In Asia, expect the unpredictable

In Asia-Pacific however, sales engagements are not transparent, personal agendas and relationships frequently determine sales and business outcomes. A lot happens behind the scenes. Frequent twists and turns mark the course of complex sales engagements. Priorities can change very rapidly: what is true on Monday may not prevail by Friday. A contract that is on the verge of being awarded to you on Monday may end up being closed by your competitor within a few days or weeks, with a sympathizing smile for the buyer saying “Sorry”.

And even when you do receive your PO, beware - the real sale starts at that point, as contracts and Purchase Order cancellations do happen, especially in South and Southeast Asia.

In such business environments, managing and being in control of the “professional & visible” part of your sales engagements is only one (sometimes small) part of the equation. What happens behind the scenes, all the lobbying & political alignment activities are just as important - if not more.

These are the types of business cultures one has to deal with in the Asia-Pacific region. Many western sales professionals and business executives have gone through many frustrating times in their sales cycles as a result.

Related: Welcome The Year of The Dragon: Business Tips From The Far East

What are the best ways to successfully operate in these opaque environments?

Here’s our Top Six:-

#1 Adapt and be agile – open your eyes and ears, engage with multiple stakeholders from the end-client and your business partner(s) alike. Swiftly adapt your strategy and tactics to the fast-changing dynamics of your sales engagements. If you don’t, your competition will.

#2 Be creative - you are going to have to handle sales situations where goal posts will often move frequently. Be it your go-to-market, pricing strategy, or product positioning, think outside of the box – what holds true in other geographical markets may not work in Asia.

#3 Adopt a positive mindset. Always. This is critical to successfully handle the many unexpected developments that await. Keep your chin up, be resourceful and make things happen.

#4 Build and grow a strong sales pipeline – if you only rely on one or a handful of large deals to achieve your sales targets, you’re setting yourself up for tough times if these deals vanish, take longer than expected to close or end up with your competition. Having a strong pipeline puts you in a position of strength.

#5 Bring local experienced sales talent into your Team – they know how to navigate the local business environment and can leverage their contact network. There is critical information westerners will simply never get access to in most Asian countries. Locals will. Acknowledge this and act on it.

#6 Endurance. With a positive attitude, great relationships and the ability to adapt to new ever-changing situations, you have the right traits to succeed in Asia. Embrace the fact that you will go through many twists and turns throughout your sales cycles, be patient. You are in a marathon, not a sprint.

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The post 6 Ways To Handle Opaque And Fast Changing Sales Environments In Asia appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

In Asia Pac, even more so than in Europe or North America, relationships are everything, and lots of experienced business executives in the Region tend to think that it’s who you know, more than what you know, that matters to drive your sales engagements to success.

“Without a network, we can do nothing”, once said Mochtar Riady, the founder and CEO of Lippo Group, a powerful conglomerate in Indonesia.

Related: What You Need To Know About Chinese Markets: Insight From CBi China Bridge

Business logic

Whilst this is very true, sales environments have gotten tougher and competition has intensified in most industries in this part of the world. Certainly politics, emotions, private agenda’s and personal relationships still play a critical role in awarding projects to suppliers in most parts of the Asia-Pacific region. But business logic however is taking increasingly precedence over politics and emotions. It is not enough to identify and team up with the most appropriate deal maker or business partner for a given account or a given deal to win the business. There’s much more to it than just that.

• Corporate departments and Managers must justify their projects and procurements to their Executives.
• No single manager has the power to individually sign a cheque or send a Purchase Order.
• Sales cycles are getting more complex: projects and spends have to be justified to committees comprising of multiple stakeholders.

Business case

It is critical to your sales success in Asia that you work closely with your champion and sponsors to put together a strong business case underpinned by a solid cost/benefit analysis.

What are the critical metrics and key performance indicators for the business? What are your prospect’s key drivers and initiatives your solutions and services can be aligned with ? How critical is your offering in assisting your prospect achieve their goals ?

By teaming up with your champion, get answers to these critical questions and develop a compelling payback model. Help your sponsors help you!

Additionally, and considering today’s risk-adverse corporate environments, deploy all efforts to convince the buyer that risks associated with choosing you as a vendor are contained. This is where having reference clients in the same region (or ideally country) will help you greatly. Malaysians prefer to have references in Malaysia they can call on, Japanese prefer references in Japan.

Related: Welcoming The Year Of The Dragon: Business Tips From The Far East

Payback time

In Southeast Asia in the Utility vertical for example, if you can develop a business case that offers a payback time of 18 months or less for your services and solutions, you are giving your prospect a good reason to buy from you. If you are able to deliver a payback period of 12 months or less, your solutions and services will be compelling to your buyer- and you can charge premium for this.

Demonstrate to your prospect that other similar clients of yours (ideally in the same country if possible) have had (relatively) short payback following their procurement projects. Broker a reference call or visit with your satisfied clients: this will go a long way in ensuring your prospect is comfortable with justifying a purchase to their Senior Executives.

Sometimes, there are cases where the payback or Return on Investment (RoI) will not be attractive. Can you find other drivers to make a procurement compelling ? Eg, certain customer service levels your clients needs to fulfil, or an important compliance matter. In the mobile communications industry for example, a number of projects to optimize mobile network performance may not offer short compelling payback time – in certain instances however, ensuring good customer service is a top priority and justify a purchase.

Bottom line

Work with your prospect’s project owner and the Executive sponsor to develop a strong business case. No business case means no deal. The buying committee simply won’t sign off a project without a solid cost-benefits analysis and justification. Similarly no relationship means no deal either.

The strong relationships you have developed will play a key role is getting your deals that are backed by a solid business case done and accelerated in complex B2B sales in Asia.

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The post Can You Close Your B2B Sales Engagements On Relationships Alone In Asia? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.