Going for the “no”

The premise behind “going for the no” is that you should make it a goal to hear and to meet with a resistance and rejections, as opposed to making it a goal to succeed and hear your prospect say yes. The difference between salespeople who achieve mediocre success and salespeople who achieve great success is that great salespeople have a different attitude about rejection. They can handle rejection a lot better than the mediocre salespeople. Great salespeople don’t see it as something to be feared or avoided. It goes back to the idea of your professional self and your personal self. Therefore, they don’t convince themselves not to take rejection personally. They see rejection as something positive, something they can learn from. They are convinced that they will be able to get a yes for every no they receive. They know that every time they hear no they will get closer to hearing a yes, and sometimes the value of 1 yes is greater than the cost of 100 no’s.

The basic goal of going for the no in a sales situation is that it takes away the fear of rejection. Salespeople would have more sales if they would ask after the no. Most salespeople immediately are pulled back when they hear the no, because that is all that they are focused on. It possible to move towards something if you see it as being negative. But if you form a positive attitude about hearing no, about facing rejection and about the value of going for the no, you build the persistence and the thick skin which you need to get to the yes’s.