No One Likes Rejection
Salespeople hate hearing, “No.”
Jerry Kohl, the founder of Brighton Collectibles, once told me that he used to require reps to come to a weekly meeting armed with two “No’s.” My initial response was, “Wow that must make for some negative meetings.” Jerry said, “No, you would be surprised how many ‘Yes’s’ they found looking for those two ‘No’s.’”
Interesting; by making the dreaded “No” okay he got people calling on stores that they might otherwise drive on by thinking, “No, they wouldn’t be interested.” They went in thinking, “I’ll get one of my required “No’s,” and damn, it became a “Yes” and they had to keep on looking for the “No’s.”
In Retail Selling Made Easy I say, “If NO to the wrong item is not alright with the salesperson, then YES to the right item will not be okay with the customer.”
The minute you try to sell me something that I don’t like, there is something else I don’t like.
Guess what that is.
January 9th, 2013 at 11:51 am
Hi Ron,
Regarding rejection! Yesterday was my day off and my husband and I were driving around the island. We stopped to look at some art. I told the artist how much I like this one piece and then walked away….as I walked I could really feel her disappointment. I continued to browse and was about to purchase some earrings and thought I don’t even know who made these. I walked back to the artist and purchased the piece I loved in the beginning. I never realized until my husband and I continued on our drive, that the same thing had happened to me the day before when I had a client that didn’t show. Anyway long story short. When we got home on the answering machine was a message that I had made a sale. The no show—showed! By giving and buying..I was able to sell! Move the energy…give back! With Aloha, Char