Episode #218: Build Your Sales Bridges

The sales process is a process with different phases and stages. The skilled salesperson knows how to navigate their way through these phases in the conversation with the buyer.

We have a defined sales cycle in our interactions with our clients. We build the trust, ask the key questions to understand need, present the solution, deal with pushback and ask for the business. Of course, there is the pre-meeting preparation and the post meeting follow up, but the actual sales call runs through this cycle. Between these key phases there are bridges we need to put in place to make the sales talk flow run smoothly. What do you do now? Do you have defined phases or is it looking like spaghetti, rather than a road map?

One of the key bridges is the very start of the conversation. In Japan this usually starts in the lobby or their office, as you wait for your buyer or when they enter the meeting room their staff have shown you to. Many Western countries have gone all modern and dispensed with business cards or meishi but what a gold mine they are in Japan. I usually receive the meishi English side up, facing me, because that is the polite format in Japan. I read the English side and then flip it over because the Japanese side will have better information. If the kanji for the name is a bit on the rare side, I will mention that and ask if their family comes from a particular region where that name is more common. This is handy because it shows them I can read Japanese, I know about Japan well enough to know their name is rare and it gets them talking. Or I might just ask them about the position they hold inside the company.

Japan is pretty good at small talk before we get into the main business. That is not how we do it in the West. I remember meeting a high powered, foreign President of a major multi national here recently, who had just arrived from the US for his Japan posting. I started with some small talk, got about five seconds into it when he announced, “Let’s get down to business”. I was fine with that but I was also thinking he was going to have a tough time in Japan, because he doesn’t understand the niceties of Japanese social interaction.

Having hopefully built up a convivial atmosphere with the buyer, we get into the sales conversation proper. Japanese salespeople won’t ask the buyer questions because it is considered rude to ask the buyer, aka GOD, questions. This means they go forth blindly delivering their pitch. We have 155 training modules in our line up, so how would I know which ones to focus on, if I didn’t ask some questions first? Pitching is a sure formula for rejection in my experience in Japan, compared to finding out what the buyer needs. So we need to get permission from the buyer to ask questions, as the next bridge in order to move the conversation forward.’

We do this by saying, “We did XYZ for ABC company. Maybe we could do the same for you. I am not sure, but in order for me to know if that is possible or not would you mind if I asked a few questions?”. Or, we could say, “I have never been to the American Congressional Library, but I imagine it with books running from floor to the ceiling five stories high. I have the same thing in my brain, regarding not books but solutions for client problems. We have such a huge line up. In order for me to select only the most relevant, pin point solutions for your issues, would you mind if I asked a few questions, so I can narrow down what I should talk about?”.

Having been able to ask our questions, we now make the decision for the client as to what they should buy. We only introduce those solutions and no more or we have the danger of overwhelming the client with so much detail, they can’t buy anything.

Before we get into the solution, we need to use a bridge to inform them that we can help them. We might say, “Thank you and now I understand clearly what you are looking for. The specification, quality and speed of delivery required are all with in our capability. Allow me to take you through the details”. Or, “Having listened to what you need, I have refined our range, down to the best solution to fit your needs. Please let me take you through it”. At the end of the solution presentation process of feature-benefit-application of the benefit- evidence, we go into a trial close, as a bridge to the next stage of the sales cycle. We say, ”So how does that sound so far?”. We are trying to flesh out any further questions, clarifications or objections.

When we face an objection such as “your price is too high”, we need a bridge to be put in place before we attempt to answer it. We should always smile sweetly and say, “Thank you. May I ask why you say that?”. And then shut up, add nothing more, make no interventions, just sit there in silence until they answer us, even if we have to wait until hell freezes over.

At the end of our explanation dealing with their concerns, hesitations and objections, we just say, “So how does that sound, have I answered all of your concerns?”. We want to know if there are any hidden objections or sticking points preventing the deal from going ahead. If there are none, then we can just say, “Shall we go ahead?”. This is not pushy and is especially useful in Japan, where sales are more low powered, rather than like the high powered American versions.

As we move through the different phases of the sale call, we need to link the phases together and this is why we need to have our bridges ready to go.