Why Top Sales Reps Hunt for "No" to Get to the "Yes" – Interview with FBI Negotiator Chris Voss

The counterintuitive negotiation tactic that separates closers from order-takers

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Voss, the former FBI hostage negotiator who's now teaching sales teams worldwide how to close deals. What he told me completely flipped conventional sales wisdom on its head.

"Unexpressed negative emotions never die," Chris opened with. And if that sounds dramatic coming from someone who negotiated with kidnappers and hostage-takers, it should, because those hidden objections are exactly what's killing your sales deals.

The "Happy Ears" Problem

Most sales reps I've worked with are optimistic by nature. They want to hear "yes." They avoid conflict. They stay positive and build rapport. All good things, right?

Not according to Chris.

"Sales guys are very nice all the time," he explained. "We always want to hear the yes in our heads. But every negotiation starts with a no. You need to get more value out of it."

Here's what he means: while your rep is being nice and building trust, the prospect already has "no" sitting in their head. They're skeptical. They're already working with a competitor. They're busy. That "no" exists whether you acknowledge it or not.

Get Over Your Fear of No

When I asked Chris what sales teams should do differently, his answer was direct:

"Get over your fear of no. Most people think 'yes' means success and 'no' means failure… so they avoid it. But all communication and empathy is about the other side, not about you."

This hit home for me. At Kickscale, we analyze thousands of sales conversations, and the pattern is clear: deals stall when objections stay unexpressed. The prospect is polite, they take the meeting, they say they'll "think about it”...but nothing moves forward because the real concerns were never addressed.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Top-performing sales reps don't wait for objections to come up. They proactively label them:

Instead of: "So, shall we move forward with a demo?"

They say: "You're probably thinking this sounds expensive, and that your team is already buried with tools to learn. Most sales leaders tell us that."

Instead of: "Let me tell you why we're the best solution..."

They say: "It sounds like you've been burned by platforms like ours before. What specifically went wrong last time?"

This approach does something critical: it gives the prospect permission to express their real concerns. And once those concerns are out in the open, you can actually have a productive conversation about whether your solution makes sense.

Why This Matters for European Sales Teams

In our work with B2B software companies across DACH, UK, Netherlands, and the Nordics, we've seen this play out repeatedly. European buyers value directness and transparency. They appreciate when you address the elephant in the room, whether that's pricing, GDPR compliance, or implementation complexity.

The sales teams that close fastest are the ones that surface objections early: "Before we go further: we start at €89 per user per month. If that's completely outside your budget, let's not waste each other's time."

The Bottom Line

Chris Voss learned this truth in the most extreme situations imaginable: unexpressed negative emotions never die. They just kill your deal slowly, from the inside.

The best sales conversations don't avoid uncomfortable truths, they dive straight into them. They give prospects permission to say "no" so you can understand what "no" really means and determine whether your solution is actually the right fit.

Want to hear the complete conversation? Chris breaks down exactly how to implement this approach, shares specific scripts for surfacing objections, and reveals the psychology behind why this works in high-stakes negotiations.

👉 Watch the full interview with Chris Voss

👉 Ready to put Chris's advice into practice? Start analyzing your sales conversations with Kickscale. See when objections surface, track your talk-to-listen ratio, and identify the patterns that close deals. Sign Up Here