Is the fear of No holding you back?

How many opportunities have you missed because you wanted to avoid hearing the word "No"?

Hearing the word "No" is a common fear all of us have. Nobody likes to be rejected.

Can you remember how it felt when you were a little kid and your parents told you "No"?

I bet it hurt, and now that you are older it hurts even more.

The word "No" is associated to the feeling of Pain. We all have an innate desire to avoid pain.

You can reduce your chances of hearing "No" if you know where the other person stands before you ask them a question.

How can you find out where the other person stands? You first need to send a small signal. Any signal asking for a small request and your request should be easy enough to say Yes to.

It is all about getting the other person to say Yes.

By asking for a small request you eliminate your chances of being rejected. It's just like dating, you would never go up to someone you just met and ask them to marry you. If you did, your chance of hearing "No" would be near 100 percent and if they say yes, you better run.

If you want to motivate yourself, you need to start hearing the word Yes. Yes, and I mean any little Yes.

If you wanted to sell your product to a retail buyer, your approach has to be nonthreatening.

You should ask them if it's OK for you to send them a sample of your product. This is a great way to get them in the habit of saying yes. Do you really expect them to say no to such a small request?

Your ultimate initial goal is to get them to say yes to anything. If you were drowning, would you want me to throw you a life jacket? I hope you would say Yes.

Statistics show that the average sale requires five closing attempts before a prospect is ready to make an emotional commitment. Most people don't make it to the fifth attempt because they cringe at the sound of "No". So they give up and stop pursuing the prospect.

When you were a kid and asked your parents for something, you would not stop asking till you got it. For some reason we knew at an early age that persistence paid off and we did not have a fear of hearing "No".

We need to have this same determination not to give up so we can get what we want.

Knowing that it takes at least five attempts should motivate us to continue asking and not stop at the first "No".