362 One Pitch, No Matter How Genius, Never Works in Japan

Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan.  Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not ever be present in the meeting.  Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buying decision.  In the case of Western companies, the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after everyone has had their say.  In Japan there is a lot of groundwork needed so that the final decision is a rubber stamp exercise, because the actual decision has already been taken.

Nevertheless, we turn up for the meeting and the buyer side has a number of representatives sitting in the room.  Often it will be me facing across the table to five to ten buyers.  Where do we start?  Well the meishi or business card exchange is a critical step.  Those hip, modern folk who have dispensed with the humble paper business card are at a massive disadvantage. From the meishi we can immediately understand exactly who is in the room.  We can determine their function and rank instantly and this is very, very helpful.  Before we know how to present to their team, we have to analyse the people in their team.  A buyer team will often comprise multiple layers.  We might have some functional interests represented such as:

1. Executive Buyer
2. Financial Buyer
3. User Buyer
4. Technical Buyer
5. Our Champion

Each one has different drivers for making buying decisions.  We can mentally list them in order from those with a long range vision to those with shorter range views. In the case of the Executive Buyers they are thinking about their strategic vision, the future opportunity and growth potential.

For the Financial Buyers their attention will be turned to items such as cost, terms, flexibility and preserving cash flow. 

User Buyers will be interested in the detailed features, ease of use and reliability. 

Technical Buyers are looking at efficiency, practicality and capacity. 

Our Champion, the person driving the decision on the buyer side, will be concerned about relationships, influence and recognition. 

This sounds daunting enough, but just to spice things up a bit, there are also the buyer personality styles.  The Amiables take their time, don’t rush into things and are concerned about the impact on the people from the decision. 

The Drivers (often the CEO) are the “time is money” types who are always in a hurry, can make an immediate decision and solely focus on the outcomes. 

The Analtyicals (often the CFO or the Technical Buyer) are comfortable with numbers to three decimal places, are keen on the micro detail and want tons of data to support their decision. 

The Expressives (often the Head of Sales and Marketing) want the big picture, do not want to get immersed in the weeds and want to have a big party to celebrate the success, at the end.

So their role within the company and their individual personality styles will be key factors to fully understand when we present.  Just when you thought we were getting a handle on the complexity of the task, there are also going to be attitudinal differences. It will vary according to the individual and even their mood on that day at that time. Different people will be hostile, resistant, discontent, ambivalent, favourable, supportive, enthusiastic.  We are not finished yet with the layers of complexity.  There will also be different levels of expertise in a team.  Different experiences, education, biases, problems, goals, expertise and culture.

Before we present, we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say.  We need to work on our Champion beforehand where possible and yet we may not know this breakdown completely beforehand. We will have to start placing people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room.

Have I talked you out of presenting to buyer teams yet?  It is a bit overwhelming isn’t it when you break it all down into its component parts, but harden up baby, you have to move forward anyway.

Your Champion will have fed you the problems they are facing, you will have analysed them and this meeting is to present the solution phase of the sale.  We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room.  We need an opening to grab their attention.  They will various things buzzing around in their brains competing with your message, so you need to blast way in to get everyone to listen to you.  A startling piece of news or data is always good to grab attention. 

Next we need a statement of need for change.  You can list up the enterprises which have gone to the wall because they couldn’t make the changes needed to adjust to the demands of the market.  Suggesting this is a fate awaiting many more is a good step to get people thinking about their own longevity.  Very few firms are invulnerable and everyone is always worried about what comes next, in particular things they may not be properly prepared for.  Japanese buyers are always very interested in what their competitors are doing and so if possible, give an example from their industry, where there was a similar business with a similar need for change.

 Next suggest three possible solutions. You will be very balanced, going through the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three solutions.  You will present their pros and cons, including practical and emotional reasons, why they are excellent alternatives.  Finally you suggest the best solution for them with evidence as to why it is the best choice.  Now you go into your first close, where you repeat the final recommendation and ask for any questions.  Following the questions from the buying team, you repeat your close again so that this is the last thing ringing in their ears as the meeting ends.

Buying teams are formidable and that means we have to cast a broad net to capture each person’s interest and need for our solution.  There is no shortcut for this process and the key is in the design at the start.  So take into account all the complexities I have listed and design an approach for that level of diversity.