One of the biggest mistakes I see in sales is trying to get prospects to say yes
The best closers aren’t looking for a yes
They operate like the answer might be no.
I didn’t always think that way.
In January 2025, I joined a coaching session where Bruno Nwogu shared something that completely changed how I approached sales.
“There are more reasons for a person not to buy from you than there are to buy.”
At first, it sounded discouraging.
Shouldn’t we be focusing on the reasons people should buy?
The more I sat with it, the more it made sense.
Every prospect walks into a sales call carrying doubts.
- “I don’t have the money.”
- “I can try a different option.”
- “I’m not sure this is the right time.”
- “What if it doesn’t work?”
Those doubts don’t suddenly appear when you present the price, they were there before the call even started.
That changed how I sell.
Instead of trying to collect little “yeses” throughout the conversation, I started looking for the reasons someone might say no.
Because every genuine concern you address removes one more barrier to a decision.
Months later, when I started coaching other sales reps, this became one of the biggest mindset shifts I encouraged.
Detach from getting the sale.
Focus on understanding the hesitation. Be curious and skeptic.
The funny thing is, the more you stop chasing agreement, the more naturally it happens.
Today, I think of sales like this:
You can’t force someone to say yes, but you can create enough clarity that no no longer makes sense.
That’s why great objection handling doesn’t begin after you reveal the price.
It’s right there through every question you ask in discovery.
Every great sales conversation is simply the process of removing one reason to say no after another.
By the time it’s time to make a decision, there isn’t much left to object to.
