Do you always say “no?”
11.11.2009
No, I can't be bothered with another salesman, I've got a battle to fight
I’ve always loved this cartoon as it so perfectly captures the essence of being a salesperson.
I’ve agonized over this post for a while and finally decided to break it up into several posts. The theme though is, are you a person that always says “no” just because of inertia and that it’s the quickest and easiest thing to say? I find that I do, but mostly because whoever is presenting an idea to me does a poor job of quantifying what the advantage of their offering is to either me or my company. Unfortunately, it’s just that simple. I do think the phenomena is a direct reaction to how much we are marketed to. Whenever I spend time on Twitter I notice how many people throw up links to “this made me $171,000 last month” or something like that. Yeah, sure it did, and that’s why you’re so nice to share it with all of us on Twitter, give me a break. So, how do we hold off the junk while being willing to take a closer look at something that may enhance our lives or grow our businesses?
About a year ago I was on a brief vacation and went to see the movie “Yes Man” with Jim Carrey. He was the quintessential “No Man,” but then had to say “yes” to everything, and what I loved was, that his life and work changed for the better!
Could this happen to you, or me?
I’ll write at least one if not two more posts on this theme, including some thoughts on no and rejection from Tom Hopkins, as I think many people in business right now are hearing “no” more than they would prefer–and how to learn from it.
So what do you think, how about giving “YES” a chance, where otherwise, you would say no….just give it a try and let us know on this forum what happens!
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
