Do Your Homework When Selling

I take the phone call and I noted they were asking for me in particular, rather than to speak to the boss. That tells me they know who I am, but I don’t recognise the company name when my assistant is transferring the call. I get a blast of words strung together down the phone line which I cannot quite catch. I ask them to tell me the name of their company once more. I still can’t get it, so I request “could you please spell it for me?”. This is when I realise the person calling from their investment sales company is totally mispronouncing the name of their own company. Okay, how about that for a first impression in a sales call!

I explain to the caller, whose name by the way, I never caught either, that she is mispronouncing the company name in English and I model for her how to say it correctly. After we get through the mini-English language class on the phone, we move on to the point of the call. She tells me she saw my profile on LinkedIn and that I am big shot in town, hence the call. My doubts are rising further as we progress with this conversation. She then says the snapper, “You are an American aren’t you”.

I ask her why she thinks I am American? She says she read that in my LinkedIn profile. I tell her that would be an impossible assumption if she had actually read my profile. “Why did you think I was an American from my profile?”. “You went to an American university”, she tells me. Now I realise I am dealing with an idiot.

I challenge her about whether she really did read my profile? She assures me she did and I tell her I am not an American. In my profile it mentions that I did stints at Harvard Business School and Stanford Business School as part of Executive Courses, provided by my previous company. I also studied at Jochi University here in Tokyo, but no one thinks I am Japanese.

It gets worse as the conversation unfolds. I ask her how long she has been in sales and she says a year. I ask if she has ever had any sales training and she says she has had some. I ask who trained her? She can’t deal with this line of questioning and I can hear the panic starting to build. Of course this call went nowhere and it should have gone nowhere. I always take these types of sales calls though, because I want to see if the caller is any good and if there is anything I can learn. If they hopeless I try and be helpful and suggest they go get some sales training.

The caller had obviously done a very poor job of researching me before the call. In this day and age there is simply no excuse for that. Her boss is also a dud, if this is how he or she trains the team. The callers company’s products are high end investments, which often pay a very high commission rate to the broker – usually 5%-8% and the deals involve large sums of money.

I am the President of my company and so I am a good prospect for them, who could potentially be worth a lot of money to the broker. You would think that doing good research would be an obvious requirement to land a big fish. It begs the question as to why salespeople are not spending their time better researching the client before they call or meet?

We know that today buyers are checking out the sellers on-line before the meetings, to a much greater extent than ever before. It is natural because there is so much readily available information out here, only a few clicks of the mouse away. I am active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. There is a huge amount of publically available information on me and yet she blew it for no good reason.

Company annual reports are brilliant because they have glossy pages of the President sitting in some cool office and talk in depth about the direction the firm is going, refer to major initiatives they are involved in and give a host of other key details from other senior executives in the firm. It can be skimmed through pretty quickly and we can grasp some of the key issues for the company.

If we go to the social media accounts of the executives we are going to meet, we can gain a lot of useful information. When we are in the initial stages of the rapport building stage of the sales call, these are great entry points to start the conversation and start building the relationship. In our non-business social life we are looking for people who have similar interests to us, so that we can hang out together and have things in common to talk about. Business is not that different.

Check your staff are doing the research on the clients before their sale’s calls. We might assume this is happening but it may not be. The amount of time this takes is really minimal, so it is not such an impost they don’t have time to do it. If you want to see how wide of the mark she was, go check out my LinkedIn Profile. Next ask your salespeople about the background of the person they are going to meet. You will know immediately if they are doing a proper job of doing their homework before the calls.

Sell The Sizzle Not the Steak

I recently saw a documentary sponsored by Salesforce called The Story of Sales. There were 8 chapters in this documentary: What is sales; the evolution of sales; educating salespeople; what makes a great salesperson; making a connection; technology’s impact on sales; the future of sales and sales is great. It was very comprehensive and featured a number of American gurus on the subject. In one part, they showed an old movie of a sales trainer talking about “Sell The Sizzle Not the Steak”. We have all heard this mantra before, but is it true today?

I was thinking about that sizzle part. Which bit is the sizzle? Who thinks it is sizzling? Is there only one sizzle? In sales, we can wax lyrical about the steak, its quantity, quality, provenance and we can get enthusiastic about the sizzle. The problem with all of this though is we are making some major assumptions.

What if they don’t eat meat? The whole sales construct is out the window right there. Did we ask them at the start if they were predators or herbivores? Did we find out if they eat steak? Maybe they prefer lamb or game or seafood – did we check? Or did we just launch into our fluent, dynamic, convincing, extremely well polished and attractive pitch?

Now talking about the sizzle makes a lot of sense, because this is the application of the benefit of the features. The features would be the cut of the steak, the number of grams, the degree of fat marbling, whether grass fed or grain fed, the origin and safety of the beast. We could talk about the cooking pan, the barbecue grill, the mechanics of the timing of turning over the steak, the relishes we can use, the balance of flavors, the degree of salt used, etc. The benefits describe the taste, the aroma, the protein contribution, the iron content in the diet. The application of the benefits talks about no longer being hungry, enjoying the occasion with friends, the bonhomie created through matching with excellent red wines, the visual scene of the meat being heated up, the sound and scent of the sizzle.

However, did we know whether they like the steak cooked in a pan in the controlled environment of the kitchen or outside on the barbecue grill? Do they like their steak turned over once so it is rather rare or do they like it well done? Do they like to add salt and pepper? What sauces do they prefer – ketchup, barbecue sauce, home made sauce, Worcestershire? Do they drink red wine, like the smell of steak cooking or the sound of the sizzle?

Sell the sizzle sounds easy, but all roads lead to Rome in sales and that always leads back to the quality of our questioning skills. The documentary on Sales had everyone hammering home this point, everyone in furious agreement, yet at the same time trying to carve out their little expertise niche on the subject. Fair enough, that is how you sell books, training courses or software.

Today, the internet brandishes our websites, stuffed to the gunwales with key information about us, our company, our products and services. Buyers can find out a lot about what they are seeking before, we even get to talk with them. The problem with that though is we cannot possibly anticipate all of the questions, concerns, doubts and hesitations they will have. Our websites are always going to be inadequate.

In the case of most B2B sales, we need to meet the buyer. We need to dig deep into questioning them about all the assumptions we are packing. We need to be skilled at linking their answers to the solutions we provide. We need to be strategic in our thinking and good at analysis. We need to be asking questions that trigger insights they had not considered about their business. We need to be dressing up statements, as questions to check for agreement and at the same time differentiating ourselves from the hoi polloi of our competition. We need to sell to their emotions and help them justify their decision with a wall of logic.

Do you think AI empowered robots can replace us and do a better job of handling that little list of goodies? Not yet!

So the sizzle is a bit more complex than it looks at first blush. Asking questions sounds easy too but are they the right questions, the best questions, the most impactful questions?

We do a lot of sales training here in Japan and the quality of the questioning is always a problem. Salespeople skip from one question to another, ignoring hints from the client that are worth a fortune. We have to stop doing that. We all need to take our assumptions apart and have a good look at them.

What is your equivalent of “sell the sizzle” simplicity in your organization that is costing you money through lost sales? We all have it, some accepted truth, dubious ancient wisdom, powerful precedent, established policy or groupthink. We have to be more vigilant to better analyse what we should be doing and how we should be doing it instead.

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 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.

Business Contracts In Japan Aren’t Worth The Paper They Are Written On

A friend of my mine has started his own consulting business recently and does Facebook Live updates to his growing band of devotees. I was watching one broadcast the other day when he was talking about always enforce the contract. He had signed a contract with his client, the situation changed and the client wanted to change the arrangement. Naturally, we are talking about the client paying less money than originally agreed. It was within the scope of the contract that the originally agreed money should be paid, because the changes fell outside the time limit for any alteration to the signed agreement.

My friend did relent and allow the buyer out of the contract, because he was told he would get looked after the next time. The person making this promise promptly left the company in short order and the replacement CEO brought in his own suppliers and my friend was out of pocket. Subsequently, his advice to his followers is always stick to what has been agreed and don’t let the buyer off the hook for the money.

I was thinking about whether I would agree with that advice for Japan? Western society, particularly the American business world is very litigious and so contracts become the income source of the numerous law firms there ready and able to enforce the contract in a court of law. I signed a contract to supply training services with a foreign corporation, where to my astonishment in the fine print it said I would agree to forgo the settlement of any disputes in a court of law. I thought lawyers were smart, but whoever drafted that clause was on drugs. Should we have a dispute, I wondered, how will they handle it, if we don’t agree? Pistols at 20 paces?

Japan is a country where domestic contracts are pretty much relative. If the buyer situation changes, then they expect the seller to recognise that and adjust the agreement accordingly. This usually means the seller getting less money or no money and having to wear it, to maintain the relationship with the buyer. Is everyone here in Japan ethical and won’t take advantage of you? No. Of course some companies will use this loose arrangement to suit themselves and say “to hell with the seller’s interests”. Of course Japanese companies who operate internationally are used to contracts being enforced, because they have deal with foreign entities who will go to court and so they have learnt to do the same thing.

If we take the big picture view, for the majority of cases, companies are ethical in Japan and they will not try and dud you for a short term gain. There is the problem of people moving around within the company every few years, as they rotate through the organisation. Your earlier flexible attitude may not be known to the new guy or gal and that creates a problem. Generally speaking though, Japanese companies are pretty good at doing handovers. Even if that vital piece of business intelligence was missed in the handover, the person you had the relationship with can usually be relied upon to reach out to their successor and put them in the picture.

My fear with my friend’s advice is that if you take a Western legalistic approach, rather than a more holistic approach, you will get paid for that one deal but that will be the end of the relationship. Japan is a country full of obligations. Japanese business people see business as a partnership and requests for the seller to be flexible for the buyer, are part and parcel of that world. Now there are plenty of countries where you would never dream of providing that flexibility, because they will skin you alive at the first whiff of weakness. Japan isn’t one of them.

The other side of Japan is you do get paid here. Yes, someone may not pay you at some stage in Japan, but it is very rare in mainstream business. Most terms of trade are thirty day payments and Japanese companies stick with that agreement. The slowest payers in Japan by the way are some of the biggest multi-national companies on the planet. These are major brands sticking it to the little guy because they can. You either take their 60 or 90 day terms or don’t do business with them. I hate this approach.

If you are playing a long game in business and we should all be playing the long game in Japan, then my advice is to be flexible and preserve the relationships above being strict on the terms of the agreement. You might get caught, but the chances are slight and the risk on the other side of the ledger is much higher.

We talk about “buyer beware” but “seller beware” is also good advice. Judge the scope of the business potential over the long term. What we call the lifetime value of the buyer. If you see that some flexibility now will result in a continuous streams of orders, then it makes good business sense to agree to their requests.

I am dealing with a huge multi-national company’s Japan team. They violated the terms of the agreement over cancelling scheduled, agreed training. I had every right to demand they pay, according to the agreement. I agreed to their request to overlook the penalty payment because I could see a lot more business coming our way. It has come, as we enter the second year of a lot of training being delivered for them. On the other hand, if it is a one off arrangement, then you may not need to be flexible. Instead, demand payment as per the agreement.

This is common sense in business and we have to judge each case by its own merits. This is important and we shouldn’t be rigid and have only one response about “abide by the contract or else.” Japan is all about the long term and relationships built on trust. Keep that in mind next time the buyer wants to vary the agreement.

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.

Most Difficult Part Of Business? People!

Cash flow, market movements, competitor pricing, buyer budgets, seasonality, etc., there are many things which making business hard. I was listening to a podcast recently and the point was made that “people are the hardest part of running a business”. The point they were making wasn’t related to just the labour costs or turnover. They were thinking about the impact an individual has on a firm. The degree to which they identify with the enterprise, their level of engagement is a key concern. This flows straight away to customer service, productivity and quality control.

Now in a perfect world we would only be hiring the best people, the most committed, self-motivating, most highly engaged individuals. That would be good, but that isn’t the reality or if it is, it isn’t the reality for very long as markets move.

The hairdressing industry in Japan has trouble getting staff. Barbers and hairdressers are in short supply. When customer service isn’t what it should be the owners have to bite their tongues and carry on. They are not in a position where they can easily fire people. I know this because of an incident recently with where I get my hair cut in the Azabu Juban. Now I have been frequenting this same barbers for 17 years, around 4-5 times a year. My son also, up until recently, went to the same place for about 10 years, until his mother decided he needed to look more glamorous and took him off somewhere else.

At the end of the cutting session, the barber used an electric razor to do the final trim around the back of the neck below the hairline. At the time it felt painful but being a stoic Aussie male, I just put up with it because it wasn’t for such a long time. When I got home my wife noticed I had these bright red ridges where the razor has been working and the skin was terribly inflamed.

Being a typical Japanese consumer, she photographed the wounds on her phone and went there the next day to remonstrate with the barber. He is a youngish guy and he was in total denial mode. Finally, one of the more senior barbers apologized. Was my wife satisfied with this treatment of the long term customer – no!

I can guess that the owners will do nothing about this because they can afford to lose me as a client more easily than they can lose the young guy working for them. Now why didn’t the young barber apologise and take full responsibility? I have been going there much longer than he has worked there, but his thinking is to avoid all accountability. He is thinking about himself and not about the business.

What they should have done was apologise, immediately check that razor because there is some fault with it and make sure this doesn't happen again with another client. I doubt they have done that, because no one has contacted me after the incident. If they didn’t check it, that is very unprofessional. If he did check and subsequently found out he was wrong, that the razor was faulty and then he still didn’t contact me, the mistake is even further compounded.

The culture and training in that team is not on the mark is it. In a small organisation like that, they probably invest very little in soft skills training and spend all their money on hard skills around the actual job of hairdressing. All organisations need to do both. Getting the client care culture right must the top priority of the leadership because if they don’t get that correct, the business will fail.

Easy to say but check your own situation. Is the thrust of the training on the hard skills? Has the right client service culture been created? This is Japan, so these types of incidents really stand out because generally here the level of customer care is higher than in most other societies. Even if we make a mistake, if we have a strong culture, we can recover because the staff will go the extra mile to correct the problem. What training have we given our people for when problems and mistakes arise. Often, this may have been left vague. It is a good idea to go back and review what we are doing. Is there a standardised approach that everyone knows?

One of the issues in Japan is people hiding mistakes and not taking accountability because there is such a bias against making any errors. We have to create a strong culture that says a mistake is not fatal to your career, but hiding it, not fixing it or not taking responsibilty will be fatal.

Will I go back to that establishment? My wife is absolutely clear that I shouldn’t. I don’t know. I run a small business too, so I know the difficulties are mainly concentrated in the people employed, so I empathise with the owner’s dilemma. I will have to make a decision in about three months time I guess.

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.