Episode #197: We Will Get Back to You

Understanding why people don’t buy immediately after your brilliant presentation in Japan is a critical component of success here. Aggressive American style wrangling with the buyer just won’t work here. We need to understand the limitations facing the person we are meeting and how the company decision making structure works.

In Japan, this “We will get back to you” response is often the result at the second meeting with the client. In the first meeting, the salesperson is establishing trust and credibility. They are trying to identify if they can actually be of assistance to the client or not. There will be permission sought to ask questions to better understand the buyer’s needs. In the second meeting, the proposal is presented, objections are dealt with and the seller tries to gain a client agreement to buy. Actually this is all fantasy and not what usually happens.

In reality, the Japanese salesperson gets straight into their pitch and starts bombarding the client with all the nitty gritty details and features of the product or service. They get to the end and then wonder why the client doesn’t buy and all they hear is “we will get back to you”. In this case, the clients are using this answer to get rid of dud salespeople.

Sadly, even if you are a pro and were following a proven sale’s process, where you did all the necessary questioning steps, you will still often get this response of “we will get back to you” in Japan. This is usually thought to be because we have not gotten enough clarity during the questioning process. Sometimes we have misunderstood the client or they have not been clear enough themselves. It could be that there was a hidden objection they are reluctant to share with us and we have failed to address that concern, so no purchase can be made. There is also another Japan specific reason, which I will cover shortly.

What do we do about this pushback? We can certainly accept that they do need to think about it and we need to set the date for the followup meeting right there on the spot. The formula from sales training guru Victor Antonio, where we don’t accept that simple headline answer and we dig deeper, is a typical American approach. Victor says to the client, “when someone tells me they need to think about it, they means one of two things - they are not interested or are interested, but not sure. Which is it?”. He says if they say interested but not sure, then we should question further about whether the purchase is a fit, whether the functionality is all there or not, or is it a question of finance?

The idea being that if the problem is anyone of his three reasons, we should drill down further in order to understand how to handle it. If it is not a fit, why not? If the functionality is not there, what is missing and can we overcome that issue? If it is the money, then we look at how we might arrange the payment terms to allow them to make it in this budget cycle or spread it out over a few cycles.

In a Japanese buyer context, this line of questioning would be considered very aggressive and obnoxious. The buyer isn’t King in Japan – the buyer is God and it is not the place of pipsqueak salespeople to question God as to why they need to think about it. The group decision-making process in Japan almost ensures they really do need to think about it - together. The person receiving the sales call may be on board and may have been satisfied with the proposal, but they are rarely the sole decision maker. Inside the company, the buying decision will impact on various sections and the views and concerns of those groups need to be smoothed off, before anyone can make a final affirmative decision. This process is called “nemawashi” or groundwork and makes a lot of sense.

Trying to pressure the buyer during the sale’s call is meaningless, because that person still has to gain the internal alignment of the group on the next steps. It would make more sense if the seller instead addressed the issue of pushback toward the other internal parties who potentially may have a problem with the decision to buy. In this case, rather than asking the person in front of us these aggressive questions, we could ask about some of the other players involved.

For example, “Sometimes there are concerns from other interested parties about the appropriateness of the fit between our solution and your company’s needs. Do you foresee any internal concerns in this area? What about functionality – do you anticipate any difficulties with the functionality of our solution from within the other sections involved? What about the finance aspect, do you expect any resistance to what has been proposed?”.

In this way we can indirectly ask the buyer about the concerns without appearing to be questioning what they have just told us about they need to think about it. We can also take the opportunity to again provide antidotes to any concerns, because our interlocutor will be “our voice” during the inside meetings where the proposal will be discussed. We need to lead the witness, so to speak, to prepare for internal pushback. So when you hear “we will get back to you” and you know you have done a good job of understanding the client’s needs and your proposal will help their business, just relax. Still definitely make that appointment for the follow-up meeting right there and then. Get into their schedule, but don’t keep pushing or you will hurt the trust you are trying to create.