Why you are getting the slow ‘no’ from your clients and what to do about it — Part 1
We all do sales on a daily basis. It’s a fact. Whether it’s part of work, in search for a job or on a personal level, life is centred around communicating with others and trying to achieve something as a result. It’s a fine craft and it’s as rewarding to be good at it as it is difficult. Even though we do this on an almost daily basis, most of us are quite frankly not very good at it.
So why is that?
One of our awesome mentors at Pi Labs, James Morris-Manuel, says
There are only 4 types of answers you are ever going to get when you are trying to make a sale -
- Straight ‘yes’
- Straight ‘no’
- ‘Yes, on this condition(s)’
- ‘Yes, but…’
The first 2, as James says, are very easy, 3 is something you can work with and 4 is a slow, painful, concealed ‘no’, which wastes your time and can potentially kill your business if you don’t manage it properly.
The first time I heard that, I thought ‘Why would you mess someone about with the slow ‘no’ and not just give them your answer?’. And then, to my horror, I came to the realisation that I am guilty of doing this myself!
‘Wait, I don’t want to be that *~$%&+?^*#, why do I do that?!’
Thinking of all the interactions I’ve had in my work, with startups who pitch to join Pi Labs, with companies at Microsoft who wanted to get sponsorship, with clients in Nimero who wanted a new feature to be developed, I identified a few key reasons why I have given the slow no. I am sharing this now in the hopes that it will help those of you who are trying to sell, and it will encourage myself and others to stop doing this.
So here are my top reasons for not giving a straight answer and my recommendation for how to deal with each situation, so you don’t waste time, money and other resources and focus on what’s important to you:
1. I want to be nice to people
Why does it happen? I promise that’s true for most of us — ultimately, we want to be perceived as good people. We want to show that we are willing to listen, to help and most importantly we don’t want to put others down when they share their ideas and aspirations. All of this makes it really hard to say ‘I don’t like what you’re trying to sell me, so I won’t be buying it’.
How to identify it? These will be genuinely well-intended comments and recommendations, but the person giving them would not be willing to do anything more. Try to ask them to commit something small like a follow-up meeting, review more of your information/product and give you more feedback, etc. Chances are they will be ‘too busy right now, can we do it in a couple of months’.
Can you do anything about it? You might be able to turn this around, but the cost of doing it would probably not make sense. It’s best to park this and revisit when you have made a significant progress and have stronger arguments on your side.
2. I have said ‘no’, but the other side didn’t accept it
Why does it happen? There is a fine line between being persistent and being a pest. If I have tried to politely tell you I’m not interested, but you refused to take the hint and kept countering my points with what may have seemed like good arguments to you, but were ultimately warranting more polite turn downs, chances are I got bored and annoyed and wanted to get out of the conversation. The easiest way to do that is to say ‘OK, but I need… more time to think about this/to discuss this with my team/to see how it fits within our broader strategy’ and then never return that email.
How to identify it? Having been on the other side of things, if the conversation you’re having feels like a tennis match where you’re just being served and your game is to return the ball, but not make an attack, you should probably back off.
Can you do anything about it? No. Genuinely, just leave it. If this person’s opinion changes, they will come looking for you, but it’s important that you stop the conversation on good terms.
This topic got too long, so I had to split it in 2 parts. Second one is here.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
