No Is Not a Complete Sentence

Guest Contributor: David Colomb
David's Posts - David's Blog

I saw a plaque the other day that said that Teenagers need to understand the No is a complete sentence. After I got finished laughing at the sentiment, I realized that in sales, no should never be a complete sentence.

We have all gone on that cold call, and talked to the gatekeeper who has told us, No, we can't meet with the decision maker. We call the decision maker and they say No they don't want to meet with us. We meet with the decision maker and make our pitch, then get a No. This has happened to all of us, the difference is, how do we deal with that No.

A No at the door is either the end of a call or a challenge to get around the gatekeeper and reach the decision maker. How do we get there? We get a business card that has an email address that we can contact. We find someone else in the organization that can get us to the decision maker, or we try to charm the gatekeeper in to letting us through.

We get to the decision maker and they say no to a meeting, we again have a choice, we can back out and leave, or we can take the No as a factor of the decision maker not having enough information to see the advantage of a meeting. Given that scenario we need to figure out a way to get enough information to the decision maker so that they see the value of a meeting. Mailers, emails, testimonials, a call from a trusted ally are ways to make this happen.

We get that meeting with the decision maker, and as we're making our pitch and we start testing a close, we're getting No, do we take the No as a "No Sale", and walk away, or do we take the No as a lack of information on our part, that has led to the decision maker not seeing the value of our product? Of we see that as the problem, we go back, probe to find where we have agreement, and then we probe to find out why we're getting a No. Once we find that point, we can then give more information, support our information, and try another close. We continue to work through the process and keep working to get to the yes at the close.

I guess the point that I want to make, is that as a salesman, we need to not accept No as a complete sentence. Instead of hearing No, we should hear a request for more information. As salespeople we always worry about losing a potential customer because of being pushy, but we need to develop a non threatening approach that will allow us to collect the information that we need, to change that No to a yes, and we then need to present the information and get to the next step.

I had a Sales Manager who used to tell me that No mean's not just today, not No forever. I think as salespeople we need to realize that, and see No as a challenge and not as a roadblock.

Top 5 ways to lose a small business sale

Guest Contributor: Albert Luk

Albert's Posts - Albert's Site

Let's face it, in a downturn, a small business will find any excuse to close the door on you. It is hard enough creating relationships and proving value in this climate, why hurt yourself by committing one of the following sins when selling to small business.

1. Forgetting the speak English (or whatever the local business dialect is). Nothing turns people off more than jargon who are not in the industry. Small business owners want to understand you. Tell them how your good or service helps them in plain English, stripped of all the industry jargon.

2. Being a time-waster. Entrepreneurs are impatient people. They have so much to do during the day. Be very clear why you are meeting with them and how long the meeting will take. Don't take longer and don't get off purpose unless you have been granted permission.

3. Overly aggressive up-selling. Tolerated in good times. Hated in down times. Big businesses consider how small their profit will be in down times. Small businesses wonder if they will make rent next month. Measure a small businesses' needs carefully and avoid the upsell or you could be talking your way out of a sale.

4. You have every solution to their pain. "We have a software to solve your book-keeping issue and hardware to manage your operations and consultants to increase your revenue..." It may be true but the dialogue sounds all about you. Listen to their pain and empathize but don't try to take advantage of it by trying to sell all the time.

5. Disappearing when times are tough. People are judged by how they react in bad times not in good times. If you run for the hills when your client struggles, they will remember. All small business is personal. As I wrote in November, small businesses don't die, they just morph into other businesses so you could be losing a future customer as well.

Best of luck.

Lead Generation is King

Guest Contributor: Shannon McCaffery
Shannon's Posts - Shannon's Site


Don't you want to acquire and get the keys to the kingdom that will unlock your world of riches? You're probably wondering what exactly are the keys to that kingdom that will unlock the door? Well I won't leave you in too much suspense here- one of the keys to unlock your riches is LEAD GENERATION. This is one area that will bring the money rolling in.

Why is lead generation so important? When you're in the business of making money, the name of the game is building your herd of followers. You see my philosophy is you sell something to acquire a client to sell to for life. Most businesses don't operate that way. The sell products and services to make money. They don't cultivate, nurture and put a fence around their herd of buyers. In order to get a good stream of prospects knocking on your door, you need to generate leads or acquire people's names and information that are interested in what you have to offer. If you've ever heard of Seth Godin, he calls this "Permission Marketing." You're going out there in the world and asking for those people who are interested in your products or services to raise their hands and tell you that they're interested in discovering more of what you have to sell.

So having a way to generate leads (people in affect raising their hands) and start adding these people to your marketing funnel is king. A good example of this is Rory Fatt, who has a marketing business geared towards restaurant owners. When he started his business he advertised in key restaurant publications that his industry audience read. His ad was more like an Advitorial and the whole focus of the ad was for people to sign up to receive his free report. He amassed a wealth of names to then market his products to. In affect his free report was really a sophisticated brilliant sales letter.

The key here is to have a very affective lead generation machine. Whether it's a lead generation web page, advertisement or direct mail campaign. You also always need to have a free offer in your ad to get your potential prospects to give you their name and information-like give away a free report, audio mp3, CD, or maybe even a DVD. When you have a brilliant lead generation machine, you will get all those people who are interested in your product or services to raise their hands. Then you simply need to cultivate and sell to them!