I am very active networking here in Tokyo, scouring high and low for likely buyers of our training solutions. I attend with one purpose – “work the room” and as a Grant Cardone likes to say, find out “who’s got my money”. I have compressed my pitch down to ten seconds when I meet a possible buyer at an event. My meishi business card is the tool of choice in this regard. Most people here have English on one side and Japanese on the other. I was like that too until I got smarter about selling our services.
Typically, I would hand over my business card - Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training. The recipient would then ask me “what do you do?”. I realised I needed to have a better organised approach to that frequent question. Knowing that we do better remembering things we hear and see at the same time, I created two cards – one for English and one for Japanese.
On the front of my card is all the logistical information – title, location and contact details. On the rear of the card is the pitch deck. On that side, I note we are experts in “soft skills” training, we have been here in Japan for 61 years and around the world for 112 years and that we cover five main areas – communication, sales, leadership, presentations and diversity, equity and inclusion. At this point I ask them which one of these they need the most at their firm and then I shut up. In ten seconds, I have them telling me their needs. This opens up the opportunity to visit them after the event and go through what we might be able to do for them. It is not the right occasion to attempt to have that conversation in a busy networking event. By the way, if they say, “all of them”, I still ask them which one is of the most interest. I need to get them to prioritise otherwise, it is left too vague and the conversation cannot advance.
Naturally, I write to them immediately and try to set up the appointment. Most people ghost me and don’t reply. I know everyone is busy, so I also know I have to keep following up until they consent or tell me to buzz off. Those who agree to meet will answer my questions and listen to what we have. At this point, things slow down as they work their way through the labyrinth behind the meeting room wall, where their decision-making colleagues sit – out of my sight and touch. They need to reach a consensus internally, to do the training and pay the dough.
The problem is they are never on my timetable with their decision-making. Don’t they know I have a monthly target to hit? Don’t they know we need money now, not later? Aren’t they aware we don’t like 60 and 90 day payment terms, because that is grossly unfair to the little guy?
So often when we complete a deal and I look back at the spark of that deal, going from the initial ten second pitch deck networking event chance encounter, to the time of payment, it can be six months or more. If you have a cash flow issue in your firm, that is a big problem. Yes, you can discount fees to speed up payment and you get less, but you get it faster. The better approach is to keep stacking your funnel with deals, so that if one is slow to fruition or falls over, you are not wiped out.
Deals falling over is super painful. You have spent a ton of time marshaling this payday through their elaborate and baroque system. Everyone is ready to go, the contract is agreed by their legal beagles and then “someone” intervenes and scuppers the entire enterprise. That payday may happen or it may not happen, but if that is all you have on the go, then you are naked and alone in a harsh world of pain.
I am reminded of watching a show on television when I was a kid. A performer was keeping plates spinning on top of cane sticks. As one would falter, they would leap in and wobble the cane stick to get the plate back to maximum speed. It was always fast-paced and frantic. I am sure it must have been incredibly stressful for the artist. That is the sales life to me. We are busily spinning the plates to make sure none fall and we get a deal done and get paid.
Too many plates and the things start to go awry or too few plates and you don’t get fed. Finding the balance is difficult, but I reckon we should always err on the side of too many deals rather that not enough. We can always work harder to make the deals happen.
There is a contradiction between being so busy we can’t prospect and being able to spend a lot of time prospecting, but not getting paid yet. This is the plague of coaches and consultants. If they are in the act of coaching or consulting, they are getting paid but are not prospecting. You don’t get paid for prospecting. So no earner there while you search for the next client.
There is never a balance and we have to live with that inequity, because that is the sales life. The key is to keep in mind the buyer is never on your timetable. You need to stack the funnel all the time, no matter how busy you become. If you don’t, you enter the Valley Of Sales Death as the deal flow evaporates and you have no clients in the funnel and therefore no money coming in for months.
To keep those plates spinning, we need to be out there finding new clients, prospecting, following up, being ghosted with monotonous regularity, but never giving up is the answer. Ryan Serhant says he keeps following up with potential clients until they die and he never gives up. Let’s be like Grant and find out who has our money and be like Ryan and never give up chasing them down.
