Top 5 APAC Business Insights from Our COO

Meet Nick Evered , COO Sales Innovation

Nick first visited Asia back in 1990. The Berlin Wall had just fallen. The internet hadn’t been invented. Most of us weren’t even born. Nick arrived in Malaysia for a ‘Big Six’ consulting firm on assignment to a multi-national tobacco company. Their IBM System36 Network kept dropping out. Nick’s team found and fixed the problem: the cable insulation between the tobacco processing plant buildings, connecting terminals and mainframes, had been worn away by the sun and rain.?

Nick commuted back and forth to Asia several times a year during the nineties and finally moved to Singapore at the start of the twenty first century. He has many insights from working across Asia from Singapore to Korea for over three and a half decades. ?

This is the first of Nick’s top 5 insights about working in APAC:

INSIGHT #1 YOU CAN’T ALWAYS CLOSE BY OFFERING A DISCOUNT?

Nick says:?“Most software companies are quarterly driven beasts, so there is always pressure to drive hard to close out deals. ? ??

“Customers know this and that they’ll get the best possible price at the end of each quarter or the end of a year. Often customers will hold out as long as they can…then push for an extra discount even when they know (although they don't tell you) that their purchase process may well go passed the end of quarter. Then they still hold you to that price afterwards.?It’s nearly impossible to go back on a price once it’s on the table.”

Nick’s advice:?“Senior people buy from people they trust. That is, people they believe will invest in the success of the project and make sure they are not exposed when challenges arise. ?Senior people don’t buy from executives who fly in and fly out. If you have trust, you will know when the deal will close, and the process to get it done.” ?

INSIGHT #2 THERE IS NOT JUST ONE DECISION MAKER?

Nick says:?“End Customer representatives regularly ‘over sell’ their level of influence. It’s not usual for people in Asia to oversell their own importance. So sales executives can easily fall into the trap of focussing on a person they think will help close the deal while missing the ones who are actually the decision makers. And it’s not uncommon for these representatives to actively misdirect or obstruct sales executives from talking to others because they fear being marginalised.” ?

Nick’s advice:?“Do a lot of listening to understand the decision making process.?Listen to make sure you really understood the “real” business issues and the personal agendas and interests of the recommenders, influencers and decision makers.”

INSIGHT #3 YOU MAY NOT ALWAYS BE TOLD THE TRUTH?

Nick says:?“It’s often culturally difficult for senior managers to admit they don’t know something. You may ask a question and sometimes receive an ill-informed guess in reply—rather than the person admit that they don’t know the facts.”?

Nick’s advice: “Continually verify important facts from multiple perspectives even though this may take time.”?

Nick has led significant growth at multiple software companies with significantly different products eg Oracle, SAP, Concur. ?He adapts and seeks to understand what works and what doesn’t. He treasures his relationships. These help him find the right people to talk to. ?If he doesn’t know them directly, he knows people who know them.?

INSIGHT #4 ‘FLY IN, FLY OUT’ VISITING EXECUTIVES ADD LITTLE VALUE IN CLOSING DEALS?

Nick says:?“Being a Global Executive is tough even if it’s just travelling across the Region. Trying to balance work life and family life is really tough.?Many times?I have seen Global Executives want to visit prospects and customers across the region. The trouble is the distances to and from, and even across the APAC region are just too great. ?It takes 13-15 hours to get here and 7-8 hours from one side of the region to the other.?

“Apart from the logistical challenges it just doesn’t work, and does little to foster customer relationships because it only happens infrequently.”?

Nick’s advice: “Time would be better spent developing local staff and building their sense of belonging rather than arranging infrequent, high level customer meetings.”?

Nick spent significant time in-country across Asia and that lead to multiple visits to the same prospects for business and social events. ?This built personal relationships.??He was often able to synchronise trips with his APAC Executive wife who also had to travel across the region. They met up in various cities across the region, spending time with respective prospects/customers but also spending time together.?

INSIGHT #5 REPUTATION, RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST ARE EVERYTHING ?

Nick says:?“This is easy to say but harder to achieve when you drill down into what it really means.?

“Consensus decision making is still important in Asia. Individuals want other managers and executives involved in purchase decisions—perhaps to offset the blame if the purchase goes wrong.?

“Don’t underestimate how long approval processes can take - the Japanese Ringi process is probably the most formal and longest.?

“Sales Reps and Leaders build their reputations over time, that reputation carries significant weight. When you start a campaign with a new prospect you can be sure they will ask around to get a perspective on you. Black marks stay for a very long time!?”?

Nick’s advice: “Sale and purchase relationships often become personal. ?The buyer or owner of the project wants to know that you the seller are personally going to support their success—so a sale is not just about trust between companies, its trust between individuals. This is perhaps where Western based sales models fail.?Their approach is that sales executives close the deal and move to the next sale, and transfer their personal connection to unknown customer care. ?The smart rep will still stay in touch to foster the relationship.”?

Nick advises that building relationships means you get friends for life. Many years on he still keeps in touch with people at customers he has worked with on big deals.