“Why Hearing “NO!” is Music To My Ears (And Why YOU Should Love NO too)

Previously, I talked a little about what we were working on with our one on one clients. 

Something called Dream Client Catcher, which is how to get your perfect prospects attention, how to reach out to them, and how to get them to schedule a demo with you. 

Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about the second part of MINDSET. 

Mindset is a huge part of getting your ideal users in your platform.

If you’re just starting out, then you can use this strategy to go after and test your SaaS product and see if it’s a good fit for specific users.

 If you already have customers and users, this is a great way to get more of the ones that you love getting. 

Okay, so I have a mind map where I put all this stuff together and it’s only $7, you can get it at krallclientcatcher.com. It’s got all the templates and everything in there for you, and it’s self-paced so feel free to go through it at your own speed. 

What I want to talk to you about today is what is the big differentiator behind really successful

SAAS founders who are not good at sales, but who are selling their SAAS product really, really well. 

There’s a lot of founders out there who are not good salesmen, but they have a good product and they’re just killing it out there. 

So what’s the magic secret? How can a bad salesman sell a good product?

It’s going to sound weird, but the magic secret is falling love with the word “no.”

So let me kind of explain that.

In most sales processes, you find a prospect and you reach out to them and you say something like, “Hey, can I sell you this?” 

If they say no, you just move on. Or if they don’t technically say no, but you still don’t hear from them, you just move on to the next lead.

That’s a lot of what happens with cold emails– you’ll have 10,000 people that you’ll reach out to  and not every one of those emails is going to find someone who is ready to say yes. 

The reality is most will say no. 

Here’s the thing in SAS: you may not want to be in sales if you’re a bootstrap founder, but you are in sales. That’s just the way it is. #themsthebreaks.

However, most of us come from a background where our focus is product, right? 

We’re not “sales experts.” I suppose you could hire a salesperson to work just on commission, but for the first little while you don’t really have the bandwidth to do that.

Even if you have a SAAS that’s already doing 100k proven, 100K or MRR, you still could be doing a lot better with sales, I guarantee you that.

Here’s an example: You’ll find a prospect and say, “Is this something that you want? Can I help you do this specific thing or here’s a product that can help, etc?”

If you don’t hear anything back, usually you just move on to the next prospect.

It’s like planting a seed in your garden and then coming back every day for the next few weeks to check in. 

Checking in with your seed, aka your potential client, is like watering it. 

You may have a good seed with a lot of potential, but if you only water it once then it doesn’t matter how good that seed is. It’s just not going to grow. 

If you talk to any successful salesperson, they’ll tell you about their love for the word “no.”

There’s something about ”no” that we’re wired to not like, which makes sense. One of our human basic core desires is to be part of a community, and we can’t help but want to be accepted by others..

No one likes to be told “no.” When you grew up and your parents would say “no”, or we asked someone on a date and were told “no.” Even having a potential employer tell you they’ve decided to go with someone else is even a form of “no.” It’s “No thanks, we don’t want to hire you.”

Being rejected is not an enjoyable experience. I give it zero stars.

In sales, because of that fear, we’re so afraid of hearing “no”, that even if it’s a good prospect, we just want the person to say “yes” the first time we contact them.

In fact, many salesmen are so afraid of “no” that they drop the prospect the second they hear that scary word. They move on to a new seed, convinced that the “no” seed is a dud. 

This is one of the biggest mistakes you could possibly be making– and not just like what we talked about in the Dream Client Catchers: Getting your Ideal Prospects– but in any type of sales.

Listen, I don’t know how many trees you could grow by watering once. Just drop the seed on the ground and come back a week later to find a 70 foot tall Redwood? C’mon.

We know that’s not how it works, so don’t be sad that it takes a while for the seed to grow. 

Every time you check-in and the little seed hasn’t yet grown into a towering tree, don’t think of it as a “no”, instead think of it as “not yet.” 

Keep watering, keep checking in. It’ll get there.

Here’s the thing, your ideal customers– the ones that you can help the most– are busy and they value their time. They value follow up. Your ideal customers NEED to be watered regularly.

For instance, I have an accountant and he reaches out to me every once in a while. I have a guy that comes to spray bugs, he checks in, too. Honestly, I feel terrible for my accountant–I’m nearly impossible to get a hold of. 

I’m the one paying HIM, yet I’m an elusive butterfly. 

Isn’t that crazy, though? But it’s so common. As a busy founder, I know what it’s like to have a hard time getting a hold of those elusive butterflies.

Every one of my clients is difficult to catch, which is why I’m a pro at checking in with them. Just like my accountant and bug guy check in with me. 

Your clients will appreciate being checked in on. Do it often.

Here’s the secret. 

Let’s pretend we are sitting in front of a fire, and we’re having some coffee and a chai. I’d say something profound and quote worthy like, “You and I are both so emotionally strong and resilient. We don’t take offense if we hear “no”. In fact, we are so okay with “no” that now our goal is to get a “no!”

Now I’ve flipped the fear of “no” on its head, because you know that it’s not really “no”, remember?

“No” is simply another word for “not yet.” 

We can work with “not yet.” You just need to keep watering that seed.

Watering your seed isn’t simply sending an email saying, “Hey, do you want my product yet?” “Are you still interested?.” 

The most effective checking in is when you offer to solve a problem. 

You say things like, “Hey Joe. Are you still looking? Do you still need some help with xyz?” 

Keep the focus on the specific pain, and if you had a demo with them, you should know what their pain points are. 

You need to focus on the benefit that you provide, whatever that may be, and not the tool you have. Nobody cares about your tool. They care about results.

Remember to be as specific as you can about their needs.

Another example, how about: “Are you still looking to keep track of more of your leads and close more deals or launch apps with fewer security risks?” Or “Are you still looking for a way to save more time managing your HOA, whatever it might be?”

Keep following up until you hear a “no”, or a “yes”, and the same thing applies to somebody who has a demo with you but who never responds. 

That’s somebody who showed interest in your product. You know they have interest – they took time out of their busy schedule to meet with you! So continue following up and checking in. 

I’m what I call an introverted seller. I’m not pushy, I don’t have fake time deadlines or limits. I don’t usually do fast start bonuses like that, that stuff doesn’t feel unique to me. 

So instead, I just make it easy for them to say no. I’ll say something like: “Hey, if this is not something that you’re interested in, if you don’t need help doing this anymore, that’s okay. Just let me know I won’t follow up with you.” Easy peasy.

That way there are no hard feelings about it and I’ve given them a way out. Giving them a way to say ‘no” means that you’re making it safe for them to get out, and you transform from being the stereotypical pushy (read: annoying) salesperson to someone who is more like a consultant, or even an advisor.

You can become someone who is not a “salesperson”, but instead someone who just really wants to help and who doesn’t want to be a bother. 

That’s my secret for you today.

If you want to get the rest of this, it hasn’t launched yet but you can go to krallclientcatcher.com and I’ll put you on the waitlist. When it’s finished I’ll send it off to you, it’s $7. You’ll get the templates and scripts and other things we use to get our ideal clients.

My hope is that you can take this and start utilizing it today. This isn’t some crazy six week course you need to finish to even use, this is stuff you can go through and use the day you get it. 

That’s all for today!

Stay safe, stay healthy. Take a break. Do something fun for yourself, and then find some of those “no” seeds! If you have some seeds you haven’t followed up within a while, check-in and water them. 

Until next time!