The Secret ‘NO Strategy’: How to Get a ‘Yes’ from a Client

Welcome to part three of our four-part blog series on establishing value with clients! 

Today’s topic is not the easiest to understand in writing, but I am going to give it a crack because it’s a technique my household uses all the time.

Shifting to a “NO strategy” to get the clients and work you want.

This is a technique that I learned from Chris Voss in his Masterclass on Negotiation. I use it all the time when navigating client deals, buying things on Facebook Marketplace, hiring contractors or talking to difficult people.

Matt and I always strategise with this technique. He’ll often ask me – “did you use the NO strategy?” 😝

How to Use the NO Strategy

Here’s the deal.

It’s much easier for clients to say *no* than to say *yes*. Not only do people feel safe and in control when saying ‘no’, but when a person reaches decision fatigue at the end of the day, we say ‘no’ more often.

The trick Chris Voss teaches is to seek a *no answer* which is yes in disguise.

Let’s demonstrate this with examples where a ‘no’ is actually a ‘yes’.

See what happened there? The client said *no*, but that no was ultimately a ‘yes’ to what we wanted – budget for licensing.

Wording Examples to Get that Yes

In a nutshell: Position your counteroffer as something they will say ‘no’ to but still gets you what you want.

Here is how I would structure common ‘no’ based questions:

• Would it be too much work for you if we revised the contract with a few changes?
• Would it be unreasonable to find a little more budget so I can deliver the quality images my business is known for?
• Would it be impossible to reschedule the reshoot until next month?

If you want to learn more about this technique and you have Masterclass, watch Lesson 11: The Value of “No” in Chris Voss’s seminar.

In the next post, we’re going to discuss Raising Your Prices: Email Examples That Actually Work in our final segment of: Establishing Value with Clients. And if you’re interested in reading Post One you can find it here: Perceived Value: The Key to Setting Photography Prices. And Post Two: Show Clients Value: How to Convey the Worth of Your Photography.

Please comment below in the comment section if you have any specific questions. I love hearing from you and talking about ways to improve your business strategies!

1. Perceived Value: The Key to Setting Photography Prices
2. Show Clients Value: How to Convey the Worth of Your Photography
3. The Secret ‘NO Strategy’: How to Get a ‘Yes’ from a Client
4. Raising Your Prices: Email Examples That Actually Work