When You Hear No, Keep Going Strong

Leo was a sales rep for a furniture company. Every day, he would visit different stores to offer his products. He covered a huge geographical distance, but always visited the same places - as regular as clockwork.

There was one particular store that always said, "No." They already had a furniture distributor and there was no need to even have a meeting with Leo. The floor staff would always sent him away before he could even meet the buyer to describe how his service and products were different.

But Leo kept the store on his route, and every time he was in the area, he dropped by the store. After all, it only took him a moment to drive down the street, park the car, and ask for the meeting.

One time, just before Leo's visit, the buyer at the furniture store had a falling out with their distributor. When Leo showed up, the buyer (via the gatekeeper) said, "Sure, let's go ahead and talk!"

The buyer discovered that Leo was a really great guy. And he gave exceptional service. He asked about what was not working with the store's regular distributor, and went above and beyond to solve that problem - and for less money. In fact, he provided some options for free - options the buyer would not have ever asked for because no one had ever provided them before.

So how can a professional services firm like yours follow Leo's lead?

-Never give up, even when you keep hearing no - be accountable to your firm by being patient and persistent, and not giving in to your personal ego

-Weigh out your time - be accountable to your firm by making sure you are not spending too much time when there seems like there will be little return on that investment - particularly if you are in the area anyway...

-When you do get a chance to sit down with a prospective client, find out what his or her problems are - be accountable to your firm by confidently matching up your solutions to the client's problems

-Solve those problems - be accountable to your new client by following through and doing what you have said you would do

-Go above and beyond to create new solutions the client never even knew existed - be accountable to your firm by constantly striving to innovate and create new services that will help current and future clients.