The best sales advice I’ve ever received: Collect as many “no’s” as possible.
I often say, my goal is to hear “no” more than anyone in the world.
The reasoning is simple…
The faster you get to a “no”, the sooner you can move on to the next person. And the more “no’s” you receive, the closer you are to finding a “yes”.
It’s easy to forget that, at the end of the day, sales is just a numbers game.
But, what people don’t realize is that the same principle applies to any other type of “ask”.
My friend Mike Annunziata wrote a great blog post this last week called “Make the Ask”.
In it, he writes about many of the “asks” that a founder makes every day.
Do you want to join our team full-time?
Would you like to invest in our Seed round?
Would you like to buy our product?
Mike teaches that there are 3 key attributes of an effective “ask”:
1. It should trigger a yes/no response.
2. Every “no” should be followed with the question, “What would have to be true to get you to yes?”.
3. Know when and how to make the ask.
“The faster you get to a “no”, the sooner you can move on to more likely prospects, but ideally armed with additional insights from the quick “no’s” that help you increase the likelihood of getting to yes in the future.”
The job of a founder, like the job of a salesperson, is to collect as many “no’s” as they can every single day.
After all, “No” isn’t the end of a relationship. It’s the beginning of a new conversation.
- - - - -
P.S. I highly recommend you check out Mike’s Substack. He offers hard-earned advice to founders, investors, and operators alike.
I’ll link it in the comments below! 👇🚀
