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No may be the favorite word of toddlers and parents everywhere -- heck, even most sales professional see it as an opportunity to learn about customers' real motivations -- but many marketers tend to shun it whenever possible.

Think about it. How often do marketing communications offer a "no thanks" option? Some do, but it's rare and most often found in direct mail for such offers as a subscription to a specific magazine. Personally, I don't think I've ever seen a "no thanks" option in an email offer.

But no can be as informative for marketers as it is for salespeople. "A no is as good as a yes," Ron Swift, vice president of cross-industry solutions marketing for Teradata, explained during his keynote earlier this week at Frost & Sullivan's Sales & Marketing Executive MindXchange event. "It tells you not to market that product or service to that person anymore."

Think about the many benefits of this: you save money, time, and effort; you boost customer satisfaction by not repeatedly sending offers on something the customer is clearly not interested in; you might even improve your results over time by communicating with those customers who have clearly noted their interest in receiving information and offers on specific products/services.

One of the ideas behind Return on Customer is that marketers are potentially destroying customer value by overcommunicating with customers, especially when those customers feel the communications aren't relevant to them. When you send a mailing and get a 10 percent response rate, in a way, 90 percent of the recipients have said no by not responding. The trick is to find out which meant "no, not ever" and which meant "no, not this time." The only way to find out -- and to show that you're actually interested in customers' needs -- is to ask.

So go ahead, take Ron's advice: Ask the question.