Clueless Cold Calling In Japan
Cold calling always creates a debate amongst the sales community. Some say it has seen it’s day, others defend it as part of the sales resource bank for getting leads. I don’t think anyone suggests it has a high rate of success. Yet, there are occasions when we need to call someone we have never spoken to before and who has never heard of us. Why would we be doing that? We may have observed the spider in action.
The spider is a metaphor for when you have success with a client in one industry or industry sector and you believe you can have success with other similar companies. Often the problems you discover from talking to one client are probably common for other companies in the same industry. Say you are talking to a 5 star hotel and they have a problem with turnover. The chances are that many other 5 star hotels have the same issue. If you have a solution that fixes the problem for this client of yours, then why not help out the other hotels suffering the same problem. So like a spider with its web, you branch out to the other hotels and bring them into you ecosystem of solutions.
Or, you may have run out of leads. Maybe your marketing efforts are not proving very fruitful and the lead flow is a bit dismal. There are a number of industry and association directories which list the key people in those organisations. You know who you want to speak with and that is a great starting point for making a cold call.
Now there are many difficulties with cold calling, so let’s deal with the most problematic. This is when you only have a company name and want to talk to a decision-maker. You are not even sure of which section you need. You are forced to navigate your way through the company’s phone system. In Japan, the task of taking incoming calls is allocated to the lowest person on the totem pole. Usually, the youngest female in the administration section.
Her job is to get rid of pesky salespeople. Which are the pesky ones? They are all salespeople who are cold calling the company trying to waste the time of her bosses. In this case, we need a really powerful credibility statement that will be a hook to get us transferred to the boss. We cannot be vague. We need to be authoritative, commanding and confident in our voice quality.
We need to create the impression that if she doesn’t transfer this call right now, then the company is really going to miss out on something that will fundamentally change their business. When you have that spider’s web of insight, you are able to pin point the pain point of their business and that can be a great door opener for us.
Even when we know the name of the person, we can get ourselves into trouble. I was coaching a Japanese salesperson recently and asked where was the breakdown point in her sales approach. She mentioned cold calling and being unable to engage with the decision maker. I suggested some role play to get an idea of her approach. Shock, horror, gasp. It was horrible. She began her conversation with the weakest, most lacking in confidence voice you can imagine. A voice that was begging for relegation to the garbage heap of failed cold callers. I was sitting there thinking, “no wonder you can’t get through”.
We need to consider the psychology of the youngest female answering the phone. In their company she is a nobody. She has no great knowledge of the bosses business, because she is so many layers removed. When a call comes in and sounds timid and lacking in conviction, then it is a guide to get rid of them.
However, an unknown caller might also be a good buddy of the boss, an important client, someone the boss just met or some big shot from another firm. She can only judge that by how they speak with her. If she is talked to like a junior, and told to get the boss on the line right now, she will make that transfer.
Probably the call will be transferred to the boss’s assistant, so that is always a fail safe action for a very junior person in the company. They have relinquished all responsibility at that point and they can go back to stamping documents or whatever.
When we get to the assistant, we need that credibility statement. It has to be a well designed strong hook, to convince her that we should speak to the boss. The impression is if we don’t, then the company will be missing out on a fantastic game changing, really rocking opportunity.
Action Steps
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.
About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.
Dealing With Buyer Price Push Back
Pricing is usually set by the boss and salespeople are just there to get out and sell at that designation. The derivation of that price point can be quite varied. In some cases, there is a careful calculation involved. It determines the necessary return to cover direct and indirect costs, plus make a specified margin of profit. In other cases a moist index finger is thrust skyward and a price magically appears. The services industry, in particular, has a lot of finger skyward waggling going on. The trouble though is salespeople are not convinced by any price setting methodology.
They only believe in the reality of the market . The way they know the reality is the degree of pushback they get from clients, when they are trying to sell. It is also a function of the nerve of the organization to defend the price point, when there is the threat of no deal. If the boss tells the salespeople to “go out there and sell” at that price point and then the boss folds immediately, every time there is buyer resistance, then the salespeople’s belief in the validity of that price point is precisely zero. The boss has to hold the line.
When you have no belief in the value backing up that price point, your ability to sell at that rate is simply squashed. You default to discounting to get a small piece of something, rather than a very large piece of nothing. Now the boss is cranky because you are undervaluing the brand and the company’s market positioning. So around and around we go on the merry-go-round of price setting.
The crunch point is the sales price negotiation with the buyer. If you have gotten into the death spiral of last minute discounting, in order to move the product or service, you have now trained the buyer to extract the biggest possible discount every time. I sometimes get asked to make an unbudgeted purchase by a salesperson calling me. The discount they are offering from the normal price can be significant.
As the buyer, I then counteroffer a third to a half of their already lowest proffered price. Why am I doing that? This is called “sports negotiating”. I am testing their nerve to see how desperate they are. I want to know how low I can push them down. Is that mean spirited on my part? Well they called me, not the other way around. I also teach negotiating, so as an instructor, I want to see how good they are? Do they do anything interesting in the negotiating process? I usually do buy from them and I usually get a very good price. Good for me, bad for them.
Now, as your sales instructor, I advise that if you are the seller, then don’t accept their ridiculous number. If you feel you are now in the sports negotiating arena, give them an ultimatum on price and a very, very short fixed time to take it or leave it. In the meantime, call another potential buyer. If you have not built up pipeline for your sales, then you are always going to be vulnerable to price collapse.
If you discount once, then imagine that by telling the Japanese buyer this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a spectacularly rare alignment of the planets, which will never happen again in their lifetime, a never to be repeated offer, you are kidding yourself. The Japanese buyer doesn't hear any of that. What they hear is, I get it for this smaller amount this time. They think “I can probably push harder next time and maybe I will get it for even less”.
Don’t miss this. In Japan, as soon as you drop the price, you are now locked into that price point with that client forever. It is not impossible to go higher but it is very, very hard to pull that one off. You have to be ready to drop the buyer entirely, to restore your price point validation.
The equation here isn’t just with the buyer, it is with the salespeople as well. By dropping the price we tell them that this is all this is worth and they believe it. They cannot push the price back up, because they don’t see it at that level either. Now we have the buyer and and our side, the seller, in furious agreement, that the price is a fiction. The company leadership has to intervene and say “burn that buyer if they won’t accept this price”. Be prepared to lose their business. If we do that, then the salespeople will get religion about the pricing validity.
When we are haggling over the price with the buyer and they say that, “this price is too high”, “that is out of our budget”, “we can’t afford it at that level, ”can’t you drop the price”, “we never pay that much”, etc., we are in a bind. We want the sale, so we immediately go into discount mode. This is a big negotiating mistake.
I heard this exact case from a Japanese sales guy recently. We happened to be seated next to each other at a business function. I started chatting with him about how he does his sales. He had been selling for his firm for 7 years and looked to be in the mid thirties age bracket. He was an experienced sales guy. When I asked him what he does when his buyers say the price is too high, he replied that he immediately drops the price by 20%. I nearly had a heart attack. If I was his sales manager, I would have had to be restrained from throttling him on the spot.
No, no, no. Don’t fold on the price pushback. What we should be doing is defending our price. We don’t do that by arguing with the buyer. We don’t do that by force of will. We do it by trying to better understand the client’s situation. Often salespeople stop asking questions at this critical juncture and instead go into high energy “tell mode”. They start telling all the good reasons why the buyer should pay the requested price. This won’t work.
Firstly, don’t start your response by arguing with the client. Instead agree with them. We can say, “You are right and I understand it is a considerable investment”. We do this to make sure the client is still listening to us. If we disagree with them, they stop listening to us and start thinking about all the reasons their “too high” statement was correct. They mentally go into hand-to-hand combat mode to fight with us. We don’t want that response from the buyer.
While we have their attention, we have to transition and question the buyer as to why they made that comment. “You just mentioned the price was too high, may I ask you why you feel that way?”. We avoid arguing and Instead of us having to justify the price, we now need to switch it. After you make that comment do not speak. Use 100% concentration to listen to the buyer. Don’t interject Don’t cut them off. Don’t add one more word. Now the buyer has to justify why that price won’t work.
In this process of further explanation by the buyer, we pick up very valuable insights into the client’s situation. Armed with more data and insight, we may be able to come up with a flexible solution that is a win-win for both of us.
We may in fact discount the price. We might give them longer payment terms or structure the payments across two quarterly budget periods. We may offer the discount on the basis of a volume purchase.
All of this sounds simple enough, but when salespeople hear “the price is too high” they go blank and forget the basics. Don’t argue with the client. Question the client and keep questioning. If they segue off on to some unrelated subject area, then bring them back. If they digress, don’t go with them, bring them back to the core discussion. If they keep hitting you with vagaries, don’t accept them. Keep digging, digging, digging.
This is the job of the salesperson, to serve the client and that means to clearly understand the client’s situation. The only way to do that is to ask questions and you cannot release the buyer from this quest. It is not to be annoying, pigheaded, stubborn or inflexible. Quite the opposite. We are here to solve the client’s problem and we have to do that in an arrangement, that is a win-win for both of us.
Action Steps
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.
About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.
Excuse Time Is Over Baby
“I would be able to sell a lot more except for all the extraneous, external factors over which I have zero control”. Actually, you have never heard this line of argument before from a salesperson. This is because this statement is an honest appraisal of what they see as the problem, but they don’t express it that way. This comes from not having sufficient self-awareness to realize this is what they are actually saying, by way of excuse, for not being more successful in sales. Instead they bitch about the boss, the market, industry changes, currency movements, the sales materials, the pricing and everything else but their pathetic sales ability.
There are excellent training courses both classroom and on-line, for becoming better at sales. Bookstores and on-line retailers have a cornucopia of books on how to become a more successful salesperson. The internet is clogged with free information about selling. YouTube is brimming with sales modules, lessons, examples of what to do as a professional. Sales gurus tour the globe sprinkling pixie dust on the faithful to transform them into sales powerhouses. Yet, salespeople are constantly whining about all the reasons holding them back over which they have absolutely no control.
Are they accessing all the good information available to become better? No. They are not bothering, because they don’t see any correlation between their lack of an internal motivation to study to become better and their non-realization of sales success. They are too busy looking outward for the problems holding them back to see that the issues are all internal. Why is that?
People wind up in sales by accident. The turnover of salespeople is very high because it is a metrics based game. The numbers tell against you when you are failing and in short order you disappear. Fresh bodies are then brought into the meat grinder. If they enter in a rising market, they may last for a while but then when times get tough, they are let go and replaced by the next squad and so it continues.
The companies invest nothing, preferring the law of the jungle to sort out who stays and who goes. The salespeople thrash around trying to find ways to stay afloat, without ever taking a professional stance to the job because they don’t see themselves as having a career in sales. For them, this is a necessary bridging job between work they want to do. The ineptitude continues and at scale, through generations of salespeople.
This is salespeople swimming in a fog engulfed lake. They are swimming hard but have no idea what they are supposed to be doing or where they are supposed to be going.
Time for this to end. Salespeople have more than enough resources to self-educate themselves about the finer points of sales. Here is how complicated this is: learn how to ask the client questions about what they need; listen carefully to the answers; tell them you either have a relevant solution or that you don’t; if you do, provide explanations that justify the trade off between the value you bring and the price you charge; supply it and follow up.
This is what they do instead: tell the client all the details about the product or service without having any clue as to whether this is what they need or not; if they don’t have what the buyer needs, then try to force the square peg into the round hole and give them what you have any way, even if it doesn’t really fit; burn that client and move on to the next buyer. All the while, continue to whine about the boss, the market, industry changes, currency movements, the sales materials, the pricing and everything else but their lack of sales ability. They repeat this pattern until they get fired.
Instead, let’s take responsibility for the results. Let’s study, apply the knowledge, keep studying, keep applying, without pause. There has never been a better time to be in sales, because there is so much rich education material available about how to become a true professional. No more excuses baby, get to it.
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.
About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.
“I’m Listening”. No Your Not!
Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets. In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in the client’s best interests. We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer’s needs. We know that by asking well designed questions, we can possibly come up with an insight that triggers a “we hadn’t thought of that” reaction at best and at worst, at least know if we have a solution for them or not. Under pressure though, salespeople can go temporarily deaf.
Even assuming they are smart enough to ask questions in the first place, they may fall over when it comes to listening to the buyer’s answers. They are not actually plumbing the depths of what the client is trying to achieve. In fact, they are ignoring the hints and nuances in the sales conversation. What are they doing? They are fixated on their needs, their target achievement, their big bonus, their job security.
The client may have outlined what they had in mind, but that won’t scratch because the salesperson needs a bigger sale to make target. They need to expand what the client wants regardless of whether the client needs that solution or not. Upselling and cross selling are legitimate aspects of sales, but the purpose has to be very clear. It is not about making the salesperson more money.
The client may not have the full view of what is possible, because they will never know the seller’s lineup of solutions as well as the salesperson. They will also not have had deep conversations with their competitors. They won’t have been allowed behind the velvet curtain, to see what their competitors are doing and how they are doing it. They will not have had a broad exposure to what other firms and industries are doing in terms of best practice.
This is the value of the salesperson, because they are constantly doing all of these things. They are collectors of stories, problems, breakthroughs, successes and can connect many dots together. In this sense, they can see possibilities the client may not have know exist or may not have thought of. This is where the cross-sell and the up-sell add value, because the salesperson can expand the client’s world and help them to become more successful. That is a long way from ramping up the number value of the sale, to make target.
Nevertheless, this is what happens when the focus is on the wrong objective. If salespeople are trying to expand the complexity of the sale, to manufacture a larger sale, at some point the client is going to drop out. Unless they see overwhelming value in increasing the scope, they are well aware that this enlarged project is over budget.
Now budget is just a fiction and we all know that. It is an imaginary estimate of where expenses could be allocated and it occupies a cell in a spreadsheet line. Many times we have seen budgets miraculously appear from nowhere, when the perceived value is great. The “Rob Peter To Pay Paul” school of accounting.
The point about value comes back to listening skills. If the salesperson is focused on the client’s benefit, then they can rummage through their memory banks for best practices that could be applied to help the client achieve their aim. In the process, this may mean increasing the investment to get a bigger return.
If the salesperson is just focused on getting their monthly number, they are not really paying attention to the client’s needs at all. They just start padding the details of the project, so that the numbers are bumped up. Once the client feels they are being ramped up for the salesperson’s benefit, then the trust is gone and the deal won’t happen anyway.
Salespeople need to be really listening to the needs of the client and should forget about what they want. As Zig Ziglar said, “if you can help enough other people get what they want, then you will get what you want”. Zig was a great listener!
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.
About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.
Salespeople Need Better Self-Awareness
Sales is one of the few things in business you can measure accurately and immediately. Are you getting greater efficiencies from your internal systems? Is the marketing working? Are our tem becoming more skillful? These are topics which are super important but also devilish to measure. Sales however is straightforward – how much did you sell? The pressure on salespeople is enormous. There are deadlines for sales, there are accurate measures in place, tracking everything. What was the revenue return relative to the ratio of the salesperson’s total costs. For every yen the salesperson costs how much do they generate in net revenue return. Are they yielding a 3:1 return or is the ratio at 7:1 or better?
Because of all of this pressure, salespeople have become masters of excuse making. Having to justify your existence every month creates a tremendous amount of creativity in the excuse field. When you ask salespeople what is holding them back from achieving higher levels of performance, a surprising number of the reasons given are not related to sales activities. External factors are listed up very readily. The organisation needs to be better staffed, the strategy needs more work, the market is shifting, my sales manager is clueless, etc.
Many of the problems are located outside the sphere of influence of the salesperson, yet they continue to dwell on these factors as holding them back from achieving their targets. This is the lack of self-awareness. If a salesperson is really doing their job, they ignore all of the external factors they cannot control and instead focus on developing the skills they need to succeed.
What would those skills be? Knowing your product is a given. Yet this is where a lot of salespeople check out. They know the details of the features of what they are selling but they don’t plumb the depths of the benefits of those features. Now the benefits have to be in context. Where does this benefit help the client in the competitive marketplace in which they are operating? How will this give the buyer a differentiable advantage vis-a-vis rivals?
Where is the market moving toward and what does the client need to be doing today to anticipate the changes which are coming. This requires study of the client’s situation and industry. Not knowing the client’s world relegates salespeople to transactional sales solutions rather than achieving partnership status. The salesperson who can provide insights such that the client thinks to themselves, “we hadn’t thought about that” or “we haven’t properly prepared for that” is doing a fantastic job of providing value to the buyer.
Asking well designed questions is an absolute must but so many salespeople troop into the sales call woefully underprepared. They wing it from start to finish and wonder why they are not seeing any business. The preparation for the sales call is so much easier today because of our access to instant information. Yet, salespeople are not applying themselves to learn about the buyer and their industry before the call. You can’t be the font of insight if your don’t study beforehand. This is a lack of awareness about what the real role of the salesperson is. Blarney, smooth talk, verbal gymnastics, bamboozling clients are all pointless froth. The real core ability is to understand where you can be helpful to solve the client’s problem. You can’t change the external factors at play, but you can control the internal factors like your own abilities in the sales process. The famous gridiron coach Vince Lombardy talked about the key in football was mastery of the basics, which he summarised as “blocking and tackling”.
The same in the sales world. The basics are always current and mastery of the basics is mandatory. Yet, so many salespeople don’t even know what the basics are or if they do, they don’t invest the time to master them. Self-awareness of your skill deficiencies is the first step to fixing them and dwelling on external elements you cannot control is self-delusion.
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.
About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.