Episode #44: Seriously Nasty Buyers

The customer is Kamisama (God) in sales in Japan. We hear this a lot here across all industries and sectors. Sometimes however, the buyer can more like an Oni (Devil) when they deal with salespeople. Bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of the source, but when you are trying to sell a company on your product or service, do you just have to suck it up? Actually no!

Unless you are in a very small market segment, where there are only a limited number of buyers, then as salespeople we have choices. If the former is the case, then I suggest changing industries and getting out of that negative bad behavior environment. Life is short and good salespeople have highly transferable skills. If you know what you are doing, you can probably work in almost any business, as long as there is no requirement for highly technical knowledge.

The Japan winner of the worst sales environment is the pharmaceutical industry selling to doctors. Unlike the rest of the advanced world, where patients use the internet to educate themselves about medical conditions, before they see the doctor, Japan is still stuck in the pre-1990s.

Japanese doctors consequently, still consider themselves vastly superior to everyone else, from patients on down. At the absolute bottom of the pile are drug salespeople. Being forced to wait around for hours, fawning over the doctor, being spoken to like dirt, cleaning their Mercedes, arranging all types of incentives to get them to buy your drugs, have been the fodder for legendary poor buyer behavior forever.

Conflicts of interest have emerged recently as a concern and there are many more restrictions now on entertaining doctors. The flow of goodies is being restricted and so the salesperson doesn’t have as much in the way of ame (sweets) to offer anymore. They still get plenty of muchi (whip) from the buyer though.

Japan has a powerful hierarchical system in place in society. You have been busily networking, creating new opportunities. The company President you have just met tells one of the staff to get together with you the salesperson. You might be thinking, this is looking good. Not necessarily. What often surprises me about HR people and other underlings in Japan is how they run their own show, regardless of what the President may want.

Recently, I had lunch with a multi-national company President here running the Japan operation. The President is dynamic, articulate and a great presenter. After the lunch, as promised, the President sent an email to the HR person instructing them to get together with me to discuss training for their company. I follow up with the HR person many, many times, but never get an answer. It has become obvious they do not care what the President said, they have their own views on how to run the training and we are not going to fit into that plan.

On another occasion, I had met the Japanese President at a networking event, followed up, got a meeting and in the process he introduced me to the HR people. In the meeting, the President suggested they take a look at what we offer. Many, many emails and attempted contacts later, no response from the HR team for follow-up meeting.

Going back and telling the President who introduced you that, in fact, they have no power within their own organization is a bit of a delicate conversation. Even if you raise it, you have just said that the Emperor has no clothes. They do not thank you for pointing out their underlings are in rebellion and they themselves are impotent. I am still working on a solution for this contradiction.

Another annoying activity is being asked to spend time to put together a proposal and quote on a product or service, but there is absolutely no intention to buy from you. This is often driven by internal compliance regulations that require three quotes. They have already secretly selected the provider and your job is to provide the paperwork to make sure that happens and the compliance box is ticked.

We were contacted by a large company recently asking for a proposal on a particular piece of training. Efforts to meet the client to discuss the needs etc., were rebuffed because they said they were so busy – just send the proposal, it will be fine (!). This is a tricky one, because you don’t know if you are the patsy here or if they are in fact so very busy that is why they need your help.

To test the system in these specific doubtful and dubious cases, I never follow up from my side after sending over the proposal. I know, I know. This sounds like a very bad sales effort on my part and I should be fired, but it is a technique to reveal who we are dealing with here, time wasters or genuine buyers.

If they are really interested, then they will get back to me with either more questions or an order. If stony silence is all we get, we know we have been royally used to assist a competitor’s sales effort. That is a double ouch right there, isn’t it!

It is not always black and white though. In another case the President was a graduate of our programme and told his HR Director to get us to put together a proposal on some training. This is exciting and you think “we are looking good”. The President knows the quality and the results from first hand experience and has the authority to make this happen. Or so it seems. In this example, I actually get to meet the HR people and their internal client. I followed up to present the proposal to them. “No, we are very busy, just send it”. Warning signal right there. I pushed back, “actually I need to explain it for you”. Further stalling, “No, just send it”. The pricing by the way, was very close to their indication.

Eventually you send it, but now you begin to suspect this is revenge on the President for daring to enter their world of authority. What looked like an inside track to a positive decision, gets derailed as the internal buying entity flexes muscle to show their independence. Applying my standard rule, I do not follow up further and just wait to see what happens. There was no response from their side, so again few options available, other than to tough it out.

These things happen in business, but the key point is do not take it personally. Sales is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and your emotions are always under attack. Accept that sometimes you will get played by the buyer, but keep a record of the incident. Every six months give that company a call to see if your nefarious counterpart is still working there.

People are much more mobile in Japan, compared to many years ago and there is a good chance the evil, malicious puppeteer has moved on. We should not deal with that particular buyer again, but we can try to deal with the company.

There are usually many buyers in your market and many who you have had no contact with as yet, so there is little need to deal with bad buyer behavior. As the old saying goes “fool me once it’s your fault, fool me twice it’s my fault”.

Action Steps

If you are in an industry where buyers habitually treat salespeople very badly then switch industries
Just because the people at the top like you, don’t think that means anything in Japan. Keep working on those who actually execute the work.
If the buyer just says “send it to me” get worried, you may be the patsy for unknowingly assisting a rival’s offer
Keep in touch with the company, the “problem child” may have moved on
Never forget “fool me once it’s your fault, fool me twice it’s my fault”

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.