The Cold Calling On Zoom Salesperson - Part Two
In Part One we looked at how to get a meeting when you are cold calling and cannot meet the buyer face to face. When working the phones, cold calling salespeople have a very low conversion rate of turning dials into actual meetings. The same barrier stays in place because we still need to use the phone to speak to the buyer, to make a virtual meeting appointment. If we can design a good enough hook, to get the initial phone contact interested on the phone, then they will take a risk and transfer us or connect us with the buyer. This is the hook value versus the personal risk equation in Japan. That equation usually ensures salespeople almost never get put through to the buyer. The person answering the phone concludes the risk/reward computation is not worth the effort.
If lightening strikes and you do manage to get the buyer name and contact details, or are transferred through to them, then what do you do? We repeat the whole hook delivery approach directly with the buyer again. Having successfully arranged the online meeting, we come on line and meet them for the first time. This can be a a hostile environment.
In the meeting room we have their full and undivided attention, but online is a different matter baby. American research shows that 88% of salespeople believed that buyers were multitasking during their sales presentation and not paying full attention. Also 62% of buyers didn’t even turn their cameras on and in fact, 82% of salespeople didn’t have the guts to ask the buyers to turn on the camera.
This is our first impression opportunity with the buyer, so we want that camera on. We should definitely ask them to come on camera. Just say, “Thank you for joining me today, please come on camera and allow me to introduce myself”. Being Japan, we may get a certain percentage of buyers who will push back on that and say, “I prefer the camera off”. That is not a good sign. We have few choices but to soldier on and do our best, but I would take that as a very negative buying signal right there.
Presuming they do cooperate and come on camera or are already on camera, what are they discovering about us? Were we punctual, trustworthy, on time and online before they joined? Do we look professional, dressed in our business battle gear? Do we have the camera situated at eye height, rather than zooming up our own nose? Are we talking to the camera lens rather than looking down at their image on screen?
Are we speaking fluently with no hesitations like um and ahs, being concise and clear in our communication. Do we sit up straight, away from the back of the chair, projecting confidence and credibility through our body language? Do we have an additional light source in front of us, which overcomes the other lights in the room and lights our face separately, so that we appear very crisp on screen? Have we wrestled our background into submission and eliminated anything that is a distraction or destroying our credibility, like giving the buyer a peek into a very messy room.
There are some basic rules in selling in person and online and building rapport is a good place to begin the sales process. We repeat the hook and explain why we are meeting. We then segue into something like this, “So much has changed, so quickly and February feeling like a million years ago to me. By the way, how have you found working from home rather than the office?”. We do this because we have been doing all the talking so far and now we want to encourage them to start talking to us. After listening to them, we express some empathy with what has been their experience. Now we come to a vital component of the sales call. We seek their permission to ask questions.
In our case, we would say this, “We started the company in 1912 and have been in Japan for 57 years now and have been active across all major industries here. We have worked with XYZ in your industry. What they really liked was the fact that we could produce increases in revenues above 20% in a three month period. Maybe we could do the same for you? I am not sure, but in order for me to understand if that is possible or not, would you mind if I asked a few questions?”.
Here we have started with a broad statement about who we are, why we are differentiated from our competitors and what we do for clients. We then provide concrete evidence of where we have been successful with their competitors. We do not say we can “definitely” help them, as Americans are taught to do in sales. We specifically say “maybe”. We do this to sound less pushy. Also, in truth, until we ask them some questions, we actually have no idea if we can help them or not.
Finally, we seek their permission to ask a “few” questions. This implies it won’t be too many questions or take up a lot of their valuable time. Ironically, if there is some interest there, then it could become quite a lot of questions and take quite a lot of time. When there is interest though, the buyer won’t mind. Now if we find there is not a match, we don’t try and slam the square peg into the round hole. We just politely terminate the conversation and go and find an actual buyer.
In Part Three we will continue with the next stage of the online sales cold call.
The Cold Calling On Zoom Salesperson – Part One
Cold calling is always a subject of great debate and interest. I have been doing podcasts for the last seven years and episodes which feature the subject of cold calling, always get a lot of downloads. When I re-purpose these episodes as blogs on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook these posts will certainly have people leaving comments. Many buyers are locked away at home, or in the office, but not receiving visitors. How can we cold call companies who we have deduced are a perfect match for our solutions?
The arrangements are not that different. We call their company general number, the person answering the phone gives us the bum’s rush and abruptly ends the call. We have been unsuccessful in speaking with the buyer. At this point we make one more call and experience the same miserable result. We promptly give up on cold calling clients and find some busy work to take our mind off our incompetence. Do we try to rework our hook to generate interest inside that company, such that we will get transferred to the buyer? No, we just crawl off and lick our wounds.
The hook has to exude value for the client company. The buyer may be at home and only receive a message that you called, if you are lucky. If they are in the office, the person answering the phone wants to get rid of you, because they don’t want to be criticised for transferring the call and wasting the buyer’s time. In most cases, in my brutal experience, Japanese companies won’t release email addresses or mobile phone numbers to callers, even when you know the name of the person you wish to reach, let alone cases where you don’t have a name. You need toughness in sales and always be clear, they are not rejecting you personally, only your offer.
The hook can go like this: “Hello, this is Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training. Do you have a moment to speak? Thank you. The reason for my call is we have a new solution for ‘X’ which companies just like yours in the your industry love, because it generates excellent results. By the way, your competitors are very much appreciating the outcomes we are producing for them, so I thought maybe we could do the same for your company. I am not sure if there is a match between the need we are fulfilling and your current needs, but I would like to speak with your head of HR to find out if there is in fact a match. May I ask you to transfer me please?”.
The structure here is be polite, be clear about who you are and why you are calling. Reference success for others, especially their competitors. Say “maybe” rather than “certainly”, because it comes across as less hard sell. Ask to be transferred to the right person. Japanese buyers like things which are “new” and which others are already using. They are also curious about what their rivals are up to.
Even with the most appetising hook, the call transfer rate is low. Japanese employees would rather forego their company a business chance or advantage, than possibly make a mistake or get into any trouble. Therefore, the easiest thing in the world for them, is to do absolutely nothing and they are masters at it. Don’t worry about rejection and keep calling. You will find a company open to a conversation with the buyer, but only if you don’t quit.
Let’s assume you finally do get to speak with the buyer. Certainly try to get a face to face meeting. If that is not possible because of anti Covid-19 related company measures, then ask them for an online meeting date and for them to click on the link you will send them, to have the virtual meeting. Make their role as easy and simple as possible, as they may not be familiar with the required tech.
When doing this, of course use the alternative of choice approach, rather than suggesting a “yes” or “no” outcome. You can say, “Can I meet you this week or is next week better?. Next week. Then how about Tuesday or Thursday? I see, Friday is better. How about in the morning or do you prefer the afternoon? Morning. Then how about 10.00am. Great I look forward to meeting you next Friday at 10.00am on Zoom. By the way, does your company policy allow meetings over Zoom? I see, how about WebEx. Great. What is the best email address for me to send the link to? Thank you and please look for my email. I look forward to speaking with you again soon”.
In Part Two, we will go through how to conduct the sales call with the potential new client. Selling virtually, actually has some advantages over selling in person. All will be revealed in the next instalment.
The Ubiquitous Meishi Exchange and Event Networking - Are They Now Dead?
As the President of my company in Japan, it is almost impossible for me to cold call Japanese companies. If a Japanese prospective client got a cold call from the President of another company, they would immediately be suspicious of that organisation. Why does the President have to make cold calls? What sort of company is this, they don’t sound very sizeable, stable or credible? Consequently my modus operandi, to date, has been to be the Tokyo King of Networking.
I would happily go off to many events, work the room, exchange meishi with as many people as I could get to, in the time available. I would get there early and visually scan all the name cards lined up outside the room to see who was coming. Who did I already know (so I wouldn’t forget their name) and who did I want to get to know? I would start early and stay late. I would ask one simple, subtle qualifying question in order to know how to approach this company representative.
Lockdown put the sword to that little niche sales play of mine. Everyone was at home, organisations who used to sponsor networking events, only hold their meetings online these days. Even in post lockdown Tokyo, there are still no networking events being held. Organisers are not confident enough they can secure the safety of their guests, to invite them to come to a room and mingle with potentially asymptomatic strangers. The punters themselves are not confident to go into a confined room, with a bunch of other people and potentially be exposed to the virus.
The online meetings being held are not networking events. They are information events, usually with speakers and a moderator and limited Q&A. There is no possibility for me to meet the other participants on the call. Is this going to change anytime soon? I don’t think so and even when meetings are held again, they will be quite different. Social distancing will place a physical limitation on how many people can attend the event, at any one time. Shaking hands, which is a well established business custom, designed to project reliability, confidence and trust, will be out of bounds.
Even exchanging meishi may not be allowed nor welcomed. You have to stand relatively close to the other person to do that exchange. Also our grubby fingers are touching the card. When we are on the receiving end, we are touching their grubby bit of paper as well. Maybe we don’t want to risk transferring the virus, via meishi exchange, any more. Is the meishi going to become a relic of the past?
Can we connect electronically instead? Anyone remember “Bump”, a discontinued app which electronically exchanged our business contact details on the spot at a networking event? Years ago, I remember offering my meishi to a young, thrusting American businessman. With a disparaging flourish, he whipped out his mobile phone and told me he doesn’t “do meishi anymore”. He explained to this old geezer, that he could connect with me via this cool West Coast app called Bump. I installed it, but I didn’t really warm to it.
The ceremony of receiving someone’s meishi is a tradition in Japan. I decided to stick with the accepted way of doing business around here. Bump is no more, discontinued in 2014, but several apps have surfaced such as iCheck, Camcard, PiQy, Eight, and Shoot. Some of the available apps are scanning technologies, which still require an actual meishi, but others do offer a real “no physical touch” information exchange. Thanks to Covid-19, these and other similar apps, may get a new lease of life now. By the way, if you know of something good for this old Luddite, please share the love around and let me know!!
For someone in my position, sadly, there is no real alternative for replacing networking as a niche activity, to tap into potential clients. I don’t think networking is no more, passed on, expired, dead or about to disappear forever. Until it comes back though, there are plenty of existing clients to contact. This is most likely going to continue to be by phone or video call.
It may be sometime before we are in a position to hightail it over to the client’s office for a physicaly distanced, face to face encounter. Unlike me, my sales team can continue to cold call potential clients. It works well, because you can go direct to the decision-maker. On some occasions though, we find the target company has turned the gate keeper loose in the office. They are still acting as an unreconstituted, cold call killer, so we get short shrift on that front. This sales life continues to be character building.
Presenting Your Sales Materials Remotely
Sitting in that tight, too cosy meeting room, opposite a throng of buyers, is now a figment of our fevered salespeople’s imaginations. We were able to whip out our brochures, flyers, catalogues, corporate propaganda with frivolous abandon. Today we are sitting at home or the client is sitting at home and now this is a one to one conversation. We have been geared up for in person client meetings, where our physical marketing assets were chosen for their maximum impact. Beautiful four colour pages, sharp photographs, compelling diagrams and graphs, carefully manicured text. I know it is hilarious, but I am sure you have seen webinars, where some rather ambitious person is holding up their paper document in their hand in front of the camera, to make their point. Remarkable stuff really, although pretty delusional at the same time.
There is no certainty that we will still be able to just flourish our flyers in the buyer’s face and get the deal done. We may find that time spent with buyers remains an online experience, as companies ban outsider visits or individuals stay closeted at home from fear of contagion. Even if we do get to meet them, the time allotted may be curtailed to a stringent fifteen minutes. In this case, all the propaganda has either been delivered across to the buyer, or we are required to send the soft copies well in advance of the meeting, for the buyer to be able to survey our goods.
Remember our Rule Number One is never give the buyer your flyer, catalogue, brochure or whatever. You hold that baby firm, arranged upside down to you, so that the buyer can easily read it. Using your expensive pen as a pointer, you scrupulously guide them to where you want them to look. All of this is now out the window, many of the rules of sales have been trashed and the buyer is looking all over the place and at no place in particular, because it is all gobbledegook to them.
In the online situation, we need to be guiding them to the page and the section where we want them to look. That may mean loading up everything that might possibly be needed before the meeting, on to the platform we will be employing. We should then open the soft copy of the relevant document, and we should be controlling the page advancement and the document selection. Once we get to the place on the page we want to highlight, we should be placing our pointer, circling, drawing or underlining where we want them to note. With the technology available today this is easy. Two popular platforms - WebEx and Zoom - both allow the uploading of documents and we can transform any on-screen document into a virtual whiteboard, allowing us to scribble all over it. This requires you master the medium and be competent to wield the on-line tools with flair and confidence.
If we make the most of the tech and we draw some procurement interest, the buyer may ask us for a proposal. Remember Rule Number Two. Never send the proposal in advance. This advance document reconnoitre by the buyer usually leads to no sales taking place, as they are zeroing in on the money and remain contemptuous of the value. Typically, the buyer will go straight to the last page, chasing the cash flow killer imposts. They simply ignore the carefully crafted value statements spilling over the edges, inside the rest of the proposal. That sale’s rule is out the window too. Today, we have no choice, we have to show them the document, but please take careful note - we don’t have to send it in advance. We should arrange the online meeting, and reveal the document page by page, as we walk them through it. We can send the whole thing over later as an email attachment, but critically we must control the explanation of what the proposal says. We write the proposal with complete knowledge of what we are saying. Often, however, the reader cannot grasp the meaning as we intended it. That is why we need to be there, supervising their understanding. Normally we would do that face to face in the meeting room. We still need to do it, if we want a sale and now we just move across to the virtual room. By walking them through the document, we can highlight the key points. They can read the screen for themselves, but our job is to highlight key attributes, justifying the price tag at the end. The value is poured on first and then like a wizard, we enfold the pricing in the context of our explanation. A piece de resistance of copy writing, logic, emotion and logistics.
In the vaccine deprived world of Covid-19, actually being in the same room as the buyer may not be a possibility anymore, so we must adjust. Darwin didn’t talk about the survival of the strongest. He talked about the triumph of those species which can best adapt to survive. The salesperson species must adapt or many of us won’t survive.
Covid-19 Triggers Tough Negotiations (Part 2)
In Part One we looked at some of the key basics in negotiating:
These are all the things we can control on our side but obviously we have to be ready for how the other side will approach the negotiation. In business in Japan, the idea of a win/lose negotiating outcome would be a very short-term view of the relationship. Actually , there wouldn’t be a relationship, as the business would be purely transactional and would end fairly quickly.
Japanese companies are looking for long term partners they can trust. A negotiation is just the details of the business conducted within the broader confines of the relationship. If things change then Japanese companies expect the seller to make adjustments as well, regardless of what is written down in the contract. The relationship is the central piece not the contract. Having said that though, when we are talking about big deals and lots of money, the contRact confines become a lot more important and lawyers and courts get involved to sort it out.
In Part Two we will look at some Negotiating Tactics to get us to an agreement. These are not designed to trick or fool the other side. That makes no sense, if you are approaching the negotiation from a partner building perspective. These are just some tactics to help move the agreement process along.
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. Not every business discussion is destined to establish a partnership. The selection of a long time partner, either in marriage or in business is never easy or certain. Sometimes the best decision is to decide not to become partners, but we need to identify the tipping point where we will determine this isn’t a deal to be had.
The pressure of silence can cause people to make concessions or offer up valuable information we can use in the negotiation. This is most often used by the Japanese side in the negotiation, as they have learnt that foreigners cannot bear a long silence and will want to speak up to fill the airwaves. Learning to sit there and shut up, is a skill we have to master in the negotiating process with Japanese companies, no matter how much it is killing us.
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. Japanese companies usually have a collective of divisions who will be affected by the negotiated agreement and often these groups, being absent from the negotiating table, need to be consulted. We might misinterpret the reference to others to make the decision to be a ploy, but actually it may well be the case on their side. This process may also have intensified, as companies have come under greater financial pressure, thanks to the business disruptions caused by the virus.
This is a deal/no deal decision point, similar to the walk away. Having previously decided the breakoff point, we can suggest that the other side either accept this provision in the agreement or all bets are off. It is human nature to be greedy and push the other side to try and get the best deal for your side. Covid-19 may be pushing people harder to get a better deal than before, so it becomes a win for them and a semi-win for you. This is when you call them on it. Our landlord is the giant Mori Building company and when we looked at the space initially, the rent pricing was too high. They gave me their offer and I told them that if they couldn’t get it down to a certain number then forget it and I walked away. I was amazed to get a phone call a few weeks later accepting my counter offer.
We add value to sweeten the deal to get them to agree. Sometimes there are things we have which won’t cost us a lot of money internally, which we can offer to the client which has high value for them. It might be additional research reports, surveys, consulting services, part payments, delayed payments etc.
We deliberately shorten the decision-making period to force an answer. Pareto’s principle says that “work expands to fill the time”, ipso facto, the work compresses if we diminish the time in the negotiating process. Japanese companies are highly risk averse, but they are also often paranoid about their competitors stealing a march on them. If they think that the opportunity may be lost and therefore benefit a rival, they may be more induced to get to a decision.
We slow things down. We don’t respond as quickly to their communication. This is similar to the “silence” tactic. It would be rare that we would use this with a Japanese company, because they are already world leading experts in going slowly themselves and never feel much pressure to do anything at speed, on the way to an agreement. It is more likely we are on the receiving end of this tactic and we should just be aware of it, although it would be hard to distinguish it as a tactic, compared to their normal way of doing business.
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’. Think about the current realty with Covid-19 and ponder what can you do that would be of value to the client? Things seemed to have changed ten years since this February, so there may be a whole grab bag of things that have now become more important than before. Try and search these out.
The compound kanji for crisis “kiki” （危機）comprises the characters for “danger” and “opportunity”. Negotiations today will have a greater capacity to deliver opportunity, because the Japanese company world has been turned upside down, over these last few months. Our job is to find the opportunity in the crisis.