There is a process to sales.  Amazingly, most salespeople don’t know what it is.  They are either ignorant, because they haven’t been trained or arrogant, arguing they won’t be entangled by any formulistic wrangling.  They say they follow their muse and let the sales conversation go where it may, because they are “spontaneous” creatures, residing in the “here and now”.  Both answers are rubbish.  There are professional salespeople and there are dilettantes. Let’s be professionals and master the sales process.  We are going to go deeper into the sales process and look at some of the inner workings. Gluing the whole process together are seven bridges to move us through the sales continuum.

Bridge number one is the move from casual chit chat at the beginning of the sales meeting to a business discussion with the buyer.  When is the best time to make that move and what do you say?  The opening conversation will flow to and fro, as various small talk questions are answered and everyone becomes comfortable with each other.  Let the buyer finish their point.  Pause to make sure they have actually finished and are not about to expand their point.  Then we simply say, “thank you for your time today”.  This signals, now is the time to get into the sales conversation proper.

Bridge number two comes after we have explained our agenda and after checking if they have any extra points, we start to move through the points we have chosen.  The agenda gives the sales call structure and helps to control where the conversation will go.  We must ask the buyer if they have any points of their own. This is important because it gives them control over what we will discuss and that makes them feel better about owning our agenda.

Bridge number three is when we ask for permission to ask questions.  We have outlined the agenda and now it is time to get down into the murky depths of their business.  Never forget we are “blowins” off the street, the great unwashed. They are about to be asked to open up the kimono and share all of their mysteries and secrets with a total stranger.  We need to point to some evidence showing where we have been able to help a similar company, in the same industry.  We then proffer, “maybe we could do the same for you.  In order to understand if that is possible or not, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”.

Bridge number four is what we say after hearing all of the answers to our questions.  We are now in a position called the “moment of truth”.  We have to make the decision for them concerning if they can buy and what they should buy.  We know our line-up of solutions in depth, to a degree they never will.  If we decide we don’t have the proper solution for them, we should fess up now and then hightail it out there, to find the next prospect.  If we can help them, then we need to announce it clearly and loudly. We need to reference some of the things they told us in the questioning phase.  They mentioned to us the key thing they are looking for and also why achieving that is important to them personally.  We now wrap our “yes we can do it” answer around those two key motivators for the sale.

Bridge number five comes after we have gone through (a) the facts, (b) the benefits, (c) the evidence and then (d) the application of the benefit.  This will be news to a lot of salespeople in Japan, because they have never gotten beyond (a), the detail, the spec, the nitty gritty of their widget.  After we have told the story of how wondrous things will be for them after purchasing our widget, we then ask the trial close question.  It is not complicated and anyone can memorise it.  Here it is, “how does that sound so far?”.

Bridge number six comes after the  buyer answers our trial close with an objection.  There has been a gap in our process located in the questioning component. We have not flushed out their concern and dealt with it already, so that is why it pops up here at this point.  We ask why it is an issue for them and we keep asking if there are any other issues.  We need to do this in order to know which key concern we need to answer.  Once we have prioritised their concerns, we then give our answer to the major objection.  We then ask, “does that deal with the issue for you?”.  We do this to check we don’t have any residual resistance preventing them from giving us a “yes” answer when we ask again for the order.  We just say, “shall we go ahead then?”, or “do you want to start this month or next month?” or “do you want the invoice sent to you by post or can we send it by email?”.

Bridge number seven comes after they say, “yes” they will buy.  We must be very careful what we say next. We must bridge across to the delivery discussion of how and when they will receive their purchase.  Under no circumstances keep selling at his point.  Random things blurted out after receiving their “yes” may sidetrack them to a concern they hadn’t thought about. Or it may get them confused about whether now is the time to buy or should they wait until a bit later?  Rather, get deep into the detail of the next steps immediately and stop selling.

Salespeople need to know the sales process and the glue that holds it all together.  That is the mark of the professional and the path to sales success.

A stranger contacts you out of the blue or you meet them fleetingly at an event and they call you afterwards.  They are a salesperson and they want to sell you something.  Our typical reaction is one of caution.  Why is that?  We have all become addicted to technology which has sped everything in business up to warp speed, but somehow we are all perennially time poor.  We don’t want to be distracted from our tasks or waste our time listening to what someone else wants.  We are also not sure if we can trust this salesperson.  Why would that be?  Maybe we were duped or heard of someone we know being duped by a “salesperson” in the past, so we are permanently suspicious of anyone we meet in sales.

This is not a great start is it.  We have to deal with all the baggage that our buyers have accumulated over the years.  Japan is a brutally vicious sales environment.  We are all in a street fight with our competitors and like in a physical street fight, there are no rules and little mercy shown.  Rivals will lie, disparage, spread false rumours, make nasty insinuations about us and our company.  “They are having financial trouble and won’t be around much longer”, “all I ever hear are complaints about their bad after sales service”, “their representative keeps getting fired from companies, so he won’t be around for long”, etc.  “But Greg, Japan is such an honest country, would rivals lie so brazenly?”, you might be thinking.  Yes, some of them will do so without any shame or guilt.  I have heard these wild stories myself, shared by buyers, so from my own experiencE I know this happens.

How do we start the sales call in Japan?  We chit chat a little, then we get into the sales discussion.  If we don’t know what we are doing, we are launching straight into our pitch about our wonderful widget.  If this is you, please stop doing that.  Rather we should be asking questions to completely understand the needs of the client.  We can do this through just asking for permission to ask questions and then going for it.  Another way we can do it is to propose an agenda for the meeting.  This provides the same content, but it is a more structured approach.  Japanese buyers love to be given the agenda to look at, because they love data and the more the merrier.

The questions we are going to ask about needs are all there of course, but we add one more.  We ask, “what are your impressions of our company?”.  Why would we do that, why not just blast off into the nitty gritty detail of the wonders of the widget?  Remember we are either a total stranger coming in off the street or a fleeting acquaintance from an event.  If I visited your home and sat down and said, “tell me all about the problems inside your family?”, I don’t think you would want to share your dirty laundry with someone you hardly know.  Company representatives feel the same about sharing the dirty laundry of their firm.

If our rivals have been stabbing us in the back or if the client has some incorrect information about our company, we need to get that out early and deal with it.  In our case, as an expert soft skills training company, our history of over 108 years can be a double edged sword.  It means we have stood the test of time and yet, for some buyers they may think we are old fashioned and not current enough for the modern market.  Chit chat is pretty thin gruel to establish trust with, so we need to work on establishing the credibility of our company.  Rather than random selection in the chit chat content about what trust buttons to push, we ask this impressions question.  This allows us to zoom right into the core concerns and deal with them. 

Now when they give me their concern, I don’t immediately answer it.  I cushion it instead.  That is, I put up a neutral statement, that neither inflames nor tries to argue with their comment.  This neutral cushion buys my brain some thinking time about what I am going to say and how I am going to say it.  Rather than giving the first answer that suddenly pops into my head, I can give a more considered answer.  I could say, “It is important to consider perspectives on the brand”.  Those three or four seconds are enough to drill down to a more polished answer.  I would then say, “The balance to our longevity is that we are a global organisation.  That means that every second of the day clients, somewhere around the world, are asking us to address their most pressing problems.  In this way, dealing with client demands always keeps us fresh and current in the market”.

Are you ready with your answers for some curly questions your client may have for you?  More importantly, are you trying to flush out these secret resisters, before you try to introduce your solution?  Let’s not assume we are on a level playing field here. Accept that for whatever reason, there may be some hidden obstacles to trusting us and so let’s get those out of the way early, so that we can properly serve the client.

“I like talking with people, so I want to be in sales” is a terrifying conversation to have with one of your staff.  They are not doing so well in their current role, so they imagine they will just glide across to sales to have an easier time of it.  They may try and do it internally as a switch of roles or they may quit their current job and go and try to get a sales job somewhere else.  Given the shortage of salespeople in Japan at the moment and from now on ad nauseum, there is a strong chance they will be picked up by a competitor or another company quite easily.

They are partially correct.  Yes, it helps if you like people as a salesperson.  Also, having good communication skill is a definite requirement.  Talking to someone and persuading them to hand over their hard earned cash is a different equation.  What do we talk about, how do we talk about it, when should we be silent, when should we speak up?  These are important questions about which they are ignorant.

When I hear people say they like “talking to people” that sets off an alarm in my head.  One of the biggest issues with salespeople is that they talk too much.  I am guilty of it too.  I am passionate about helping people to grow their businesses and their careers, so I bring a lot of belief and energy to the conversation.  That is all good, but it is also dangerous.  If I am doing all the talking, I maintain possession of what I already know but I don’t gain any additional knowledge of the client and their problem.

Sometimes, I catch myself and realise the only noise in the room is me talking, so I should ask the client a question, shut up and get them talking instead.  I want them to tell me about their current situation and where they want to be.  In Japan, you can’t do that.  Clients are passively expecting your pitch, so they can destroy it and assure themselves this is a low risk transaction they are considering entering into.  So, the first thing out of our mouths here has to be a question seeking permission to ask questions.  People who like talking will have no problem with this traditional pitch approach. In fact they will probably be happy, to get straight into the pitch.

Fine all around except for one small thing.  What are you pitching to the client?  How do you know what solutions from your line-up will best match the client’s need?  What normally happens is the salesperson blunders on, talking about things which are irrelevant to the client. They completely squander their client facing time and leave the meeting with nothing.  This is not good.

Get permission first, then ask those first two questions – where are you now and where do you want to be?  We are trying to gauge urgency on the buyer’s part.  If they think they can bridge this gap, then they will try and do it themselves and not involve any external parties.  That means no business for us and we are wasting our time to continue sitting there chatting with them, no matter how much we enjoy a good chat.

If they can’t do it by themselves, then we want to know why?  There is no point going straight into solution mode at this point, talking, talking, talking.  We should ask that exact question: “if you know where you want to be, why aren’t you there now?”.  What a pearler of a question.  In this answer lies our raison d’etre.  Maybe we can’t do it for them.  That is good to know, because we have to high tail it out of there and go and find someone we can help.  No point hanging round for more chatting with a business dead end in front of you. Another other issue is talking past the deal. When the buyer agrees, only talk about the follow up and stop selling.  People who like talking get themselves into trouble by saying too much and opening up a Pandora’s box of deal breakers.

If we are doing our job, we are hardly talking at all during the meeting, except to ask a few clarifying questions.  “Liking to talk with people” is a mirage, would-be salespeople see about what is involved in a professional sales life.  This is their uniformed illusion about the job. Instead, I want to hear, “I like asking people questions”.  In all my years in business though, I have never heard that lucid comment emerge as a precursor to a life in sales.  If you want a career in sales, now you know what to say to a prospective boss to get them interested in hiring you.

“I like talking with people, so I want to be in sales” is a terrifying conversation to have with one of your staff.  They are not doing so well in their current role, so they imagine they will just glide across to sales to have an easier time of it.  They may try and do it internally as a switch of roles or they may quit their current job and go and try to get a sales job somewhere else.  Given the shortage of salespeople in Japan at the moment and from now on ad nauseum, there is a strong chance they will be picked up by a competitor or another company quite easily.

They are partially correct.  Yes, it helps if you like people as a salesperson.  Also, having good communication skill is a definite requirement.  Talking to someone and persuading them to hand over their hard earned cash is a different equation.  What do we talk about, how do we talk about it, when should we be silent, when should we speak up?  These are important questions about which they are ignorant.

When I hear people say they like “talking to people” that sets off an alarm in my head.  One of the biggest issues with salespeople is that they talk too much.  I am guilty of it too.  I am passionate about helping people to grow their businesses and their careers, so I bring a lot of belief and energy to the conversation.  That is all good, but it is also dangerous.  If I am doing all the talking, I maintain possession of what I already know but I don’t gain any additional knowledge of the client and their problem.

Sometimes, I catch myself and realise the only noise in the room is me talking, so I should ask the client a question, shut up and get them talking instead.  I want them to tell me about their current situation and where they want to be.  In Japan, you can’t do that.  Clients are passively expecting your pitch, so they can destroy it and assure themselves this is a low risk transaction they are considering entering into.  So, the first thing out of our mouths here has to be a question seeking permission to ask questions.  People who like talking will have no problem with this traditional pitch approach. In fact they will probably be happy, to get straight into the pitch.

Fine all around except for one small thing.  What are you pitching to the client?  How do you know what solutions from your line-up will best match the client’s need?  What normally happens is the salesperson blunders on, talking about things which are irrelevant to the client. They completely squander their client facing time and leave the meeting with nothing.  This is not good.

Get permission first, then ask those first two questions – where are you now and where do you want to be?  We are trying to gauge urgency on the buyer’s part.  If they think they can bridge this gap, then they will try and do it themselves and not involve any external parties.  That means no business for us and we are wasting our time to continue sitting there chatting with them, no matter how much we enjoy a good chat.

If they can’t do it by themselves, then we want to know why?  There is no point going straight into solution mode at this point, talking, talking, talking.  We should ask that exact question: “if you know where you want to be, why aren’t you there now?”.  What a pearler of a question.  In this answer lies our raison d’etre.  Maybe we can’t do it for them.  That is good to know, because we have to high tail it out of there and go and find someone we can help.  No point hanging round for more chatting with a business dead end in front of you. Another other issue is talking past the deal. When the buyer agrees, only talk about the follow up and stop selling.  People who like talking get themselves into trouble by saying too much and opening up a Pandora’s box of deal breakers.

If we are doing our job, we are hardly talking at all during the meeting, except to ask a few clarifying questions.  “Liking to talk with people” is a mirage, would-be salespeople see about what is involved in a professional sales life.  This is their uniformed illusion about the job. Instead, I want to hear, “I like asking people questions”.  In all my years in business though, I have never heard that lucid comment emerge as a precursor to a life in sales.  If you want a career in sales, now you know what to say to a prospective boss to get them interested in hiring you.

Most of the time in Japan, I attend client meetings alone.  This is not how the Japanese do it.  The President going to a meeting alone, without some staff in attendance is rather rare.  Presidents have degrees of prestige and one of the indicators is how many flunkies they have in attendance.  My ego is big enough already to have to worry about people carrying my bag around for me.  The Japanese client meeting can often be quite an affair though with many people seated around the room, waiting to hear what you have to say.  Invariably, you have no idea who is turning up on their side, who they are or what they do.

The key word there is “waiting”.  They expect this to be a presentation from me to them, with zero interaction, no questions and then they go away and thrash it out internally on what they want to do next.  The punters in the room are the earpieces of their respective sections, there to record and then report what was said and who said it.  There will usually be one or two designated interlocuters on their side who will engage with the seller to facilitate the meeting.  That facilitation is usually to insist we give them a presentation on our offer, done passively, without any insight into what they need.

You can see the problem immediately.  We have many solutions, so which one is the best for them?  To know this we need to be asking questions.  The buyer side don’t quite see it that way and we can have a tense standoff.  We ask seller style consultative questions. No one answers them from the buyer side and the silence hangs heavy in the air, trying to strangle the seller.  If we hang tough and let that silence hang around for a long time, eventually someone on the buyer side will say “give us your pitch”.  When we hear this we know things are not going well.

Being on our own is not a big deal, because usually we can make decisions on our own. We don’t need to work the idea through the system to get some type of convocation to agree to it. What is not good though, is to squander our time before the meeting.  We should be pumping whoever is organising the meeting logistics, for information ahead of time on who will be attending.  Who are they, what do they do, what rank are they, etc., are key things we want to know before we turn up.  We shouldn’t presume there will only be a couple of people we already know in the meeting, if it is an important stage or the first meeting.

If this doesn’t happen, then after the initial exchange of business cards with the big boss, quickly dart around the room and exchange cards with everyone else there.  This way you can arrange the cards on the table in front of you, according to where they are sitting, to see who is who and you can check their rank and area of responsibility.  These are generalisations, but the CEO will be thinking strategy going forward, the CFO will be thinking protecting cash flow, the technical people will be thinking fit for purpose and the users will be thinking ease of application of the solution.

Knowing roughly what the audience interests are is only a start.  To avoid giving a pitch into the void of not knowing what they want, you need to set up permission to ask questions.  They are expecting you to tell them about what your company does and what you can do for them.  Here is an example of how this could go.  “Dale Carnegie Training has been around for 109 years world wide and nearly 60 years here in Japan.  We are soft skills training experts covering sales, leadership, communication and presenting.  We have had a lot of success in Japan helping our clients to improve their effectiveness and grow their market share.  Maybe we could do the same for you, I am not sure.  In order for me to know if that is possible or not and to know which part of our line up best suits your internal needs, would you mind if I asked a few simple questions.  The answers will guide me on what I should present to you regarding which parts of our line-up will be the best match for your business?”.

Once you have permission to ask questions, start with the people tasked with facilitating the meeting.  If they need more detail to answer your questions, they will involve some of the other experts in the room.  We won’t get a lot of time to do this, as everyone is sitting there expecting a pitch which they can then flagellate within an inch of its life, by asking mean and nasty questions.  They won’t be denied their Colosseum moment of throwing you to the lions for too long. 

You will at least get enough information to know what to present and how to present it.  You won’t get an answer at that meeting on whether there is any interest or not so don’t push it.  They need to harmonise opinions on their approach and they will do this after the meeting.  Someone will be tasked with getting all of the feedback and bringing this to the most senior person. 

Japan teaches you many things, especially patience!