When No Means More Yes

This week, a quick thought on the discomfort of saying no

This is a riff on something from my chum Robert Rose - we had a really interesting chat on my podcast last week about saying no, which, if we can master it, he describes as a marketer superpower.

Totally agree.

But as we discussed it, I was thinking that for me to give the advice to someone to say no is much easier than them actually saying it.

You may be feeling a flutter inside the pit of your stomach at the prospect.

But, it makes logical sense; we have a fixed set of resources and budget, and when the business wants something new, which inevitably they do, the right thing to do is to say is:

“Yes, but what shall we stop?”

Or

“no”

Say NO?

We are not IT or finance.

We are marketing, the most expendable of all executive functions; we are the coloring-in, unicorns, rainbows, branded umbrellas, and yes people.

Say NO?

Really…?

The truth is, of course, that any leader, especially a CMO, succeeds through focus - and saying no is not just a marketing superpower; it’s a leader’s superpower.

Apparently, Steve Jobs said, “It’s only by saying 'No’ that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

But to say no requires a little more selling than saying, “Steve Jobs said so.”

On the one hand, an artfully managed no could result in more resources, especially if we pass Go in the game of “Yes, but what shall we stop?” - and the business says, “Good point,” and hands us more budget.

But, more typically, we need to sell no.

That today’s “no” is a bigger YES to something else.

What could we achieve if we properly resourced this YES?

Rather than doing all these other things that nobody really cares about and we do because we always have done/the competitors do them/it’s expected….

…but nobody has asked why?

And said no.

So we can say YES!

If you are interested in Robert's perspective, take a listen over on Rockstar CMO