Feeling rejected? Try hippo skin!

Did you know that a hippopotamus has skin that’s an inch and a half thick and is 25% of its total body weight?  For an animal that weighs 1,800 kilos, that’s a lot of skin.

It’s almost impenetrable (some say bullet proof) and yet a hippo’s very survival out of water depends on a coating of oily red sweat it secretes, which acts as a moisturiser and sun-screen.  So even though a hippo sports some of the best body armour in the animal kingdom, it still needs to adapt when called for.

It occurs to me that when it comes to dealing with rejection, hippo skin would come in very handy.

See as a marketer, you face rejection every day.

If you didn’t then you’d have 100% market share, everyone in your organisation wouldn't have "marketing manager" as their second job (you know what I'm talking about...) and at the extremes, your job probably wouldn't exist at all.

"They" reject your story and the way you tell it, your offer, your product, your service and your brand in favour of someone else's. They do it in every possible way despite your best, most internally satisfying or externally rewarded efforts.

It may be that the product you thought was so feature-laden that nobody in their right mind would reject it, didn’t have the right benefits to shift or transform your audiences behaviour.

It may be that the creative idea which looked so good in the pitch room failed to tap into your audience and convert the entertainment to action, or that the tactical execution, telling the story or media channel plans didn’t hit their desired mark.

There are, of course, many more reasons rejection can happen.  Yet, it does happen and we ignore the signs, continuing down the same well-trodden path, expecting a different outcome and proving Einstein’s attributed point of the definition of insanity.

We fail to adjust to the situation.  We fail to secrete the oily red sweat that protects us, changes the scheme and ensures growth and survival.

The best pitch-winners, deal-makers and marketers I've known aren't immune to rejection.  They've simply mastered the process of turning it around.

Rejection has a highly negative connotation.  It’s in your face and ripe to be taken very personally because “no” is difficult to hear.

But rejection leveraged properly is fuel.  Insightful information can always be gleaned from it, waving a flag at the need to shift, adapt, alter, adjust or outright change the brand, offer, product or the promotion of it.  You just need to be open to the learning.

In summing up, of course you should never expect rejection and must take every planning step necessary to prevent its onset.

When it happens though, pretend that you’re wrapped in the skin of a hippo, be impenetrable to the negative outcomes of rejection and instead use the positive value it serves to re-draw your attack.

** Revised and republished from The Polished Turd, first published January 2011