#971 Every Yes is a No

I know. Salespeople think I’m dyslexic, and I meant to say, “Every no can be a yes!” or some other happy horse hockey spewed by motivational sales speakers on stages and in podcasts worldwide.

Sorry to disappoint you. Here’s the deal. You say yes to far too many things. As a result, you’re doing far too many things. Remember last week’s blog about the power of making 100 calls vs. making only 10? One of the excuses for making too few calls was: 

“You can’t imagine the amount of other work I have.” 

Salespeople tend to have a kneejerk yes habit. This is because they are trained to try like hell to be likable. 

Living a life in which your income depends on being liked can mislead one into exactly what goes into being well-liked. I can’t do my sales-rapport seminar here, but I can tell you that sycophantic salespeople seldom succeed. Your likeability quotient has many components. Not included among them is saying yes to every request that comes your way.

Saying yes to anything means saying no to something else. There are only so many hours in the day. This is what made Stephen Covey’s “Big Rocks First” demonstration so powerful.

I train salespeople to use this subconscious phrase immediately upon hearing a request; “Why WOULDN’T I do this?” But, again, salespeople are so indoctrinated in trying to please that the “Yes I can do that” often comes out without pause for thought, leading to over-commitment, resentment, less prospecting, and lower sales numbers.

You don’t have to say no to everything; just take a moment and ask yourself, “Why WOULDN’T I do this?” If there is no good reason to decline, then, by all means, do it. 

BUT remember that at the end of the month, quarter, or year, you’ll either be over or under your sales goal, and if you’re under, no one is going to care that you were so agreeable. They hired you to sell.

Own Your Sales Gene…