Most reps hear "no" and log it as a lost deal. The best ones I've watched treat it as data with a shelf life.
A "no" almost always means one of three things: not now, not convinced, or not you.
Those require completely different responses, and most reps respond to all three the same way, which is to disengage.
Not now means the timing's wrong, not the fit. Worth a check-in on a real trigger, not a generic "just following up."
Not convinced means the value case didn't land, which is worth actually asking about
directly instead of assuming. Not you means someone else has the relationship, and no amount of follow-up fixes that one.
Treating every "no" as final is why so much real pipeline gets abandoned early. The deal isn't always dead. Sometimes it's just not this quarter's deal yet.
What's a "no" you're still sitting on that you haven't actually gone back to ask about?
@paulg That test measures how shocked 1980 was, not whether the machine has general intelligence. A calculator would look supernatural to someone from 1800.
@danmartell If your only job is keeping customers, you can end up protecting a business that should have been replaced. Retention is a metric, not a mission.
@hthieblot The family may be wrong about the job, but they may be right about the runway. Believing in the company does not exempt the founder from doing the maths.
@CoachDanGo The interesting part isn’t running versus walking. It’s whether you choose an exercise that makes the person more likely to quit or one they can still be doing six months from now.
@PeterDiamandis Access is only half the problem. The bigger equalizer might be giving people an AI tutor that refuses to let them remain intellectually lazy.
Elimination is one of my favourite business strategies.
I don’t cover the weak parts of my business. I cut them out completely and confine the business to what only I can deliver.
Expansion by duplication outperforms expansion by integrations. Duplicate your strength.