Add Some BANTER To Your Next Sales Call
I am a permanent student of sales. I study the books and tapes from the greats – J. Douglas Edwards, Charlie Cullen, Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar. I follow this generation of sale’s trainers such as Grant Cardone, Jeffrey Gitomer and Victor Antonio. Now Victor Antonio is someone I like, because I can see that his methods will work here in Japan, unlike a lot of other sales training which is more suitable for an American environment.
Victor mentioned something in his recent Sales Influence podcast that I thought was a great insight. He was talking about how to measure if a sales call was successful or not. He came up with the acronym BANTER and I wondered how we could apply this to Japan. Victor reckons you should be getting six out of six. Let’s try it and see how Japan stacks up
He nominated a simple scoring system of one point or zero depending on whether the elements of BANTER had been successfully gathered during the sale’s call or not. Acronyms like BANTER are difficult to apply in Japan because they are based entirely on the English language, so they don’t translate well. Nevertheless the idea is a good one. To score perfectly would give you six points and so you can gauge how well the call went, based on how close to six you got.
The B in BANTER stands for budget. We need to know this from our sale’s call don’t we. Does the client have budget for the good or service you are going to provide? Do you know what the budget is, has it been fixed, are there limitations on size or timing of expenditure? Japan is a difficult place to find out specifically about the budget. Often the answers given are vague because the buyer doesn’t want to release that information. They worry if they tell you too much, they will be lured into overspending the money. We will probably score zero for B.
The A stands for authority and this relates to were the people in the meeting authorised to make a decision? In Japan’s case, we will definitely score a zero here too. It is usually the case that the consensus decision making system requires people sitting a few meters away, hidden behind the meeting room wall, to have some say in the final decision. They do not ever attend the meetings, but they can veto the decision. We may have our supporters in the meeting with us but they rarely have final say over the expenditure for the budget. We score another zero.
The N relates to need. Does the buyer have a strong need for our solution. We must get permission first in Japan in order to ask questions to uncover need. Here the usual methodology though is to pummel the buyers with details of the solution prior to uncovering what the need may be. Japan would get a zero score in this category.
The T is for timing. When does the client need the solution by? This is a critical factor because we might have a supply problem if the need is strong but the logistics cannot match the required timetable. Japan is a country where decision making is glacial but the execution expectation default is yesterday. Usually we can find out the required timing in Japan, so we score a one.
The E is for engagement. Was the buyer showing interest, were they engaged in the details of the solution. Were they asking the types of questions that tell you the interest level is very high. There is both a quality aspect and quantity aspect involved here. Japanese buyers all have strapped on their laser beam for determining potential trouble so they definitely want to ask a lot of questions and really wrestle down the detail. It is like the issue of objections. Getting no objections is a worrying sign of no interest whatsoever. We should prefer to get an objection than to get no interest. Japan scores a point in this category.
Finally R – was there a request for a proposal or a trial or a second meeting. Was there some interest in advancing the sale to the next level? In Japan often the meeting end is left very vague. “We will think about it” being the most common result and they do need to think about it, because there are decisions makers not in the room, who need to be consulted. So Japan would score a zero.
Adding up the scores, we have reached two out of six for judging meeting success in Japan. That is about right I would say. If you can make here in sales, then you can make it anywhere, because it is so difficult here!
Success Negotiating – Part Two
In Part One we covered the four steps involved in negotiating: Analysis, Presentation, Bargaining and Agreement. Today we are going to go a bit deeper. Before getting to the negotiations stage though we need to determine our position and that of the other side. Which items are negotiable and which are not? What would an ideal outcome look like? What would be a realistic outcome? What is our fallback position? We need to do the same thing from the client’s perspective. Looking at it from their point of view, what do we think the client fallback position would be? What do we think they would consider a realistic outcome. What would be an ideal outcome from their point of view?
In the majority of B2B situations, we are not looking to master tricky negotiating techniques, because we are looking for an on-going relationship with the other side. However we need to consider some pertinent elements and also recognise when negotiating tactics are being used on us.
Establish your BATNA - Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement.
We need to decide at what point we will leave the negotiating table, if the client is unreasonable. We need to have established this walk away point very clearly before we start negotiating, so that we know where are the limits of patience.
The pressure of silence can cause people to make concessions or offer up valuable information we can use in the negotiation. Japanese people are much more relaxed about having silence in the gaps of the conversation that most other nationalities. Western business people feel pressure to fill up the empty spaces in the conversation, because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Resist the urge and just sit there patiently.
We mention we need to refer the offer to a higher authority in the company.
This can buy time or let things cool down if they get heated. This can be true in Japanese companies where a lot of the decision makers are never in the room. Ultimately, they have to apply their hanko or seal to the internal document recommending the course of action, so they need to be worked on internally by those who want the deal to go through.
This is a deal/no deal decision point, similar to the walk away. The deal may be very close to agreement, but there are usually a couple of conditions which are hard to be flexible about and these become deal breakers. The point is to know what these are in advance and try to come up with alternatives which will defang these barriers to getting to a “yes”
We add value to sweeten the deal to get them to agree. There may be things on our side which are not overly expensive for us which we can tie into the deal, but which are perceived as having high value by the other side. We should have considered what these might be during the preparation stage. As the negotiations ebb and flow, we can see if one of these sweeteners are needed to be brought forth or not.
We deliberately shorten the decision-making period to force an answer. Having an “opportunity goes away” option is good for getting everyone to concentrate on doing the deal. When we know we will miss out if we don’t act, we are more motivated to make the deal happen. It is rare that there is only one buyer or one seller in the market at a point in time, so if action isn’t taken, someone else will grab the deal.
We slow things down. We don’t respond as quickly to their communication. This is similar to the “silence” tactic. By extending the time, pressure may start building for a decision. We never know what pressures the other side are on and slowing things down may force them to act quickly.
These are the additional concessions which are offered to close the deal. Research shows that 80% of the concessions are made in the final stages of the negotiation. We might have something which has value to the client but which is not a big cost to us, in order to make easier for them to say ‘yes”. It is often easier to add some additional condition, once the decision has already been taken. Having to go through all the internal approvals and gaining consensus may seem too much work relative to agreeing to this extra condition.
So there we have Success Negotiations Part One and Part Two. Go out there and be superbly prepared for your next negotiation.
Success Negotiating: Part One
Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model. This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value. Think about your own business? How many business partners do you have where this would apply? For the vast majority of cases we are not after a single sale. We are thinking about LTV – the life time value of the customer. We are focused on the proportion of our time spent hunting for new business as opposed to farming the existing business. Where do you think the trust barometer would be located, if we started “outwitting” our clients in our negotiations? Especially in Japan, where trust is such a crucial element and everyone is focused on long term relationships. So success in negotiating in Japan will be very different and it will definitely be a win-win approach.
Fine, but do you have a consistent process to apply to your negotiations? Often we do it the hard way without a roadmap or we forget parts of the process. We are all rank amateurs anyway, because the amount of negotiating we do is limited and the size of the deals are usually modest. Have we got the basics covered? Here are four steps we need to cover:
We begin by clarifying our own position. What is it we want to achieve and then we identify alternatives we can live with, if we can’t achieve all that we wish. We also look for ways to add value in areas other than price. Price is only one lever in a negotiation although most people get stuck on the idea it is the only lever. We want to understand the client’s positions and interests and the background reasons driving their approach. This is especially useful when looking for alternative solutions, as we might have something that is valuable to them, but not a great impost to us. We also should look to reframe the conversation to avoid confrontation. There are trigger words which can rapidly inject emotion into a logical discussion and we need to know what those words are for the opposite party. We can then phrase things in ways which is not incendiary.
When we do public speaking we know that if we rehearse what we are going to say, it will go much better. When the American political leaders have their famous televised debates, they practice taking difficult questions so that they will appear unruffled and credible in their answers. Doing the same thing before a negotiation makes sense doesn’t it. Have well prepared what you are going to say and how you will say it. Have a colleague hit you with “toughies” – questions you would rather not have to face thank you very much. “More sweat in rehearsal, less blood in negotiating” should be the mantra. Like lawyers do when getting ready to go to court, we should also prepare the opposite sides case, the client’s case, as though it were our own. This gives us an insight into the likely approach they will take and we are then much better prepared to deal with it. Price isn’t the only thing so we should be ready to present added value alternatives to simple numbers. Because we have rehearsed their position, we can more effectively link our solution to the client’s positions and interests.
At some point there will be a gap between offer and acceptance and this is when we start trading things we want, for things they want. Bargaining down at the bazaar, in the souk, at the local flea market and in the B2B business world are entirely different. Our object is a sale with a nice regular, perpetual re-order attached to it, rather than “a one and done” outcome. So at the start we decide our ideal, realistic and fallback positions. We do this through the prism of our current demand, local and global business conditions, future business trends, price point profitability and our cash burn through rate. Negotiating tactics will be applied to us but the key is to respond logically rather than react emotionally. Easier said than done! However if we did our preparation well then we should be rock solid. We should be looking for win-win so we are trying to make it easy to agree with us and hard to disagree.
Japan isn't much for legal contracts compared to the West. Most of our business is done without any contracts, as we agree verbally and then carry out our word and they carry out theirs. If we are talking about huge amounts of money however, then absolutely contacts will be needed. So even if a formal contract is not involved, we need some specification of all points of agreement. Put every key item in writing, be it the form of a quotation, invoice or just an email capturing the joint understanding of what is going to happen going forward and how much money is involved.
To make it very clear, create a checklist and schedule for fulfillment.
These four steps are not rocket science, but remember we are mostly amateurs in the field of negotiating and are you using this simple methodology or just winging it? Probably the latter, so these four things are there to work on, before your next negotiation, to become a more professional business person.
How to Present To A Diverse Buying Team
This is very tricky in Japan. Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not even be present in the meeting. Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buy decision. In the case of Western companies the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after everyone has had their say. In Japan there is a lot of groundwork needed so that the final decision is a rubber stamp exercise, because the actual decision has already been taken.
Nevertheless, we turn up for the meeting and the buyer side has a number of representatives sitting in the room. Often it will be me facing across the table to five to ten buyers. Where do we start? Well the meishi or business card exchange is a critical step. We can quickly understand exactly who is in the room. We can determine their function and rank immediately and this is very helpful. Before we know how to present to their team, we have to analyse the people in their team. A buyer team will often comprises multiple layers. We might have some functional interests represented such as:
Each one has different drivers for making buying decisions. We can mentally list them in order from those with a long range vision to those with shorter range views.
In the case of the Executive Buyers they are thinking about their strategic vision, the opportunity and growth potential. For the Financial Buyers their attention will be turned to items such as cost, terms and flexibility. User Buyers will be interested in the features, ease of use and reliability. Technical Buyers are looking at efficiency, practicality and capacity. Our Champion, the person driving the decision on the buyer side, will be concerned about relationships, influence and recognition.
This sounds daunting enough but just to spice things up a bit, there are also the buyer personality styles. The Amiables take their time, don’t rush into things and are concerned about the impact on the people from the decision. The Drivers (often the CEO) are the “time is money” types who are always in a hurry, can make an immediate decision and solely focus on the outcomes. The Analtyicals (often the CFO or the Technical Buyer) are comfortable with numbers to three decimal places, are keen on the micro detail and want tonnes of data to support their decision. The Expressives (often the Head of sales and Marketing) want the big picture, do not want to get immersed in the weeds and want to have a big party to celebrate the success, at the end.
So their role within the company and their individual personality styles will be key factors to understand when we present. Just when you thought we were getting a handle on the complexity of the task, there are also going to be attitudinal differences. It will vary according to the individual and even their mood on that day at that time. Different people will be hostile, resistant, discontent, ambivalent, favourable, supportive, enthusiastic. We are not finished yet with the complexity. There will also be different levels of expertise in a team. Different experiences, education, biases, problems, positive issues, goals, expertise and culture.
Before we present we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say. We need to work on our Champion beforehand where possible and yet we may not know this completely beforehand. We will have to start placing people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room.
Have I talked you out of presenting to buyer teams yet? It is a bit overwhelming when you break it all down into its component parts but harden up, you have to move forward anyway.
Your Champion will have fed you the problems they are facing, you will have analysed them and this meeting is to present the solution phase of the sale. We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room. We need an opening to grab their attention. They will various things buzzing around in their brains competing with your message, so you need to blast a way in to get everyone to listen to you. A startling piece of news or data is always good to grab attention. Next we need a statement of need for change. You can list up the enterprises which have gone to the wall because they couldn’t make the changes needed to adjust to the demands of the market. Suggesting this is a fate awaiting many more is a good step to get people thinking about their own longevity. Very few firms are invulnerable and everyone is always worried about what comes next, in particular things they may not be properly prepared for. Japanese buyers are always very interested in what their competitors are doing and so if possible, give an example from their industry, where there was a similar business with a similar need for change.
Next suggest three possible solutions. You will be very balanced, going through the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three solutions. You will present their pros and cons, including practical and emotional reasons, why they are excellent alternatives. Finally you suggest the best solution for them with evidence as to why it is the best choice. Now you go into your first close, where you repeat the final recommendation and ask for any questions. Following the questions from the buying team, you repeat your close again so that this is the last thing ringing in their ears as the meeting ends.
Buying teams are formidable and that means we have to cast a broad net to capture each person’s interest and need for our solution. There is no shortcut for this process and the key is in the design at the start. Take into account all the complexities I have listed and design an approach for that level of diversity.
The 80/20 Rule Of Selling
We are all familiar with the 80/20 Pareto Principle, where 20% of buyers account for 80% of the sales and 20% of the salespeople, account for 80% of the revenue. There is another 80/20 split which we need to adhere to. This refers to the amount of time we are speaking relative to the buyer. Salespeople love to talk. They love to dominate the airwaves and through strength of will and determination subdue the client and make them buy. This is total nonsense.
Okay you may not be that bad, but if we taped your sales call and did an analysis of how much time you spoke compared to the buyer what would we find? I will guess that it will be getting close the 80% number. There are a couple of reasons for this. In Japan, the buyer’s expectation is that buyer and seller have clear and specific roles. The salesperson’s job is to give their pitch and the buyer’s job is to rip it to shreds. This requires that the salesperson launch straight into describing their widget and all the things that are great about it. The buyer then trounces all those arguments with why it isn’t suitable or is too expensive or is out of doubtful quality.
So the pitchpeople do all the talking and then get torn to bits by the buyer. The salespeople only describe their solution, when they know what the buyer needs. Prior to that they are very circumspect about what they say. Yes, they will indulge in some small talk at the beginning to build the trust with the buyer. After that though they will go rather quiet. They will ask questions about the business and how it is going. Or they may start with asking the buyer where they would like the business to be in a few years time. The intention is to discover the gap in results. This is where the listening part becomes very important, especially listening with the eyes. Matching words with body language must be a developed skill in salespeople and in the ability to read the buyer.
Unsurprisingly, not every buyer wants to trot out all the dirty laundry on the firms failing to someone who just walked in off the street and who they hardly know. So what we will be told is often just the top of the iceberg and the real problems are hidden below the waterline. Our job is to find out what are the real problems and then mentally confirm whether we have a solution for their problem. To do this we have to dig a bit deeper into the issues with simple questions that will get us to heart of the matter.
We may have to add in some explanation of why we want to know. This type of assurance that they can trust us doesn’t have to be a retelling of our life story or of the firm glorious history. We may just simply and concisely state, “We have a broad range of solutions which have worked for our clients. Maybe, one of these solutions will also work for your firm. I have no idea, however if you will allow me to better understand the core issues facing your business, I will be able to tell you if we can help or not”. This is a very disarming conversation. The key is to once having run through this reasoning, to sit there and SHUT UP. Don’t explain further, don’t add, don’t comment, don’t say a word. We must allow time for the buyer to digest what we have just said and allow them to make the decision they are prepared to trust us enough, to tell us what is really going wrong.
Even when we get to the solution provision point of the conversation we have to be careful we don’t start letting our mouth run off without control. As we explain certain elements of the features, benefits, application of the benefits and provide the evidence where this has worked before, we need to be careful. We have to stop at various points and check for buyer understanding and agreement that this is a viable solution. The tendency is to get lost in the detail and spend a huge amount of time thereafter dealing with objections and pushback. It is much better to flush these out along the way. In order to do that we have to learn to let the buyer make some comments on what we have said and switch the balance back to 80/20.
We are all guilty of talking too much, me included. Whenever I hear I am doing all the talking, I realise I have flipped the 80/20 balance and I need to ask a question to get them talking again. It is time for me to be silent and regroup. If we keep an ear open during the conversation and if we hear too much of our mellifluous voice we know something is wrong. Stop what we are doing and have that 80/20 rule at the forefront of our focus. We will definitely make more sales and have happier customers when we do that.