Just think about one of the most pronounced traits in a
successful salesperson. Will it be suave, loquacious, intelligent, extrovert….it’s
a long list. I thought one of the trait that s sharply defines a successful salesperson
is impatience...not any more. Recently we closed a strategic deal in Europe and
it won’t be an exaggeration to say that yearlong pursuit left us all dreading the
prospect of next business in this particular geography.
That’s what I thought when it looked like a never ending
process, client was raising questions on every single line in proposal and we
were providing clarifications that shouldn’t have mattered (in our opinion) in
a multi-million deal. We thought were they enjoying this delay or were they
simply mistrustful of us. Was it our inefficiency that made the process drag or
were they being too detail oriented. And given that we had got so tantalizingly
close to whiff of victory slightest distraction looked so unfair. But now with
all that behind me and in one of the reflecting moment I think – how many times
do we get things worth having in a jiffy. Never. And this was a marriage of
culture, could it have been solemnized without few hide and seek with the prospective
suitor. Client gave us trying times and hard to meet deadlines and gauged our
reaction. Yearlong we were driven to prove we were the worthy suitor, right
match for their crown jewel. We pushed ourselves, held night long sessions, and
challenged the team, all with an eye on proverbial fish’s eye of Draupadi’s
swamvyar. Dropping the ball was not an option yet fatigue was inescapable and
personally impatience compounded by taxing tactics of some of client’s
representative had made me wonder if this chase was worth the object of affection.
But now I know, it was.
And therein lays a correction. Impatience in pursuit is not
the hallmark of a successful salesman. All business is people business and if
you are willing to take a leap of faith for a strategic partnership don’t think
other party will do so as well. In fact, Japanese have a meticulous way of
going about any prospect of business alliance. It’s called Nemawashi and it
entails employee tabling the proposal taking it through all his peers to record
their feedback and concerns. Once it passes the scrutiny of employee’s peer
ecosystem it’s taken up for senior management review and there again it has to
meet the approval of all stakeholders before crystallizing. Mere description of
whole process looks erucitatingly long and might be deemed as stifling agility
yet it helps organization stand behind a decision collectively and ensures fool
proof due diligence for every important decision pertaining to B2B engagement.
Thankfully, we were not dealing with this end of the spectrum yet it holds an
important lesson in cross cultural sales cycle. We might nay will have to
reiterate our proposition, explanations to their key concerns and why we make
the best match. We will have to listen to new concerns creeping in when everything
looked so hunky dory. We will have few detractors in client’s entourage who will be dismissive of whole cross
cultural business idea .there will be slip ups from our side, few frowns on
client’s side but in the end if you can give attention ( not obeisance) to
every request (or demand) of their , howsoever seemingly small you make a
statement. I think we did that every single time and even though we might have
had our focus dimmed and patience
running dry at fall end of chase, this closure will go a long way to teaching
me ‘patience is a great virtue’ in strategic partnerships .
