Story time.

I’m 12-years-old, little brother in hand. Already a questionable situation. I’m taking him into the backyard to push him on his new Little Tikes swing that my parents had recently purchased for him. I got socks for my birthday that year, but that’s another issue entirely.

He’s loving it. Laughing, a little bit of crying (he’s a baby) and a lot of incomprehensible baby talk.

“I cannot understand a word this kid is saying,” I think. “I’m going to teach him something. My mom will be proud of me.”

I lacked creativity at twelve, so I went with the word “no.” After a handful of tries, he was saying it as clear as day. Mission accomplished. From this point forward, his response to everything was, “no.” Contrary to my anticipated degree of excitement from my mom, she was pissed. I taught him this because it was easy for a 9-month-old baby to say.

The irony: Easy at nine months, yet so very, very difficult in adulthood. Especially in sales.

Buyers: Just say it.

I’m a sales development rep at LevelEleven and arrive at the office every morning with emails and voicemails from other SDRs trying to sell me stuff. Probably not the most targeted approach, because I certainly can’t buy anything. I wish my credit card knew this, but again, that’s another issue entirely.

I shoot the reps reaching out to me a quick note: “Sorry, but I’m not the right person at LevelEleven. Cheers.”

Never receive another email from them again. It’s a beautiful thing.

Maybe it’s because I’m an SDR? I guess I can relate a little more and appreciate the power of someone simply replying with “no,” “not interested” or “not the right person.” It saves both of us time.

My story at the beginning may end up being longer than the actual point of this blog, but I assure you, it was important and needed to be told.

So, sales managers, directors, vice presidents, chief revenue officers and all other buyers: You’re going to get emails from us. If we’re doing our jobs well, you’ll be getting calls from us. In turn, voicemails. You’ve opened the previous eight emails that I’ve sent you and likely spent, at least, another 15 seconds listening to a portion of each voicemail.

Time is money. Let’s both get rich together. If you take 5-10 seconds to reply to my email with a quick “no,” “not interested” or “not the right person,” it will make your inbox prettier moving forward and relieve my anxiety from still holding out hope of getting a response.

If my little brother can do it, so can you. If you’re not interested, just say, “no.”