Dealing With Price Resistance
The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Release Date: 08/29/2024
The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Don’t get this wrong. Good posture never goes out of style, yet many presenters struggle with it. Standing straight projects confidence, enables better breath control, and conveys energy. However, the presenting environment often tempts us into poor habits. Even seasoned performers—actors and singers—struggle with posture during award acceptance speeches. Instead of standing tall, they hunch over microphones, giving audiences an unflattering view of their bowed heads. These professionals, familiar with microphone technology, should excel at its use but often fail to adapt to the setup....
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Nemawashi, translates to “groundwork” and is rooted in the practice of moving large trees. This intricate process—preparing roots, wrapping them, and relocating the tree—serves as a metaphor for meticulous preparation before decisions in business. In Japan, decisions are typically made before meetings, with the gathering itself serving as a formality to approve prior agreements. The groundwork involves engaging stakeholders individually, securing their buy-in, and addressing potential concerns. In contrast, Western decision-making often occurs during meetings, with open discussions and...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Don’t be delusional. Do you consider yourself moody? Perhaps not, but as a boss, your team may perceive you differently. Employees are keenly attuned to your every movement, tone, body language and expression, constantly evaluating your mood to gauge whether it's a good time to approach you with work-related matters. Your ability to mask emotions or maintain equilibrium amidst challenges significantly influences the workplace atmosphere. As the leader, your mood sets the tone for the day. A positive attitude can uplift the team, while a negative one can drag them down. The challenge lies in...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Stop wrecking your presentations. When delivering talks, many speakers separate their personal identities from the content, focusing solely on facts, data, and evidence. This approach, often favored by technical individuals, misses the opportunity to create deeper engagement with the audience. As an introvert, I understand the hesitation to share personal stories. However, keeping oneself out of the narrative is a significant mistake. Injecting personal experiences and insights into a presentation transforms it from theoretical to practical, resonating more deeply with the audience. Audiences...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Salespeople are ignorant. When interacting with Japanese buyers, personality differences play a more critical role than cultural differences. Understanding personality styles can help improve communication and sales success. A two-axis framework categorizes personality types: a horizontal axis measures from low assertion on the left across to high assertion on the right, and a vertical axis measuring people orientation at the top vs. outcome focus down below. Bottom right, the Driver type is highly assertive and outcome-driven. Often business founders, they value results over...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Stop being weak. The beauty, weight loss, fashion, and entertainment industries inundate us with images of unattainable perfection, leaving many feeling inadequate—too tall, short, fat, thin, or unsuccessful. It’s easy to fall into the trap of wishing for better circumstances: wealthier parents, a better education, or a more favorable start in life. But wishing changes nothing; the past cannot be undone. While mistakes, poor choices, and misfortunes may weigh us down, the key is to stop dwelling on what lies behind us and channel that energy into moving forward. To progress, we must act as...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Some MCs are idiots. At a sports related event filled with free-flowing drinks, idle chatter, and hundreds of attendees, the presentations quickly unraveled into a comedy of errors. The MC, tasked with introducing the main speaker, faced an uninterested crowd more captivated by their own conversations than the proceedings on stage. In a desperate bid for attention, the MC resorted to shooshing the audience, first gently, then with exaggerated, strident authority, as if addressing unruly schoolchildren. This tactic only drew ridicule, amplifying the noise and making the atmosphere even more...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Salespeople leave money on the table. The sales process doesn’t end with a signed agreement; delivery is the critical next step. Whether immediate or delayed, it’s often handled by someone other than the salesperson—usually agents, contractors, or back-office staff. Salespeople, meanwhile, quickly shift focus on new deals, leaving follow-up with buyers neglected. This is a common mistake that can cost opportunities and relationships. Instead, it is vital to schedule post-delivery meetings with buyers to ensure satisfaction, address issues, and explore further opportunities. A...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Japan discriminates against women in business. Former Prime Minister Abe’s modest targets for increasing female leadership numbers failed miserably. Abe’s campaign got nowhere, and with their tail between their legs, the Government significantly lowered their targets. This lack of progress is mirrored in Japan’s Rotary Clubs, traditionally male-dominated bastions within a global organization designed to foster professional connections and community contribution. Until recently, 94% of Japanese Rotary Clubs had no women members, including my own club. Since I joined in 2002, debates...
info_outlineThe Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Presenters get this wrong. Avoid creating a barrier between yourself and the audience. Presenters are often elevated on a stage or positioned at the front of the room, surrounded by podiums, slides, lighting, and microphones, all of which can inadvertently distance them from their audience. In Japan, standing above a seated audience requires an apology at the start of the speech, as such positioning implies superiority in a hierarchy-conscious society. Similarly, using a commanding voice or overly formal demeanour can create unnecessary separations. Instead, focus on building rapport and...
info_outlinePricing is usually set by the boss and salespeople are just there to get out and sell at that designation. The trouble though is salespeople are not convinced by any price setting methodology. They only believe in the reality of the market. The way they know the reality is the degree of pushback they get from clients, when they are trying to sell.
When you have no belief in the value backing up that price point, your ability to sell at that rate is simply squashed. You default to discounting to get a small piece of something, rather than a very large piece of nothing.
The crunch point is the sales price negotiation with the buyer. If you have gotten into the death spiral of last minute discounting, in order to move the product or service, you have now trained the buyer to extract the biggest possible discount every time.
Instead, give them an ultimatum on price and a very, very short fixed time to take it or leave it. In the meantime, call another potential buyer. If you have not built up pipeline for your sales, then you are always going to be vulnerable to price collapse.
If you discount once and then imagine that by telling the Japanese buyer this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a spectacularly rare alignment of the planets, which will never happen again in their lifetime, a never to be repeated offer, you are kidding yourself.
Don’t miss this. In Japan, as soon as you drop the price, you are now locked into that price point with that client forever. It is not impossible to go higher but it is very, very hard to pull that one off. You have to be ready to drop the buyer entirely, to restore your price point validation.
The equation here isn’t just with the buyer, it is with the salespeople as well. By dropping the price we tell them that this is all this is worth and they believe it. They cannot push the price back up, because they don’t see it at that level either. The company leadership has to intervene and say “burn that buyer if they won’t accept this price”. Be prepared to lose their business. If we do that, then the salespeople will get religion about the pricing validity.
When we are haggling over the price with the buyer and they say that, “this price is too high”, “that is out of our budget”, “we can’t afford it at that level, ”can’t you drop the price”, “we never pay that much”, etc., we are in a bind. We want the sale, so we immediately go into discount mode. This is a big negotiating mistake.
Don’t fold on the price pushback. What we should be doing is defending our price. We don’t do that by arguing with the buyer. We don’t do that by force of will. We do it by trying to better understand the client’s situation. Often salespeople stop asking questions at this critical juncture and instead go into high energy “tell mode”. They start telling all the good reasons why the buyer should pay the requested price. This won’t work.
Firstly, don’t start your response by arguing with the client. Instead agree with them. We can say, “You are right and I understand it is a considerable investment”. If we disagree with them, they stop listening to us and start thinking about all the reasons their “too high” statement was correct.
While we have their attention, we have to transition and question the buyer as to why they made that comment. “You just mentioned the price was too high, may I ask you why you feel that way?”. We avoid arguing and instead of us having to justify the price, we now need to switch it. After you make that comment do not speak.
In this process of further explanation by the buyer, we pick up very valuable insights into the client’s situation. Armed with more data and insight, we may be able to come up with a flexible solution that is a win-win for both of us.
We may in fact discount the price. We might give them longer payment terms or structure the payments across two quarterly budget periods. We may offer the discount on the basis of a volume purchase.
All of this sounds simple enough, but when salespeople hear “the price is too high” they go blank and forget the basics. The job of the salesperson is to serve the client and that means to clearly understand the client’s situation. The only way to do that is to ask questions. It is not to be annoying, pigheaded, stubborn or inflexible. Quite the opposite. We are here to solve the client’s problem and we have to do that in an arrangement, that is a win-win for both of us.