My best and most memorable sales started at no. I remember as I write this, my first call with a sales rep that worked for me at Harvard University. The buyer, Linda Zedros started our appointment with "We could never buy from you" ... I said, "Oh, I'm a little confused then, why did we get the appointment" ...

I was very confused at that moment, wouldn't you be? I like to pay attention to what I am feeling and what I notice about the buyer's body language or facial expressions. I then find a way to say what I am feeling or noticing.

Linda replied to my question... "Oh, we heard a lot about your company and since you're new to Massachusetts, I figured we would find out about you."

I replied, "Oh, what did you hear?"  She told me. I then asked "Linda, since we are not going to get the business, would you mind telling me all about what you are looking for and why we cannot get the business?"

Linda replied, "We currently have 16 suppliers and with some we have done business for over 30 years... so you see, we could never give the business to you because we have never even done any business and we are going to select one supplier from the sixteen and consolidate all of our purchases."

I said, "That makes sense... it's probably what I would do"... "Would you mind telling me about your process of selection and what you are looking for the finalist to do for you?"

She replied, "sure, no problem"...

Linda went on to tell me all about her process, what she was looking for her selected supplier to give her, etc... over 45 minutes talking with someone who told me that we did not have a chance.

I ended our call with "you know Linda, it sounds to me like you're looking for a supplier partner" and she replied, "oh, partnership, what do you mean, would you explain that." I replied, "well, aren't all of your suppliers going to be coming in to your review and selection process?" Linda replied "yes" ... I said, "why don't you wait and see if your current suppliers have the same idea and if not, call me, I'll be glad to share it with you"...

She agreed that was fair.

Two weeks later, I got a phone call from Linda at Harvard, asking me to come in and explain my vision of a supplier partner. I said, "sure Linda, would you do me a favor?" She replied, "no problem, of course." I said, "would you mind putting me on that list of suppliers that you are considering?" 

She said, "yes." Needless to say, I was on cloud nine that day.

Six months later, after a complete review of all the suppliers, WE GOT THE BUSINESS. THE COMPANY THAT LINDA SAID, "NO, WE COULD NEVER BUY FROM YOU"...

We were awarded the contract for over $1 million dollars in annual sales...!!!!

Six months later... I met Peter Delucca of Spaulding and Slye Real Estate management at a BOMA cocktail party and he saw my name badge and said "oh, you're with XXXX Paper company, we could never buy from you"... and I said to Peter, "how do you know that I would sell to you?"

He was a little stunned and said "why wouldn't you sell to us”? I asked him, “Do you sell to everyone in your market?"... he replied "no." I said, "why not?" Peter replied "well, not everyone is a fit..." and I asked "and that is because?" ... Peter replied "well, we cannot make money on every situation so we have to find out if we are a fit"....

I said to Peter, "Well it the same for us"... he understood. We spoke the rest of the evening and exchanged cards. I asked him before we parted, "how come you said that you could never buy from us... he said "oh, we have six or seven paper companies now and I am going to consolidate them to one and we have never even purchased from you"...

Well, there is a lot more to the story and guess what happened a few weeks later? That's right, I got the business... over $750,000 annually... 

What's more... when I got to Boston one year earlier I said to those around me "I am going to get Harvard and Spaulding & Slye"...

Funny how things work out...

Great things start at "no." It takes the pressure off of everyone. You can say what's important and the truth.  

I say go for no in your conversations with Prospects. You cannot lose what you do not have anyway. 

Go get 20 no's today and 100 for the month and see what happens.

I wish you good selling. 

Gratefully yours,
Steve