324: How To Hit The Sale’s Target In Japan

<p style="font-weight: 400;">Sale’s solutions are what make the business world thrive.  The client has a problem and we fix it, our goods or services are delivered, outcomes are achieved and everybody wins.  In a lot of cases however these are only partial wins.  Problems and issues are a bit like icebergs – there is a lot more going on below the surface than can be spotted from the captain’s bridge.  The salesperson’s role is to go after the whole iceberg and not just the obvious bit floating above the waterline.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The standard sales interview is based on two models comprising the outer circles surrounding a metaphorical bull’s-eye.   The extreme periphery is the “telling is selling” model.  This ensures the salesperson does most of the talking and tries to bludgeon the buyer into agreement.  The client is subjected to a constant bombardment of features, until they either buy, die or retreat.  The second model, the inner circle adjoining the bull’s-eye, is the solution model of providing outcomes that best serve the client, based on what the client has understood is their problem.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The latter is a much better tool and is in pristine condition because so few salespeople use it.  The rapid fire of features at the client, rarely provides success because of the randomness of the proffering of alternatives.  Welcome to the “toss enough mud at the wall and some is bound to stick” School of Sales.  They want it in blue, but we keep talking, talking, talking about our wondrous pink.  Why? Because we didn’t ask them what colour they want. There are better ways of doing it than this. Aligning the fix with the client need in the solution model is the mark of the semi-professional.  There is nothing wrong with this model, but what are the rock star sales masters doing?</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">They are zipping up their wetsuits and diving into the icy water under the iceberg, inspecting things closely and really understanding the full scope of the situat