Many people fail at sales for one very specific reason, they are afraid to hear the word "no." To them, the word "no," means that all of their efforts, all of their time was wasted. They feel that they have failed, but a professional salesperson knows otherwise.
An inexperienced salesperson would rather take a maybe. maybe is the worst word a salesperson can hear. Nothing good comes from it. More often than not, the word maybe is a way to sidetrack, a way to say "no," without actually saying it. Many, many many professional salespeople languish in the land of Maybe.
Why is "no" a better word than maybe? I don't get it TNG… ?
When your customer tells you, "no" you are able to ask, "why?" You're able to get the true objections and when you have the true objections, naturally, you can work through them. There's an old saying in sales, "Selling starts at NO."
Think back to when you were young and were pining for that girl or that boy in one of your classes. The worst thing that person could tell you after you asked them out was "maybe," or something equally indecisive. Obviously, the best word to hear is "yes," but in absence of a yes, I'll take a "no" every day. With "no", I know where I stand. With "no" I can take the appropriate steps and actions to prove the worth of myself and my product. With "no," I can get to "yes."
So, to all of you burgeoning sales people out there, never, never, NEVER, languish in the land of Maybe.
Lol, when I say "no" I mean fuck off and if you say one more thing I'll hang up or show you the door like I said goodbye. If I say maybe I mean show me in writing and I'll look it over and make up my mind without the bullshit sales double talk. I say yes when I can try a service with no contract or get a product free for not only me to try but my customers as well.
I don't sell to small businesses that would say "fuck off." -though I once did. When someone says "no," to me it's followed with clarification, ie: "we liked the performance of the software but we aren't convinced that it's worth a 20% premium." Or "no, you competitor doesn't require a maintenance contract, so we are going with them." Etc. Point is, the "no," comes after at least 3-4 high level meetings and therefore they feel, rightly so, that I'm owed justification for their decision. Now, I can attempt to turn the no around tackling the objections they've provided or I can accept that it's just not a good fit, both of these things happen. Sometimes a maybe is just a maybe and means they need more time or don't yet have enough data to make the decision. However, more often than not, it is someone kicking the can down the road because they have an objection they haven't told you about. youd be shocked how many people so this. Trust me, a "no," is better.