3 Ways to Respond When A Prospect Says No

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but not every response from your outbound campaign will be a resounding “yes please!” — in fact, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get a lot more no’s than yes’s.

But, this isn’t necessarily a bad omen — you can learn a lot from rejection if you approach it in the right way.

Here are 3 things you can do when a prospect says “no”…

1. Ask good follow-up questions.

Never let a prospect off the hook without politely asking a follow-up question or two (unless the prospect told you to F off…just ignore that).

Here are a few questions we ask…

• I really appreciate you getting back with me — is this something that you plan to revisit in the future? If so, I’d be happy to circle back later, but no problem either way. 
• If you don’t mind me asking, are you already using another product/tool/service to solve this problem @ {{company}}?
• Thanks for the response. Is there someone else on your team who would be a better contact for this type of thing in the future? 

Note our tone with each of these questions, which brings us to our next point…

2. Kill them with kindness.

If you get a “no,” back off in a way that shows the prospect that you’re human. It’s really easy to brush someone off if there’s no personal connection, so do your best to make them feel your realness.

Plus, there are hundreds of reasons why people say no — the prospect may not be interested right now, but there could be potential for a relationship down the road. Make sure that you end the conversation in a way that leaves a good lasting impression.

We always thank the prospect for taking the time to respond, and we let them know that we’d love to hear from them if anything changes in the future.

3. Rethink your messaging.

We listed this one last because you shouldn’t start here, but if you’re getting a handful of no’s from prospects that you thought were a good fit…it’s time to take a second glance at your messaging.

Are you spelling out your value prop in a clear, concise way? Does the prospect actually understand your offering after reading the message you sent?

We made a sales messaging checklist that you can use as a reference to make sure that your messaging is on the right track.