In sales, failure is often treated like a contagious disease—something to be hidden, minimized, or explained away. Missed quotas are whispered about. Lost deals are dissected only long enough to assign blame. Rejection is endured, not embraced. Yet the most successful sales professionals and organizations share a counterintuitive truth: to truly excel in sales, you must double your rate of failure.
This idea sounds reckless at first. Why would anyone intentionally fail more? Isn’t sales about winning—closing deals, hitting targets, beating the competition? It is. But the path to those wins runs straight through failure. Not accidental failure. Not careless failure. Intentional, strategic, high-volume failure.
Because in sales, failure is not the opposite of success. It’s the raw material from which success is built.
Failure Is the Cost of Admission
Sales is a profession of controlled rejection. Even top performers hear “no” far more often than “yes.” A 20% close rate is considered strong in many industries. That means four out of five prospects say no. Rejection is not an anomaly—it’s the baseline.
The problem arises when salespeople try to avoid failure instead of leveraging it. They play small. They stick to safe accounts. They reuse the same pitch. They delay outreach because they don’t want another rejection on the board.
This avoidance feels productive, but it quietly caps performance. When you minimize failure, you also minimize learning, experimentation, and growth. You may protect your ego, but you sacrifice your potential.
The best salespeople understand that failure is the cost of admission. Every “no” buys you information. Every lost deal pays tuition. The only way to get better is to enroll fully—and that means failing more often than your peers.
Why More Failure Actually Means Faster Success
Failure accelerates success because it compresses the learning curve. Each failed attempt answers critical questions:
-
Which message didn’t resonate?
-
Which objection stopped the deal?
-
Which assumption was wrong?
-
Which customer segment is less responsive?
-
Which part of the process broke down?
A salesperson who makes 20 calls a day and fails 18 times learns more than one who makes five calls and fails twice. Volume matters. Exposure matters. Patterns only emerge when you collect enough data—and failure is the data.
When you double your rate of failure, you double your rate of feedback. And feedback, not talent, is the true driver of mastery.
The Myth of the “Natural” Salesperson
Many people believe top sales performers are born, not made. They imagine smooth talkers with effortless charm, closing deals while others struggle. This myth is comforting—it gives failure an external explanation—but it’s also false.
What looks like natural talent is usually the residue of thousands of failed attempts. The confident closer has already been rejected more times than most people are willing to tolerate. Their polish comes from repetition. Their intuition comes from pattern recognition. Their composure comes from surviving discomfort long enough that it no longer controls them.
If you compare yourself to top performers without accounting for their failure history, you’re comparing your behind-the-scenes to their highlight reel. The gap isn’t talent. It’s reps.
Reframing Failure: From Judgment to Data
The real obstacle isn’t failure itself—it’s how we interpret it.
Most salespeople internalize failure as a personal verdict:
-
“I’m bad at sales.”
-
“I’m not persuasive enough.”
-
“I’m just not cut out for this.”
High performers treat failure as neutral data:
-
“That message didn’t work with that audience.”
-
“That price point triggered resistance.”
-
“That timing was off.”
This shift—from judgment to analysis—is everything.
When failure becomes data, it loses its emotional sting. You stop defending your ego and start optimizing your process. You ask better questions. You adjust faster. You improve systematically.
To double your rate of failure, you must first remove its moral weight. Failure doesn’t mean you’re bad. It means you’re in motion.
Volume Creates Optionality
In sales, activity creates opportunity. The more conversations you have, the more chances you get—not just to close, but to discover unexpected paths.
Many major deals are not the ones you initially target. They emerge from referrals, follow-ups, lateral introductions, or timing shifts. None of these happen if you limit outreach.
Doubling your rate of failure often means doubling your activity:
-
More calls
-
More emails
-
More demos
-
More proposals
-
More follow-ups
Yes, more of them will fail. But a small percentage will succeed—and those successes often outperform your original expectations.
Sales is a numbers game, but not a shallow one. Volume doesn’t replace skill; it creates the environment where skill can develop.
Psychological Immunity Through Repetition
Rejection hurts less the more you experience it. This isn’t because you become numb—it’s because you become resilient.
Early in a sales career, a single rejection can derail an entire day. Over time, rejection becomes routine. You recover faster. You stay focused. You keep momentum.
This emotional immunity is a competitive advantage. Many salespeople underperform not because they lack ability, but because they lack emotional stamina. They slow down after rejection. They procrastinate. They avoid follow-ups.
Doubling your rate of failure trains your nervous system to stay regulated under pressure. It builds confidence rooted in durability, not outcomes. You stop fearing rejection because you know you can handle it—and that confidence is felt by prospects.
Experimentation Requires Risk
Sales excellence requires experimentation. New scripts. New positioning. New markets. New channels. But experimentation guarantees failure—at least initially.
If you never fail, you’re not experimenting. You’re repeating what’s already familiar.
Top sales organizations actively encourage intelligent failure. They test subject lines. They A/B messaging. They pilot new offers. They know that short-term losses produce long-term gains.
On an individual level, the same principle applies. You cannot discover your best approach without risking awkward calls, imperfect pitches, and lost deals. The willingness to look foolish temporarily is the price of becoming exceptional permanently.
Failure Separates the Committed from the Comfortable
Sales has a built-in filter. Many people enter the field. Fewer stay. Fewer still excel.
Why? Because sustained exposure to failure is uncomfortable.
Those who succeed are not immune to discouragement—they are simply more committed to the long game. They accept failure as part of the profession rather than a sign they should quit.
Doubling your rate of failure is a declaration of seriousness. It signals that you are willing to do what others won’t: endure discomfort today to dominate tomorrow.
Practical Ways to Double Your Rate of Failure (On Purpose)
Doubling failure doesn’t mean being sloppy. It means increasing meaningful attempts. Here’s how to do it intentionally:
-
Increase Outreach Volume
Set activity goals that feel slightly uncomfortable. More conversations mean more rejections—and more opportunities. -
Target Bigger Accounts
Reach out to prospects who intimidate you. Larger deals have lower close rates but higher upside and better learning. -
Test New Messaging Weekly
Don’t wait for perfection. Try new angles and see what breaks. -
Ask for the Sale More Directly
Many failures come from avoidance. Clear asks may get more “no’s,” but also more decisive “yeses.” -
Debrief Every Loss
Extract one lesson from each failure. Document it. Apply it.
Failure without reflection is wasted. Failure with reflection is compound growth.
The Inevitable Payoff
When you double your rate of failure, something surprising happens: your success rate eventually improves.
Your messaging sharpens. Your targeting improves. Your timing gets better. Your confidence increases. The same activity that once produced mostly rejection starts producing more wins.
Not because failure disappeared—but because it did its job.
Sales excellence is not about avoiding failure. It’s about outgrowing it.
Final Thought
If you want average results, protect yourself from failure. Play it safe. Stay comfortable.
But if you want to excel—if you want mastery, momentum, and meaning in your sales career—lean into failure. Chase it. Learn from it. Double it.
Because every great salesperson is not defined by how often they win, but by how quickly they learn from losing.
And the fastest learners fail the most—on their way to the top.
Ahmad Nor,
https://moneyripples.com/wealth-accelerator-academy-affiliates/?aff=Mokhzani75
