Episode #252: How To Own The Sales Transition Zone

New clients are so demanding. They want to hear what we have to offer and quickly find out how trustworthy we are. They don’t want to be wasting their valuable time either. This can trigger some bad choices though for salespeople. Remember that the client playbook is not our playbook. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of tracking along their preferred path. We have our job and they have their job and both are highly specific, so we had better master ours, if we want to really help our clients.

There is a transition zone in sales, which is a make or break moment for salespeople. The new client doesn’t know us and we don’t know them. Online or in person, there will always be some degree of small talk. By the way, Western versions of this “small talk” can be microscopic. I was reminded of this in a meeting with the Western president of an international company here. I had barely gotten out a few words of small talk, when he hit me with the directive – “okay, let’s get straight down to business”. After working here for so many years and adjusting to the Japanese style, I was a bit shocked. I was thinking to myself, “oh yeah, that’s how things are in sales in the West”.

What is going through the mind of the buyer? In most cases it will be “how much is this going to cost me?”. They are fixated on price. In sales, we are thinking about the value trade for the price impost. From the outset we are speaking two different languages. We need to address that gap right at the start and set the tone for our salesperson playbook version of how the meeting should run.

After the initial pleasantries, we should outline the meeting agenda. We will mention why we are meeting, just to confirm we are both clear about how our time is going to be used. It might be, “ I appreciate Suzuki san introducing us. She thought there might be some mutual benefit to meeting, so let’s use our time together to explore what that might be. I thought we could look at what we do and how this may help you. I would like to better understand what types of solution you may need and see if there is a match between what we have and what you need. Are there any other items you would like to discuss today?”. This is a nice start which gives them a basic direction for the meeting and also the chance to specify the direction, so that they don’t feel we are hustling them in any way.

We should be careful with how we explain what we do. It should be well structured, but sound unstructured. Using my company as an example, I would begin, “We are global soft skills training experts, who have been here since 1963 and we specialise in sales training in Japan”. This brief sentence has four clear USPs (unique selling propositions) efficiently loaded into the opening. One, we are delivering our training all around the world, so that means we are successful as a training company and have both scope and scale. Two, unlike our domestic competitors, we are bringing world best practice to Japan. Three, we have been here nearly 60 years in Japan, so that means we have stood the test of time and have a solid track record. Four, it also subtly says we have localised what we do for the Japanese market, so you can be comfortable it works here and everywhere else around the world.

Next I would say, “Recently we delivered some sales training for a company in your industry and had outstanding results. We measured salesperson confidence and it went up on average by 40% and they told us their sales revenues increased by 18% in the first six months after the training”. Here, as salespeople, we must bring strong proof that what we do works. We are noting a company similar to them, so the results are relevant for the client. The confidence increase and the revenue numbers are real numbers, which they can believe are true. By the way, if you are inclined to manufacture these types of results out of thin air, don’t do it. Your credibility will go to zero. Think about it. What are the chances of a long term relationship being built on a lie? Remember and this is key, you are not here for a sale. You are here for the re-order.

Now we deliver the piece de resistance, “I don’t know if we could get the same results for you or not, but in order for me to understand if it is possible, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”. This is no pressure sales at its best, which is what works well in Japan. We have remained in control. We have been following our defined structure from our salesperson playbook. First, we explain what we do, who we have done it for, what were the results and then we deliver the request to ask questions. None of this is in the client playbook by the way, which is all about “is this too expensive?”.

I absolutely cannot understand how you can talk price, if you don’t know what they need? We just can’t do it. We need to get permission to gently interrogate them about all the defects in their people and their company, all of the shortcomings, all of the dirty laundry they do their best to hide from the market.

This transition from pleasantries to pleasantly grilling the client on their horror show is a critical phase and it is our salesperson job to do this in a masterful way. If after all of this, we discover we actually can’t help them, then don’t ty and force the square peg into the round hole. Gently tell them “this isn’t a match” and go and find someone you can help.

No sale this time, but no damage to your personal brand either. In fact, your honestly has further burnished your reputation in the market. By finding a new client who is a match, you are now spending your valuable time where there is a higher likelihood of a positive outcome. If we want to succeed, we must be in control of the sales conversation and be operating from our playbook.