Guest Post: Turning “NO” Into a Powerful Positive

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz of Go For No

The word ‘YES’ is so positive, encouraging… and it means we’re succeeding. ‘NO’ on the other hand, is bad, depressing… and it means we failed.  What if, starting today, the word ‘no’ didn’t stop you? What if every time you heard the word no, you became stronger, more powerful, and more resilient?  Well you can.

For most of us, we don’t like to hear the word “no” when it comes to selling our products and services. We fight our way through it every step of the way.  If you are working your business and when you get a “yes” you feel wonderful and when you get a ”no” you feel bad, then you are going to feel bad pretty often.  Because when you are in business, when you sell anything – especially today – the No’s are out there!  And if you are feeling bad about the “no’s” you get, you might slow down, get discouraged, avoid business building… you might even quit altogether.

Yet there is an irony about Yes and No (Failure and Success) and it is this: when you go out of your way to increase the number of “no’s” you get, the yeses will show up at your door in greater quantities than you ever could have imagined! This is the essence of the “Go for No!” philosophy.

In part it is a “numbers game.” However, in addition to getting more NO’s we want you to start feeling differently about the process. Stop fighting and battling through the NO’s!  So, the question is, how do you start feeling good about hearing “no” in your business?  You can do it by reprogramming the way you think about it.  You must think differently about the no’s that you are hearing. The truth is that when you hear “no” you are taking action in your business and that is a very good thing! Take pride in the NO’s that you are getting. Start rewarding yourself for your the NO’s rather than punishing. After a “no” you must celebrate and at all costs avoid your negative self talk: (“He said ‘no’ – what am I doing? I can’t do this. I’m a total failure”…on and on.)

In fact, we would like to challenge you to get 10 no’s this week. And if you get those 10 no’s we would like you to go out and treat yourself to your favorite thing. Because you are engaging in the success behaviors that are going to take you to where you want to go. And who knows, when you go for those ten no’s there might be some yeses hiding in there!