Close the Sale – Why It’s OK if They Say “NO”

by Joe Pici | Aug 7, 2018 | Nail the Sale

Does it ‘Burst your Bubble’ to Hear “No” When Working to Close the Sale?

If so, you’re not alone. Research from Krauthammer suggests that only 27% of sales professionals feel they have mastered sales skills. There’s a lot of pressure to close the sale. In addition, it’s common to feel personally rejected when your offering is turned down. Rejection hurts. According to Guy Winch PhD, our brains respond to rejection very similarly as they do to physical pain. He conducted a study testing the hypothesis that rejection mimics physical pain. The researchers gave some participants acetaminophen (Tylenol) before asking them to recall a painful rejection experience. The people who received Tylenol reported significantly less emotional pain than subjects who took a sugar pill.

Rejection has a negative effect on your confidence. No one wants to feel bad about themselves. Therefore, this leads to lower and lower productivity. You will eventually decide to move to a different product line, company, or get out of sales altogether.

Here are a few insights to help you overcome this trend and become more successful when you go to close the sale.

1. How you handle “No” has a direct effect on future purchases

The fact that your client turned down your offer today does not mean they will never purchase from you. According to HubSpot a full 80% of clients who do not purchase today, will purchase within the next 24 months! Of coarse, this depends upon you continuing to build rapport with them.

A few indicators of a future purchase would be:

There’s no budget for that now. Find out their time line for purchasing.
Our company has a purchasing freeze till the end of the year. Make an appointment towards the end of the year to meet again.
You will need to wait till we hire the new head of the department before we can make a decision. Get a date to meet again.
We are satisfied with our vendor. This is the objection that causes most sales people to quit and move on. Top sales professionals ask a simple question. “If anything happens to cause you to look for another vendor, would you consider us?” Then ask for permission to stay in touch 2-3 times per year just to make sure they are getting the service they need from their current vendor. Sales depend heavily on quality of service. One false move from your competitor and you’re in! You’ll be surprised how many clients you will add to your book of business this way.

2. “No” gives you greater insight into the clients needs and desires.

When a client rejects your offer it gives you the opportunity to uncover objections. Objections are a good thing. A client who has objections most often is giving serious consideration to your product. In Handling objections effectively, the salesperson responds in a way that alleviates these concerns and allows the deal to move forward. The more objections you uncover and remedy, the closer you come to being able to close the sale.

3. The client is not rejecting you.

They are rejecting the offer. It is the wrong size, price, color, the timing is all wrong, etc. Pushing to close the sale with a product that does not meet your clients needs will only alienate the buyer. You cannot afford to do that. Instead, learn how to protect yourself from feeling rejected.

Sell by using value propositions. A value proposition is a simple statement about the benefits, results, and solutions your product or service provides. For example, “I help companies generate more quality leads.” If they say “I’m not interested.” they are rejecting gaining quality leads, not you. You can follow up with, “Do you anticipate a need for quality leads in the future?” This opens up the possibility of a future sale.

4. “No” saves you time and money

An effective value proposition qualifies your buyer. Too often the novice sales person pushes for the appointment. This is because they think, “If I can just get in front of them I can close the sale.” This mindset can cause you to waste a lot of time running after uninterested people. You don’t need practice. Follow up on qualified leads. Using value propositions to book your sales appointments helps to sort out the hot prospects from the pretenders. You will cut down on ‘no shows’ and last minute cancelations.

“No” is not the worst thing. In fact it can be the first step to a long, prosperous client relationship.

Having trouble with client’s saying “No”? Close more sales. Contact Joe at 407-947-2590