197: We Will Get Back to You

<p>Understanding why people don’t buy immediately after your brilliant presentation in Japan is a critical component of success here.  Aggressive American style wrangling with the buyer just won’t work here.  We need to understand the limitations facing the person we are meeting and how the company decision making structure works. </p> <p> </p> <p>In Japan, this “We will get back to you” response is often the result at the second meeting with the client.  In the first meeting, the salesperson is establishing trust and credibility.  They are trying to identify if they can actually be of assistance to the client or not.  There will be permission sought to ask questions to better understand the buyer’s needs.  In the second meeting, the proposal is presented, objections are dealt with and the seller tries to gain a client agreement to buy.  Actually this is all fantasy and not what usually happens.</p> <p> </p> <p>In reality, the Japanese salesperson gets straight into their pitch and starts bombarding the client with all the nitty gritty details and features of the product or service.  They get to the end and then wonder why the client doesn’t buy and all they hear is “we will get back to you”.  In this case, the clients are using this answer to get rid of dud salespeople.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sadly, even if you are a pro and were following a proven sale’s process, where you did all the necessary questioning steps, you will still often get this response of “we will get back to you” in Japan.  This is usually thought to be because we have not gotten enough clarity during the questioning process.  Sometimes we have misunderstood the client or they have not been clear enough themselves.  It could be that there was a hidden objection they are reluctant to share with us and we have failed to address that concern, so no purchase can be made.  There is also another Japan specific reason, which I will cover shortly.</p> <p> </p> <p>What do we do about this pushback?  We can certainly accept that they do need to think about it a