It always cracks me up when someone repeatedly peppers me with a product/service/idea and hits me with the refrain “I won’t take no for an answer” or “would you take no for an answer ?” Let me answer that question for you right now.
Hell, Yes I take no for an answer. I try to sell good products and services and to have ideas that I hope will be successful. If I am selling any of these to someone and they say no, I will always ask for their objections with something like ” Thank you for taking the time to listen/read. Would you mind sharing with me what you didn’t like about the product or why you like the product you chose ? “. And if I have a good counter to their objection(s), I will let it fly and see what happens.
If they still respond negatively to my efforts. So be it. At some point, and that point should come quickly, you have to move on. If you have a good product/service/idea, there will be someone who will understand the value and that will want the product. If you keep on pushing with someone who obviously does not want the product, for whatever reason you are making multiple mistakes:
1. You are wasting your and the prospects time. Wasting your time means you are not selling to the next prospect. Always remember what I tell myself:”Every no gets me closer to a yes”. You have to move on and start communicating with someone you know might buy your product rather than wasting more time with someone you already know won’t buy your product/service/idea
2. The more you push someone who has said no, the more likely you are to appear desperate, and that desperation impacts your brand as a salesperson and the brand of the product. Just because it worked for Bud Fox doesn’t mean it will work for you. That was a movie.
3. It’s also a sign of fear and laziness. It takes work to find qualified prospects. It also takes courage to overcome the fear of not knowing what will happen next. It is very, very easy to send someone an email every hour or daily. That is what a lazy person is going to do. Spend all of two seconds hitting the resend button. A smart, focused and successful salesperson will gear up and do the homework necessary to find their next customer. That is a sign of confidence. Knowing that you believe so much in what you do, that it is going to be fun and exciting to find your next customer and show off with how amazing your products/service/idea is. If the last person didn’t get it. That is their problem. Not yours.
That is what successful business people do. What do you do?
and of course dont forget Shark Tank every friday on ABC 8/7pm… to see all of this in action!
Read the original article by Mark Cuban.
