Do you want to get Yes in a sales meeting? Start with no.

For sales veterans and newbies alike, this is the easiest advice for every stage of your career.

A Gen Z parent recently got into selling for the first time and came to me for advice. Flattered, I offered her some suggestions which she immediately rejected. Which, strangely, was exactly what I was looking for.

That's because throughout my entire sales career, in almost every interaction I've had, I've used the same strategy: I start with no.

Here's why it mattered to Gen Zer and what it could mean for sales reps at every stage of their career.

She started out in the insurance sector. To his advantage, that means his pool of potential clients is limitless – after all, most people are likely to buy insurance and many of his acquaintances have yet to. To her detriment, this also means she has to start from scratch to build a business portfolio. That means reaching out to his network of friends and family first, my suggestion that made him cringe.

It's understandable why she pushed back. She has no problem selling to strangers, but doesn't want to introduce any potentially uncomfortable dynamics into the healthy relationships she has with her aunts, uncles, close friends, cousins, etc.

I completely understand. That's why starting with no is the perfect strategy for her, and probably for you too.

What if instead of feeling like a burden, she realized she was actually helping the people in her life? For anyone who already has insurance, surely a certain percentage of them have a policy that is not suitable for them at the time.

How many people do you know who like to go through the details of an insurance contract in order to save money or properly align their lives with their coverage? Next to nobody. This is where a new seller can offer something of value that doesn't potentially damage existing relationships. On top of that, she can gain more trust by promising to do something for them without expecting them to reciprocate.

This is where the no comes in. Specifically, it means offering a policy review with the explicit preamble that regardless of the review's findings, there would be no expectation of a transaction. at the end. Even if there were clear money savings, a clear reason to do business together, the review would end with her saying, "Thank you so much for letting me do this, please do- me to know if I can help in any way in the future. ", and she would stop there, keeping her end of the deal (and letting the other person decide for themselves whether to continue the conversation).

Starting with no is the opposite of what most salespeople think, of course. That's why it's one of the most powerful ways to build trust. The hunt for yes sets up a defensive posture from the start for the potential customer. Not only to start off without being counterintuitive, but I think this applies to all types of sales work – insurance, aircraft, professional services, software, whatever. No matter the size of the case, the turnaround time required or the complexity involved, when you make no, yes becomes much easier.

I've been through this in my own career too many times to count. I entered scenarios with the assumption of a high level of trust, only to quickly realize that the buyer didn't feel the same way. This was obviously bad for me, but also bad for them - buyers in a defensive position are more likely to withhold basic information. If they feel pressured, they'll be reluctant to share key information, like how much they're comfortable spending. In a high trust scenario, this information is very useful to both parties. In a low-trust country, this may be viewed by a prospect as a compromised secret that could be used against them.

Starting with no isn't just a proven way for a new insurance salesperson to start building a customer base. It's one of the few proven methods that has worked at every stage of my career. By empowering customers to say no easily, they say yes more easily.