It doesn’t matter how competitive you are or how great you believe you are at sales – you can’t win them all!
Salespeople will hear ‘no’ far more than they hear ‘yes’ and it’s a common teaching that ‘no’ actually often translates as ‘not right now’. It doesn’t matter how great your product/service is, how slick you are with words or how unattached you are from the outcome – the reality is that salespeople are often an unscheduled interruption in someone else’s day and that often results in being cut-short with a ‘no’. Sure, you can, and should, try once to keep them engaged but, for the sake of your long term desire to build a great reputation and network, you need to quickly learn when to accept ‘no’ for what it is.
Tactful perserverance is the order of the day – just be sure to bring something valuable (TO THE OTHER PERSON) to the table on each touchpoint!
Once you get your head around this, it’s logical that you will become more comfortable with saying ‘no’ instead of trying to please everyone and making commitments you can’t honour. This becomes extremely relevant if you’re a business owner who is also responsible for sales for your company. Even if you’re not an owner, your customers will greatly appreciate, and respect you more for it, when you say ‘no’ to a request because you know you cannot deliver on what they’re asking for. I’m not suggesting you just bluntly say ‘no’ as, for the sake of the relationship, you should provide some context to it – be very careful though not to cite work you’re doing for another customer as the reason because no customer likes to be told that their business isn’t as important as another customer!
Whilst I’ve not yet nailed it, I’ve been that guy who, in my misguided efforts to be perecieved as a ‘can-do’ person, ended up over-stretching myself by agreeing to pretty much every request of my time and knowledge. What ended up happening? The exact opposite of what I had thought would happen by saying ‘yes’ to everyone…I ended up being a let-down to the majority of those who I committed to because I just couldn’t deliver on all the promises I made.
Nowadays, I find myself regularly replying to requests of my time with, ‘Thanks for thinking of me however I need to be ruthless and say no to everything that’s not currently aligned with my current plans.’ and, unsurprisingly, my focus and results have improved. Maybe I might have lost out on a life-changing opportunity but, once I say no, I forget about it
so I can’t really miss what I don’t know right?!
In summary, stop trying to please everyone & be confident in saying ‘no’ when you have justified reasons for it. In return, you will naturally become more respectful of others who tell you ‘no’ and you’ll stand a much better chance of working towards finding a better time to engage with the right people.
