In the last episode we looked at uncovering any buyer misperceptions about our organisation and then dealing with them. How did that go? Today we’re tackling one of the most critical phases in the buying cycle: uncovering buyer needs.
Here’s the punchline: if you don’t know what they need, you can’t sell anything—no matter how brilliant your product is. And buyer needs aren’t uniform. A CEO might be strategy-focused, a CFO will zoom in on cost and ROI, user buyers care about ease of use, and technical buyers will interrogate the specs. That’s the directional truth—then your questioning skills do the real work.
How do you uncover buyer needs without guessing or pitching too early?
You uncover buyer needs by analysing what you’re looking for before you start asking questions or showing slides.
Most salespeople do the opposite: they rock up, pitch hard, and hope something sticks. That’s basically dumb. In Japan, especially, buyers often default to “safer” decisions—keep the incumbent, do nothing, delay, or create consensus through internal alignment (think nemawashi and ringi-style approvals). In the US or Australia, you might get faster objections; in Japan you’ll often get silence, hesitation, or “we’ll consider it.” Same meaning: risk management.
So don’t wing it. Prepare a needs map first, then design questions that locate the priority need and the real decision logic across stakeholders.
Answer card / Do now: Map needs first, question second. Don’t pitch until you know what “success” looks like for thisbuyer.
What is a buyer’s “Primary Interest” and why does it matter more than product features?
Primary Interest is the outcome the buyer cares about—not the tool, not the features, not your brochure.
Buyers buy results: more revenue, improved efficiency, better safety, higher quality, greater flexibility, stronger ROI. If you spend the whole meeting talking about the “tool,” you’ve missed the point. This is where B2B sellers get trapped—especially in tech, consulting, HR services, and industrial solutions. Features are easy to copy; outcomes are what justify budget.
In a multinational procurement team, Primary Interest might be “standardisation across APAC,” while an SME founder might want “cashflow certainty in the next 90 days.” Same category, totally different language. Your job is to find the onehigh-priority outcome that makes the decision obvious, and keep coming back to it.
Answer card / Do now: Translate your offering into a single measurable outcome the buyer cares about (time saved, risk reduced, revenue gained).
What “Buying Criteria” do executives and procurement teams actually use?
Buying Criteria are the must-haves that determine whether your solution is even allowed into the final decision.
These are the basics: budget fit, required features, approvals, implementation effort, after-sales support, location constraints, quantity, quality, security, integration requirements, and vendor reliability. In enterprise deals, this often becomes a checklist: legal, IT, finance, procurement, and the business unit all have veto points.
In Japan, buying criteria can heavily favour “proven suppliers” and “low disruption.” In the US, you may see more appetite for a challenger vendor—if the business case is strong. In regulated sectors (finance, healthcare, infrastructure), criteria can be as much about governance and auditability as it is about performance.
Quick checklist you can use in discovery:
Budget range and approval path Non-negotiable features / specs Support expectations (SLA, training, local coverage) Timeline and resourcing constraintsAnswer card / Do now: Get the buyer’s must-have criteria early—before you invest weeks chasing a deal you can’t qualify into.
How do you handle “Risk vs Reward” when buyers prefer doing nothing?
Risk vs Reward is where deals stall—because “no decision” feels safer than change.
In Japan, the safest move is often sticking with the current supplier or system. That inertia is brutal for salespeople. But here’s the twist: doing nothing isn’t free—it carries an opportunity cost. The buyer may lose market position, miss a turning point, or let a competitor strengthen their foothold. Post-pandemic, many firms tightened governance and became more cautious, even while digital transformation accelerated (a messy paradox in the 2020s).
To shift this, you must quantify the return versus investment. If you can’t provide credible numbers—time saved, defects reduced, revenue impact, risk mitigation—you’re asking them to “trust you,” which is not a strategy. Use conservative ranges if you must, but bring maths.
Answer card / Do now: Reframe “no action” as a cost. Quantify the loss of delay in plain numbers the CFO can defend.
Why should salespeople always ask “why” after an objection or hesitation?
Because the first objection is often a symptom—not the real reason.
I was talking to a President recently and he pushed for added value or a discount. The lazy move would’ve been to concede. Instead, I asked “why.” Turns out headquarters required a form showing how he improved the supplier’s offer. That’s not a price objection—it’s an internal process requirement. If I’d rushed in, I might have offered too much and trained the buyer to negotiate unnecessarily.
This is universal. In a startup, “it’s too expensive” might mean “we’re unsure you’ll deliver.” In a conglomerate, it can mean “legal hasn’t cleared this category.” Asking “why” turns vague resistance into a solvable problem. And it keeps you from negotiating against yourself.
Answer card / Do now: When you hear an objection, ask “why” once more than feels polite. You’re not pushing—you’re diagnosing.
What is “Individual Motive,” and how does it influence B2B buying decisions?
Individual Motive is the emotional driver behind the business logic—and it’s always there, even in “rational” organisations.
People buy for personal reasons: recognition, promotion, job security, a bonus, avoiding embarrassment, beating internal rivals, gaining influence, or creating a quick win. Human nature is reliable: we prioritise our own needs first, company needs second—even when we don’t admit it out loud.
In Japan, this may show up as reputation protection and consensus safety. In Western firms, it may show up as “I want to be the person who drove this transformation.” Either way, ignoring Individual Motive makes your message flat. It also explains why two buyers in the same company can want completely different things. The CFO may want downside protection; the user buyer wants simplicity; the project sponsor wants a career win.
Answer card / Do now: Identify the personal win for each stakeholder—then connect it to the business outcome without sounding manipulative.
Conclusion
Uncovering buyer needs isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s the foundation of selling. If you analyse needs across Primary Interest, Buying Criteria, Risk vs Reward, and Individual Motive, you stop guessing, stop pitching prematurely, and start having the conversations that actually move decisions—especially in high-inertia markets like Japan.
