not. And I’ll never know.
As a copywriter, I’ve faced rejection a TON of times.
And it’s painful!
To pour your heart and soul (and a ton of hours) into putting together something for a client… Only to have them send it to the wastebasket…
NEVER feels good.
Gary Halbert famously wore a hat that said, “Clients Suck.” In front of clients. He developed an attitude as his experience increased that if you’re unwilling to run my copy as I write it, I’m not going to work with you. He publicly berated clients as a group (and sometimes individually) for screwing up perfectly good copy.
John Carlton famously retired from working with the big direct mail companies, and found a client who would basically run his copy untouched. And enjoyed tremendous success in a few different markets as a result.
Dan Kennedy is known to give clients one or two opportunities to give feedback on copy, but he tells them he’ll make any changes for legal or factual reasons, but the rest is at his discretion.
All of these famous copywriters did two things as their career progressed. First, they got more strict with clients regarding the level of feedback they were willing to integrate, and would kick clients to the curb for trying to violate this. And second, they developed a thick skin regarding dealing with client comments on copy.
As long as you’re a work-for-hire copywriter, you’re going to deal with clients rejecting your copy (oftentimes very stupidly so).
While some clients are incredibly sharp and you should always listen to even their rejections… Others are just dumb, and rejecting your copy for egoic reasons, lack of experience, or something equally stupid… (See The Four Agreements recommendation above!)
The great David Ogilvy had a saying for these clients. “You don’t buy a guard dog then bark yourself.”
All of this to say, as long as you’re a gun for hire creative (even if you’re on the top of your game), you’re going to keep dealing with rejection. Sorry, I don’t have a magic pill or piece of advice to stop that.
But that brings me around to my final advice… One piece of advice for copywriters, and one for clients…
Copywriters… When you get a client who is willing to run your copy as-is, or with minor revisions for legal and factual reasons, you’ve struck gold. Stick with them. They’re worth keeping around!
Marty Edelston at Boardroom famously did this with copywriters. They spent a TON of money on testing copy. And would often let a copywriter have multiple versions of the same copy be tested against each other, to see what would work best. These are called “panels” in testing parlance. But when there was a disagreement between Marty and the copywriter on what would work best, he had an easy solution. Marty gets a panel with his idea. The copywriter gets a panel with his or her idea. And the market decides which idea is right. This is the very essence of direct marketing, of scientific advertising. Clients who reject an idea a copywriter is passionate about — unless there’s a rock-solid reason the copywriter doesn’t know about — are just being dumb and thinking they’re smarter than the market (which is pretty much never the case). Clients who give the copywriter a test panel for their best idea are being brilliant, and destined for direct response success.
Which leads me to…
Clients… If you’re dealing with professional copywriters, and they bring you piece of copy that they believe in more than you, don’t flat-out reject it. Make sure it’s legal and factual, and give it a panel in your test. Yes, you can make them develop a different angle in line with what you’d like to see, to test against it. But give the copywriter the dignity of having their idea tested. If you’re right, that’s fine — you have the more profitable approach. And if they’re right, that’s great, too — again, you have the more profitable approach. This will keep your copywriter happier (even if they lose!) and make everybody more money.
Okay, I’ve been trying to keep these shorter (between 500 and 1,000 words) but this one is going to hit 2,000 if I don’t stop typing.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
