Buyers of software products, like small children, hear one word more than any other: “no”. “No, it can’t be done.” “No we don’t do that.” “No, if you did that it would screw up everything else.” “No, that’s stupid” It doesn’t matter if you’re right, all that matters is that you’re just another person saying “no”.
You differentiate yourself from others by giving the exact same answer, but with the word “yes” instead of “no”.
“Yes, in order to do that, we’d also want to look at…”
“Yes, let’s make it ‘pop’ using some of the things we bring to the table…”
“Yes, no one even thought about that, and we should now before we get any further into this thing…”
or even the extreme:
“Yes, there’s a way to do that. No one has ever done that before, so now is the time for someone to be first…”
As I’ve told my customers many times, “The answer is always ‘Yes’. You may not want to do it once you understand what it will take, but the answer is still ‘yes’.”
No other word has helped me more to find myself and do my best work for others.