Sales Tip 1841: “No” Is an Opportunity to Go Deeper – Jacquelyn Nicholson

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today we’re doing another Throwback Thursday episode and featuring this clip from an interview I did with my now very good friend Jacquelyn Nicholson in episode 8 of the Sales Success Stories podcast almost 8 years ago! Listen to this:

Jacquelyn Nicholson: I think when people hear no, they just assume, okay, it’s no. Move on. To me, a no is always an opportunity to ask what they want.

Scott Ingram: Talk about that some more.

Jacquelyn Nicholson: Well, I think obviously there are situations when a prospective customer says no that, okay, it really means no, that’s fine. And it’s not. It’s just to me, though, it’s also an opportunity to go deeper. And I think a bit of a corollary to that is if you’ve lost a deal. So let’s say your company tried to sell a solution to a prospective customer. They signed with a competitor or a similar company and they signed a contract for a year. Well, just because you lost that round doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stay in touch with that person and to provide value over time because you can always win that business back. And I’ve had that situation happen to me the last two years where we’re competitive.

Situations where we had lost prior to my arrival, where we stayed in touch with the prospective customer and several times now have actually been the victor in the next time around. So no. Yes means, I mean, I get that no means no, but at the same time, you know, there’s depending on where you’re at in a negotiation or particular conversation, they could be seeking more information from you, a concession, more value. And so you want to uncover that instead of just taking the no at the face value and moving on, you’d want to ask the questions, uncover the motivation, uncover the reasons, and then you can make an assessment as to when you might be back in touch. But it’s never really over. Is. My point is you can always reapproach that situation.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Jacquelyn and to this full original interview, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1841. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!