The Sales Japan Series

Price conversations are a bad thing.  Invariably, you are dragged into the mud and blood of comparisons with someone ridiculously cheaper.  We get these requests – “send me your price sheet”. My ears…

“Greg, you are everywhere!”.  I am often told this by business people here in Tokyo.  What they mean is that I am prolific on social media, video and audio.  Well, if you are in sales today and you a…

Even the best laid plans go astray.  The sale has been completed, the funds have been paid and we get busy in our sales job moving on to help other clients.  Another department may be tasked with han…

The word “closing” itself can be controversial in sales.  It implies we are ending the process rather than starting the partner relationship with the buyer.  In modern times the word “commitment” fro…

The sales cycle is a simple progression to get the client to the point of purchase.  We have established rapport and trust.  We have asked intelligent questions to understand how we can help them.  W…

Sales is a battle.  Not a battle with the buyer, although sometimes it feels like that when they won’t purchase from us.  The war is going on inside our own heads.  We have imposter syndrome telling …

Sales is such a rollercoaster.  You have a good month or a good quarter then you hit a wall.  Clients change their mind, something happens to the supply chain beyond your control and the order get ca…

Objections are good.  That sounds a bit counterintuitive I know, because what we actually want is to land a deal and an objection seems to be an obstacle preventing that from happening. There is a pr…

Today, we are going to talk about the importance of listening for salespeople. That might sound ridiculous. You might be thinking, “Well, of course I listen to the buyer”. I can assure you my wife of…

After having asked the buyer a lot of questions about their current situation and where they want to be, we know if we can help them or not.  It isn’t a given that we can.  Only we will know if we ha…

Do you have a sales questioning model?  Is there a journey you want the buyer to complete? Do you have questions organised which will lead them along that path? Or are you all over the place, followi…

The word shoshin or beginner’s mind in Japanese is a great metaphor for the world of sales.  When we start some activity there is a simplicity, a purity about what we are doing.  We don’t have enough…

In 2022, let’s all commit to asking more intelligent questions of buyers.  For those who don’t ask questions, because they are too busy delving into the micro details of the solution, this will be a …

Clients don’t need to do anything.  We discover this unfortunate fact very quickly in sales.  We also discover they are never on our timetable of what needs to happen. They can stay with the same sup…

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 will work on one of the most critical phases in the…

Business is brutal and sometimes clients have received incorrect information about our companies from competitors or the media.  When I was selling on behalf of Australian exporters in Nagoya, I reme…

This week we will look at improving our questioning skills and setting up the meeting agenda.  There are a variety of qualifying questions we need to design before we meet with the client, be that me…

In sales, we definitely need a Credibility Statement.  Buyers are always worried about buying what they don’t need or paying too much for what they do buy.  The subterranean vibe is one of distrust t…

What is your pre-approach regimen before you meet the buyer?  We cannot do everything and our time is finite. We should be trying to save our valuable time for meetings with the most qualified client…

In this episode we will look at KPIs or Key Performance Indicators.  These are activities which when carried out effectively lead to revenue results.  There are also behavioural aspects to KPIs which…