Sometimes the best answer is NO!

This piece was originally published in October of 2004.

“No” is not a word most salespeople like nor is it a word that is used as often as it should be by entrepreneurs. I truly believe one of the biggest signs that an entrepreneur is starting to figure out what their business is all about is their ability to use the word no. However, many of us are way too insecure to do that.

For years I could not say no when selling. I’ve always had a gift for selling but, in my early years as a salesperson, my limited use of the word no cost me thousands. How?  By saying yes to countless jobs I should have walked away from, I lost money, wasted time, got annoyed, and overall did very little to help my business. Recently, I saw how beneficial my use of the word no is to me today.

I had a chance to get a job that was over $250,000. It seems liked something I could not say no to. I mean, after all, how many people spend $250,000 on landscaping around their house?  Surely I could have figured out a way to make money on a job like that, right?  Wrong!  In the preliminary meetings with the client, I quickly realized that I would not be able to use my expertise and knowledge to make this a nice project. The client felt they knew more about landscaping than I did. All my ideas were brushed aside and little, if any, of my comments were taken into consideration by the prospective clients. I was very frustrated by the prospect and I had not even put one plant in the ground yet!  While the salesperson in me wanted the job, and the thought of having a job like this was enticing, the business owner in me said no. I could see that if I were to do this job, it would mean many months of frustration and making a profit on it was going to be difficult based on the comments made by the prospect. I said no thank you to the job and walked away and was able to spend my time on better prospects.

Unfortunately, many salespeople and entrepreneurs are scared to say no. They think when they say no, they are somehow letting someone down, making the prospect mad, and, most of all, they don’t say no because they don’t see the downside to bad jobs, only the good side.  Often that dollar sign is hard to resist. A couple of things for you to consider the next time your gut tells you to say no but the salesperson in you says yes: 

First of all, you are in control. You don’t have to say yes; your prospect must play by your rules if they want to do business with you. If they are saying things you don’t agree with, decide if you can deal with the parameters that are being placed on the project. If you can’t, move on. The biggest reason I tell prospective clients no is because I don’t like the approach the prospect is taking and frequently this revolves around price.  After all, my company and yours should have some standards. I only want my name on jobs I can be proud of. Each job I am doing is selling the next one and it is critical that I do something that I am proud of and something that the neighbors are going to be impressed by. If a prospect wants me to do something that compromises my high standards, I say no. Be confident; convince yourself the client needs you more than you need them. Remember, you are in control.

Secondly, the object of being in business is to make money. If the job does not look like one you can make money from, don’t take it!  Whatever could go wrong, just might and you have to improve your chances of winning by eliminating any potential disasters. Losing money on a job is a horrible thing you need to avoid. While getting big jobs can be fun and profitable, getting a big job does not automatically mean you’ll make a profit on it. (I realize this may seem obvious, but it is the only explanation I can give for contractors taking big jobs that they know are going to be tough to do profitably.)  To know if you can make money on a job, you need to know your costs of doing business. Not the costs of your competition, the costs of a contractor in another state, and not the costs of some big successful contractor you are researching. Every company’s costs are different and until you know them, you cannot confidently say yes or no to any job. Hint: Spending time trying to find out what other contractors are charging is a waste of time and money until you know what your own costs are.

Finally, learn how to bow out gracefully. Not every job is for you, only the ones where you can do what you know how to do best, have fun (remember that?), and make money. If it seems like any of those three things are not going to be easy to experience on a job, strongly consider saying no and moving on to a job where your talents are respected, you can have fun and make money. Tell the prospect why you don’t want to work with them, in a nice way, and send them a thank you note for their time and then move on. Remember, sometimes the best answer is no.  By the way, I drove by the job I said no to and it looks terrible and all I could do was smile a little and say to myself, “Good job, Marty.”