Episode #410: Why Sending Your Sales Proposal in Japan Is the Worst Mistake You Can Make

One of the worst combos in sales is a virtual meeting online and the buyer says, “send me your proposal” or even more insane, you volunteer to send it. Even if you managed to sit down face-to-face with a buyer, do not under any circumstances finish up the meeting with this sentence, “I will send you my proposal”. Sale is hard enough as it is, so why do salespeople decide they are not living on the edge enough and make these types of ludicrous statements?
We usually get one hour in the first meeting to go through the first part of the sales cycle: build rapport with small talk, get permission to ask questions, ask questions to understand 1. where they are now, 2. where they need to be, 3. why they aren’t there already and 4. what will it mean for this individual if it all goes swimmingly?

This requires that as the salesperson, we shut up and let the buyer do most of the talking and that we take very good notes. One handy note taking technique is to divide the note page into four quarters representing these four questions and then write the answers in the corresponding quarter of the page. If you have missed something, it becomes immediately obvious, because there are few or no notes in that quarter.

In our proposal, we will outline what we have understood is their need. We will then outline what we suggest is the best solution to deliver on this need and then explain what it will cost. Of course we never ever use words like “price”, “cost”, etc and instead we only refer to the “investment”.
This sounds infinitely simple, but have we understood their need? Have they actually been totally forthcoming about the full gamut of their need? Are they holding back key information we need to know in order to provide the best solution for them? Why would they not share that critical information with us? We assume they want to buy something. Maybe they have a vague interest. We have managed to blag our way into a meeting with the buyer, but their motivation isn’t high. They may have a mild dose of curiosity or they may be a psychopath who loves to torture poor, unsuspecting salespeople.

Salespeople generally have poor listening skills. They are often not really listening completely, because they hear one piece of the puzzle and their brain inflames with an internal conversation about the clever next thing they are going to say. At this point, they actually stop listening to the buyer. Or they may hear an objection and the brain goes into overdrive with what they are going to say to destroy that objection. They stop listening to all the other vitals hints from the buyer about what they need, in order to concentrate on their sparkling riposte.

Consequently, what they regurgitate in the proposal may have missed the mark or more likely, missed key bits which the buyer needs to hear about in order to organise the Purchase Order. Given this likelihood, imagine what a disaster it is to send the document off and allow the buyer to sit there and silently think, “I am dealing with an idiot who has not understood fully what we need”.

Here is Dr. Story’s iron discipline sales requirement. When wrapping up the meeting, grab your schedule and make them open theirs and find a date and time for the next meeting. In that meeting, you will bring the proposal and go through it with them to make sure you have correctly and fully understood their needs. Get into their diary right there and then, because trying to do it later can be difficult and sometimes it never happens at all.

If they say, ‘just send it to me”, under no circumstances accept that statement. Instead, say “I will need to show you something, so let’s find a time for me to do that”. Do not dilute the power of what you have just said by adding to it with more justifications. Keep the strength of that bold statement intact, break eye contact, hold your pen at the ready, look down at your diary, and suggest dates and times.

We want to be sitting right across from them when we go through the details to read their body language reaction to what we are outlining. We want to make sure we have properly understood their needs and that our solution is attractive to them. We want to tease out any doubts so that we can deal with these spiky porcupines on the spot.