254: Don't Pitch

<p>Stony motherless silence unleavened by a stony face.  That was the reaction to my questions from this first Japanese buyer and subsequent other buyers. I had studied the American sales guru’s sales techniques.  I was a devotee of “consultative sales” and here I was in Japan trying to sell stuff and failing.  In those days back in the early nineties, I was primed to ask my questions using the American guru sale’s models.  Find out if they are the decision maker, if they are ready to move right now, what they like about what they have now, what are the things that aren’t fully satisfying their needs, etc.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is all well and good and today we are still doing consultative sales.  We sometimes call it solution selling, value selling or whatever, but essentially it is the same basic premise.  Find out what they are doing now, find out what they would like to be doing, discover why they are not doing it already and then provide the pain point relief.  This makes a lot of sense and should work in Japan too.  Like a lot of imports into Japan, that have been successful overseas, there is often an adjustment or two needed to be made to meet the needs of the local market.</p> <p> </p> <p>When I met the buyers and went through a little bit of chit chat, I would move straight into questioning mode.  To my chagrin, the buyers sat there motionless.  I would repeat the question, but nothing was coming out of their mouths at all.  They were as silent as the tomb.  Not being great with those long Japanese silences in conversation, this made me very uncomfortable.  I wasn’t sure what on earth I should do.  I had just asked the same question twice, about their current situation and was getting a very cold, unfriendly reaction.  Not a brilliant buying signal!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>After what seemed an age, that first buyer just requested I tell him about our product.  Well that was progress, I thought and went ahead with a glowing rendition of the finer points and wonderful attributes of this product, a crowning trium