250: Don’t Say “No” For The Client

<p>At the age of sixteen, I was wandering around the streets of a lower working class area in the suburbs of Brisbane, working my first job, trying to sell expensive Encyclopedia Britannica to the punters who lived there.  Despite my callow youth, I had a tremendous gift as a salesman.  I could tell by looking at the house from the outside whether they were interested or not in buying Encyclopedia Britannica and so could determine whether I should knock on their door or not.  I was saying “no” for the client.  Obviously, I had no clue what I was doing.</p> <p> </p> <p>The only training we received was to memorise, word for word, a twenty five minute pitch for the buyer, synchronised with showing the flash looking pages inside the encyclopedia.  I am sure though there are many much older and wiser salespeople out there, still making that fundamental error I was making.  Eventually, I discovered I didn’t have any x-ray vision gift. I was just an idiot. </p> <p> </p> <p>There will be plenty of opportunity for the buyer to say “no”, so we shouldn’t be joining in to support them on that quest. Even before the call, we will have anticipated some potential pushback and we are fully armed and ready to go when it emerges. </p> <p> </p> <p>I was reminded of this x-ray vision into the buyer problem recently.  The top salesperson of an organisation I know, said “no” for the buyer.  He was an intermediary for me with the client and didn’t like one of the conditions of the sale I was proposing.  This was an important source of his commissions for him and they had been a big buyer over a number of years.  He had them wrapped up in cotton wool and was extremely nervous about maintaining the relationship.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have learnt the hard way and so I don’t believe in saying “no” for the buyer, so I pushed it.  I rejected his rejection and told him to put my request to the client.  We got into an elongated email wrangle over this, but not only am I dim most of the time, I am also supremely stubborn, especially when it comes