Just Say No, But Say It Nicely
May 27th, 2010 | Small Business | No Comments »One of our main distribution strategies for KikScore is working with partners. Our ideal partner is one with that has a lot of interaction with small online businesses, or small businesses that want an online presence.
In my day job, I work with with partners quite a bit (or as Corporate America calls them…Channels). As with any type of sales, reaching out to partners involves a lot of rejections. Either they don’t have time or the proposed relationship doesn’t fit into the partner’s strategic vision.
What has surprised us at KikScore is the overall interest that our product has received from a partnership standpoint. We’ve approached 10 different channels and we are in deep discussions with 6 of them. That type of success rate would get you in the baseball hall of fame (as a hitter, manager or pitcher).
This type of positive reaction has likely twisted my perception. So when I reached out to a larger company today — with a contact from a mutual friend — I thought it would be a warm reception. Uh, wrong. The person I contacted not only said no, but almost chastised me for bothering her. Sorry, delicate genius. Let’s hope you never lose that corporate job and have to start approaching people on your own.
Also, I’ll never be a customer of this company. It’s not because she said no, it was how she said it.
