When growing a business or under pressure to hit quota, some sales professionals and entrepreneurs tend to pursue or take on every opportunity they can find. This can oftentimes lead to issues in the business including taking on a client who is not a fit or not being able to meet a client’s expectation.
There are many reasons to turn down potential opportunities. A very important skill for entrepreneurs and sales professionals to have is learning how to discern between opportunities that are worth pursuing and those that are not – essentially, knowing when to say “no” to opportunities.
One benefit of knowing when and how to respectfully walk away from business opportunities that are not an optimal use of your attention is that it creates the opportunity for you and your business to reach the next level of achievement and growth. This is because it forces you to focus on salutary opportunities for your business, so you can quickly qualify and walk away from picayune deals. Ultimately, leading to increased productivity and profitability.
Recently, I had to end a potential client relationship. In retrospect, I should have done it sooner, but the optimist in me wouldn’t let go. That “inner voice” raised red flags early in the process and I should have paid attention to them. It took several weeks before I finally had to end the relationship.
What are the takeaways from my experience? How do you avoid having to say “No”?
Know your ideal customers: Not being clear on who your ideal customers are will have you chasing every opportunity and missing the “right” ones. Be sure to narrow down your focus on the ideal customers and chase opportunities that meet the criteria.
Weigh the opportunity: Use the guidelines from qualifying your ideal customer to evaluate, assess and decide on aspects of the opportunity including; the relationship, synergy and profitability. There will be outliers, but you cannot grow your business solely on outliers.
Act quickly: Make the decision as soon as possible to either stop chasing the opportunity or keep on with it. If necessary and applicable, let the prospect or customer know right away. It serves you and the customer well to be decisive about this and offer a professional explanation if one is requested.
How do you say “No”?
Turning down a prospect is a different approach than turning down an existing customer. Both are business decisions and should be handled with grace and professionalism.
Words from the wise: “Prevention is better than cure.”
If you are like me, you’d rather not be in a situation where you have to say “no”. You can, however, put yourself and your organization in a position where your chances of having to say no are minimized. Here are some suggestions, starting with what I believe is the most crucial, fundamental piece:
Internal processes: Successful leaders lead by example. The key to being the example to prevent you or your team from chasing every opportunity is to have internal processes, qualifying practices and checklists to keep the focus on ideal customers only. This way, you’ll have a culture of fishing where the right fish are as opposed to casting your net wide into any and every body of water, so to speak.
Understand expectations: Your potential or current client will have expectations of you and your organization. Be sure you understand their expectations, then be sure they understand yours. Understanding theirs first helps you gauge your ability to meet those expectations. It also puts the decision-making ownership on you.
Trust your gut: The assumption here is that you are an optimist, for the most part. If that’s the case, when you gut feel about an opportunity isn’t great, it probably isn’t going to be. To be doubly sure, discuss with your team, leadership or coach to assess if it is going to be a good use of your (team’s) energy and time.
Need help identifying or qualifying your ideal customer? Need to create and implement internal sales processes to keep the focus on your ideal customers and maximize results? Let’s talk: info@thecommissioninternational.com.
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