Episodios

  • Why You Need a Sales Cycle
    Sep 24 2025
    How a structured roadmap transforms sales performance in Japan At the centre of every sale is the customer relationship. Surrounding that relationship are the stages of the sales cycle, which act like planets revolving around the sun. Without a structured cycle, salespeople risk being led by the buyer instead of guiding the process themselves. With it, they always know where they are and what comes next. Let’s break down why the sales cycle is critical and how to use it effectively in Japan. What is the sales cycle and why does it matter? The sales cycle is a five-stage roadmap that moves from first contact through to closing and after-sales follow-up. Each stage—credibility, questioning, solution, objections, and close—ensures that salespeople remain in control of the process. In Japan, where buyers are cautious and expect professionalism, having a clear cycle prevents missteps. It reassures clients that the salesperson is competent and methodical. Just as Toyota uses structured processes for manufacturing excellence, salespeople need a reliable process to achieve consistent results. Mini-Summary: The sales cycle provides a roadmap that keeps salespeople in control, especially in Japan where clients expect structure and professionalism. How should salespeople make a strong first impression? The first step is credibility. Buyers often meet salespeople through referrals, events, or cold calls, and they form impressions quickly. A refined credibility statement is essential: it should clearly communicate who you are, your expertise, and why you are reliable. At this stage, qualifying questions are also critical. They help determine whether the prospect is a genuine fit for your solution. Without qualification, time and resources are wasted. In Japan’s relationship-driven market, credibility and early alignment build the trust needed to advance the conversation. Mini-Summary: A polished credibility statement and targeted qualification questions establish trust and ensure you’re talking to the right buyer. Why is questioning compared to a doctor’s diagnosis? Just like doctors, salespeople must diagnose before prescribing. Asking questions reveals the buyer’s current situation, future goals, barriers to success, and personal motivations. These insights uncover not only organisational needs but also the executive’s personal stakes in the outcome. In Japan, where buyers may not volunteer information freely, structured questioning is vital. It demonstrates that the salesperson genuinely wants to understand before offering solutions. This approach aligns with consultative selling methods used by multinational firms, which outperform competitors relying on generic pitches. Mini-Summary: Diagnostic questioning uncovers both company needs and personal stakes, showing buyers you are serious about solving their problems. How do you present solutions effectively in Japan? Once needs are clear, the salesperson must outline the solution with detail and proof. This involves explaining features, translating them into benefits, and providing evidence of success in similar contexts. For example, showing how Fujitsu or Rakuten solved a comparable problem makes the solution credible. Importantly, salespeople should use trial closes to test understanding and identify concerns before the final ask. In Japan, this gentle approach respects hierarchy and allows buyers to raise issues without losing face. Mini-Summary: Effective solution presentations combine features, benefits, and proof, reinforced by trial closes to surface and resolve concerns early. How should objections be handled? If objections arise, it signals that either clarity or persuasion was lacking. The professional response is to address concerns respectfully, provide further evidence, and reframe value. In Japan, objections are often indirect, so listening carefully is essential. Global best practice suggests preparing objection-handling strategies in advance. Whether in consumer goods or B2B tech, salespeople who anticipate resistance show competence. Japanese clients in particular value patience and persistence in overcoming doubts. Mini-Summary: Objections reveal gaps in clarity or persuasion; handling them calmly and respectfully strengthens trust in Japan’s relationship-driven culture. How do you close the sale and secure loyalty? Closing should not be abrupt. Instead, salespeople can “paint a word picture” of success, helping the buyer imagine the benefits of the solution in action. Then, a soft closing technique invites agreement. After closing, follow-up is critical. Maintaining contact ensures satisfaction, resolves issues, and opens the door for referrals. In Japan, where reputation spreads through networks, happy clients become powerful advocates. The sales cycle does not end with the sale—it ends with loyalty. Mini-Summary: Successful closing combines gentle persuasion with strong follow-up, turning ...
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    10 m
  • Japan Doesn’t Change in Sales
    Sep 16 2025
    Why Western sales revolutions haven’t reshaped Japanese selling practices Sales gurus often argue that “sales has changed.” They introduce new frameworks—SPIN Selling, Consultative Selling, Challenger Selling—that dominate Western business schools and corporate training. But in Japan, sales methods look surprisingly similar to how they did decades ago. Why hasn’t Japan embraced these waves of change? Let’s break it down. Why has Japan resisted Western sales revolutions? Japan’s business culture is defined by consensus decision-making. Unlike in the US, where one buyer may have authority to sign a deal, Japanese firms typically rely on group approval. Aggressive closing techniques—“100 ways to overcome objections”—don’t resonate in a context where no single buyer holds final power. When a salesperson meets a Japanese executive, even the president, decisions are often delegated downward for due diligence. The result? What looks like a top-level entry point becomes just the beginning of a long bottom-up approval process. Mini-Summary: Western-style “hard closes” fail in Japan because decisions are made through collective consensus, not individual authority. Who really decides in Japanese sales negotiations? Salespeople often assume they’re negotiating with the decision-maker. In Japan, that’s rarely the case. The person in front of you is usually an influencer, not the final authority. They gather information and share it with unseen stakeholders—division heads, section chiefs, back-office teams—who never meet the salesperson directly. This creates the sensation of “fighting invisible ninjas.” You prepare to persuade one buyer, but in reality, you must equip your contact to persuade a network of hidden decision-makers. Mini-Summary: In Japan, sales success depends on influencing unseen stakeholders through the buyer’s internal champion. How do Japanese buyers expect salespeople to behave? Unlike Western buyers who are open to consultative approaches, Japanese buyers often expect a pitch. When salespeople arrive, they are typically asked to explain features and price. This isn’t necessarily because they don’t value needs analysis, but because decades of feature-focused selling have conditioned buyers to expect the “pitch-first” style. Even in 2021, many Japanese sales meetings begin with a features dump, not diagnostic questions. As one veteran trainer notes, Dale Carnegie’s 1939 sales model of asking questions before proposing solutions remains largely ignored in Japan today. Mini-Summary: Japanese buyers have been trained by decades of salespeople to expect a feature-and-price pitch, making consultative selling harder to implement. What problems arise from pitching before asking questions? Pitching before discovery creates major risks. If you don’t know the buyer’s actual needs, you can’t know which features matter most. Worse, buyers may dismiss your solution as irrelevant or commoditised. Globally, best practice is clear: ask questions, uncover pain points, align benefits, provide proof, then close. Yet in Japan, many salespeople still rush to pitch, skipping diagnostic discovery altogether. This keeps Japanese sales culture stuck in the “dark ages” compared to markets like the US or Europe, where consultative and challenger methods are standard. Mini-Summary: Pitching without discovery weakens sales effectiveness and prevents alignment with buyer needs, but remains common in Japan. How can sales teams in Japan modernise their approach? The roadmap is simple but powerful: Ask permission to ask questions.Diagnose needs thoroughly.Identify the best-fit solution.Present that solution clearly.Handle hesitations and objections.Ask for the order. This structure modernises Japanese sales while respecting cultural norms. It avoids “pushing” while still providing a disciplined process for uncovering and addressing client needs. Executives at global firms like Toyota, Sony, and Mitsubishi increasingly expect this approach, especially when dealing with multinational partners. Mini-Summary: A structured consultative process—diagnose, propose, resolve—aligns global best practice with Japanese cultural norms. What should leaders do to drive change in Japan’s sales culture? Leaders must train salespeople to abandon outdated pitching habits and embrace consultative questioning. This requires coaching, reinforcement, and role-modelling from the top. Japanese firms that continue with pitch-driven sales risk falling behind global competitors. By contrast, firms that shift to questioning-based sales processes build trust faster, uncover hidden opportunities, and shorten approval cycles. The future of sales in Japan depends on whether leaders push for transformation or let tradition slow them down. Mini-Summary: Leaders must drive the shift from pitch-first to consultative sales or risk being left behind in a globalising market. ...
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    11 m
  • Building Customer Loyalty
    Sep 16 2025
    Why trust is the ultimate driver of long-term sales success in Japan Salespeople everywhere know that trust is essential for winning deals, but in Japan, trust is the difference between a one-off sale and a lifelong customer. Research shows that 63% of buyers prefer to purchase from someone they completely trust—even over someone offering a lower price. In a market where relationships outweigh transactions, trust doesn’t just support sales, it builds loyalty. Why does trust outweigh price in Japanese sales? While discounting may win a deal, it doesn’t create loyalty. Trust, on the other hand, generates repeat business. The cost of building trust is far lower than repeatedly slashing prices to close deals. Buyers in Japan, who are highly attuned to signs of insincerity, quickly detect opportunistic sales tactics. When they find a salesperson who is genuinely trustworthy, they hold on tightly. This is why successful firms in industries from pharmaceuticals to IT services prioritise building trust-based partnerships over price competition. Global research and local practice confirm that loyalty is rooted in belief, not bargains. Mini-Summary: Trust is more powerful than price in Japan because it creates repeat business and loyalty, while discounting only secures short-term wins. What mindset builds long-term customer loyalty? The salesperson’s mindset determines whether buyers see them as a partner or a pusher. A focus on long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions changes everything. When salespeople think in terms of “partnership” and “reorder,” communication becomes more genuine, reassuring buyers that their interests are respected. In Japan, this long-term orientation aligns with cultural norms of reliability and stability. Buyers expect a salesperson to stand by them through multiple cycles, not just disappear after the first contract. Sales leaders at companies like Toyota and Hitachi have reinforced this by emphasising repeat business as a performance metric, not just one-time deals. Mini-Summary: A partnership mindset—focused on reorders and long-term success—creates loyalty and aligns with Japanese business culture. How do buyers sense a salesperson’s true intention? Buyers are experts at detecting hidden agendas. If a salesperson approaches with a “win-lose” attitude, buyers sense it immediately. Past purchasing mistakes make buyers cautious and wary of being taken advantage of. By contrast, when salespeople project genuine interest in mutual success, buyers relax and open the door to trust. The key is consistency: every action, from initial meetings to after-sales support, must reinforce the message that the salesperson is invested in a “win-win” relationship. Mini-Summary: Buyers intuitively sense whether a salesperson is seeking a win-win or win-lose deal. Only the former leads to loyalty. What drives buyer loyalty beyond trust? Loyalty is both emotional and behavioural. It stems from the buyer’s belief that the salesperson is reliable, competent, and focused on their success. The trust-loyalty equation can be expressed as: Trust + Relationship = Buyer Loyalty At one extreme sits the “product pusher,” chasing maximum price before moving on. At the other extreme is the “trusted advisor,” dedicated to mutual benefit and long-term collaboration. The question every salesperson must ask is: where do you sit on this scale? Mini-Summary: Buyer loyalty comes from the combination of trust and relationship, positioning the salesperson as a trusted advisor rather than a product pusher. What are the five drivers of trust in sales? To earn loyalty, salespeople must master five trust drivers: Intention: Always seek win-win outcomes.Competence: Deliver reliable solutions that meet buyer needs.Customer Focus: Prioritise the buyer’s success as the path to your own.Communication: Provide clarity, manage expectations, and follow through.Value Creation: Continuously add value that goes beyond the product. In sectors like finance and healthcare, where risk is high, these drivers determine whether clients commit for the long term. Without them, loyalty cannot be sustained. Mini-Summary: Trust is built on intention, competence, customer focus, communication, and value creation—five pillars every salesperson must master. What should leaders do to embed loyalty in sales teams? Organisational culture matters as much as individual behaviour. Some firms claim to be “customer-first,” but internally reward only short-term sales. Leaders must align messaging and incentives with trust-building behaviours. Salespeople working in trust-driven environments are more motivated, more professional, and more successful. If a company does not encourage loyalty-driven practices, sales professionals may need to move to one that does. In Japan’s competitive market, those who embody trust and loyalty enjoy longer, more rewarding careers. Mini-Summary: ...
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    11 m
  • How to Own the Sales Transition Zone
    Sep 2 2025
    Why mastering client conversations in Japan defines long-term sales success When salespeople meet new clients, the first few minutes set the tone for everything that follows. This “transition zone” between pleasantries and serious discussion is where trust is either built—or broken. Let’s explore how professionals in Japan and globally can own this crucial phase. Why is the sales transition zone so critical? The sales transition zone is the moment when the buyer and seller move from small talk into business. For the client, the first question is usually, “How much will this cost me?”. For the salesperson, the focus is on proving value beyond price. Unless this gap is bridged quickly, the conversation can collapse into a price war. In Japan, where relationship-building and long-term trust are prized, handling this transition with sensitivity is even more critical than in the US or Europe. Western executives may prefer blunt efficiency—“Let’s get straight to business”—but Japanese buyers expect context, respect, and subtlety. Mini-Summary: The transition zone is where price-driven client expectations collide with value-focused sales strategy. Mastering it determines whether the meeting builds trust or breaks down. How should salespeople frame the meeting agenda? After greetings, professionals should set a clear agenda that shows respect for the client’s time. For example: “I appreciate Suzuki-san introducing us. She felt there may be mutual benefit, so today I’d like to explore how our solutions may support your business. I also want to better understand your needs and see if there’s a fit. Are there other items you’d like to cover?” This framing balances structure with flexibility. It prevents the client from feeling “sold to” while subtly keeping control of the meeting. Across industries—from pharmaceuticals to IT services—Japanese clients respond positively when they feel their input is requested early. Mini-Summary: Outlining a flexible agenda signals professionalism and respect, while keeping the salesperson in control of the meeting flow. How can unique selling propositions (USPs) be introduced naturally? Clients don’t want a corporate brochure; they want proof of relevance. Introduce USPs in a conversational way: “We are global soft-skills training experts, here since 1963, specialising in sales training in Japan.” This single sentence embeds four powerful points: global scope, world best practice, 60 years of Japanese experience, and local market adaptation. Companies like Toyota, Rakuten, and Fujitsu look for vendors who demonstrate both international credibility and deep domestic roots. Mini-Summary: Well-crafted introductions should deliver layered USPs that combine global credibility, local experience, and proven relevance. How can salespeople prove credibility with results? Proof must be concrete, relevant, and measurable. For example: “Recently we trained a company in your industry. Salesperson confidence rose 40%, and revenues increased 18% within six months.” This approach works across sectors—manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods—because executives trust comparative results. But credibility evaporates if numbers are exaggerated. In Japan, where long-term relationships matter, any suspicion of dishonesty ends future business. Mini-Summary: Share specific, industry-relevant metrics to prove impact. Honesty is non-negotiable if you want repeat business in Japan. How do you smoothly shift to client questioning? Once credibility is established, invite permission to ask questions: “I don’t know if we could achieve the same results for you, but may I ask a few questions to better understand your situation?” This low-pressure approach keeps the salesperson in control while respecting the client’s space. It allows for uncovering challenges—talent gaps, process inefficiencies, competitive threats—without triggering defensiveness. Japanese executives particularly value humility paired with competence. Mini-Summary: The best transition uses respectful permission to shift into diagnostic questioning, creating trust and revealing real client needs. What if you discover you can’t help the client? Not every prospect is a fit. Forcing a solution damages reputation. Instead, tell the client: “This may not be the right match.” This honesty preserves brand integrity. In Japan’s tight-knit business networks, reputation compounds: one display of integrity can open doors elsewhere. Global comparisons support this: US firms often admire aggressiveness in sales, but in Japan, restraint builds credibility. Long-term success comes not from a single deal, but from a portfolio of reorders, referrals, and reputation. Mini-Summary: Walking away respectfully when there is no fit strengthens credibility and ensures long-term opportunities in Japan’s relationship-driven market. Conclusion Owning the sales transition...
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    13 m
  • Don’t Say “No” For The Client
    Aug 26 2025
    At the age of sixteen, I was wandering around the streets of a lower working class area in the suburbs of Brisbane, working my first job, trying to sell expensive Encyclopedia Britannica to the punters who lived there. Despite my callow youth, I had a tremendous gift as a salesman. I could tell by looking at the house from the outside whether they were interested or not in buying Encyclopedia Britannica and so could determine whether I should knock on their door or not. I was saying “no” for the client. Obviously, I had no clue what I was doing. The only training we received was to memorise, word for word, a twenty five minute pitch for the buyer, synchronised with showing the flash looking pages inside the encyclopedia. I am sure though there are many much older and wiser salespeople out there, still making that fundamental error I was making. Eventually, I discovered I didn’t have any x-ray vision gift. I was just an idiot. There will be plenty of opportunity for the buyer to say “no”, so we shouldn’t be joining in to support them on that quest. Even before the call, we will have anticipated some potential pushback and we are fully armed and ready to go when it emerges. I was reminded of this x-ray vision into the buyer problem recently. The top salesperson of an organisation I know, said “no” for the buyer. He was an intermediary for me with the client and didn’t like one of the conditions of the sale I was proposing. This was an important source of his commissions for him and they had been a big buyer over a number of years. He had them wrapped up in cotton wool and was extremely nervous about maintaining the relationship. I have learnt the hard way and so I don’t believe in saying “no” for the buyer, so I pushed it. I rejected his rejection and told him to put my request to the client. We got into an elongated email wrangle over this, but not only am I dim most of the time, I am also supremely stubborn, especially when it comes to sales. Stubborn and dim is a lethal combination. He didn’t like it at all, but he held his nose and put my proposition to the client. Guess what? They went for it. As we say in Japan, “even the monkeys fall from the trees” and even Mr. Number One sales guy can get it wrong. I refrained from mentioning that Japanese proverb of course or being a smarty pants and just thanked him for his cooperation. One common case of saying “no” for the client is when the prices are raised for the product or service. Salespeople invariably will start whinging to the boss, that the client will never agree to buy at that higher price. Effectively, they are saying “no” for the buyers. There are many ways to dilute the pain of raising the price. The terms of payment can be elongated. The guarantees and warranties can be expanded. The rise can be counterbalanced by discounts for volume purchases. The proposition can be ramped up on the value equation scale. Additional incentives can be packed together with the original offer to justify the price rise. Services can be thrown into the product purchase process to make it more palatable and vice versa. Interestingly, salespeople complaining about the price increase, spend zero time thinking about how to sell the value increase to the client. Price increases are one thing, but defending existing prices against discounting is another case of having to say “no” to the customer. In Japan, salespeople are very weak in front of the customer. The buyer here isn’t King but GOD and GOD doesn’t brook hearing “no” from salespeople. The constant complaint from our clients is that their firm’s salespeople identify too closely with the client and don’t defend the company’s policies well enough, including pricing. I had the same problem with one of my salespeople. He was happy to discount and take a lower commission, even though the firm made very little profit. He got his base salary and some commission, so he was happy. I wasn’t so happy. I get it - the logic is simple. The salesperson heavily invests in the relationship with the buyer and works hard to defend that relationship, even against their own employer. This sounds crazy, but they know the value of an existing customer, compared to the pain and effort to find a new buyer. This is where the value element has to be worked on more, so that salespeople can justify the existing pricing, without resorting to discounts to get the business. The basic sales skills of the team have to be improved, especially their communication skills. This don’t say “no” for the client arena, shows the real capabilities of the salesperson. Sadly, there is a major population decline underway here and salespeople are in increasingly short supply. The quality of the people we can hire isn’t going to improve, so our sales training mechanisms and our sales leadership mechanisms, become even more...
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    12 m
  • Unlocking Value For Clients
    Aug 19 2025
    It is seriously sad to be dumb. Nothing annoys me more than when I finally realise something that was so obvious and yet I didn’t see what was there, right in front of my nose. We talk a lot about value creation in relation to pricing, trying to persuade clients that what we are selling is a sensible trade off between the value they seek and the revenue that we seek. We want the value we offer to be both perceived and acknowledged value by the buyer. Often however, we get into a rut in our sales mindset. We carve a neuron groove once in our brain and keep ploughing that same row. Outside stimulation is needed. I realised that fact when I recently did some formal online training. My previous companies had sent me to the Harvard, Stanford and Insead business schools in the past, which of course, were all amazing. However, when I was doing my recent studies, I recalled that it has been some time since I did something formal like that. During the coursework, I realised many things we could do around value provision, which we have not been doing or not doing sufficiently well enough. I am an avid reader, but I also found that the mantra of both “formal” and “informal” lifetime learning is a good one to follow. I found we have had a lot of assets lying around, which we have not fully utilised, hence the “I hate how dumb I am” statement. We need an omnichannel approach. Often, we may have videos hanging around, explaining the benefits and the details of a service or a product. Now the video has an audio track, which we can strip out of the video. This allows us to turn it into a different medium, allowing clients to access the information in that format. So many people are now processing information through audio, thanks to the recent proliferation of podcasts and audiobooks. Buyers are busy, busy and so many are multi-tasking while listening. Having audio alternatives may help to save them valuable time, compared to them having to sit down and watch our video. Depending on the content, the audio might also become a training tool for our own staff. Now if that video is sitting there on YouTube for free, then once people have watched it, suddenly, a whole world of YouTube’s other groovy offerings appears on your client’s screen. They are being tempted to look at our competitor’s videos. That is not a great result for us. We want to keep the client on our website for as long as possible. There are companies like Wistia, for example, which will host the videos for a monthly fee. These videos are no longer mashed into YouTube’s offerings, but sit independently, such that the client cannot stray into competitor territory. We want to build a moat to keep the client in our ecosystem, so that after watching the video on Wistia, they have to come back to us. Are you able to free your clients from the YouTube loop and make sure they escape your rival’s charms? The audio track can also be run through AI programmes like Descript, which will turn sound into text. Once the text emerges, we need to edit the content, because the AI is good, but it is not perfect. Once we have the corrected information in text, it can go into our newsletters, get it on to our website and we can send it out to clients. When we have text in English, we can translate it into Japanese and use that for clients. We can use this text information to supplement other information we are going to send to clients or include it in our after sales service programmes. Do you have any opportunities to create text, which didn’t exist as text before and find ways to employ this to add more value for clients? Often we have multiple solutions for clients, which we could bundle together. As salespeople though, we tend to be stuck in that Johnny One Note neuron groove and only sell clients one solution. An ideal bundle would be so attractive that the client would be willing to enter into a subscription format to pay something upfront for a whole year or each month or each quarter. The point is to get them to sign up for more than an episodic transaction that always has a formal completion date. We want repeat business and this subscription model is one way to weld the relationship between buyer and seller closer together. Once we become part of their ongoing business plans, it reduces the buying friction. Importantly, it also increases their internal friction to turn the buying process off. It is always easier to keep something going, than to start it in the first place. This builds a moat around our client, denying our rivals an option to steal our business. So, what could you bundle together to create a no-brainer, totally stupendous offer for the buyer? There might be some administration associated with using our type of product or service. The buying entity inside the client’s company is always time poor. Perhaps we can offer a system which supplies the service ...
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    13 m
  • Selling As A Team
    Aug 12 2025

    When we think of team selling, we imagine a room with the buyers on one side of the table and we are lined up on the other. There is another type of team selling and that is taking place before we get anywhere near the client. It might be working together as a Sales Mastermind panel to brainstorm potential clients to target or strategising campaigns or plotting the approach to adopt with a buyer. Salespeople earn their remuneration through a combination of base salary and commission or bonus in Japan. There are very few jobs here in sales, which are 100% commission, simply because salespeople don’t have to accept that model. There is always a demand here for salespeople and in fact the declining population is keeping a lot of dud salespeople afloat.

    Given there is not much 100% commission selling going on, there is also not so much salesperson competition going on with each other. There is competition, but the losers usually don’t get fired, as they might in some Western business environments. So the opportunity is there to collaborate more on approaches to the client and generating more business. What often happens though is, salespeople tend to operate from within their own little castles. They have their moat around their existing clients, which they serve and they spend their time trying to find new clients by themselves. They may have sales managers, but in these modern times, sales managers are expected to produce revenues as well. That means there isn't a lot of coaching going on.

    If we have one person looking at the client through the prism of their own experience, things get a bit thin quickly, if that person doesn’t have such a wealth of experience. It would be more logical to gather a team of salespeople together and look at the best approach for that client, rather than relying on the best efforts of a single person. But we don’t do this very often. This tends to be because of a territorial concept, where each salesperson has their clients and they should take care of them, without wasting anyone’s time, especially when they are getting paid a commission or a bonus, for the sale.

    This does make sense at one level, but we are missing out on the sum of the parts being able to exceed the whole here. This is often a culture issue within sales teams. If you run things with tight individual accountability, it is hard to get other salespeople to assist a colleague. As leaders we need to establish a framework for teamwork even in a commission based world of focused individual benefit. The money getting paid out doesn’t change, but the time becomes the sticking point. How do we get salespeople to spend time to help others be more successful?

    One way to do this it to treat a particular client as a project and pull in other salespeople to work on the best approach. Once the salesperson in question has spoken with the client, then we need to gather the Sales Mastermind together again and brainstorm what would be the ideal solution. This should be one of the tasks for the sales manager, but often they are swamped with their own clients and trying to keep the whole sales team coordinated and moving forward. Breaking out time for one-on-one discussions may simply not be happening and the salespeople are often left to their own devices.

    When we approach this on the project level, the time required becomes contained and less oppressive for the other salespeople. It is also a case of quid pro quo too, because it will be their turn to benefit next time, from having more heads than one tackling client problems and helping match the best solutions. This is where the sales manager can play a role in setting up the project teams and monitoring progress.

    It is good for the salespeople because one day they will become sales managers and will need to introduce similar systems into their own teams. Funnily enough, we often have the experience of learning a lot ourselves, when we are working on someone else’s problem. We can be too close to our own issues and be blind to aspects which could have an important bearing, but we cannot see the wood for the trees. Somehow looking at another’s problem brings clarity for us about our own contemplations.

    There are many benefits to using Sales Masterminds from within the team, working together for the best outcomes for the client. There is an education process going on both up and down the scale of experience, as we all come away from the process that little better educated in our craft.

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    10 m
  • Four Client Focus Areas For Salespeople
    Aug 5 2025

    was studying an online learning programme from Professor Scott Galloway, where he talked about Appealing To Human Instincts. His take was from the strategy angle, but I realised that this same framework would be useful for sales too. In sales we do our best to engage the client. We try to develop sophisticated questions to help us unearth the stated and unstated needs of the buyer. Professor Galloway's pedagogical construct can give us another perspective on buyer dynamics.

    The first Human Instinct nominated was the brain. This is our logos, our rational, logical, analytical mode. What are the unanswered questions and key internal conversations occupying the minds of our buyers. If we can meet the buyer in their thought process, then we are more likely to be able to understand their needs and then be in a position to meet those needs.

    We know that some buyers will be analytical types, for whom three decimal places is unremarkable when considering data. Often though salespeople are big picture. Macro types who shun this level of detail because they feel it is boring. They love the sale and abhor the paperwork which goes along with it. I had two insurance salesmen in my home trying to get me to buy various policies. What astounded me was they were middle aged, well experienced gentlemen and yet they couldn’t fill out the paperwork correctly, so we had to do it again. They loved the conversation with me but not the conversation with the fine print in the contract.

    The next instinct was the heart. Our emotions are there for all to see, if the right stimulation is provided. We laugh, cry, get angry, become determined and give up, based around our emotional configuration at any point in the day. Salespeople walk into a mine field of buyer emotions, with no way of knowing which particular configuration we have bumped into today. Our job is to gauge as quickly as possible where the buyer is emotionally and how they prefer to communicate at that moment. We know our tempers once frayed, tend to trigger a supreme impatience with everything. Woe be tied a salesperson who cannot “kuki wo yomu” or read the air, as we say in Japanese, to understand this client needs another visit on a better day for them.

    Instinct number three was the gut. This reminded me of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where survival was at the bottom and became the prism through which information and ideas were judged. Company buyers are always bound firmly by risk reduction, budget stringencies, cash flow imperatives and fears for the future. Everyone loves a bargain except salespeople, especially those salespeople who have commissions attached to the sale price. Value is the only antidote for this price discount swamp fever infecting buyers. Babbling on about features won’t cut it. Yet amazingly this is the step where many salespeople check out. They never even attempt to consider scaling the summit. We had better migrate up the value scale and talk about the application of the benefits. We need to lock in the evidence where this has worked magnificently somewhere else, for this buyer to feel safe that there are precedents.

    The fourth instinct was sex appeal. Buyers want to attract attention to themselves as capable, highly promotable, sexy beasts attracting a lot of favourable accord. Our role is to make them look like heroes, legends, masters of the universe. They want to elevate their worth, status and value within the organisation. “Look at me, I am clever” they want to say. We become their instrument to promote that message by giving them our product or service, which becomes a game changer inside the client company.

    Salespeople have to be master jugglers, elevating many balls in the air at the same time. We need to see our buyers in a holistic manner, to fully appreciate the tack we need to take buyer by buyer, because they are all different. This takes a change in the sales mindset because most salespeople are focused on themselves, their commission, their Beemer upgrade and a thousand other things, which the buyer couldn’t care less about.

    So next time we sit down with a buyer, we need to make sure we are engaging all of their human instincts and appealing to them from many angles.

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    11 m