Telling someone ‘no’ can be hard. Hearing it can de disappointing.
No, we aren’t interested.
Sorry, you’re not a good fit.
We’ve decide to go in a different direction.
All of these are infinitely better than ‘maybe’.
From this viewpoint it’s worth setting up a framework in advance. If we hear ‘maybe’ X amount of times then we should consider it a ‘no’ and move on. Sure, sometimes an unrealistic amount of perseverance will pay off. But this is the exception to the rule.
And watch out for ‘yes but’. These are just ‘maybe’ in disguise.