Handling Buyer Objections In Business In Japan

You would expect that salespeople would hear a lot of objections from buyers, particularly the same objections and therefore would be pretty good at handling them?  Well that actually isn’t the case.  In some cases, the salespeople imagine they can drive the process by force of will and by pushing the buyer to change their mind. This is ridiculous anywhere, but especially so, here in Japan.  Or they want to argue with the buyer, outmaneuver them, outwit them, some how trick them into buying.  Again ridiculous. 

Japan is a very risk averse culture and the objections are important to the buyer, to get a surety of making a low risk buying decision.  The buyers are salaried employees who don’t want to see any decision they make, coming back to haunt them and negatively impacting their ride up through the ranks.   The easiest way to do that is to take no new decisions (like buying from you).

An objection is like the headline in a newspaper.  It is very concise, but there is a long article explaining what that headline is all about.  When we hear that objection headline, we need to get the full story in order to be able to successfully deal with that objection.  There is no point hearing the objection and then answering what you second guess the point may be.  It is a bit like at school, when you get the essay topic and you write your answer only to discover that is not what the teacher was after.  We have to be sure what the buyer is after before we attempt to answer the objection.  Don’t answer what you think might be the problem, ask them before you say anything.

I was at an event recently, sitting next to a Japanese Sales Director and I asked him how he handled objections. His answer nearly had me falling off my chair in shock.  He said whenever he meets an objection, he drops the price by 20%.  I was mentally calculating what that meant, because he had told me there were ten salespeople in the team.  So ten people, dropping the price by 20% every year, for 5 years amounts to a diabolically large number.  There is no need for that, I told him, which was a new concept in his case.

 He was dropping the price because he didn’t know what to do. What he should have been doing was questioning the objection.  He should have been asking the buyer why they held that view?  If they say the price is too high, we need to ask them why they think the price is too high.  Remember, the price is too high is only the headline – what is in the main body of the article?

In another example, I had that exact reaction from a client.  When I questioned why they thought the price was too high, they said because the amount exceeded their budget allocation for training for that quarter.  So I asked what if we could spread that investment over two quarters, would that help? They said yes, that would be fine. So the real objections was timing, not price, but if I had just dropped my price by 20%, I would never have known that.

Also when people give their objection, we have to be thinking, is this really the objection? It is like the iceberg metaphor. What they say is the bit above the waterline, but the real objection is out of sight, underwater.  We do this ourselves when we are out shopping.  We see a nice suit, check the price, then take a deep breath because it is too expensive for us.  When the clerk asks us about buying the suit we don’t say, “well I have been too unsuccessful so far in my career to be able to afford an expensive suit like this one”.   No, we talk about that bit above the waterline. We don't like the colour or the pattern or whatever, but not the real reason. 

So when we get an objection, we need to keep asking if there any other points and keep asking if there are any other points, until we have flushed out some of the issues.  We then ask them to rank these issues in priority order and the most pressing objection is the one we answer.  Often all the others disappear, once we handle the main one.

If the objection is a game breaker then that is it.  You can’t force the buyer by force of will and badgering them to buy.  Leave that sales call and go and spend time with someone you can properly serve, don’t waste your most valuable resource – time. 

Don’t argue with the buyer because they may not be a buyer today, but one day they may buy.  Leave the door open.  You may find that you can do a deal in the future, so don’t burn your bridges over one deal and don’t be remembered as a pushy pain.

Explaining The Application Of The Benefits To Buyers In Business In Japan

Japan loves data and detail. All good, but it can be a trap when you are here trying to make sales in Japan.  In a Western sales model there is a defined process to go through and the buyer is also trained on how that works as well.  In the Japanese case there is a love of detail bias.  This will take you down the  wrong path, if you let the buyer control the sales call.  Which is what happens to all the Japanese salespeople here, by the way.

The buyer loves the detail, the spec, the features of the product. They can’t get enough of that stuff. The problem is we don’t buy the features, we buy the outcomes, the benefits.  In sale’s training we often use the example of buying a hand drill at a DYI Center. There are tonnes of detail on the drill – weight, speed, power source, battery life etc.  We are not buying a drill, because what we are really after is a hole of a certain diameter in brick, metal, concrete or wood etc.  The drill‘s features are not what we are buying, but that is often all the salesperson talks about.

So here in Japan we have to be careful, because the buyer can drag us down into the morass of the detail and features of the product or service.  We have to control the sales call and redirect the conversation away from only the detail on the spec and move on to the outcomes, the benefits these features will provide for the buyer.  Generally speaking, most salespeople around the world get to the feature bit and only a tiny minority elevate the conversation to cover the consequent benefits from the features.  Japanese pitchpeople have trained the buyers here to focus on the spec, the detail, the data.

We need to get to a higher level of discussion.  We need to be drawing word pictures they can see in their mind’s eye.  We need to be describing all the future benefits they will get from this purchase. This requires telling stories, talking about outcomes and results.

Having done that we need to show some evidence that what we say works.  The series of statements coming out of the salesperson’s mouth is not counted as evidence by buyers.   Salespeople like to talk a lot.  We can do this, we can do that or we have this, we have that. So what?  We need to be referring to the cases where we have helped other companies.  We need to provide data to back up what we are saying.  We need to be showing the application of the benefits and where this has worked elsewhere. This makes the whole sales call more credible.

This has to be real – you cannot make this stuff up.  If you want to lie to the buyer, then get out of our profession, we don’t want you polluting the waters.  It has to be authentic, real, something that you can prove to the buyer if they want that level of detail.  Then you have to move into a trial close to see if there are any areas of concern. Is there anything we haven’t covered in sufficient detail.  Did we miss anything, are there any objections to what we have said?

The Japanese pitchperson doesn’t get to any of this level of sophistication.  They are bogged down in the detail of the features.  Remember, the buyer has been trained to only expect the pitch.  They will keep you there and keep asking detailed micro questions.   They do this because they are risk averse and they want to make sure there will no issues with your solution.  That is fine but we can’t stay there for the whole sale’s call. You have to move them out of the minutiae, up the ladder to the next sunny uplands of benefits, application of the benefits, evidence that this works and a trial close.  This is a structure and the Japanese pitchperson doesn’t have any structure.

We need to reeducate buyers on selling here.  We have to guide them along a different path to what they are used to.  It isn’t easy but if you want to make sales in Japan this is the requirement. 

Buyer Personality Styles In Business In Japan

We usually think in terms of cultural differences with the West when we are dealing with Japan.  In fact, personality style differences of the buyer are much more important.  Cultural factors form a base and on top of that are the idiosyncratic differences between Japanese buyers and ourselves.  This becomes very key in communication terms.  We won’t be changing our personality style or that of the buyer any time soon, but we can vary our communication style.

For example, imagine a horizontal axis.  On the far left are people we would understand are low in assertion terms. They do not state their opinion openly, they keep a low profile and they are spending much of their time watching others doing, rather than doing themselves.  The right side of the axis are people who are highly assertive.  They state their opinion and seem to have an opinion on everything.  They can be pushy, loud and aggressive.  When we meet someone for the first time we can pretty much pick where they fall on this horizontal axis.

Now picture a vertical axis cutting through the horizontal axis.  The top of the axis are individuals with a strong people focus. They are very much interested in helping other, they are concerned with how people feel.  They often refer to the importance of people issues.  At the other end, the bottom of that axis are people who are outcome, result, KPI focused.  They don’t care that much about the people as they care more for the results. They are totally focused on the numbers and getting the numbers is all that counts.

If the buyer is in the high end of assertion and outcome driven we call them a Driver personality type. This style transcends their Japanese cultural traits.  They are much more direct than other Japanese.  They are often the founder/owner of their own business. They are “time is money” types, who don’t care much about having as cup of tea with you and want to get straight down to business, because they are always time poor and super busy. 

When we are communicating with this type of person, we need to raise our voice loudness levels and pump up our energy levels in our body language.  We can get straight to the point with them, telling what they should do and the three good reasons that makes sense.  They are interested in how you can deliver results for them and little else. They don’t want a relationship with you, they want outcomes. They will make a decision on the spot without consulting anyone and will then want to move on.  This cuts through a lot of typical time wasting to get to a consensus so they can make a decision in Japan.  The down side is they will just say no and that is it, there is no going back to revisit the decision.

Their opposite number drives them nuts.  The low in assertion/people orientated style are called Amiables – a sort of everyman type. As the name suggests they want to have a cup of tea and get to know you before they will be happy to get into a business relationship with you.  They are people who speak quietly, display small amounts of energy or body language and who like to listen rather than do all the talking.  They are slow to make a decision, because they need to make sure everyone is happy with what is going to happen.  They are often the glue on the organization, going around to those who got sunburn from the Driver types in the meeting, to make sure they are okay. Drop your voice and energy when you speak with them and emphasise how people will feel really good about the decision you are asking them to take.

The other assertive personality style is the Expressive who is similar to the driver, but has a greater people orientation.  They tell jokes, smile a lot, have a lot of energy, like to party.  They are often salespeople, trainers, actors.  They like being around people and they love the macro, big picture.  They grab the marker pen and are brainstorming on the whiteboard in a flash. They are thinking about the future, the vision, the great things that are to come.  Increase your energy when with them and expect to be invited to parties, dinners and events.  They hate worrying about petty detail and just about all detail qualifies as petty for them.  The typical salesperson hates filling out the CRM after the sale’s call, even though the marketing department is tonguing for the detail and data.  Talk big picture with them and spare them the data and evidence – they don’t have much interest.

Their opposite number is the Analytical.  They are fine with three decimal places when dealing with numbers.  They love detail, clarity, precision, evidence, testimonials, data, statistics, numbers, proof etc.  They are often accountants, engineers, scientists, lawyers.  Come armed with detail for them.  They cannot get enough of it so don’t ever worry you will be maxing them out with data.  They don’t like unsupported statements by salespeople and all they believe is what they can see which can be proven.  They are not interested in all that fluffy vision stuff and projections based on no reality, what they consider to be just wishful thinking. Don’t be bombastic, loud or aggressive with them – they don’t respect or like that. They are not rapid decision makers. They really need to analyse all the possibilities before they come to a determination.

We can pretty much place people into one of these four personality styles.  When we do we need to start switching our usual communication style. If we just keep doing what we lie we will be a hit with one in four buyers and not such a hit with the other three. If we want to get four out of four, then we need to be able to speak four different personality style languages. If we can do that then we will be very successful in sales in Japan.

Asking Buyers Questions When Doing Business In Japan

In the West, we have all been trained in consultative selling for many decades. The buyers are used to salespeople turning up and asking a lot of questions to find out if there is some way they can help the buyer, through providing their solution to solve buyer problems.  The act of asking questions is never even thought about, because that is how it is done.

In Japan, they don’t really have professional salespeople, because here they have pitchpeople instead. They ask no questions, just turn up and give their pitch.  They roll out the flyers or the brochures and go straight into the nitty gritty of the detail and the spec.  They want to throw enough mud at the wall to see if any of it sticks. This is what the buyers have been trained to expect as well – no questions, just a pitchfest.

If you are coming out of the Western sales environment, you are going to be using consultative sales techniques and start asking the buyer a number of questions.  This is a problem.  In the West, we say the buyer is King.  In Japan, the buyer is not King, but God.  By the way, God doesn’t brook any questions from impertinent salespeople. They are insulted to be asked questions. God is used to getting the sales pitch and then destroying it, to make sure the risk factor has been fully minimized.

You can ask questions of the buyer in Japan, but you can’t just blunder your way in there and start blasting forth from the get go with probing questions.  Fully boned up on American style sales methods, I remember applying these questioning techniques in Japan, in my early sales career here. I was met with stone cold, motherless silence by the buyers.  In short order they were changing the subject and calling for my pitch.

To ask questions in Japan, you need to set it up first.  Here is how you do that.  You begin with a bit of chit chat to break the ice at the start of the meeting. Next you describe what it is that you do.  Then give an example of a similar company’s case where you have helped them improve their results.  Suggest that “maybe”, you could do the same for them.  Then say, in order for you to know if that is a possibility or not, could you ask a few questions? 

For example, “Dale Carnegie Training is a global specialist soft skills training company.  We help people to develop in their careers and develop businesses to get the outcomes they are after. An example of this would be XYZ company, where we trained all of their Hotel staff and they found the client feedback really got a lift and repeat bookings definitely improved. Maybe we could do the same for you.  I am not sure, but in order for me to know if this is possible or not, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”.  There is your request for permission to ask questions, as opposed to going straight into the questioning format.

You will notice we say “maybe” rather than we can “definitely” do that for you.  In the West, we might say “we can definitely do this for you” as a statement.  We say “maybe” in Japan and we do this to make it soft and less aggressive.  We only ask for permission to ask a few questions. If there is no match, well there won’t be many questions, but if it is a match and there is interest, there may be many questions – we won’t know that until we ask the first few questions of the buyer.

We ask well designed questions of the buyer and are simultaneously mentally running through our library of solutions, to see if we can help them.  If we can’t, we shouldn’t be wasting everyone’s time.  We should be off finding a buyer we can actually help. 

When it comes to the solution provision part, we know what they are after, so we can link our product or service to the solution provision they need.  In Japan, it doesn’t work like that.  The pitchperson here turns up and skips straight past the questioning stage, plunging headlong into the detail of the solution. They do this, not even knowing if it is the appropriate solution for the needs of the buyer or not. The buyer has been trained by these pitchpeople and are simply not able to encompass the concept of questions for God. 

You turn up with your professional Western sales approach and start asking questions.  Normally, what you will get then from the buyer is total silence.   They just don’t respond and it feels very awkward. This is because they can’t accept God getting questioned by a nobody.  As I mentioned, they will just change the subject and be asking for your pitch. Trust me, you don’t want to go there.

You have to set it up and get permission to ask questions.  If you do that you will be successful in Japan.  If you want to be pitchperson instead, let me know how that is working out for you. I don’t think it will go too well.  Much better to be a professional salesperson and ask well designed questions to uncover where you can be of service to the buyer. Remember, with questioning buyers in Japan, always get their permission first.

Respect In Business In Japan

Respect in Japan may be more similar to concepts in European countries rather than new world countries like the USA, Canada or Australia.  Age and stage probably carry more weight in older civilisations than in these bold new upstarts.  In Japan, a low ranking minion in a big company can have more status than the President of a small company.  The President will show a lot more respect than what we would associate with the status of the person working for the bigger player.  The individual has position power, purely on the basis of the company name. This is especially the case when the smaller company is a supplier.  The small company President will be very differential to everyone in the buyer team, no matter their rank.

Inside large companies there are many aspects of the power relationship that spill outside of the corporate headquarters.  Staff are living in subsidized company housing and there is a complete hierarchy amongst the wives based on their husband’s rank.  Often the section head’s wife will be the Queen Bee bossing the other wives around.  I guess this is probably a bit like the military in many countries, where families live on base.  Rank and power are institutionalised in Japan and we should understand that, when we are doing business here.

Position power in Japan is often disconnected from actual personal capability.  The higher ranked person may in fact not be particularly competent, but they are shown respect anyway.  In a country where you are promoted on the basis of age and stage rather than performance, this is bound to happen.  In societies which have a performance basis for moving up through the ranks, then age counts for little in terms of respect.  Actually, in youth culture societies like my own Australia, age is seen as a minus. Only the young know anything and the elderly are not given much respect or credence.  Japan is the exact opposite.

In Japan the position is respected.  Even if you are not shooting the lights out in performance terms, people will still show respect because of the position you hold.  In our cultures, the respect is shown for personal ability rather than age or stage.  The Japanese language also has a form of polite honorific language which is carefully calibrated to handle all of these different levels of status.  You get that wrong and there will be trouble. 

When I was studying here in Japan the first time in 1979, I was talking with an older lady who was a Professor at my university.  I wasn’t using the correct keigoor polite language to respect her status above mine.  Actually at that time, I was happy to be able to string a sentence together in Japanese.  How did I know I wasn’t using the correct keigo?  The way she replied to me, while absolutely correct, was dripping with ice and her body language joined in, to school me on my impertinence.  I knew I had said something the wrong way, even if I wasn’t quite sure just what that was.

In business, Japanese buyers don’t expect you to have any Japanese, so if you try and you are not using the correct honorifics, they won’t be mortally offended like my good Professor.  The truncation of ability and status in Japan means you have to keep your wits about you. If you are in a meeting and there are some younger bright sparks there and they are really engaging with you, don’t ignore the older people sitting there saying very little. They will be senior, respected and will be consulted.  You can’t ignore them thinking you have the ear of the decision makers.  Especially be careful of giving the fluent English speakers too much credence.  They are seen as language technicians by the hierarchy and often have no decision making power at all.

If you are going to a meeting with the client, be respectful toward the receptionist.  In the hierarchy between your two companies, she may rank above you.  The young woman, and in Japan it is usually a young woman, who brings in the coffee or tea to the meeting room is another one you should show respect to.  Do not imagine that you are some big shot from overseas, who is pretty important and you can ignore the underlings like you do at home. In Japan, and actually everywhere, show respect for people doing their job, regardless of their rank and what you perceive as their status power.  You will do better here if you do, because it is noticed.

Longevity is respected in Japan, so someone who has spent their whole life devoted to the company is shown respect regardless of how capable they may be.  By contrast in our cases, we are zigging and zagging our way up the ladder, trying to get to the big job.  In the West, if you spend longer than five years with a company, the question is raised - what is wrong with you?  People wonder if you are a dud.  If you had any ability you would have moved to a higher position in another company by now. 

Not the case in Japan. If you mention you have been with the same company for many, many years that will be seen in Japan as a good thing, as a positive.  You have been reliable, steadfast, consistent and loyal in the Japanese world view. Like Europe, craftsmanship is respected in Japan.  Someone doing the same thing for decades is respected as a master of their trade, a skilled expert.  If you have spent many years with that same company certainly mention it, it will enhance your status in the buyer’s eye.  Japan is highly risk averse and salespeople who come across as solid, reliable, predictable and consistent are going to be more highly evaluated.  Be one of them.

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

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Author of Japan Sales Mastery, the Amazon #1 Bestseller on selling in Japan and the first book on the subject in the last thirty years.

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.