Tired of HEARING NO ALL THE TIME? Then make it YOUR GOAL to hear NO and WATCH YOUR SALES SKYROCKET!!

Hey Warriors,

One of the most frustrating things in offline marketing, and sales in general, is all the "No's" you will hear throughout the day. "No, the owner is not available"... "No, I don't want to meet with you"... "No, I'm not interested in your services"... Sound familiar? Well you are not alone! The cold hard reality of this business is that you will hear "No" a heck of a lot more than you'll hear "Yes".

The number of No's varies on how many leads you are contacting every day, but at a minimum you should be calling at least 20 new businesses every day if you want to have success in this business. Of those 20 businesses, you are going to hear 16 or 17 No's coming from everybody from the Gatekeeper to the actual Decision Maker. I don't care how good of a salesperson you are, you are going to hear more No's throughout the day than Yes. It is important to keep this in mind when you are prospecting and selling your services so that you don't get discouraged and give up. Understand these No's are not a reflection on you personally or even a reflection of your sales skills; it's just the nature of the game.

One of the things I have found that works for me and allows me to keep a healthy perspective on selling, is to turn No's into a game and make it a goal to hear a certain number of No's in a day. This works for a couple of reasons. First, it ensures that you are actually cold-calling and prospecting every day. The day you don't hear a No is the day you didn't work on gaining new clients. Second, it allows you to get closer to the Yes that you are looking for. In other words, every No gets you one step closer to a Yes.

To turn No's into a game, you need to find a list of leads to call for the day and then make a guess as to how many No's you are going to get. After you've called your entire list, see how close you were to your guess. Repeat this day in and day out and keep track of your results. Obviously you don't want to sabotage getting a sale just to meet your guess, but it allows you to take the No's in stride because you already were expecting them.

I've mentioned it in other posts, but it bears repeating here: Create your leads list from businesses who are already advertising. This ensures they have an active marketing budget and are serious about bringing in new business. It also works great for selling them a QR Code and Mobile Website, which is a very easy sell to somebody running an ad. ("I can turn your static print ad into an interactive piece of media by placing a 2D Barcode on your ad.")

I've searched for leads by doing a Google search of an industry (i.e. Dentists or Salons), then called everything that pops up, and I've found that to be a lot LESS successful than targeting businesses who are already advertising. Think of it this way- if you want to go fishing and catch as many fish as possible, would you rather go to a random spot in the middle of the ocean or at a man-made lake that is stocked with tons of new fish every morning? I'm going to go to the lake where all the fish are consolidated!

It may seem like you are limiting yourself to a small percentage of businesses if they are already advertising, but start looking around. Every time I'm at the grocery store, I look up front for advertising magazines-- you'll find plenty from Yellow Pages to Real Estate Listings to Car Classifieds. Grab these to call through later. Also pay attention to your "junk mail" that piles up in your mailbox. (Snail mail, not e-mail) ValPak's, Coupon Clipper, Red Plum... these are all great lead lists. Finally, start picking up newspapers in your area. I've found that both daily papers and weekly papers are a great place to find ads. Additionally, a lot of larger markets will have city related magazines that are another great source to find ads.

So next time you find your lists of leads, set up a game before you call them. Make a prediction on how many No's you will get that day and then start calling. When you are done calling, see how close you were to your original guess! Remember, the more No's you get means the more Yes's you will get as well. It's just how sales works.

-Ben

P.S. It should also be noted that a "No" does not mean a deal is dead. If the gatekeeper is the person who tells you No, then you need to put that business in a list for a follow up call over the next couple days. Don't just accept the No from the gatekeeper as meaning you won't get the business. The gatekeeper's job is not to make the final decision on a deal. So be persistent with getting a hold of the decision maker. It should also be noted that just because the decision maker tells you No to a meeting, they won't eventually buy your services. Put decision maker No's to a meeting in a queue to follow up on at a later date. Ask the decision maker if it is OK to call them back in a month or two to three months to see if their situation has changed. 9 out of 10 times they will say it's OK to call back. Then when you follow up you have an in-- "I'm following up on a previous conversation..." Ok, GO GET 'EM!!!

Questions, comments thoughts...?