361 Dealing With Pushback From Buyers

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">Nobody in sales likes it when buyers pushback and don’t make a purchase decision.  There are varying degrees of pushback though.  Sometimes it might be the buyer being the Devil’s advocate trying to better assure themselves that buying would be the right decision.  Other times it is just the buyer being a pain and exerting their power and authority over the sales person.  Most buyers have never been salespeople, so they are coming into decision-making positions through general management or technical areas like being an engineer, HR or through the CFO route.  In some cases, they don’t respect the profession of sales and look down on salespeople, even including those in their own firm.  They are seeing the profession as a bunch of shiftless liars and dodgy magicians trying to con the punters.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US">Salespeople, at least the professional salespeople, see themselves as playing a vital role in making the wheels of commerce turn.  They connect buyer and seller to the mutual benefit of both parties. “Nothing happens in business until a sale is made” is an old saw and still true today.  Japan is a tough place in many regards in business but at least salespeople are not looked down upon here.  My Carnegie colleagues in Taiwan have their salespeople double hat as the training instructors. They do this because in Chinese culture, the salesperson isn’t respected but the teacher gets respect, so combining the two roles together makes it easier to sell in their culture.  Japan doesn’t have that bias.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">Buyers in Japan though are consumed with doubt and fear.  There is no upside in Japan for doing a good job and a huge downside if something goes wrong and your name is attached to it.  In most cases though in sales, the buying decision is spread broadly across many sections within the company.  Everyo