The Power of No

What can stop even the hardiest salesperson in their tracks? What can have the most experienced rep afraid to get out of their car? One tiny little two letter word. No.

The toughest things to take as a sales professional are the “No’s”. I’ve seen many salespeople paralysed with the fear of getting one more “No” to such an extent that they’re afraid to leave the office, or approach customers in their shop. I’ve seen others head for the door, giving up the moment they encounter one “No”. So why does that one little word cause us so much grief?
Because we take it personally.

That “No” from your customer feels like a personal rejection and that resurrects all kinds of emotions from other times in your life when you’ve felt personally rejected.  It hurts. Many of us would prefer not to live through rejection of any kind, so we do our best to avoid scenarios where the strong possibility of rejection is a factor.  The trouble is, we’re in sales and we’re going to get a lot of “No’s”. It’s just a part of the job.

Many salespeople try to pre-empt the “No” by giving their customers lots of information and answering questions before they’re even asked, but they usually end up product peddling and that’s certain to bring on the “No’s”.  

Of course, you can circumvent some of their “No’s” by asking your customers quality questions and gaining useful information from them. This then allows you to skew your pitch towards what they really want, therefore lowering the likelihood of being on the receiving end of a “No”.  You’ll still get some “No’s”, just not quite so many.

Top salespeople will take up to five “No’s” before giving up. It seems counter-intuitive, but they welcome getting the “No’s” because a “No” indicates that the customer is engaged in the process and if they’re engaged, then it’s only a matter of time before they say “Yes”.  It will help you to know your statistics. How many “No’s” on average, does it take before you get a “Yes”?  Knowing this will help you depersonalise the process. You’ll be better placed to see it as just a numbers game.

Most customers will offer up to 4 “No’s” before accepting your offer. That’s a pretty strong case for hanging in there and dealing with their “No”.

The only sure-fire way to deal with the “No’s” is to accept them as part of doing business, understanding that they’re not personal rejections at all. Instead view them as requests for more information and see them as one more step on your path to inevitable success.