Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: Go For No, with Andrea Waltz (Sales, Business, Author, Goal Setting)

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REMASTERED: Go For No, with Andrea Waltz (Sales, Business, Author, Goal Setting) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:00
  Host: Andrea Waltz is the co founder of Courage Crafters.
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  That's the name their company, which is just awesome. She's the
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  author of a tremendous book. The book is called "Go For No".
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  She's also been featured in TV Guide, Success Magazine, I mean,
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  on this mission to shift the way that the world thinks about the
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  word no. But Andrea, we're so excited. Thank you for being
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  here.
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  Andrea Waltz: I am thrilled.
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  Host: So most people are terrified of the word no. Can
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  you explain what your philosophy is about that and how, like, how
• 1:02
  did you come up with this? Like, how did you get there to this
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  philosophy?
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  Andrea Waltz: Well, I know that does that so counterintuitive,
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  right? Everybody wants to hear yes, and they've been taught and
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  trained to hear yes. And that is the interesting thing about the
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  philosophy, is that it is totally counterintuitive. What
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  we teach is that in order to get more yeses, in order to hear yes
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  more often, you've got to be willing to hear more nos. In
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  fact, we say you've got to go out and intentionally increase
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  the number of times you are hearing the word no in order to
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  get to those yeses. And so it that's the fundamental
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  philosophy. Of course, there's a lot behind it, because we do
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  have all the psychology behind it and all the emotions that are
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  wrapped up in getting those no's and feeling like we're failing
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  and and all of that. So that's kind of the surface level thing.
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  And Richard was working in a men's wear store. He was, and
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  this is years ago, kind of in the beginning of his sales
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  career, he was sailing miserably. He was hoping to
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  improve. The district manager, a man by the name of Harold, was
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  going to come in and visit the store. And rich thought that if
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  he had a great sale while this guy was in the store, that it
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  would maybe buy him some time to improve. So the district manager
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  comes in this one day, Richard's there. They open the store.
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  Everything's great. Customer walks in. Rich is the first
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  salesperson in that morning. So he gets to help this first
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  customer. And the customer who walks in happens to say, you
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  know, i Hello, I want to buy an entire wardrobe of floating.
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  Rich gets to help this guy. And he's like, okay, great. So he
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  they're going from thing to thing, and he's selling the guy
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  shirts and ties and slacks and underwear and pocket square and
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  the whole this wholesale rings them up. It's like $1,100 and
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  again, this is years ago, but it sold this great sale. Um, ring
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  some up, sends him on his way, and is thinking that he's going
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  to be congratulated by Harold, the the district manager who's
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  visiting, thinking that Harold's going to be so impressed. Harold
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  doesn't say anything. Finally, they're standing side by side,
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  and Harold says to rich, he's like, you know, you know, that
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  was my sale. And Rich is like, Well, yeah, did you I mean, it
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  was, it was $1,100 that was great. And Harold says, yeah.
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  But can I ask you a question? Just wanted to ask you a little
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  question. And Rich says, Okay. And Harold says, Out of
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  curiosity, Richard, out of everything that you show that
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  man made, what would that customer say no to? And Rich
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  thought about the wholesale and he's like, Oh, geez, Harold, you
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  know I, if you saw I sold them all this stuff. What do you
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  mean? What did he say no to? He I guess he didn't say no to
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  anything. And then Harold asks rich the really important
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  question, which is, well, then how did you know he was done?
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  And, yeah, that's the this kind of hit rich like a punch,
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  really, he was floored. He's like, Well, I guess I knew he
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  was done, because I'm always done. You know? It's like he got
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  to that his own mental spending limit, and he sent the customer
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  on his way. And that was it. And that was kind of that moment
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  where Harold and we all need leaders in our lives kind of
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  point us in the right direction. Well, that was Harold for rich.
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  So Rich took that message. He he got the message, and then I
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  thought I was a great salesperson. And he, he tells me
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  this entire story, just like I told you. And I said, oh my
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  goodness, you know what? I don't like to hear no either. And I
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  realized that, as great a salesperson that I thought I
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  was, I actually shied away from hearing no because I didn't want
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  to look pushy. I didn't want to look overly aggressive. You
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  know, I did. You know all of that, I've interviewed a ton of
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  experts on this exact topic. And I think pretty much everybody
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  agrees that, you know, as kids, we start off very tenacious.
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  We're willing to try everything. We're willing to fall flat on
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  our face. We don't care. And then somewhere along the line in
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  our teenage years, you know, we just kind of get that tenacity
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  drummed out of us, and we kind we kind of get taught and
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  trained and learn. That you don't want to stand out and you
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  don't want to look like a failure in front of people. So
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  here we are all as adults, just shying away from looking and,
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  quote, failing, maybe looking like that sleazy, pushy
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  salesperson asking somebody for anything. It doesn't matter. I
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  mean, this is not even necessarily a sales philosophy.
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  It's really, we like to say it's a life philosophy. He's asking
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  for anything. Asking for anything, and having somebody
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  think, wow, she's pushy, you know? So I think we have, we've
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  been raised with some of these paradigms, as you say, and so we
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  kind of keep living them over and over again.
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  Host: So what are some of the action steps that we can take to
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  change our philosophy or our mentality about all of this, and
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  kind of, you know, how we approach looking at no?
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  Andrea Waltz: The first thing I would suggest, I would
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  recommend, to anybody is just start to create a no awareness.
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  Really look around and say to yourself, how many knows, as if
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  you're a salesperson, you know, how many knows, am I getting a
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  week or a day? And try to really quantify it, and try to really
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  look and say, you know, I don't, I do stop at that one yes. I
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  don't continue to to show things or to make calls if I got the
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  two yeses I wanted for, you know, a particular day. So
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  create that no awareness. And then got to do something that we
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  call setting no goals. So instead of just saying, I'm
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  going to get a one yes today. We suggest that you, you say, I'm
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  going to try to get five no's this week. And it can be, you
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  know, whatever, whatever you want, whatever it could be. We
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  help people in fundraising. So it doesn't really matter what
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  you're quote asking or what you're selling. It's really just
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  have fun with it. Set a no goal and try to get more no's, and a
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  lot of people have some really serious, deep, rooted fears. And
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  there's nothing wrong with that, because, again, we've all been
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  taught and trained to live in the stove for yes world where
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  there's a lot of pressure to get yes and so yeah. And I think a
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  lot of people, you know, they have kind of a perfectionistic
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  quality. They want to be great, which is great, but, you know,
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  they they almost put too much pressure on themselves to be
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  perfect. And so what I would tell somebody says, I give them
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  permission and actually insist, you know, I want you to fall
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  flat on your face. I you're going for no so I know, pick up
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  the phone or talk to the person, and I don't want you to get Yes,
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  I just literally get no. Be bad. Fall on your face, experience
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  it, so that you can at least take the action and do it, and
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  then we can move to the next step and improve on that. But
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  it's taking that action and seeing that gosh, I can. I
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  nobody died every I survived. It wasn't a disaster. And what's
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  funny is when people do that and they have permission to go for
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  no and they have permission to live in that go for no world and
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  have that go for no mindset, the stress actually is removed, and
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  what we find is that people relax more, and the whole
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  experience is actually so much better because we said, listen,
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  there is no pressure here. We want you to mess up. Don't worry
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  about it.
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  Host: Does the go for no philosophy apply to top
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  producers do you think?
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  Andrea Waltz: Yeah, and I love that you said that we always
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  make the point that we that, you know, the people that are on
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  stage winning awards, super successful people in every
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  business of industry, writers and actors and, you know,
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  athletes and stay at home moms with a side business, you know,
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  everybody who, really, who ends up being coming a top producer
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  actually hears some more no's and literally failed enough.
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  There's like this tipping point. You know, there's a tipping
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  point where, if you fail enough and hear enough no's, then what
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  happens is, your confidence starts to grow. You learn from
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  those no's, and then you this tipping point happens, and you
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  don't hear no quite as often. But what happens is we don't get
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  through that process. We don't force ourselves through that
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  process, through the pain, if you will, to reach that tipping
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  point. And that's kind of the trick and so but absolutely, top
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  producers here know more than anybody, and when we start
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  getting those no's in the beginning, I think a lot of
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  times we the questions that we start asking deep inside is,
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  what does this, know really mean? And we start thinking
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  this, no means I'm not going to be successful this. No means I'm
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  bad at what I'm doing. You know, we get this. The nos have all
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  these negative meanings, where, when we work through those and
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  we do it enough, and we we let those statistics and those
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  numbers play out, and eventually they do play out in our favor
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  when we stick with it enough that we see that those no's
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  don't mean that at all, but it takes some time to get to that
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  place.
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  Host: How have you leveraged go for no philosophy like to
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  advance your own career, like, how is this? How have you been a
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  practitioner of this message yourself?
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  Andrea Waltz: Well, you know, it's so nice to be able to teach
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  something that you need yourself, which is totally true.
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  I, as I said, when Richard told me this story about go for No,
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  we hadn't written the book or anything. And I said, this is
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  brilliant. I get this. And after we wrote the book and we decided
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  to. Create a whole training program around this, and kind of
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  forced me to really look at all of the psychology and to see
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  where I needed it, and so I have absolutely used it in my career.
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  My favorite story is one time we were at this conference and I
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  saw the vice president of huge retail organization standing
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  over in the corner, and I wanted to approach her, and I I just
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  thought, oh, you know, I was very young at the time. I was
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  super nervous, and I thought, you know, you spend all this
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  money, you pay this money. What's the worst that can
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  happen? Remember to go for no so I walked up, I approached her,
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  we had a great conversation, and we ended up doing, you know,
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  probably $100,000 worth of business later on, because I
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  just forced myself out of my comfort zone and had to remind
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  myself to go for no and the truth is, I've gotten over the
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  whole psychology and the emotional reaction that's been
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  so freeing for me, because I do keep my stress down. I do
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  understand the whole go for no philosophy, but every now and
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  then, you know, when I get nervous, I have to remind myself
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  and tap into everything that I know. So that's why it's so fun
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  for me to teach, is I get to constantly. I get the constant
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  reinforcement every day.
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  Host: How does go for no apply to non sales people like, do you
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  think this philosophy fits in other places?
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  Andrea Waltz: Absolutely. And that's what I love about it, is
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  I feel like when we get to share this with people in every
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  business and every industry which we do, it applies to
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  everybody and and kids. I have so many great stories of people
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  who tell me that they're teaching this to their children
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  because they feel like they don't. They want their kids to
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  remember this. And you know, kids that are 10, 1214, they're
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  starting to hit that magic age where they start carrying what
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  other people think and start ringing themselves in. But it is
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  a complete life philosophy. We all tend to shrink back and not
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  ask for what we want. Jack Camfield talks about this quite
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  a bit and relates up to self esteem. So you know, if you're
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  we always say, you know, you're out with your spouse or
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  significant other, and you're at a restaurant, and they put you
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  at the horrible table in the back next to the water station.
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  And then, of course, there's the cute table for two of the front
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  with the candle. And this is your moment to say, Okay, I'm
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  gonna go for no if they put us, you know, if they, if they can't
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  move us to the queue table, at least I asked. At least I tried.
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  So ask, ask for what you want, and you'll be amazed at what can
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  happen. So it's definitely a great light philosophy.
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  Host: It's just fantastic. It empowers you. So, Andrea, we
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  just, we appreciate you for what you're doing and keep going and
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  think thank you for being with us on the show.
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  Andrea Waltz: My absolute pleasure. Love it.