Is selling telling or is it asking questions? Actually, it is both. The point though is to know what stories to tell, when to tell them and how to tell them. We uncover the opportunity through asking the buyer questions about what they need. Once we know what they need, we mentally scan our solution data base to find a match. This is when the stories become important, as we explain why our solution will work for them. What we don’t want is having to scrabble together stories on the spot and then make a dog’s breakfast of relating the details.
These stories have one purpose and that is to give credibility to our solution. The content should have elements of the context of the solution and evidence of where this has worked for others. Buyers may not be familiar with your company in detail, so the background of the company told in two to three minutes is a micro story we need ready to go. Longevity or fresh innovation are the two spectrums. Either we have stood the test of time and you can trust us or we have come up with something new, that will be a game changer and you need it.
Often though salespeople don’t know the detail of the company or even if they do, they have never spent any time weaving this into a brief narrative for the buyer. This requires practice to ensure the micro story is kept tight and packed with credibility. We cannot go on and on about our own company or the buyer will switch off with disinterest. They are only going to listen if the background of the company has some strong relevancy for them. This is why we have to craft that story specifically for them, before we talk to them
Our systems, products or services all need explanation about how they will help the buyer. Just leafing through the five kilo, tome like product catalogue is not enough. Pitch salespeople will do this. They will go through the catalogue hoping to snag some buyer interest by using this shotgun pitch approach. When I had my first sales job selling Encyclopedia Britannica door to door, that is what were taught to do. We all learned a canned twenty minute walk through the pages of the book, introducing all the cool features. Not recommended!
If we have asked the right questions, we know exactly which few pages in the catalogue to show or which sections of the flyers we need to introduce. This is where we want our micro story about how this solution was created, including legendary moments of daring do by the R&D team or genius manufacturing breakthroughs or whatever that sounds amazing and clearly differentiates us from the competitor rabble.
These have to be short, sharp and terrific. That means delivery practice. They have to be customized and then memorized for the best content and cadence for that particular buyer. There are often too many products in a catalogue though, so being able to remember all of them may be unrealistic. Over time however, there will be a smaller group most important to most buyers and so we can work on remembering the stories associated with these products or services.
We definitely need to include client stories there as well. Telling the buyer what the widget will do is not enough. What are the benefits the widget will bring to their business. How have other buyers applied the benefits of the widget and what were the results. Often salespeople never get beyond the widget features and yet we all know we don’t buy the features, we buy the benefits, but that doesn’t stop a lot of salespeople dwelling on the wrong thing.
The story needs to have included the location, season, characters involved, some drama around an issue the buyer needed to fix and the triumphant outcome resulting from our solution. We need the context placed in the perspective of the prospective buyer. What is the conversation going on in the mind of the buyer and how can we meet them there through our narration of our brief story.
Sales raconteurs were part of the furniture in the pre and postwar periods, prior to the modern switch to consultative selling. We have moved on from just telling amusing stories and jokes to entertain the buyer. We have also gone beyond pitching products. Contemporary selling skills means asking clients excellent questions. This is now a high tech, time poor world and the buyers are busy, busy people. Our stories are important because they grab the attention of those with short attention spans, by adding some colour to the solution explanation. Relevant, well delivered stories help us to deepen our engagement with the buyer. Today we all need to master the art of micro storytelling. Does your sales team have their micro stories ready to go?
Japanese salespeople really care about their clients. This is good, except when it isn’t and that is usually when they are prioritizing the client over the firm which employs them. Japan is a relationship driven, risk averse business culture, where longevity is appreciated. This often translates into the salespeople being captured by a type of “Stockholm Buyer Syndrome” where they identify with the interests of the buyer, over those of their boss. Going to bat for the client is admirable because the salesperson is their representative inside the organisation. It can create problems though, when perspectives become skewed.
Price rises, stock shortages, quality issues, staff allocations can create a divide in the priorities of the buyer and seller. Where does the typical Japanese salesperson plonk themselves down? Right in the buyer’s camp. They become advocates for the buyer’s interests over the firm’s interests and this can create tremendous friction inside the organisation.
As we know, in Japan the buyer is not a royal, an aristo or a King. The buyer is a deity, a God and that changes things up considerably. As the boss, you can hand out the orders but that doesn’t mean the salespeople are going to compromise their relationship with the buyer aka God, to keep you happy. They are thinking about their bonus or commission and the lifetime value of that client.
In that equation, the boss’s views and interests are mildly interesting, but not arresting. So boss orders are issued like confetti and then the Great Obfuscation commences. Delays, excuses, detours and ninja like silence start cropping up. The sales staff can always rely on the boss to get distracted and be so time poor that they never get around to following up at all, or at least for some considerable time. With multinational firms, with any luck, the boss will get transferred or fired and the coast will be clear again. Or the market shifts, or the currency moves and the whole point becomes moot. The salesperson rule is keep your helmet pulled down tight and low and dig a bit deeper into the foxhole, waiting for the boss order barrage to die down.
So as the boss, how do we navigate between ensuring the salespeople take brilliant care of the client, without sending the firm to the edge of bankruptcy? We have to become much better time managers, because that is the key to following up and keeping track of the change you have initiated. We need to keep a note somewhere of what was discussed, what was requested and then some milestones to check against for progress. It could be electronic reminders or something analog, it doesn’t matter, as long as it works for you, but do it.
Coaching is one of the victims of tech today. Tech is supposed to give us all more time. It hasn’t. Everyone is so busy, including the boss, that the time is not created for coaching sales staff. If we want the salesperson to go down there to the client and deliver some distasteful news, they may need some help on how to handle that interview. Imagine asking a Japanese salesperson who has spent an entire career agreeing to everything the client wants, to head over to the buyer’s office and tell them “no” or the new price has been increased to “x”.
They are just not trained for that and have no clue how to do it. This is where they need help and the busy, busy bee boss has to pony up the time for them to help have that difficult negotiation.
Depending on the situation, it may be time for the boss to go and speak with the client. Hierarchy is important in Japan and having the more senior person turn up, is a mark of respect which the buyer in Japan will appreciate. It won’t make them any happier about the bad news, but at least they feel their due was given. The salespeople will appreciate it too, because it allows them to keep their relationship with the buyer and heap all the blame on their mad dog, crazy, gaijin boss.
The answer is simple and complex at the same time - encourage a sharp client focus by the salespeople, but keep that tempered within the interests of the firm, by making your time available to follow up, coach or intervene.
Luck is the nexus of hard work and persistence. Salespeople need some luck, even if they have to create it themselves. That old blues refrain “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all” can’t apply. We have to make our own luck and here are seven luck creation principles we can start using immediately to help us get there. No fancy varsity degrees or puffed up IQ scores needed. Common sense that morphs to common practice is all we need to change our luck in sales.
Salespeople are consumed by what they want and it is usually getting enough commission to be able to eat. Buyers don’t purchase for any other reason than getting what they want. Our job is to communicate in such a way the client realises they have a want they didn’t recognize or give sufficient import to previously. Opportunity cost is a measure which shows that taking no action is not a zero cost option. Clients are not in a static market, their competitors are still alive and hungry for market share.
We have to show that taking action today is needed and that argument has to be based around a good understanding of what the client needs as opposed to wants. If we honestly have the buyers interests foremost in our minds we can build the trust needed to secure the business.
Salespeople arguing with buyers is the silliest thing in the world. Nevertheless, there are legions of salespeople out there trying to slam square pegs into round holes and make a deal fit which should never even be a consideration. Trying to overpower the buyer to drive them through force of will to buy is ridiculous, has always been ridiculous and will remain ridiculous. Some salespeople don’t learn however.
Talkative salespeople lose a lot of potential business. Being good in sales means being a tremendously good listener. Understanding what the client needs is critical to providing a match that works between what you are selling and the gap in the clients business which they need to fix. When I realise I have violated the 20/80 ratio of salesperson to buyer occupying the airwaves I shut up and ask a question to get them talking. We all need to be alert to our proclivity to love the sound of our own voice.
What are the buyer’s fears, headaches and aspirations? If we don’t know these answers then we are not doing our job as salespeople. Force feeding our pitch down the buyer’s throat is stupid, but so many salespeople do just that. They launch straight into their widget pitch without finding out what the buyer needs. Something so basic, but so commonly missed in sales.
If I say it, as a salesperson, it might be true, but if the buyers says it, then it is 100% true without any doubt. Our communication skills are called upon to make sure we ditch every opportunity to tell the client something and rather replace that statement with the same information, but now reconstituted as a question. For example, “we have overnight delivery” is statement. Rather than trotting this out, we say instead, “would having overnight delivery be of value to your business”. If they say yes, then we can talk about how we do that. If they say “no”, then we keep fishing for what is of value to them by asking questions
We want action. We want the order right now, without delay. We don’t want buyers to think about it or worse, agree in principle and then do nothing about it. We need them motivated to buy. What will success mean for them in their business? What can we do to help them become even more successful? If we can wrap our sale up in those flags of self-interest, then they will buy and will they buy right now.
Keep these principles in your mind when talking to clients. They are not complex to remember, but are complex to execute. Well, that is sales and that is the requirement. Get on to them fright now, delay no more and make sales today.
Japan is a complex market. Brash plugging of your wonder widget won’t work here. American style sales techniques are always a lot more aggressive than will be tolerated in Japan and so fail with prodigious regularity. So I added the key words “For The Japan Market” to the title of this piece, to make sure I was talking about a niche I understand. Clubhouse is an app on your iPhone, which is a doorway to an audio world, bristling with myriad rooms, devoted to every possible topic, across every time zone. Hosts organize rooms and you can swan by and decide to join the discussion, if the title grabs your fancy.
So where do we draw the line on self-promotion and solution promotion? There are topics exclusively devoted to making money such as marketing, social media, equities, real estate etc. You enter these rooms expecting to pick up valuable insights which will help you do better with your investments. You choose this type of room because you know there will be others also interested in this topic. I think it would be rare to go into a room expecting to buy something, while you are in the room.
For Japan, the content marketing approach is more acceptable. Rather than being on the receiving end of a sales pitch by some svelte voiced golden warbler, you are more likely to appreciate information based on which you can make a judgment about parting with your hard earned moolah. As with all sales, buyers first purchase us and then the good or service we proudly represent.
In an audio world like Clubhouse, the only visual clue is our tiny photograph on the screen and the details we have chosen to enter into our profile. We should make both professional and congruent with our industry. In some cases, that may mean being photographed in full business battle dress or it may mean a more casual approach. We shouldn’t mix them up though. Also, the first three lines of our profile is what people can see below our photograph, so that content has to ooze expert credibility in our field.
All the other clues are coming from our voice. Do we sound smart? That means are we demonstrating we are articulate, by being concise, considered and insightful. The delivery of the content should have a voice brimming with confidence and devoid of filler words like um and ah. We will only have a few minutes to speak, so we need to create an impression in the listener such that they would like to hear a lot more from us.
I had an example of that recently, not on Clubhouse but on video. My organisation sent out a link to a video of Scott Galloway, a Professor at New York University Stern School Of Business. I had never heard of him before, but they included the video because he was making a point which they agreed with and were using him as a relevant expert to support their case. This first exposure was dynamic. “Wow, who is this guy? He sounds really smart. I want to hear more from him”.
Is this how people will perceive you when you are active on Clubhouse? I am certain that Prof G, as he calls himself, was totally well prepared for that video and knows his stuff. So we have to be the same. That means we search out rooms on topics which relate to what we sell. “Fish where the fish are biting” type of basic sales nous. We may have to sift through a lot of dross to find the gold, but that is the Clubhouse reality, as it is currently configured. Once we identify where our buyers are located, we need to become regulars to those sessions. We should be following the people who are also in the room and trying to connect with them on LinkedIn etc. If we have a strong profile and are a regular, the hosts are likely to give us the opportunity to contribute. We should be totally prepared for that with two tools. A simple timer, so we know when we have reached three minutes and we should voluntarily stop speaking. Also, have a note pad with the key bullet points, and be well prepared ready to pontificate.
We must try and come across with the highest value contribution in the time we have, so that the audience goes, “Wow, who is this person? Sounds really smart. I want to hear more”. When we follow up after the session with the people we think can become clients, they are more likely to want to interact with us because they have built up a solid and positive impression, from what we said and how well we said it.
Pitching will be met with skepticism, because the trust hasn’t been built. We need to show our intellectual goods first and then we can move to a direct contact, making it a warm rather than cold call. It sounds like a Zen riddle, but Clubhouse should be selling without appearing to be selling. Provide massive value first, connect and then follow up.
What are the biggest problems for salespeople in the online sales world today? Cold calling would be number one, networking to find new clients would be number two and getting hold of the decision maker would be number three. Is paddling around in the bitter cold and humid summers travelling to see clients inefficient? Yes, but please, please give me that over trying to sell online. The sad news is we are never going back to the old format. There is always going to be an online component, because companies have found it works for them to have a dispersed workforce. Are we really ready to play the long game of sales or not?
Judging by how well people have adjusted to online selling over the last twelve months, the answer would be a resounding “no”. If you had an existing client base then you could service them online because there was no choice. The relationship had been sufficiently invested in to be able to extend the interaction from face to face to screen to screen. They were happy with it and you had no alternative.
New clients are more difficult. How do you build the trust online with a completely new person? We have to spend more time shooting the breeze on line with new clients at the beginning. Being “efficient” and getting straight down to brass tacks is dumb. The meeting has now slid into the muddy ditch of a transactional arrangement between buyer and seller. The care factor is low, the forgiveness scanty and the margin of error is zero, because we haven’t been successful in building the relationship.
Japanese buyers are often stilted, formal and awkward in meetingS with people they don’t know. Being a foreigner allows me to play the gaijin card and get cut some slack for not being Japanese, with all the cultural and linguistic expectations that brings with it. Regardless, our sales teams don’t have that card to flourish because they are mainly Japanese, so what are they going to do?
What they need is some serious role play practice on how to handle the first five minutes of the online meeting. It is going to be different to when we are face to face, because the body language has gone missing and all we have is our voice. In a way, online meetings are more similar to doing phone sales, than in person sales. Sitting in front of the buyer provides them with so many reassuring or alarming signals, from which to make a judgment about the seller. The signal rate online is very much reduced so the buyers are a bit flummoxed as to how to divine if this person can be trusted or not. When in doubt in Japan, “do nothing” is the tried and true formula. Doing nothing means not buying from us and well, we can’t have that.
How many sales teams are spending time every day or even once a week, practicising online role plays with coaching? I would vouch that number would be “not enough”. We have been working on storytelling online in our sales training, to bridge that chasm between buyer and seller at the start of the meeting. We work on how to tell the Dale Carnegie Training Japan story of these last 58 years. People who don’t know us need to be told how awesome we are and so a 150 second burst is about the maximum time we can expect to be allowed from the buyer, before their attention wanders.
It takes a lot of practice to make the story interesting for the listener and not sound like a boring, self aggrandising history lesson or come across as a bunch of platitudes strung together. They don’t know us, so we have to assault their supreme skepticism with evidence, credibility, and testimonials all bound together in the storytelling format, after completing the chit chat at the beginning.
We need this for each of our solutions as well. Each solution has its history, so let’s get that into a context that makes us look valuable, reliable and professional. For example, “we started teaching sales training in 1939, when Dale Carnegie realised that salespeople only got sales training if it was provided internally by their company. He also distilled that his training method, being based on building great human relations and communication skills was perfect for sales too. He began offering public courses to fill that void in the market and today our Winning With Relationship Selling programme reflects the 82 years of kaizen applied to that original sales training course”. That takes 25 seconds to get through and it is packed with credibility statements, giving the buyer confidence in what the company offers.
Online is here to stay, whether we like it or not. We need to recalibrate what we are going to say, in order to build the trust with the buyer when online in the first meeting. We can’t leave this to each individual to work it out by themselves. It needs some group brainstorming on what is the best formula and content for this vital first impression piece. Are you doing it?