The Power of NO in Sales

Why Reaching Terms Too Quickly Can Bite You.

The Wrap Biz

By Matt Richart

wrote an article almost four years ago in regard to the power of No and how important it can be for your business. As time has passed since then I have really learned even more about saying no or even injecting the word “No” in my sales presentation or pitch. Sounds crazy to even utter the word no in a sales pitch, right?

When we all start out in business or decide to make the entrepreneur plunge we are filled with fear, adrenaline, excitement, and a drive to be successful. Even if you are not an owner of your own shop these same feelings can come into your thought process

- Chris Voss

while working for a company. Especially in sales. Some of these feelings while running a business would force me to say yes to almost every job. My biggest fear was to tell a client NO to a job. Then we would be out of business down the road and I would regret telling that customer NO. As if that one job would be the deciding factor if our company would succeed or not. That was one of my main fears for years, unfortunately. Once you get settled into your company’s sales routine and can measure sales along with margins you can then see the big picture. Is your company profitable? Has your company and sales team produced the numbers that you set out to achieve? For our company and myself that answer was no. I decided to go back and reverse engineer our entire sales process, products, streams of revenue, and what were the highest margin jobs that we produced. This was one of the biggest wake-up calls in my wrap career. After realizing that motorcycle helmets, chrome deletes, mirror wraps, and many other intricate jobs that required extensive labor were not in our wheelhouse we decided to start saying NO to those types of jobs. Let me be clear that many of you do these jobs and are not only profitable but extremely talented. Our main source of revenue is generated from the commercial wrap industry and these other streams of revenue were killing our momentum and most importantly our bank account. Once I was not afraid to say NO anymore our margins and sales grew dramatically.

I have been reading a lot about the power of No along with some of the leaders in negotiating tactics and skills. One of my favorite authors is Chris Voss. He says “Every negotiation should start with a No”. I find that statement enormously powerful. This is not only true in the graphic world but in everyday life. We are all used to trying to get the word yes from a client, family member, or friend. When I am trying to sell a client on our product I now look for some resistance. I want to hear from my client on what he or she doesn’t want. What negative experiences they may have had or not had? Once I can find the resistance along with them giving me a No on certain aspects of our sales presentation, I can get to the closing quicker and more effectively. Chris Voss also says that people are comfortable saying “No” because it feels like self-protection. In my opinion, when you can give your client the freedom to be honest and truly listen to their likes and dislikes you create trust. This also goes a long way in developing a business relationship that will last for years to come.

After reading, listening to podcasts, and watching short videos on the power of “No” I felt as if I had mastered this part of my sales process. A few years ago, I went to lunch one day with a business advisor of mine whom I respect immensely. During lunch, I sent him over my article about the power of “No” and watched him briefly read over my verbiage. He looked up at me with a smile and said it was a great read. His only feedback was “Why tell your customers no?”

Why don’t you make them say “No”? His point was if you don’t want to do a job because it’s too labor intensive or isn’t profitable why not quote it so it is? Give the power to your client to say Yes or No. I agreed with his thoughts and advice but also wondered how it would look to give a client a price that reflected that we didn’t want that type of work. Depending on your next sales interaction I highly recommend finding that resistance. Find out what your client wants or does not want. Even if they don’t even know. Create that trust and transparency along with proving to yourself that “No” is not the end. It’s just the beginning!

Matt Richart

Matt@digitalefxwraps.com

Co-Owner/CFO, Digital EFX Wraps LLC. Instructor, Inside The Wrap Shop