What It Really Means When Your Customer Says “No!”

an illustration of a word bubble containing the word "NO" underlined

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I learned this hard lesson way back in the year 1999… And it wasn’t from a customer.

There was this beautiful woman walking out of the auditorium, and I approached her with: “Hey, Heather, wanna join me for drinks tonight?”

(Obviously, you can tell by my pick up line, I was no Casanova in college.)

Her reply: “No!”

Like most entrepreneurs and sales people that get rejected, I walked away thinking: “Wow! I thought she was really into me. Guess I was wrong.”

But was I?

You see, I thought she had no interest…

Yet she walked away thinking: “It’s a school night and I have a lot of homework.”

Fortunately, she called me a few days later to ask me for a raincheck…

…However, as marketers, we’re not always that lucky.

You see, just because a potential customer says “No!” – it doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in doing business with you.

The real reason could be:

  • “I’m interested, but the timing’s not right.”
  • “We’d love to, but we’re waiting to make a new hire.”
  • “It’s not in the budget right now, but I’m happy to revisit in a few months.”
  • “I’m sorry, I misunderstood the question.”
  • “I’m confused.”
  • “It’s too expensive.”

(Those are a few reasons pulled from my own repertoire of rejections in the sales role.)

But I never would have found this out if I didn’t ask the question.

You see, after determining the REAL reason for the rejection – I was able to either answer the objection (and make a sale) or add them to a follow up/nurturing sequence and make the sale at a later date.

Now sure, sometimes “no means no.” However, odds are – when you ask a would-be customer “why” – you’ll turn at least 33% of your rejections into sales.

Oh, and as for the girl that told me “no!” in college… We’ve been happily married for almost 15 years.

Thankfully, that was one “No!” that didn’t mean “No!”

In your corner,

Charlie

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