Going Slow

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 .