Episode #209: Virtual Selling - Closing The Deal

Closing the deal is almost a non-existent art in Japan. Salespeople here are particularly terrified of rejection. The best way they have found to avoid that unfortunate result is to not ask for the business at all. At the end of the sales presentation, after going through the details, dealing with any hesitations or concerns and qualifying the issues, the conversation just fades out. The client finally says “we will think about it”. Now the cat and mouse game starts of following up, to find out if there is in fact any interest or not. No one is embarrassed with a public loss of face from a “no” answer. Delicate salespeople egos are preserved and everyone joins in this farce. Why is it like this?

There are many books published in English from America, about how to close the sale. None of the ones I have read will ever work here in Japan. American salespeople are often on pure commission or the commissions are a big portion of their income, so the desperation to force a sale is high. Sell or starve. When the client says, “we will think about it” in Japan, they are telling the truth. The people we face are rarely the final decision maker. There is a check and balance mechanism here called the ringi seido. Each buying decision has to be signed off by those effected by the result, by placing their hanko or personal seal on the discussion document.

This forces collaboration based on a frank exchange of opinions and cooperation between departments. The typical western scenario of the salesperson overselling the delivery capability and blowing up the back office or the plant doesn’t occur here. Yes, it takes longer, but Japan is slow to agree and fast to act. So which is better? The western system of big talk and then slow action or even defective flawed action or the slow and steady wins the race Japanese approach?

We still need to get to the point of having the Japanese side come to a conclusion about what happens next. We can do that using several non-confrontational methods that will work like a charm in Japan.

1. Direct Question
In a gentle, curious way, we softly ask, “shall we go ahead?”. We make eye contact, but we do not speak after that sentence. We just sit there, until hell freezes over, if we have to. Do not dilute the power of the question by adding anything to that one simple straight forward sentence.

2. Alternate Choice
This is another very soft ball question. We ask them choose to between two buying alternatives. A yes to either means the buyer agrees to buy without having to state it explicitly. “Would you like to start in this month or is next month more preferable?”. We are avoiding a yes or no alternative here, making it as easy as possible for them to say yes

3. Minor Point
We select some post sales decision they have to make to test their interest in buying. We might segue during the discussion and ask, “By the way, are you okay if our invoice comes to you electronically or does your accounting department require hard copy?”. If there is no deal, then the finer points of interest around the accounting department’s ridiculous preferences become redundant.

4. Next Step
Again, we take the buyer mentally into the future and have them make a determination about how they will use the solution. We can say, “Do you have a preferred contract format you want to use or are you happy to use ours? Our version is very straightforward”.

5. Opportunity
This is the last one in stock close. The buying opportunity at this price or availability or with all these various goodies attached, will go away at a certain point in time, unless they act now. Don’t snow the buyer with some made up deadline, because we are building a trusted partner relationship here, not indulging in some smash and grab hijinks. This close has to be delivered in a very matter of fact manner, with zero pressure to do anything. Tell them the real situation and leave it up to them to go for it or not.

If there are any hidden doubts, hesitations or objections, these five little darlings will flush them out and then we can keep selling. There must be clarity about how we are going to end this sales call. Is it a yes, a no or a definite maybe. We cannot be afraid of the no or the maybe. That is just part of the process. Each answer triggers the specific next steps to deal with these responses. We want to know their answer, so that we will know what to do next. Asking for the order in these non-threatening “soft” ways, suits a Japanese buyer audience and they work. So ask for the order.