『Pitching Preferred In The Japanese Sales Call』のカバーアート

Pitching Preferred In The Japanese Sales Call

Pitching Preferred In The Japanese Sales Call

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In most modern sales environments, asking the buyer questions to understand their needs would be considered one of the most basic skills a professional salesperson should possess. Yet in Japan, questioning the buyer is often far less common than you might expect. Instead, many salespeople launch straight into the pitch. They explain the company, introduce the product, run through the features and hope something catches the buyer's interest. Why? It isn't simply poor technique. There are cultural, organisational and training reasons why pitching can feel safer than questioning in Japanese sales. Here are six of the biggest reasons. Why do Japanese salespeople often pitch instead of asking questions? Many Japanese salespeople pitch because they have never been systematically trained to conduct a consultative sales conversation. Pitching feels familiar, predictable and socially safer. Most salespeople everywhere receive far less professional sales training than they should. Japan has traditionally relied heavily on OJT — On-the-Job Training. In theory, that sounds reasonable. The experienced boss takes the younger salesperson along, demonstrates how professional selling works and gradually develops their skills. The problem is that today's managers are busy. OJT can easily become a couple of accompanied sales calls followed by, "Off you go." That model only works if the manager is already an excellent salesperson. Often, they aren't. From what we see in our own sales training programmes with Japanese employees, and from my own experience as a buyer, sophisticated needs-based questioning is not consistently well developed. The default is often feature pitching. Do now: Don't assume your salespeople know how to ask good questions simply because they have been selling for years. Observe their actual sales conversations and coach the questioning process deliberately. Does Japanese buyer-seller hierarchy discourage sales questions? Yes. The traditional power imbalance between buyer and seller in Japan can make questioning feel presumptuous, while pitching feels consistent with the salesperson's expected role. There is a saying in Japanese business that the customer is not King. The customer is God. That mindset changes the sales conversation. A relatively junior employee working for a huge corporation may be treated with tremendous deference by the President of a much smaller supplier. Company size matters. Rank matters. That is one reason business cards are so important in Japan. You need to understand who the other person is and where they sit in the hierarchy. Within that mindset, the roles can become very clear. The salesperson's job is to explain the offer. The buyer's job is to examine it, challenge it and eliminate risk. The idea that the salesperson should start interrogating "God" with a list of probing questions can therefore feel uncomfortable. Pitching looks safer. Do now: Reframe questioning as professional diagnosis rather than interrogation. You are not challenging the buyer's authority; you are gathering the information required to help them properly. Why are Japanese salespeople worried about embarrassing the buyer? A salesperson may avoid asking questions because the buyer might not know the answer, potentially causing embarrassment or loss of face. This is a genuine concern. Senior people don't always have detailed operational information. Ask them a question they cannot answer in front of colleagues and you may unintentionally put them in an awkward position. I have experienced this myself. We deal with many HR professionals who are sourcing training programmes on behalf of line managers. On one occasion, I asked the HR team my very first needs-based question. Silence. And Japanese silence can be impressively long. It became obvious they didn't know the answer. Then they abruptly asked me to give them my "pitch". What they actually wanted was vendor pricing. I innocently asked whether I could speak directly with the line manager whose people would receive the training. That didn't go well. I was bundled straight out of the opportunity. Goodbye sale. Do now: Ask questions in ways that allow the buyer to answer comfortably. If detailed information may sit elsewhere, ask, "Who would be best placed to help us understand that aspect?" Are direct sales questions too confrontational for Japan? They can be. Highly specific questions about problems, failures and weaknesses may clash with Japan's preference for indirect communication and social harmony. Consultative sales questions can sound brutally direct. "What is going wrong?" "Where are you failing?" "Why haven't you fixed the problem?" "What are the consequences?" In some sales cultures, those questions may be perfectly acceptable. In Japan, communication is often more indirect. Ambiguity can be deliberate. People may communicate difficult messages through nuance, implication and context rather than blunt statements. Direct questioning can...
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