A Kiss to Foreigners

Sales people can be their own worst enemies.   We lead complicated lives juggling opportunities, contacts, events, markets, building pipelines, developing account strategies, entertaining prospects, managing long sales cycles and somewhere along the way we complicate buying decisions for our prospects.  There are many ways we do this:

·        Great-looking websites that leave the prospect asking what exactly do you do and where’s the value for me?

·        Too many product options requiring too many decisions (when people have too many choices, studies have shown that they typically buy less);

·        Unable to explain simply what your product’s value is (go on, try right now to explain it clearly in a couple of sentences);

·        Bombarding prospects with too much information and not showing enough value (contributing to paralysis by analysis and, given that your biggest competitor is likely to be the status quo, this is a very dangerous approach to take);

·        Not differentiating what information is required at different times in the sales cycle.

When we export products and services, our opportunity to complicate gets even greater:

• Not communicating in the right language (as Germany's former chancellor Kohl once said: "If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann muessen Sie Deutsch sprechen.”)
• Assuming that the sales approach will be the same in different countries (when selling in Italy, strong individual relationships built while socialising are very important, in Denmark consensus is key and socialising is not so critical);

·        Using jargon that is not consistently understood across all of Europe – have it checked or avoid it!

The products you are selling abroad may be technically complex but it is your job to ‘keep it simple and stupid’ (KISS) for your prospects – simple for them to understand, simple for them to perceive the value, simple for them to buy.  If you don’t simplify the decision-making for your prospects in a language they understand and a manner they’re used to, they will either not make a decision or they will simplify the process themselves, coming to a decision that may make you lose that opportunity.

Geraldine Fusciardi

www.strategy-structure-sales.com