If you haven’t been able to tell by now, I personally hate the word “no.”
Not only is it a short stubby little word that isn’t very attractive, it’s also pretty hard to say it without sounding like a two-year old. “No” slams doors of opportunity shut but it will also do another thing, it will run customers out of your door faster than your business catching on fire.
Why?
Because people don’t like to hear that word either. If you listen to any talk show, you don’t hear the word no – even if there is a disagreement. You hear the word but… and a counter-point. Never no. That word stops things cold and then you get uncomfortable – dead air. Like my radio show that started on HayHouse Radio this week – you won’t be hearing the dead air that the word “no” can deliver on MY show. No way. And it’s live so there are no second chances.
Now, let’s apply this to your customer service strategy. How often are you telling your CUSTOMERS no? No, I can’t do that. Or, no I don’t offer that product. Or, no that’s not possible? When you spend so much time acquiring customers, why in the world would you want to chase them away by uttering such a pithy little word? Why shut the door on the sale like that?
I ran into a couple of ladies, business partners, at a Power of Yes! Event and they really wanted to go to 3 Days to Cash but couldn’t make it fit into their schedule. Could they attend in a different city? We found our yes. Ultimately, instead of saying no, they said yes to hopping on a plane and COMBINING vacation and 3 Days to Cash.
Sometimes, its a matter of finding what you can say yes to INSTEAD of saying no. Are things not going to be feasible because of your schedule? Yes. Will you run into hiccups that will make things a little more difficult? Yes. Can you change the conversation so you can still get a desirable outcome, move forward and save the sale (and the customer relationship? YES!
That is the new definition of “going above and beyond.” It’s not running around like crazy trying to make everyone happy and making everyone unhappy in the process. It’s finding the YES that makes them happy and YOU happy too.
Got it? (You better say yes…)
