If you are reading this Post you are probably thinking why would any sales person want to hear the word “NO”? The word that sales people want to hear is YES!!! That is the bottom line in any sales transaction, because without a YES there is no transaction. So why should salespeople want to hear the word NO? Well please humor me for a few minutes, and consider the following.
The answer to why sales people should love to, or at least want to hear the word NO is very simple if you just stop and think about it. Anyone who has ever made a sales call whether it be cold or not, sent out a mailing, or done any type of marketing, knows that you will receive a certain number of NO’s before you get a YES. I am not an expert on marketing, but I have been told that for every peace of mail that you sent out, you will be lucky to get 1 YES for every 100 peaces that you mailed. I have done a fair amount of cold sales calls in my 31 years in sales, and I would say that if I get 1 YES for Every 10 cold calls I make I am doing pretty good.
So why should I want to hear 10, 100, or even 1,000 NO’s before I hear a YES? It is because if I know that I have to hear a certain number of NO’s before I get a YES, then I should be happy that with every NO I hear it will be one less NO before I get the YES that I am looking for. Instead of being depressed that I just got another NO, I should be excited that I am now one less NO closer to getting a YES. No one likes to be rejected, and I am no exception to that, but when I look at this way, it makes the NO’s a lot easier to accept, and to move on to the next sales call.
It is important for sales people to find the positive in what we do, even in NO’s. If we don’t look for the positive, than how will we motivate ourselves to put the negatives behind us, and continue to look for the YES’s in life? We can look at a NO as a rejection, or we can look at it as one step closer to getting our YES.
So when I am cold calling I can’t wait to get the NO’s out of the way so that I can get to the YES, and the quicker that I do that, the quicker I will achieve my desired result. A career in sales is not an easy one, and in order to be successful in sales you need to look for positive motivation in what ever you do. If you don’t then you will either not be around for long, or will just become an order taker waiting for the phone to ring. No one likes to be around a negative person, even if that person is you. Welcome the NO’s in life so that you can enjoy the YES’s.
George Souto
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Sorry Jeff, I like the sound of the word "yes" better than I do the sound of the word "no." Thanks for the kind comments last week. Happy New Year!