Viewpoint

Developing Global Brand Ambassadors

It was breakfast time in Tokyo; a sublime autumnal day. In the distance, the snowy crevices on Mount Fuji appeared to be ruffled white feathers adorning the graceful neck of a proud grey bird. A perfect day, but one that would soon turn into a comedy of errors for one sale's executive.

Directly opposite my breakfast table were four businessmen engaged in what I will loosely describe as a sales meeting. One was a Western executive - I'll call him Mr. X - and the other three were Japanese. Mr. X is the seller. I overheard him making references to Ghana, Congo, South Africa and aluminum. Of the three Japanese, one is a senior gentleman - let me call him Y-san. He is accompanied by two young associates who do most of the talking while he listens - a typical scene in Japanese business.

Let me jump ahead to the end of the sales meeting - the Japanese apologise profusely, but say they have to leave. Mr. X's head and shoulder's slump down, and he sighs a heavy sigh as he gathers up his spreadsheets. He has given his all, but he is defeated. He leaves the meeting empty handed, frustrated, and confused. What went wrong? There were too many mistakes to detail here, but let me highlight four.

Superficial preparation

Mr. X appears to know little about Japanese culture except for the fact that gifts are sometimes exchanged. He probably picked up this information from a simplistic list of do's and taboos, or from a friend who heard it from a friend of a friend or a friend's uncle's nephew. About three quarters of the way through the meeting, X is getting desperate because the Japanese are giving him no positive signals. As a last resort, he pulls three crushed and unwrapped gifts out of his bag and says, "I hear you people like to receive presents." The words chosen and his tone are insulting, and he has obviously given very little thought to the gifts. They could have been hurriedly picked up at the airport for his children. Or he could have been carrying around a bag of trinkets for anyone he might meet. The whole exchange feels like a clumsy bribe. Y- san and the other Japanese are polite, but hardly impressed with such a crude gesture.

Lack of empathy

When I first saw X in action, his sales pitch was in full flow. He was speaking English so fast that I could barely understand what he was saying. One of the young Japanese was trying to translate, but his inability to keep up was obvious to everyone, except X. X had learned his sales pitch by heart, and nothing - not even a language difference - was going to stand in his way. He obviously couldn't relate to the communication challenges faced by the Japanese.

Inappropriate Style

Not only was the sale's pitch too fast, it was a direct, 'in your face,' and take no prisoners, hard sell. "Look, I'm leaving Tokyo for Korea this afternoon. If you don't take this opportunity now it'll be gone. If you lose this, I'll feel sorry for you Y-san because this is so obviously in your best interests. You can't lose. Look at the spreadsheet again, and see if you don't agree with me that this is right for you." X was in Tokyo to do a deal, make his numbers, complete a transaction. No effort was being made to build a relationship, to patiently develop trust. He only knew one way to sell. He wasn't making it easy for his customer to buy from him; he was only making it easy for himself by sticking to his habitual, familiar way of working.

No Sense of Humor

I had been talking with a Japanese taxi driver the night before about the importance of relationships in doing business in Japan. "Yes, you need ninjo - human relationship," he said. Actually, I thought he had said ninja and so I replied, "My children used to dress up like them for Halloween." He looked at me very puzzled and said slowly - "How you dress your children as human relationship?" One of those classic lost in translation moments. We both had a long and hearty laugh at my misunderstanding. When X found he was misunderstanding the Japanese or being misunderstood he became defensive and hostile. "I know what I said. You're putting words into my mouth. That's absolutely not what I said."

And so it went on. Rude, crude and utterly ineffective. If we are going to send some of our sales people into unfamiliar cultural territory, we should:

• Select those who fully understand that selling is a relationship
• Provide them with self-awareness tools so that they can appreciate how their personality and background can foster or inhibit a cross-cultural relationship
• Provide them with training and coaching to develop cross-cultural communication, presentation, and negotiation skills - in general, and targeted to specific cultures
• Provide informational resources for just-in-time and ongoing learning

If we don't do these things for our sales people, we are wasting their time, our customer's time, and our resources. In an age when reputation is so important, we must groom them to be brand ambassadors and not just frequent flyers.

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