So let’s talk about the word yes. Another way to say it is that, we need to give some positive statements to make a sale.
I said, in the last article that Russians and Eastern European people are much more reserved with giving the answer of yes. So in this culture, it is normal to wait to have more facts about what the work will before giving a positive answer. But this creates real problem and an absolute block when it comes to selling your IT software and project development to western cultures!
Let’s break this down into understandable pieces.
Buying sign
Once you have successfully worked with the client to bring them down the sales funnel, they are going to start to give you buying sign. “Buying sign” this is a when the client is showing their intention to move forward in the deal/buy the product. This logically will end with the client asking a question like, ”so how do we begin working together?
In the west, it’s super important at this moment for the client to receive a positive answer.
Expectation
What do you think the client is expecting of your company during the presale meeting? It’s really important for us to look at this and try to have an understanding of what their expectations are coming into that meeting. I can tell you that when they’re asking you questions about, “how do we begin to work together?”, at this exact moment, they are expecting you to give them a positive statement. What is happening in every IT company that I’m working with, they are not giving these positive statements and deals are lost. I can also say that if you do not do what the client is expecting, they do not understand why you don’t act like other companies that they are used to working with in other countries. Because they don’t understand your actions they try to understand from their own knowledge why you would not act in a certain way that they expect. The only answer they can come up with are not good for the company that’s trying to sell.
A. We do not really want to work/we are lazy.
B. We are not capable of doing the work. We are not a professional company.
So when the client asks these questions of the Russian company and they do not get a positive response, they have to answer this question in their own head.
You can see how their answers to the question makes the sale impossible.
Why is it happening? Because we are not doing what the client expects in the presale meeting.
The two cultures are opposite.
The two cultures are exactly opposite in the way that they view professionalism.
For Russian and Eastern European cultures it is standard to not say any positive statements about working until all facts and all specifications are clearly understood. For this culture it is professional to not answer until you know everything. You are professional know all facts and then speak.
However, in the Western culture it is very professional to speak yes and positive statements when the client asks you how to start to work.
Let me break here and just give you some of the questions I’ve heard in presale meetings.
“ what should we do first, which pain point should we start working on?”
“ how do we begin work together?”
“How do we start?”
I’m sure you would be shocked to understand that during these questions, the Russian team sits quietly and does not give an answer.
And if you think it’s only happening in one company, you are wrong I’ve seen it happen in every IT company that I work with.
It goes right back to the fact that it’s professional in the Russian and Eastern European cultures to not answer until all facts are known.
But now you can clearly see that in the western culture to not give an answer is viewed as being not professional.
The conditional yes
I get it. I actually get it more and more now because I work every day with top-level developers. They explain to me that they cannot say yes until all facts are known.
So I have a deeper and deeper understanding of how the Russians and eastern Europeans feel about this. We have to find a solution because it’s costing us millions of dollars in IT sales. In the last six months I have seen $2 million in potential sales lost.
Let’s make a conditional yes.
I’m gonna break here: I’m going to explain about couching and using proper language to make sure that you say what you really want to say. It is an art form, but you can learn to do it.
If you use what I’m writing below, you will be able to look as a very professional company.
Here are some examples of a conditional statement.
A. I suggest we start with this pain point first. However, we will need some things from your side before we can begin.
B. Yes, let’s begin by working on this first. It’s important for us to do this one first because the next development stage will need this done first anyway. We need to do some research about your systems and we will start to work together.
C. Great, I’m excited to work with you on this. Let’s start by working on this particular area. We will be doing a little bit of research about your systems before we can start But let’s go ahead and sign and get everything rolling now.
Answering their expectations with professionalism
Now that you have the way to answer the client, you will win these presale meetings. Your company will look professional. You are doing what the Western client expects.
I sincerely hope this helps everyone. Let’s go forward and make high-level professional, marketing, and professional sales in the foreign markets.
