Christine Clifford is an award-winning professional speaker and CEO of Christine Clifford Enterprises. She is the author of eight books including You, Inc.,The Art of Selling Yourself. As a speaker, Christine has presented in 49 states and eleven foreign countries, to over 1,000,000 people. Clients include 3M, Great Clips, Inc., Nordstrom, Council on Aging, and Prudential. Christine speaks to over 50 corporations/ organizations per year. A cancer survivor, she went on to write four humorous books on her story. Once the top salesperson in the multi- billion dollar retail services industry, Christine’s accounts included Kmart, Toys ‘R Us, Wal-Mart, AT&T, Mattel Toys, and Revlon. Taking her company from a million dollar per year loss to over $54 million in sales, Christine signed the largest contract in the industry’s history with Procter & Gamble, doubling the size of her company overnight. Christine is available to speak to your organization about sales, marketing or using humor to get through life’s adversities. She provides sales and marketing consulting, as well as strategic sales training.

There are two key steps and some critical questions that will help you define what it is you are presenting.

Step #1: Prepare people to expect your sales proposal or request.  Never send something unsolicited, unexpected or without preconceived value to the buyer. How do you do that? By calling, emailing, texting, or calling on someone’s office face to face.

Step # 2: Prepare yourself to Re-treat, Re-evaluate, Re-approach your contact.

If we don’t close a deal— it’s often because we gave up at the first “no.” With innovative brainstorming, gentle persistence, and the three R’s, Re-treat, Re-evaluate, and Re-approach; we can often turn an initial “no” into an eventual “yes”– all the while creating a WIN-WIN-WIN relationship that benefits everyone involved. When people reject our request, it’s often because we didn’t make our offer sufficiently compelling (what’s in it for me?); we ignored their needs; or simply failed to clearly define the value or long and short term benefits of what we are selling.

How can you anticipate ahead of time why your deal might not appeal? Ask yourself:

  • Is what I am asking for (time, money, people, resources) reasonable?
  • Would what I am offering appeal to me personally? My mother? My next door neighbor? My current client base?
  • Do I have the answers to all the questions that might be asked of me? If not, am I prepared to get the answers within 24 hours?
  • Can I deliver what I am promising?

By preparing and troubleshooting ahead of time, you can often nip a “no” in the bud. If you package and pitch your deals with that in mind, you can often turn an initial “no” into a “yes.”