Designing Your Sales Conversation (Part 1)
Salespeople who don’t have a framework for their sales conversation with their client, will wind up on the back foot following the buyer’s purchasing framework. If we know what we are doing, we have built some good rapport, used our credibility statement to receive permission from the client to ask questions and are now ready to go deeper with our sales conversation. For many salespeople who are “free spirits” and “artists” who don’t design the sales conversation, this means a chapter and verse meandering through the gritty detail of the product or service features. Blathering on about the 50 shades of grey available and offering expert, in-depth insights into the differences might be intriguing, but if the buyer is looking for things in the colour blue, the effort is completely wasted and pointless. Now this sounds primitive and obvious, except that the vast majority of salespeople are geared up for feature explanation, not needs exploration.
I was selling Australian furniture in Nagoya, and visiting a leading furniture retailer at his vast store, filled with beautiful pieces from all around the world, except Australia. I went into my presentation about the uniqueness of the Australia timbers, the special designs available, the opposite seasonality and numerous other worthy points. His first question back to me absolutely floored me. He asked, ”Do you make furniture in Australia?” Ouch !!!
I immediately realized my sales conversation had assumed too much. I needed to start with selling Australia first, the manufacturer second and the actual products last. As I discovered, poor sales conversation design leads to poor results.
We need to learn four key things from the client: what they want (Primary Interest); what they must have – absolutes (Buying Criteria); what they would like to have – desirable (Other Considerations) and most importantly, why they want it (Dominant Buying Motive). The way we learn these things is to ask intelligent, well thought out, pre-planned questions.
The accompanying piece with this idea is to listen proactively to the answers. This is where many salespeople lack discipline. They hear something the client says and jump right in without letting the buyer give us all the detail. Or they lose concentration on what the key messages are because they are so fixated on what they are going to say next because they fear losing that thought, so they block out the client’s conversation.
Salespeople are allowed to take notes! Just write down the thought bubble, so it doesn’t get missed and sit back, relax and keep listening to the buyer – it is that hard.
The Primary Interest of the buyer is not what we sell. What we sell is a tool, a conduit, an enabler to fix a problem the client has and that solution is what they buy. Salespeople however, miss this distinction, because they are focused on the features of the tool and wish to describe it in great detail. We don’t buy the functionality – we buy the outcome of the functionality. Some common Primary Interests amongst buyers would include: increased revenues, lower costs; speed; improved efficiency; effective employees; increased market share etc. These are all outcomes – benefits not features. The salesperson’s job is to uncover which of these types of things are what the buyer wants, keeping in the back of the mind, how your solution will deliver these.
Buying Criteria are fairly straightforward. These are the features – things like the colour, size, weight. The buyer wants to know about the quality, the specifications, the warranty, locations, delivery, support etc. If these criteria are not present then there is no relevant solution from the salesperson to attract the buyer’s attention and they mentally dump you and move on.
Other considerations may not be a hard edged requirement but they influence the buying decision. This might mean special features, added value, special packaging, delivery options, payment terms, creative solutions.
Selling up against the Japanese trading companies is a tough gig. You might have your bright shiny object, all ready to go for the Japanese market, but the Big Guys have a secret weapon. They have locked your buyers into payments terms that you can’t compete with. They may be giving 120 days to pay, so the importer can receive and sell the goods, before they even have to pay for them. You are looking for cash on delivery and wonder why you can’t make any headway with this buyer, especially when you have a strong price advantage.
The Dominant Buying Motive is a compelling emotional reason for the buyer to make the buying decision. This is a tough one to uncover in Japan. Normally, these motives would include recognition, rewards, self-preservation, self-fulfillment. Because of the team focus of Japanese buyers they are reluctant to tell you what your wonderful solution will do for their personal career, after it fixes all the issues for them. Instead they will mention vague things like “the team will be happy”.
Subtlety in question design, sensitivity in the question framing, body language observation – all become more important in Japan, because culturally things are not expressed so directly here.
Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
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About The Author
Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.
A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.