Episode #134: Why Japanese Salespeople Won't Question The Buyer

Consultative selling, value selling, insight selling, etc., all rely on one crucial factor to be successful. That is the use of questions to get enough information to make sure the buyer hears what they need to hear, in order to choose that salesperson to buy from. This problem is not exclusive to Japan. There are failing salespeople scattered all around the world, because they are making the most basic mistakes. There is an astronomical amount of free and paid information available today about the best practices of selling. There is always a big swathe being cut right through the middle of this output devoted to asking the buyer questions. Despite all of this goodness, the majority of salespeople never study anything and so fail to drink from the sale’s fountain of youth.

Whenever we teach salespeople in our sale’s courses, we invariably find their questioning skills are either non-existent or very shabby. Once they get the structures and the practice, we see them become much more professional in sales. In other words, they can do it. So what is it with Japanese salespeople that they won’t ask the buyer questions? During a recent sale’s training session the following reasons were offered up by the Japanese salespeople taking the programme.

Here are seven reasons why salespeople here say they won’t ask the buyer questions during the sales call.

1. They worry about angering the buyer

Somehow the buyer is perceived to be quick to temper, anger and unhappiness if they are questioned. The idea is that this is not the behaviour the buyer is expecting and a frosty sales call is in scope immediately if questions are asked.

2. They fear they will be insulting them

There is the fear that the salesperson might ask a question which the buyer can’t answer and the buyer will lose face. This is insulting and a guarantee that the salesperson will never do any business with that company ever again.

I have experienced this myself. We deal with a lot of HR people who are looking for training on behalf of line managers. When I asked the HR team certain needs based questions they clearly had no idea, because they weren’t briefed or had no insight. They said they wanted my pitch. I resisted that option. Instead I innocently asked if I could talk directly to the line manager, to find out what I needed to know. I was immediately bundled straight out the door.

3. They feel it is being too direct

The types of questions needed to be asked are quite specific and quite direct. What are you problems, what is not working, where are you failing, why aren’t you fixing it, etc. The whole culture here survives through indirectness, vagaries, tonnes of grey. Ambiguous conversation is a well refined art in Japan. Asking direct, pointed questions upsets the social harmony, so this must be avoided.

4. Concerned the quality of their questions may be too poor

Asking a dumb question is also a fear. That would be embarrassing and show a lack of professionalism or a lesser intellect. It reveals poor research before the meeting and so a cavalier attitude toward the buyer. You have to know the industry well to hone in on pertinent issues. Failure to ask smart questions says you are clueless and not to be taken seriously. Better to keep that dirty little secret to yourself, by keeping your mouth shut.

5. The buyer will feel you are trying to snag the company’s internal secrets

Asking about the current state of the business, the firm’s plans, strategies, pricing, delivery quantities, activities etc., is usually confidential information and it is highly presumptuous and arrogant to be asking for this forbidden data.

6. They just get straight into their pitch and don’t think to ask questions

Because salespeople are mainly trained by the untrained, that is to say, their seniors, who were trained in the same sad way by their seniors too, the bloodline of question asking ability ran out decades ago. Pitching without having any clue what the buyer needs, never even registers in the salespeople’s mind as an issue because they think their job is to turn up and go through the flyers or the product catalogue. They think, “Questions? Who needs questions, when I am here to tell the client everything about the product, so they can buy it”.

7. The buyer is God and God is too high in status for a salesperson to be asking for anything

I remember when I first got to Japan, I noticed that very low ranking people in very large companies, were treated as superior by the Presidents of much smaller firms. Social hierarchy is very defined here by both the size of the company and the rank of the individual. By definition the buyer always outranks the seller. The buyer’s point of view is that the salesperson will pitch their offer and the buyer will tear it to shreds and reject it. No questions brooked, entertained or tolerated when God is involved in the sale. Therefore salespeople are in no social position to be asking anything to God, the buyer.

I am sure there are other reasons, but I think we have captured enough of the flavour of the issue. What this nefarious list points out is the imbalance in power between buyer and seller. That is not true though in real life. If I had the cure for cancer, who has the balance of power, me the seller or the buyer? The seller obviously, because we have not had a satisfactory drug developed yet to cure cancer. We have to think of our business solution the same way. We have the cure for the cancer impacting the buyer’s company and our job is to get it to the buyer as soon as possible.

To know what ails this company we have to ask them crucial, private, secret information. To be allowed to hear the sacred truths, we need to build trust. We need to set up the questioning permission before we proceed. If we do this correctly, then gentle as a lamb, the approval to ask questions will be forthcoming and away we go. Do your salespeople know how to ask and receive that permission? If they don’t then get them trained, so that they can achieve that vital step, that all important trigger to the sale.