Cold Link Africa VOL. 01 - No.01 | September / October 2015 | Page 39

TRAINING
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

Paul du Toit was awarded the Certified Speaking Professional designation by the National Speakers Association in New York on August 2008, the second African to receive this designation. He has been speaking and writing about
customer service since 1997. The author of three books, Du Toit is a founder member and past president of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa, and a recipient, in 2009 of their Founders Award for service to the
speaking industry. He is the MD of Congruence Training, specialising in customer excellence and presentation skills which he founded in 1995.

Are you afraid of ‘No’?

#Congruence

Learning to say ‘no’ is an important skill that can help aid communication and
which has many benefits, both for the salesperson and the customer

A

pool company commissioned
an online sales campaign
generating fresh leads that were
forwarded to their sales team according
to area. Leads were allocated to sales
folk in their designated areas. However,
failure to convert that lead within a
month resulted in that lead being reallocated. The process was that an
appointment would be made and the
potential customer would be visited. Part
of the process was to discuss where on
the property the pool should be situated.
Favourable payment terms would be
discussed and a deal struck. It was
not a particularly difficult sale since a
swimming pool adds value to a property
and therefore enhanced the asset rather
than being an ‘expense’.
But the company soon found that
conversion rate of initial leads to sales
was less than 20%. So they decided to
survey all the leads where a visit had
not resulted in a sale shortly afterwards.
When asked the simple question “Why
didn’t you buy a pool?”, most customers

gave the same answer: “Because your
salesperson did not ask for the business.”
Crazy isn’t it?
A salesperson who leaves deals on the
table has hungry children! Unfortunately
this happens all too often. To understand
why this is so prevalent, we need to
understand one of the great modern
fears of man (and woman!).
We don’t know how to say ‘no’, and we
don’t like to hear ‘no’
In this case either the sales person did
not want to hear ‘no’, or the customers
didn’t want to reject the offer outright
or both. The result was that both parties
would have parted in limbo – without
satisfaction.
Fortunately this does not affect
everyone, otherwise the pool company’s
campaign would have registered zero
sales and the entire population of that
state would have been buying their
pools elsewhere or take cold showers
to relieve themselves from the summer
heat. But this condition affects far too

many of us to our detriment – whether
we believe we are ‘in sales’ or not. Let’s
unpick this a bit.

“Anyone in any kind of
relationship who fails to
‘put their foot down’ when
necessary will be dominated
by the one who will.”
Not wanting to hear ‘no’
Through little or no persistence our
aversion to hearing ‘no’ most often
prevents us from hearing yes, because
we are afraid to ask. We then end up with
nothing. The fear of ‘no’ is the highway
to procrastination. When we are afraid of
hearing ‘no’ we remain in a fantasy world
of what might happen. We don’t want to
be ‘pushy’, so we shy away from asking
the right question. In sales we end up with
a huge pipeline but no conversions. In life
we pay for not asking the tough question

by remaining in limbo. Isn’t it better to
simply ask for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’? The beauty
of ‘no’ means that everyone can get
over it and move on.
Not knowing how to say ‘no’
Today’s ‘no’ has become the ‘put off’.
Send me an email. I’ll let you know. I
want to think about it. I need more time.
These responses may be quite legitimate
if the offer is genuinely appealing and
one needs time to consider options and
alternatives. But all too often the ‘put
off’ is simply an outright fear of saying
‘no’ – perhaps an aversion to losing out.
Consider this: You can say ‘no’ today and
change your mind tomorrow. A straight
‘no’ gets the issue off the table and allows
you to move on. You can soften the blow
by saying, ‘no, not now’. You can always
pick it up again another time.
What is the attribute required to be
able to say ‘no’ or face the possibility
of rejection? It’s called assertiveness.
This can be described as one’s ability to
influence calmly without undue use of
aggression. It falls in-between aggressive
and passive. It is a critical attribute in
lea