287: Can You Stimulate The Buyer Greed Gland In Japan?

<p>The sales process has a number of stages we must pass through. One big one is gaining trust.  We need to explain who we are, what it is we do, where we have had success before and suggest we could do the same for the buyer’s firm.  Permission to ask questions is another key step.  When you think about it salespeople are incredibly rude.  We hardly know them and yet we start asking questions about corporate secrets around our failures, lack of progress and barriers to success.  Salespeople are looking for a match between their solution and what we need.  Nevertheless the process can be confronting and that can be why it is sometimes very hard to get any useful information from the buyer. Salespeople need to ask permission first “to ask a few questions” , in order to delve into the depths of corporate despair and failure and thereby learn if they have the solution this company needs.</p> <p> </p> <p>One part of that questioning process can get very personal.  We start by trying to get a fix on what the firm is doing now, where they want to be and why they are not there yet.  Next we ask about their self-interest.  This is a sensitive subject in Japan.  Sales is all about what we say and how we say it.  The semantics of language is important and this is one area where it is critical we get that equation right.  We need to know this self-interest information for later when we present the solution.  Of course, we are looking at the interests of the firm and how what we are doing is going to help the business.  We are dealing with people though and we all have our own individual motivations.  We want to connect the solution we are providing with the buyer’s direct personal interests and this is the highest level of appeal we can aim toward as the seller.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Western companies, this isn’t such a big deal.  If we ask, “If this solution is successful, what will it mean for you personally?”, then we will get a very straight answer.  They will tell us, “I will get a big bonus”, “I will get promoted”, ”My b