Will you Fall in Love with the Word No to improve your Sales?

Will you Fall in Love with the Word NO to Improve Your Sales?

By Barb Girson

Tags: Love the word No and you will grow! Work with NO’s in sales, direct sales, entrepreneur thinking

It’s time to desensitize yourself to the power of hearing or fearing the word NO. Falling in love with the word “NO” is one of the hardest parts of being in sales—especially if you are a professional employee, leader, solo entrepreneur, small business owner, or working on your own. Maybe you are in a job search—the biggest sell of your life—and need to reframe how you view the word, “No” so you can move forward.

To be successful you must make “NO” a friend not a foe. Distance yourself to the impact that little word has on you. Every minute you are dwelling in the aftermath of No, your energy is diminished and time is wasted that could be better used on pursuing a YES.

Therefore when you get over the fear of hearing ‘NO’ and you will feel free! The world will look brighter; you will seek ‘NO’s everywhere you go! Permit yourself to hear ‘NO’ and anticipate a ‘YES’ soon. Every NO brings you closer to a ‘YES’!

When you are falling in love with ‘NO’, you have a sense of excitement, and you are attracted to a ‘ NO’ instead of fearing, or avoiding. “NO” becomes an energizer instead of being viewed as a negative response.

Similarly, brain scanning studies show that when you fall in love you are experiencing a motivation or drive. During early stages, you spark activity in the brain regions that are associated with motivation and reward. This awakening of self-manufactured brain activity will help you focus on planning and pursuing positive sales results.

MAKE IT A “NO IN SALES” GAME

For that reason, make it a game, enjoy the chase—you must collect the NO’s to find the YES. It is the entry price of success in sales. When you lesson the deflating impact of NO, you remove the barrier that stops many sellers from putting an offer out there. Avoiding the “No” gets in the way of asking. Ready to keep score of your progress?

Furthermore, a fun twist is to collect how many NO’s you can accumulate. Each month tally your ‘NO’s’ and try to get 100 people who say NO to selling your product, NO to setting an appointment, and NO to purchasing! Add one more NO if they will not even be willing to have you call them back! Finding a complete string of no’s one after another gets harder than you think.

As a result, you will get better and better at dealing with the ‘NO’s’. The more you practice, the tougher it becomes to get those 100 ‘NO’s’. You will soon find more YES’s creeping in. Do not let this distract you toward your primary goal; Collect the NO’s.

NO IN SALES– NORMAL RESPONSE – NEW IDEAS, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

There is a normal process most people go through before they accept a new idea, product, or service. They will typically reject the suggestion first, especially if it requires making a change. After hearing the concept again, they may experience some degree of acceptance and when they are ready to adopt your offer, the last step is assimilation (See sidebar). By understanding this process, it makes sense to explore beyond the NO, with your prospects’ permission, and continue the dialogue respectfully. Finally, there are times that a No is a NO and you will gain credibility and trust by respecting that a No is NO.

Before you start here are some points to remember: 1. ASK EVERYONE The people you do not ask are not a NO or a YES and lead you nowhere. 2. Start asking people whom you think will say NO first. • If they say “yes” you can think…”Wow, am I good! • If they say “NO” you can say to yourself, “I knew they would say “NO”. 3. When someone says “NO” say …“THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST OR THANK YOU!”(Think how they have saved you time and energy you could be spending with someone who is more likely to accept your service or purchasing your product.) 4. The more “no’s you get, the closer you are to a ‘yes”! • See how many no’s you go through to get to a yes. Do you usually need to ask 6-8-10 people? Make it a challenge to get 10 no’s in a row. It is very difficult. 5. Here’s a modified childhood motto that a wise woman once shared with me… “Sticks and Stones will break my bones, yet a “NO” will never hurt me. Chant it when necessary. 6. Find out if the person is saying no, not now, or no never. Ask?? “I hear you saying NO…is that NO not now or NO never?” Or “If you are firm with that, I respect you…however….” Present your option with a new benefit explained. 7. If you hear ‘NO’ transpose the letter-‘ON’. Heed the message. It means you need to ‘GO ON’. Keep going on – reverse and go again.

8. Learn from our children. Do not take the first no as no. When I tell my daughters, Robyn and Rayna, NO –they do not accept the first no. They wait a while rephrase and ask again. They find another angle or benefit. It has been said children will creatively ask parents 54 times for something they want. 9. Turn a “no” into a maybe. When children hear their parents say maybe—they think…we are halfway toa ‘ YES”. Learn from our children. 10. Understand the first time you hear an “NO” response it is robotic. If you ask again you are showing your sincerity that you really want the person to have the opportunity to accept your invitation. Understand and recognize a programmed and automatic response. Check-in and ask again.

Reference:
Helen Phillips, NewsScientist.com, First flush of love not emotional, 14:57 12 November 03