313: Secrets Of The Japanese Sales Call

<p><span style= "font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> In modern economies, asking the buyer questions to understand their needs would be considered the most basic skills of a salesperson. This isn’t happening as much as you would expect in technologically advanced, well educated, sophisticated Japan, the world’s third largest economy. In Japan, busy bosses or more experienced salespeople, will take the new salesperson with them on a couple of sales calls.  End of the training.  Going straight into the detail of the features of the solution is the mainstream technique here. </span></p> <p>Should you adopt the same sales approach when trying to sell to Japanese buyers?  If this is how they roll, then isn’t that the obvious way forward?  Let’s explore what we need to know about how to be successful in selling to Japanese buyers.</p> <p>What is different in the Japanese sales equation?</p> <ol> <li>Of course, you can be like all the Japanese salespeople, except it isn’t very effective and is even more difficult for foreign suppliers to pull off. The buyer needs benefits, not features to be able to give you a “yes” decision.  Logically, you would think that this would ensure Japanese salespeople first ask questions too, rather than focusing on the features of their solution.  However, poorly trained salespeople in Japan have trained the buyer to expect this method. The buyer then tears it apart, to make sure the risk element of the decision has been eliminated or reduced. </li> </ol> <p>To get the decision accepted by the relevant divisions within the company, requires the outcomes to be substantially worthwhile for them to agree.  Features won’t be enough, so we have to know what the needs are first, in order to match our solution and make it convincing to the buyer side. </p> <p>That means asking questions first to understand their needs.  In the West, we never even think of the process of asking permission to ask