How To Handle Negative Feedback About Your Business

Business Building Tips

November 5, 2020

We’ve all been there:

You spend months strategizing and polishing your messaging.

You go over every little detail a thousand times.

You pour your heart and soul into it.

And yet once your business – or product – goes live… someone somewhere has something *not so nice* to say. Yikes!

I know exactly just how soul-wrenching this can be. No, you’re not overly-sensitive – you’re just human, and humans sometimes get hurt feelings.

But if you’re in this for the long run, you’ll have to learn how to override the feedback that’s not always pleasant to hear. Let me show you how!

How to Handle Negative Feedback About Your Business

First things first…

As the front face of your own company, you’ll quickly learn that the old saying you can’t please everyone is very, VERY true.

Even if you’re not building a personal brand, it’s still impossible for your brand to be liked by everyone.

What’s even worse, the more you try to appeal to everyone, the more your message gets watered down, and the less you’re going to appeal to the right people. You can read more about why that happens here.

There’s always someone who simply won’t resonate with what you have to say and do. Believe it or not, it’s nothing personal. It’s just that different people have different opinions and that’s okay!

What can you do about it?

If a snarky comment or two shook your foundation and left you wondering whether you’re moving in the right direction, here’s a little something to help you out.

1. Opinions are NOT facts

Someone else’s opinion about you or your business or product is just that: an opinion, not a fact.

It’s easy to fall in the trap of thinking that what someone thinks of you is the truth but really, it’s not.

On top of it, you may be tempted to think that only if you had a chance to prove them wrong you can make them understand and…

Been there, done that. Trying to change someone else’s opinion is most often futile and demands a huge chunk of your energy, a chunk that I’m sure you’re saving for bigger and better things.

2. Can you learn something from it?

Push the ego aside for a minute or two. Can this negative feedback be used as a growth opportunity?

Of course, there’s an obvious difference between comments that are just plain offensive… and negative feedback given in a polite manner.

If you’re dealing with the latter, try and see their perspective. Sometimes, the (negative) feedback you receive from your audience is a priceless tool in growing your business in the right direction.

3. Keep a list of all the POSITIVE comments

The nature of the human brain is to get obsessed with negativity.

I bet that you have at least a dozen well-worded lengthy testimonials on your website and yet you catch yourself thinking about that ONE person that said something different.

That’s why I suggest keeping a file with all of the POSITIVE things someone said about you and your business. A sort of an antidote for all the times something brings you down. 😉

In that file, you can save copies of thank-you emails and all the sweet messages you get on your social media profiles. It’s well worth making the hassle of creating one, as this is a nice way to give yourself a bit of a morale boost when you need it the most.

4. Real validation comes from within

In the end, don’t forget that real validation comes from within.

Remind yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Re-read your personal manifesto, over and over again, until you feel inspired again. Try and remember all the good changes you’re bringing to people’s lives.

Not everyone has to like you in order for you to like yourself.

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