Just read Brad Feld's "Venture Deals". He had an interesting piece where he discussed VC responses and how to respond to each:
Yes - they're clearly interested and pushing the deal. Go for it unless you have reason to slow-roll them (other lead investor interest).
No - they clearly say no. Move on.
Maybe - seems interested, but doesn't step up his level on engagement. Keep pinging them until you get a lead investor.
Slow No - they're sorta responsive, but always initiated by you and never goes anywhere. Easy to confuse with a "Maybe". These people will suck your time. He didn't have a great method around figuring these out; simply recommended "consider them a no".
Krauser had a similar bit where he breaks girls down into Yes, No, Maybe (and states that really good Game is turning "Maybes" into "Yes"s).
I find the additional "Slow No" category to be interesting, but haven't decided how useful it would be in practice. I guess this would be determined by one's approach to Maybe's: do you keep engaging until something changes, or simply move on to find more Yes girls?
If the former, then the ability to effectively distinguish between Maybe's and Slow No's has a high ROI. If the latter, then you don't care.
Thoughts?
Yes - they're clearly interested and pushing the deal. Go for it unless you have reason to slow-roll them (other lead investor interest).
No - they clearly say no. Move on.
Maybe - seems interested, but doesn't step up his level on engagement. Keep pinging them until you get a lead investor.
Slow No - they're sorta responsive, but always initiated by you and never goes anywhere. Easy to confuse with a "Maybe". These people will suck your time. He didn't have a great method around figuring these out; simply recommended "consider them a no".
Krauser had a similar bit where he breaks girls down into Yes, No, Maybe (and states that really good Game is turning "Maybes" into "Yes"s).
I find the additional "Slow No" category to be interesting, but haven't decided how useful it would be in practice. I guess this would be determined by one's approach to Maybe's: do you keep engaging until something changes, or simply move on to find more Yes girls?
If the former, then the ability to effectively distinguish between Maybe's and Slow No's has a high ROI. If the latter, then you don't care.
Thoughts?