Episode #245: We Buy Benefits Not Features

Japan loves data and detail. All good, but it can be a trap when you are here trying to make sales in Japan. In a Western sales model there is a defined process to go through and the buyer is also trained on how that works as well. In the Japanese case there is a love of detail bias. This will take you down the wrong path, if you let the buyer control the sales call. Which is what happens to all the Japanese salespeople here, by the way.

The buyer loves the detail, the spec, the features of the product. They can’t get enough of that stuff. The problem is we don’t buy the features, we buy the outcomes, the benefits. In sale’s training we often use the example of buying a hand drill at a DYI Center. There are tons of detail on the drill – weight, speed, power source, battery life etc. We are not buying a drill, because what we are really after is a hole of a certain diameter in brick, metal, concrete or wood etc. The drill‘s features are not what we are buying, but that is often all the salesperson talks about.

So here in Japan we have to be careful, because the buyer can drag us down into the morass of the detail and features of the product or service. We have to control the sales call and redirect the conversation away from only the detail on the spec and move on to the outcomes, the benefits these features will provide for the buyer. Generally speaking, most salespeople around the world get to the feature bit and only a tiny minority elevate the conversation to cover the consequent benefits from the features. Japanese pitchpeople have trained the buyers here to focus on the spec, the detail, the data.

We need to get to a higher level of discussion. We need to be drawing word pictures they can see in their mind’s eye. We need to be describing all the future benefits they will get from this purchase. This requires telling stories, talking about outcomes and results.

Having done that we need to show some evidence that what we say works. The series of statements coming out of the salesperson’s mouth is not counted as evidence by buyers. Salespeople like to talk a lot. We can do this, we can do that or we have this, we have that. So what? We need to be referring to the cases where we have helped other companies. We need to provide data to back up what we are saying. We need to be showing the application of the benefits and where this has worked elsewhere. This makes the whole sales call more credible.

This has to be real – you cannot make this stuff up. If you want to lie to the buyer, then get out of our profession, we don’t want you polluting the waters. It has to be authentic, real, something that you can prove to the buyer if they want that level of detail. Then you have to move into a trial close to see if there are any areas of concern. Is there anything we haven’t covered in sufficient detail. Did we miss anything, are there any objections to what we have said?

The Japanese pitchperson doesn’t get to any of this level of sophistication. They are bogged down in the detail of the features. Remember, the buyer has been trained to only expect the pitch. They will keep you there and keep asking detailed micro questions. They do this because they are risk averse and they want to make sure there will no issues with your solution. That is fine but we can’t stay there for the whole sale’s call. You have to move them out of the minutiae, up the ladder to the next sunny uplands of benefits, application of the benefits, evidence that this works and a trial close. This is a structure and the Japanese pitchperson doesn’t have any structure.

We need to reeducate buyers on selling here. We have to guide them along a different path to what they are used to. It isn’t easy but if you want to make sales in Japan this is the requirement.