How to answer: “How do you handle rejection?”

What they’re actually asking

Sales is a rejection-processing job with commission attached. They're checking your recovery time — the gap between a brutal no and your next good call — because reps who carry a no into the next conversation lose that one too.

How to structure your answer

Don't claim rejection doesn't touch you; claim a system for metabolizing it. Describe your reset ritual, what you extract from a no before discarding it, and the numbers mindset that makes any single no statistically boring. A story where a no taught you something wins.

Example answer

“I give a bad no about five minutes, then it's data. My rule is every no gets one question before I hang up: 'What would have made this a yes?' That question turned my biggest rejection into my playbook — a prospect told me I'd pitched the product before understanding his workflow, and he was right. Six months later I closed him on the second try using everything he told me in the first. My close rate is around 20%, which means no is Tuesday and I've made peace with the math.”

What sinks people

• "Rejection doesn't bother me" — either untrue or a sign you're not listening
• No system, just toughness talk. Grit without process burns out by Q3.
• Zero curiosity about why the no happened — the best reps mine every rejection