While there are certainly times when No means No and it must be respected, such is not the case in a negotiation, sale, or interview. In these situations, No means Tell me more; at least that’s what you have to think if you want to close the deal, make the sale, or get the job.
One of the chapters in my book Get Back Up: From the Streets to Microsoft Suites talks about the time I spent as a life insurance salesman and the fact that I heard No a lot. Whether it was during a cold call on the phone or after a sales call in someone’s house, I heard No all the time. I heard it so much that I started to dread making the call or going to the appointment, but over time I learned that I was actually getting more sales from the people who said No than from the people who said nothing, and who in the end thanked me for my time and sent me on my way.
I learned that by asking why after hearing No that sometimes the reason for the No was easy to overcome. Even in the cases when it wasn’t easy to overcome at least I learned something I could adjust based on that feedback. That adjustment could be changing my pitch, finding a product that better met the purchaser’s needs, or just learning something I didn’t know.
These experiences not only helped me to become a better salesman, they also helped me when I decided to change careers. Interviewing for a job is really just another negotiation or sales meeting. You send in a résumé and you either get an interview or a No. What do you do when you get that No? A lot of people move on and just apply for another position at another company. But what does that get you? It certainly doesn’t get you the job and you definitely don’t receive any feedback to help you improve your résumé.
The only way you can get the feedback you need is to make a call. That is, you have to get the person who said No on the phone and ask him why. This isn’t an adversarial call, it’s just a request for more information. After all the No means Tell me more; you have to get on the phone to do so.
Once you get that “Thank you for your interest but we don’t have anything that fits your skill set at this time. We will keep your résumé on file” form letter you need to get on the phone. You need to thank the person for considering you but could they please let you know what specific area(s) of your skill set are lacking so that you can work at acquiring those skills” After all, don’t you want to know what skills you should acquire to get the career you want?
You might also hear an objection that’s very easy for you to explain or overcome, and by getting on the phone and giving yourself the opportunity to answer that objection, you may just get that job you desire after all.
This scenario is exactly what happened to me the first time I applied to Microsoft. I sent in my résumé and I got that form letter within a few days. I didn’t accept that No and move on; instead I called them and asked why. When they told me I wasn’t qualified because I didn’t have a college degree I took the opportunity to remind them that their founder, Bill Gates, didn’t have a college degree either, and that many tech companies were founded or were being run by people without college degrees. As a result of that conversation, I was able to turn the No around and get an interview.
That interview didn’t guarantee that I would get the job, of course. In fact, after the interview I received the same form letter telling me thanks, but no thanks. That response just led me to another call and another objection; this time regarding the number of years of Windows testing experience I had. I had two years of Windows testing experience but they were looking for someone with five years of experience. Luckily, I had done my homework. I knew when Windows was first released and I knew that until Windows 3.0 came out there weren’t a lot of companies developing software for Windows. Ashton-Tate, where I worked at that time, was one of the few companies working on a product for Windows. We had only been working on this product for two years, however, and not the five Microsoft was looking for. Because I had done my homework I was able to remind the person I was talking to that the product she was working on was first developed for Windows 3.0; before that it had been a Mac product, so she and her team didn’t really have five years of Windows testing experience either. That discussion got me an invitation for a second interview.
The bottom line is it’s easy to accept a No and walk away but doing so won’t get you what you want. If you want to close the deal, make the sale, or get the job, you have to hear the reason for the No and you have to have an answer. If you do that you’ll find that a lot of times a No isn’t a No, it’s really a Tell me more.