The art of being 'carefully surprising'.

Day Three of my mini-blog marathon on aspects of my latest book - 'The Anti-Marketeer's Handbook'... and a look at things Japanese - where I happened to live many years ago. The building above was where I met the manager in the 'snippet' below. It is also famous for being the place where one of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings is kept.

And (this is a short digression)... back in the 90s, when I worked as a marketing manager for the Regent Group, I was actually taken to see this picture by the president of an oil company, also with offices in this building. I had told him all about my father's artistic endeavours and he had been suitably impressed. If I remember correctly, our hour meeting consisted almost entirely of talk about art and culture. I did not even open my brochure (sorry Regent).

Anyway..... the 'snippet' below( from my book), occurred quite a few years earlier when I was inadvertently given the basic tools of postmodernist selling, or what I now like to call anti-marketing. Young and green Adrian did not know that then - I was far too silly to understand the connotations of such a radical view of selling.

Remember, those were the days when the sale was all that mattered, people actually drew up SWOT diagrams and teams still wrote marketing plans every autumn. I know, I know - crazy, old-style stuff!

It was a very likeable sales manager (a Mr Takaoka), who explained everything to me. He worked for the biggest steel company in the world at that time (Nippon Steel) and believed in something very different to the mainstream Japanese sales manager. It took a vat of saki to unlock his secrets, but here they are, as I noted them afterwards.

1. Listen more than you talk (about 15% - 85%)

2. Forget the money part (it will blur your pitch)

3. Be respectful... but carefully surprising

4. Criticize the client if he/she's being unreasonable

5. Tell a story (about anything)

6. Talk about golf (every Japanese businessman loves golf). Incidentally, Japanese business women love flowers (always)

7. Be a little negative about your products

8. Be enthusiastic, but never too loud

9. Never appear desperate, unless absolutely necessary

10. Never smoke at the first meeting

11. Admire the competition

12. Be prepared to walk away with a smile on your face

13. Always be nice even if you are being nasty

14. Tell the whole truth at all times even if it hurts

At the time, I did not really understand any of the points, particularly the storytelling, the flowers, the being negative and walking-away bits. They seemed symptomatic of a depressed sales person on a very bad day. Now, when I read this list, I realise that it encapsulates everything that the postmodern sales person is trying to achieve today (apart from the smoking, the golf and the sexist bits), especially the 'carefully surprising' comment, which I have always loved!

It also reminds me of a quotation from an unknown source, which was pinned on the office wall of a sales department I was lucky enough to work in, in the early 90s...

His thoughts were slow

His words were few

And never made to glisten

But he was a joy

Wherever he went

You should have heard him listen