Why "No" Is Better Than "Maybe" in Sales (And How to Get a Clear Answer)
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Brooke Greening: Most salespeople think that their job is to get their customer to say yes. I don't. My job is to help them to come to a clear decision.
Sometimes that decision is yes, and sometimes that decision is no. But if you're talking with your client and it ends with, "Oh, I want to think about it," or, "Send me over something," you probably haven't helped them decide anything.
So the fundamental difference between convincing and helping them to come to a conclusion on their own is that convincing is serving you.
It's just serving you. You're just trying to get them to say yes so that you can make the sale, and you can keep moving forward, and that's like a manipulation tactic.
We don't need to be afraid of no. No is not a bad thing. I would much rather have a no than a maybe. Maybes are the thing that kill you, not the no.
Scott Greening: Welcome to another episode of Make More Sales with Brooke Greening, where in about the time that it takes you to enjoy your coffee or matcha break, Brooke, our sales coach, gives you some great advice on how to move your sales conversations forward.
Because if you have to talk to people to make a sale, how well you lead that conversation is going to make or break your sales conversation. Brooke, as we were getting ready for the topic of today, which has to do with helping customers make decisions and buying decisions, we were lamenting or comparing our comfort with ambiguity.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. I don't have any. And you love it.
Scott Greening: Yeah, I just take things as they come. We don't have to have any, any, uh, solid decisions. It's okay. We- we'll keep working on it. And I know sometimes when you ask me, like, "How did a conversation go," or a sales conversation, I'm like, "I think it was pretty good." And that's, that's not as...
That's more ambiguous than you would like.
Brooke Greening: Yes. And I would like to say, it's not that you don't... It's not that am- and I'm going to trip over my word, but ambiguity is something that is all the time for you, 'cause you are a strategic planner. You've gotten your doctorate in leadership development. You are very strategic when you choose to be.
But when it comes to a lot of our stuff in our family, that's where the ambiguity is okay with you. And for me, it's like, no, no, no, I would like to have a specific date. I would like to know what we're doing. I would like to have a plan. I don't like winging it.
Scott Greening: Yes. So on our agenda later today- ... is talking about our calendar and that.
Brooke Greening: Every day. Every week we do it.
Scott Greening: But we do want to-
Brooke Greening: Every week
Scott Greening: ... we do want to help our potential clients, our potential customers, remove ambiguity on the, the sales conversation. And we want to help them lead to a buying decision and help them along in that. And so that's kind of what we're talking about today, is how do we help them make a decision?
And we're doing this series on sort of current buying realities, and we talked last time about the fact that there's lots of information out there. And so the role isn't really to share all that information, but it is to help them make a buying decision. So why don't we start with that and just ask the question to, first off w- what do you mean when you say help them make a buying decision?
What would be the, the definition? What are we talking about?
Brooke Greening: the very first thing is my whole goal is to try to figure out, and I work with my clients to figure this out as well, like if working with me is going to help them or hurt them. That's literally what we're trying to help them come to a conclusion about.
And so what we really want to emphasize is that especially in sales conversations, people are coming to you because there is a problem that they're facing. They could do anything else besides get on a call with you. They could look you up on the internet, they can talk to- they can check you out on AI, and we're going to talk about these things further through the series.
But it's just an important reminder to know when they're talking to you, there is a problem. That problem can be good. That problem can be bad. I'm not saying their whole business is imploding, but I am telling you something drive- drove them to be able to have a conversation with you. And our whole goal is trying to figure out, okay, if what I have to offer, is this going to help you, or is this going to hurt you?
And that is the decision we're helping them come to. If we're not doing that, all we're doing is just explaining and acting more like marketing instead of actually having a sales conversation, and it's hurting us, and it's hurting our sales.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and I was thinking just over the weekend, we kind of ran into this in a different field.
Our son Asher has, maybe we're trying to work through, a medical diagnosis, and so we- you took him to the doctor on Saturday, and they said, "We're going to, we're going to try this, and if this happens then we're on the right track. Keep taking the medicine. But if it doesn't happen, then we have to do another set of things."
And so part of what we're doing and part of your nervousness in that moment is I want to do the right thing. I don't want to like needlessly subject my son to something he doesn't need to, but the doctor helped you like get to a decision point where then- Yeah ... we got in the car and went to the pharmacy and, and we're on board with the plan.
Brooke Greening: Yes, and instead of being ambiguous about what we're talking about, we're trying to figure out if Asher has Lyme or not. Yeah. So he is getting treated for Lyme right now, and if it's not Lyme then that's not going to be a very fun conversation. We have to start figuring other things out because something is, is going on.
And so instead of me just, instead of me not knowing exactly what was going on, I literally sat down with the doctor and I said, "Okay, I need you to help me to understand A, B, C" in regards to what we're doing 'cause we don't want to subject him to doxycycline without any like actual evidence behind it, but that's, that's what we're doing.
We're eliminating one so that we can either diagnose it or move on to the next one. So yeah, it's, you can't ... In life and in sales conversations, if anything is ambiguous it's not helpful. And then people just don't make decisions at all. And then they just sit on it, and they're like, "Okay. Well, we'll just watch it, and we'll see."
And we can't do that right now. We have to act
Scott Greening: Yeah, and it's, again, when we help people make decisions it's actually serving them. It's not a, it's not a bad thing. We don't have to feel bad about that in our sales conversations, and thankfully for most of us, our sales conversations aren't involving medical diagnoses Uh, or those types of things.
But people do have problems, and they are looking for help. So, that manipulation idea is a big fear for a lot of people. So what's the difference between helping someone decide or trying to convince them?
Brooke Greening: Yes. So the fundamental difference between convincing and helping them to come to a conclusion on their own is that convincing is serving you.
It's just serving you. You're just trying to get them to say yes so that you can make the sale, and you can keep moving forward, and that's like a manipulation tactic. You may not think that necessarily, but if they're still like, "Eh, I don't really know if we want to move forward," and you just keep trying to throw things at them to convince them we're getting it all wrong at that point.
When we are helping them come to a decision, we are serving both them and ourselves. So like convincing is more adversarial. I would say it's kind of like what we were talking about like with tug and war, like tug-of-war, and then helping them come to a decision, like guiding them, coming alongside of them, and helping them to come up with their own conclusions, that's when we're serving them and ourselves.
And then you don't have to move to convin- to convincing them when you're moving forward with the sale because that is the decision that they have
Scott Greening: Yeah, I think that tug-of-war picture is a, is a good one. Like, sometimes people approach sales and the customer says one, and then you're going to pull harder in the opposite direction, and you're going to try to-
Brooke Greening: Yes
Scott Greening: overwhelm them, or you're going to try to trick them, or you're going to try to manipulate them. And it goes back and forth, and whoever pulled the strongest-
Brooke Greening: Wears out
Scott Greening: ... at the end yeah, wins. And either you've- Yes ... worn them out and they say yes, or you've done something and there's always a winner and a loser.
Brooke Greening: Yes.
Scott Greening: It's possible, though, to, like, come alongside and to pull in the same direction. You're trying to- Yeah ... find a solution to their problem. And maybe that's you and your services, mayb- maybe in some cases it might be something else, but you're trying to work with them as opposed to against them.
Brooke Greening: Yes.
And just like we were talking about with tug-of-war like you said, and I love that you said this, like, there's a winner and a loser, and that's not what we're going for in a sales conversation. And if they feel that, and if at they, at all, feel like they lost even when they've said yes, that is going to start it off on the wrong foot in regards to the whole entire relationship, and you might not even be realizing what they're thinking in their head, but they're not excited to start working with you.
They just feel like they've either gotten worn down, they've tripped, and that's why you've won the tug-of-war- ... or their hands are, like, burning because you've pulled so hard. Yeah. None of those, none of those are going to actually set you up for success, or your client up for success. 'Cause now they're in this new sales agreement with you, already hesitant, and that's the exact opposite, and that is going to start coming up as you start working with them.
Scott Greening: Yeah. All right. Now, the surprising thing, or at least surprising to you, uh, but it's actually very common, is that lots of salespeople actually avoid peop- helping people make a decision. Mm-hmm ... why, why do people do that? It's, it seems, like, obvious, but then it doesn't happen. Why is that?
Brooke Greening: Yeah So one of the main reasons is that a lot of people are just good human beings, and I was talking to one of my clients, and they were just talking about how, like, their empathy is kind of, like, off the charts.
And so they, like, bring on that feeling, whether it's true or not true, from the potential client. Like, "Oh, I don't want to have to have them say no," or, "I don't want this to get awkward," or, "I don't want this to feel pushy." And that might be something that's going on. second thing happens is a lot of times they don't even know that they're not being clear and helping them come to a conclusion, but when I'm listening to their calls and then I'm showing them, "At this exact sentence, that's where this started getting fuzzy, and you've got off the call feeling like, 'Yeah, I told them exactly what was happening, what they needed to do.'
But if you actually review it, it was unclear to them, and they weren't even able to make a decision on the call." So the first one is we don't ask them to make a decision. Mm-hmm. We're not even bringing it up. The... And whether that's we don't want them to feel uncomfortable or we don't want to feel uncomfortable, that's one.
Two, we think we actually have, and we have not, and it's be- it's becoming more and more clear in that.
Scott Greening: Yeah.
Brooke Greening: Or three, people just are kind of needlessly afraid of no, instead of it being we are both adults. We both have businesses. This is what we can do. I always, I think in my head and I tell my clients, we don't say no for them, and a lot of times we end up doing that, and so that's the other, that's the other piece.
We don't need to be afraid of no. No is not a bad thing. I would much rather have a no than a maybe. Maybes are the thing that kill you, not the no.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and I, I- I think we're so hopeful, and maybe it's so discouraging that unless you're someone like you who just really thrives on the sales conversation, and I know when you get off a sales conversation and somebody says no, that, like, actually energizes you and motivates you because you're like, "Okay, I know I'm closer to the next yes.
I know I've gotten an answer. I can move on." But for other people, maybe like me- ... like, that, that idea of hearing a no, of is not fun. It's a scary thing, and there's, failure. There's all sorts of things connected with it. And so we sort of get afraid of it and we sort of structure our conversations in a way where, where we don't have to hear that word.
Brooke Greening: And I want to say this is not just for people who are just starting off in sales. I work with clients, and they are doing a great job in their business. And they are making money. This is not just, oh, I, I only have, like, one conversation or so every once in a while, and I'm nervous to do it. No, these are people who have conversations on a regular basis. what I want to encourage and remind you of is the maybes are, are not helpful for you because what happens is, ironically, we want, we will actually rather hear a maybe than a yes or a no. And then what happens is we feel like that's going to move forward, and that takes a ton of our time and a tum- ton of our mental space, and we're, we may be wrong, like- Yeah
it may actually be a clear no, but we don't ac- we don't know because we didn't help them come to that de- decision. And so what happens is it takes up a lot of our time. It's coming, um, into our mental space, and we've tricked ourselves, thinking we have more people who are ready to buy than they are.
Instead of a clear no, does not always mean no forever, but it means no now. And so then we figure out, okay, what's the next step for them? We talk about where do they go in regards to the, the funnels that we create for our customers and follow-up strategies and all of that. And then we move on because if you don't move on, now you're still stuck.
And you think, "Okay, this is going to happen," and you convince yourself you're going to have more sales than you actually have. And that, that is not a fun situation, and that's why we're on the sales rollercoaster and all of those things. So it's just you need to help them make a decision, both for them and for you.
Maybes are not, are not good answers
Scott Greening: Yeah, and the, I think of one of my strategic planning principles in that, of the, the truth sets you free. Like, you can get- Mm-hmm ... stuck, you can get enslaved if you're not telling yourself the truth, or maybe you're not asking for the truth from your customer on where they're really at with regards to this decision.
And- Mm ... You're helping them make it. And if it's not the right time, it probably helps everyone know that instead of living on a prayer. So.
Brooke Greening: We're going to break out into song now.
Scott Greening: All right, everyone, we've been discussing how customers make decisions, and the reality is, is that there are two parts to every sales conversation.
There's the first part, which is the part where you're talking back and forth with the customer. But then there's also the second part, the conversation that's happening in their mind and in their head. And it's their emotions, their feelings, their motivations, and their fears. And the reality is that the buying decision gets made in that second conversation that's happening internally.
And that's where Brooke's 90,000 sales conversations and her master's in counseling can help you unlock that internal conversation so you can really help people make this buying decision. And if you want Brooke's help in learning how to do that, the first step is to schedule a call. So when you're ready to have more of these sales conversations result in conversions and closes and more revenue, schedule a call with Brooke.
And you can do that at buildingmomentum.info/meet Brooke we've been talking we've talked about these sort of three ideas or these three questions related to helping people make decisions. How would you kind of like tie this up and give people encouragement here at the end?
Brooke Greening: Yeah. I just want to encourage you.
So I have a master's in counseling, and so sometimes people feel like, "Oh, well, I don't have a master's in counseling. I can't do it the way that Brooke does," but you don't have to have a master's in counseling. I just want you to think about it as being able to be a guide in that sales conversation. And I'm reminded of when I was actually in high school, we went on wilderness and the very first year that we went was a complete hot mess.
We did not have a guide. We just had someone who tried to go learn how to do this for, like, a week and come back and then like, "Yeah, sure, we can do it." And we were out in the boundary waters of Canada. We literally ate all of our food on the very first night 'cause we had no idea, like, how to be able to ration it out or how it was set up.
We were lost out in the boundary waters. People got hurt. Like, we almost needed to bring in, like, helicopters to come and grab us and take us back home. It was a hot mess, and it was kind of dangerous, and it... At the next time, I was like, "I don't know if I want to do this." And they're like, "No, no, no, Brooke, this is going to be different.
This is different. Like, we've hired a guide." And so the next year, I went on it again, and it was incredible. We had great meals because we didn't eat all of our food. We were able to make decisions. They were helping us to know how to learn how to read the maps and go around in the boundary waters. But they weren't, like, leading us into, like, the depths of things that we couldn't really get ourselves out of.
They didn't f- pick us up and carry us through. They just guided us, and that is what we want to do in sales conversations. We want to help them come to a conclusion. Is this going to be a good decision or not a good decision? And we can help them do that on our first call. We can help them do that on our second call.
That's what we want to be able to do, and that's how we're best able to serve them and to make more sales.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and I think that idea of being a guide and helping people make this decision so they can do d- they can do fun. If you're in, like, service provider B2B sales, people are probably reaching out to you because they'd rather not do the thing that you're really good at.
Um, and you can help them make this decision and then get to the enjoy, the, the parts of the businesses that they enjoy and, uh, and thrive at.
All right. Thanks, Brooke,
So we're continuing our conversation. We've done so today, and we'll do so in our next episode of about some of the current realities and people making buying decisions. And next time we're going to be talking about everyone's favorite topic it seems like right now: AI. So what happens when somebody looks you up on AI and comes loaded with, uh, what ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude told them about you, and how do you handle that?
And so if you want to make sure that you don't miss that episode, we encourage you to go to buildingmomentum.info/podcast, and you can find all of the links to all of the episodes and platforms of your choice. We'd love for you to follow, to subscribe. And of course, if you've been finding value in these conversations, we love hearing from you through reviews and comments and participating in the conversation.
But you can find all of that at buildingmomentum.info/podcast. And until then, remember, when you're ready to make more sales, call Brooke
