Questioning Skills In Sales: Episode #344 The Sales Japan Series

Questioning Skills In Sales: Episode #344 (Audio here for multi-taskers!!) The Sales Japan Series

This was very frustrating.??It became obvious from the client’s email response that there was a big gap between what I thought was going on and the reality.??How could that be???I am an experienced salesperson with a solid track record of sales, I have written two books on selling in Japan, one in English and one in Japanese, I have had a weekly blog on the subject for nearly seven years, I teach selling techniques as part of my job.??What went wrong???In the email response he made it clear that he was only thinking of a very minimum role for us in the sales training process.??Now that was not obvious to me when we met and had our discussion.??This was perplexing. I have been replaying that sales call in my mind looking for what did I wrong, where was the bread crumb trail that I missed?

The questioning phase of the sale’s call is crucial because if you don’t know what the buyer wants, how do you satisfy them, how do you fix their issues, solve their problems???We know that many salespeople don’t ask questions because they are too busy going straight into the nitty gritty detail of explaining their solution.??Let’s put it in simple terms. This is the problem of not asking what is the buyer’s favourite colour, which is blue and then just talking endlessly about your awesome range in pink.??It just doesn’t work well in terms of getting the sale.

What if the buyer’s answer isn’t that clear???This can happen of course.??Not every buyer is articulate or well thought through or well considered or smart.??Often, they don’t have a clear picture of what they need.??Operating from a flawed central proposition can also complicate matters, because not every client is sophisticated in understanding their own core, underlying issues.?

As salespeople, we can make the problem worse too.??We ask questions which get them thinking and considering the problem from fresh perspectives.??Normally, this is a good thing because we want to rock them back on their heels and have them thinking, “We haven’t thought about that” or “We haven’t prepared for that”.??This is where we establish ourselves as the trusted partner with the buyer, by bringing greater value and a fresh angle to the issue.??However, we may also trigger some concerns they haven’t thought about as yet and raise issues which until now have lay quietly dormant.

Thinking back to that sales meeting, I realise that I didn’t dig in deep enough on the issues they were facing.??Our solution was a good fit for them and I fell in love with that idea. Unfortunately, that email showed me they hadn’t fallen in love with it.??I should have stopped talking and should have looked for additional barriers, especially internal barriers within the company, which would prevent this deal from happening.??

Sitting right in front of me, across the meeting room table, I could see the wheels of the Swiss watch inside his brain whizzing around as he was obviously processing a lot of information and possibilities.??Instead of just noticing that he was just doing a lot of thinking, I should have asked him what he was thinking about.??I needed to do this, to flesh out where he was in the internal conversation he was having with himself, which was going on silently in his mind.??If I had said, “What is going through your mind at the moment?”, that would have been a very disarming way of tapping into his thought process at that point.??He may have shared what was holding him back from accepting my proposition.??Instead of getting the rejection later in an email as part of the meeting follow-up.??I could have dealt with it on the spot, while we were face-to-face.

I should also have dug in for areas where he had concerns about this solution I was offering.??As I have noted, I fell in love with my solution for him, because I could see how this would really help him.??I was convinced myself and that just led me down the path of more detail on how the solution would help him.??He was sitting there thinking why this wouldn’t work in their situation, because he felt that they could do it themselves, to a great enough extent.??Grant Cardone, the well-known American sales trainer is very good at this.??He challenges the buyer to justify making the investment to buy Grant’s subscription video courses.??He says things like, “How could you justify spending $10,000 to buy this subscription for your people?”.??

It is quite clever, because now the buyer has to become an advocate for Grant’s business. They have to justify the rationale and the pricing.??He is flushing out resistance on the spot, so that he can deal with it.??Maybe this wouldn’t work in every case in Japan, but this buyer was quite Westernised and educated overseas, so he could have deal with this approach. Maybe a more local Japanese buyer would have been simply confused by the proposition.

I am still annoyed this one got away.??Not for the size of the deal, but because I couldn’t read the buyer well enough during the meeting and I made too many assumptions about what was going on.??I pushed him to do something about starting the training in my follow-up email and this generated his blunt assessment that they could do it themselves and didn’t need me. Ouch!??I will be more observant going forward and will question my assumptions more closely, while I am sitting across the table from the buyers in future.

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About The Author?

Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training

The bestselling author of “Japan Sales Mastery” (the Japanese translation is "The Eigyo" (The営業), “Japan Business Mastery” and "Japan Presentations Mastery" and his new books "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" and the translation "Toreningu De Okane Wo Muda Ni Suru No Wa Yamemashoo" (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのは止めま

Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations.?He leads the Dale Carnegie Franchise in Tokyo which traces its roots straight back to the very establishment of Dale Carnegie in Japan in 1963 by Mr. Frank Mochizuki.

He publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Has 6 weekly podcasts:

1.?????Mondays -??The Leadership Japan Series,

2.????Tuesdays – The Presentations Japan Series?

Every second Tuesday - ビジネス達人の教え

3.????Wednesdays - The Sales Japan Series?

4.????Thursdays – The Leadership Japan Series

Also every second Thursday - ビジネスプロポッドキャスト

5.????Fridays - The Japan Business Mastery Show

6.????Saturdays – Japan’s Top Business Interviews

Has 3 weekly TV shows on YouTube:

1.?????Mondays - The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

Also every Second Thursday - ビジネスプロTV

2.????Fridays – Japan Business Mastery

3.????Saturdays – Japan Top Business Interviews

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development.

Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, become a 38 year veteran of Japan and run his own company in Tokyo.?

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate (糸東流) and is currently a 6th Dan.?

Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.