What Part of No

A handful of years ago, an employer of mine had mandatory sales training.

Neither myself nor many of my colleagues were too excited. I felt sales training-all sales training- attempted to do the impossible. There is no blueprint for human behavior, unless you have 6 billion + sets of individualized blueprints. There is an infinite amount of variables when it comes to business and deal-making. I was hard headed but I kept my mind open.

The late David Sandler built what is now known as The Sandler Sales Institute. The program is tremendous, in part because it doesn't profess to know how ANYTHING is going to go down. Much of what they talk about and teach flies directly in the face of conventional wisdom on how to be a good salesperson. What follows is a very brief example of this and why it is so effective.

Sandler tells salespeople to " Go for the 'NO!' ". What does this mean? What it means is salespeople spend an INCREDIBLE amount of time with customers and prospects unable or unwilling to make a decision, including the decision not to move forward (No!).

If the answer is "no", do you want to know that now or after months of fruitless work?

Naturally, every business situation is different so this practice isn't meant to be a literal plug-in and needs to be on a case-by-case basis. Be especially prudent with people who know you and have already done business with you. But by all means, if you think someone is waffling, is shopping you or just doesn't have the heart to tell you the "painful truth", tell them that "no" is OK.

Or as Sandler also likes to profess, you'd rather hear 'no' than 'maybe'. At least you know where you stand and can divert your energies elsewhere.