Say No! 3 Foolproof Strategies to Recognize When to Decline
Ever been in a situation where you wanna say no, but you just can’t?
We’ve all been through this.
“Sir 50 percent off, please, this is last time — don’t miss out on this offer! You will never get an offer like this”.
You're either the type of person who politely responds rejecting or accepting the offer, or you're the person that gives a slight hiss as you walk through, or you’ve found your next opponent…
So how exactly do you recognize when to decline (SAY NO)?
Here are 3 useful strategies:
- Identifying red flags and warnings
It is important to identify potential red flags and warnings to avoid falling into traps and possible harm, and avoid being regretful. We as human beings that are aware or have a sense of consciousness naturally tend to avoid certain things which we see that may affect us, if we have already experienced a sense of danger or discomfort.
Let's approach this in terms of being an employee for a company.
A client has a new request for a project that you could work on. You schedule a meeting with this client so you can get a good sense of the project, sort of try to understand how the project works, when are the deadlines, what are the cost associated etc.
You find that he barely provides details, and refuses to give you clear-cut answers… you don’t exactly have a clear picture of what to do exactly or what to expect, perhaps there’s some intrinsic motive to his advantage?
And when you clarify with him, he still provides the same weak response.
This is when you need to step up your guard, and politely say NO. You don’t want to put yourself in a position, where you could face a possible loss, it isn’t worth it and there are tons of clients, who would provide you with a clear-cut plan and framework.
Let's move outside of work!
You’ve been piling up those late night cravings and now weigh more than a ton. You decide to approach fitness trainers to identify the ideal workout plan and schedule so you can start to work on cardio and start losing weight and staying in shape for betterment.
A trainer from a fitness company approaches you and presents his schedule and workout plan, you are listening, but the reality is you can't bare it.
The trainer sets unrealistic expectation goals and wants you to work beyond the limits that are necessary and intends for you to overwork yourself, which you recognize would eventually cause you to burnout.
The trainer could have recommended a plan more suitable for you based on your level of training and capacity. But he’s got expectations which are way over board, and you know you certainly can not commit to it, even though there may be some benefit in complying with the plan.
There’s no point in agreeing to it, if you know certainly that you are gonna stay slacked up, never show up for training and waste a lot of money.
Again, this is where you draw the line and decline, to find a trainer who’s more compatible with what you want to achieve and who’s a lot less aggressive.
2. Checking History Of Reliability
“He’s not a reliable person, don't trust him” says your friend.
“Hmm, perhaps he changed, and is now trustworthy?” You reply.
Reliability is one of the key factors in deciding whether to accept an offer, request, or proposal. Generally, people that are known to lie will continue to lie, unless of course they are known to change their ways.
So always make sure that you have a check in place for the person’s reliability. This could be done through judgement based on your conversation, if you have the skills to easily judge liars, or nowadays, even a social media check could be done to see if a person has a decent outlook i.e- not a criminal or scammer. Most importantly asking others around that you trust of the person.
Let’s say, you already know a person that's known to be treacherous, renowned for his lies, why on earth would you accept what he has to offer you? If it's something that is trivial and has no effect on you, and you are certain, this is different.
But when you come to what is substantial, do not be fooled.
Now, when you don't have a clear-cut understanding of a person, this is where the checks begin…
Let's go back to university, you are a student at university and you are doing your final project.
A friend of yours requests to be a part of your group for the final project. You put him on hold and decide to perform a background check on him, you don’t tell him this because that would obviously make you a creep. You decide to ask around and, a good friend of his, tells you :
“He’s a scumbag, been working on projects with us in the past, never shows up for meetings, procrastinates all of his work to the end of the semester, doesn’t bother to even attempt working unless penalized”.
You know well what you got to do, show up to him and reject him straight up.
3. Observing Ethical Behavior
Good moral ethics are fundamental in business transactions as well as the normal interaction between human beings. We tend to develop a sense of affinity and trust between people who have good morals in their conduct, and we find ourselves distanced away from people who have weak ethics.
So observing a person’s ethical behavior is also a factor in deciding whether to accept an offer or decline.
For example, you are approached by a salesperson- ahh, another one of them again. He presents to you a new product, you’ve seen this product trending on TikTok, you are now interested in the product.
However, the salesperson exaggerates a great deal of the product, while you already know the limitations of the product; he’s giving you false promises!
A huge sign you need to say NO, it’s not worth getting a product which has been presented to you exaggeratedly. This could cause the customers that are unaware of the product to develop a huge set of expectations only to be dismayed. Again, your rejection here would not only be if you are aware of the product, even if you are not aware of the product and you notice this GREAT deal of exaggeration, beware of being scammed, its much better to politely decline and check the same offer elsewhere trust-worthy.
Another sign of unethical behavior is bribery. The moment someone bribes you to accept an offer, know that there is no goodness in accepting the offer. It is only a disadvantage to yourself due to taking the right of another human being, putting yourself at an advantage unfairly.
Discrimination, being unfair to someone based on their color or race, is another important factor of unethical behavior. If you ever notice a dealer favoring you over another due to your apparent superior race or skin-tone and the other person is looked down upon and not given the same treatment as you, if you have any sense of good morality, put your foot down and decline with no regrets.
Overall, these are 3 important ways to identify when to decline an offer when needed, so the next time you’ve been approached you’ve got somewhat of an idea when to reject an offer, request, or a proposal.
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