There is a common saying among experienced sales people that the worst response to a sales proposal is a slow “no.” The prospect takes forever and ever and some more time, then comes back to turn you down. In the meantime, you’ve wasted time and company resources chasing a failed opportunity when you could have gone after something more promising. The slow “no” is a gut wrencher. You walk away muttering to yourself, “If they had just said ‘no’ up front, it would have been fine.”
Sometimes saying “no” is the kindest answer
I’ve gone through that and I hated it. I don’t like to hear “no” to begin with, but to get it after all that effort just feels discourteous. Don’t you wish people would put their attention to the problem and return with an answer in a timely fashion? Too often, they dawdle and hem and haw and dawdle some more. Then, when they can’t procrastinate anymore, they do their evaluation and finally, finally make a decision.
I hate it. But there’s one thing worse than a slow “no,” and that’s a no “no.” Awhile back I experienced that scenario.
We recognize that our readers are busy people, and are often on job sites or places that are inconvenient to talk with us. Getting some people to make time for a phone interview with trade editors is something we don’t take for granted, and we’re grateful to our sources for their time and willingness to share information.
But getting some sources to commit to a time for an interview can be vexing. They’re busy people, and the next available time slot may be after our deadline. It’s the kind of juggling the edit staff does all the time—scheduling interviews in time to meet writing deadlines.
My case began when I called the source to schedule a phone interview, and he asked me to call back the next day. I did, and he asked me to call back the beginning of the following week. I did, and he asked me call back in a couple of days. On every call, I tried to schedule a specific time, but even then, he would ask me to call in the morning so we could set up a time in the afternoon. One time I did get a time scheduled, called him then, and he asked, “Was now the time we were going to talk? I can’t do it now.”
I chased this source for nearly two weeks with multiple phone calls, always getting the brush off. He never said “no,” and always expressed interest in talking to me. While he was gruff, he was also friendly. But after two weeks, I realized, I had received a no “no.”
To this day, he has never told me he didn’t want to do the interview, and I imagine if I were to call him this afternoon, he would be friendly and ask me to ring him up the next day to do it.
I think he may have felt sense of obligation to do the interview. After all, a little public relations for his company can’t hurt, but he was so busy or disconnected that he didn’t realize he was stringing me along. He showed, I think, a lack of courtesy.
Courtesy is a big thing in my book. I don’t expect respect from anyone, but I do expect courtesy from everyone. One of the most courteous things you can do is say “no.”
