All sales professionals know that they will hear the word no far more often than they will hear the word yes. Nonetheless, every now and then, one particular rejection may grate on your mind. If a prospect goes from showing great interest to switching to a no without much warning, the unexpected nature of the rejection can be more frustrating than the rejection itself. At these times, instead of engaging in negative self-talk, the sales professional should perform a thorough analysis of the pitch, the prospect and the rejection. When you understand where an unexpected no comes from, you can be better equipped to deal with it in the future.

When your best efforts are unsuccessful, there can be many factors involved. In my years of delivering sales presentations, I have come to regard the word no as an adversary whose origins must be understood. My informal study of human behavior has shown me that a no typically comes from one of three places: the head, the positioning or the gut. In this article we will discuss some factors that relate to the head; that is, the thinking that leads a person to say no.

Take the following example: Rita just started a small computer consulting company and is trying to get regular contracts instead of small one off jobs. After setting up an appointment with a local small business owner, she makes a presentation in response to the needs they discussed over the phone. The prospect previously told Rita that he had no back system in place for the pertinent information stored on his computers. He was very much aware that this situation needed to be fixed right away. Since her prospect had used such urgency when talking about the problem, Rita felt sure she could make this sale.

During the presentation, Rita made some additions to the services they discussed. Where the prospect had talked about a simple maintenance plan that Rita would perform regularly, she began to talk about an automated system that would require several hours of set up. The process, quite long and complicated, would be expensive and was far more elaborate than the simple procedure they had discussed. At the end of the presentation, Rita's prospect told her that he was not interested in her proposal.

Why did Rita lose her potential client? Let's analyze what both people wanted. Rita's motivations were clear; she wanted to turn a small client into a big project. The client's motivations are not always so easy to understand. Did he want to set up an automated system, knowing that, in the long run, it may be cheaper than having Rita come out for monthly maintenance? Did he prefer to have Rita come out because he planned to use her other services each time she visited his office?

Rita should have tested the waters, finding out how deeply the prospect was committed to resolving this issue before risking presenting a proposition that would scare him away. Perhaps the client has some experience with tech issues and knows that a large and complicated system is not necessary for his operation. Perhaps the client has an employee whose teenaged son has offered to come into the office and earn a few extra dollars running this very basic backup process every month once Rita's contract runs out. The idea of spending three times what he planned on a large and complex system may end any chance Rita has to sell this customer.

Action step: Consider how your proposition may be broken down into smaller, less complicated, commitments.

My daughter had the right idea when she was quite young. She wanted to go over to her friend's house for the weekend, buy her a birthday gift and have $10 in her pocket for when they all went to the arcades. She got her commitments from her mother and me in small and manageable doses.

First she asked. "Can I go to Carrie's birthday party? It's a weekend sleepover." Once we had given her the yes she was looking for, she came back with a second request. "Oh, and I need to buy her a birthday present, can you give me some money for that please?" the question was laced with a sweet tone of voice that may not be appropriate for your selling situations. "Oh," we'd hear, after the present was brought and before the weekend arrived, "could I please have $10 for the arcades we'll be going to." Clever as her approach was, she got everything she asked for.

When you approach prospects for too large a commitment, you make it easy for them to say no. Try spending some time assessing the depth of interest in your proposal before you go for the biggest possible commitment. If your prospects are likely to back off at the sign of a big commitment, make it easy for them to say yes, one decision at a time.