In sales we can defeat ourselves, because our way of thinking isn’t positive enough. Consequently, we don’t challenge the status quo and we accept our lot, which usually doesn’t amount to much. There is a better way
There are two players in this mental game of sales. The buyer and the seller and they are playing with entirely different strategies. For the buyer, the idea of a salesperson symbolises risk. Can they trust this person? Their experience and a variety of media images, have coalesced to ensure buyers are always sceptical about people trying to sell them stuff. As we say, “We all love to buy, but none of us want to be sold”.
That is why all that American style hard sell, tricky closes, tie downs etc., fall flat on their face here in Japan. I enjoy watching Grant Cardone’s sales videos but that aggressive style of selling will never work here with Japanese clients. Buyers everywhere are cautious when it comes to dealing with salespeople, but ever more so in this country.
Risk aversion is super powerful in Japan. This is not the country of declaring bankruptcy then making a stunning comeback with your next company. This is “fail once then you disappear forever”. The credibility is gone and with so are you. At this point, there are no second chances in Japan. This applies inside companies too. The sizes of the salary packages for Japanese executives would seem a joke in America. This means that all the way down the line the rewards are not that huge. The salaries are good, but not spectacular. The upside of taking risks is small and the downside huge, so the clear lesson in Japan is “don’t take risks”.
Again, by definition dealing with a new supplier is risky. The unknown in Japan is fearsome. The tried and trusted are always preferred over the unfamiliar and untested. This latter variety of salesperson is us though – the untested, the new seller. We are always going to be unknown to the buyers at the start. So as salespeople we begin below the waterline and have to work our way up. We have to demonstrate to the buyer that we can be trusted. We can do this by employing referrals from satisfied customers, starting small with some demonstrations, small tests, trial periods, free samples, limited orders etc. We need to establish a track record that reduces the fears of the buyer about us making any mistakes.
The mental game on the seller’s part is about confidence. We are all mainly failing in sales. We don’t get every order. We don’t get every appointment. We get rejected more often than when we get an agreement on a deal. Now Japan is a country of face. Losing face is a big deal here socially, so everyone is hell bent to make sure they don’t get themselves into situations where they will lose face.
Asking for the order may mean you lose face if they say no. Ergo, don’t ask for the order. Just leave the end of the sales call vague and don’t try and close the deal. Walking up to strangers at a networking event and introducing yourself may result in your being rejected and losing face, so better to only talk to the people you already know. The fact you don’t meet many new people is fine because you didn’t lose face.
Not asking the buyer any questions and just launching straight into your pitch is fine, because you won’t lose face. The fact that you are flying blind and have no idea if anything in your pitch is relevant or interesting to the buyer is better than being rejected and losing face. The buyer is God in Japan, so better not to annoy God with any questions. The upshot of all of this in Japan is that salespeople are very strong with existing buyers and very weak regarding getting new clients. We hear this all the time from company Presidents engaging us to teach sales. They cannot get their sales teams to focus on expanding the size of the business by finding new buyers. They don’t want to do cold calling because of the difficulties associated with at. They don’t like networking, because of the difficulties associated with that too. They don’t ask their existing buyers for referrals because they don’t want to lose face in case the customer says no. The Japanese world in sales is small.
So when we put these two mental games together, where the supreme sceptic meets the terrifically timid, not much happens. We can’t do too much about the sceptic, but we can do a lot with the timid. We can give them the means to break out and become much more professional in their sales life. They are woefully undertrained and so are wandering around clueless, just aping what their seniors have been doing. Here is the bad news. The seniors are also clueless, so it is sad cycle of despair in sales in Japan.
Action Steps
Mentally place yourself in the mind of the buyer with all their fears about salespeople Definitely ask God, the buyer, for permission to ask questions before you present any solutions. All you have to know is how. If the buyer says NO, we don’t lose face because the buyer isn’t rejecting us, just our offer, at this time, in this construct, with these terms, in this budget cycle.
