Sheer persistence will overcome brilliance

“$1,200” Lily snapped. “No way, too much” I retorted.

The four feet two pocket-rocket then snatched the calculator from me and punched in a counter offer… $1,000?! “No, no still too expensive” I scoffed. Back and forth went the calculator like a tennis ball fizzing over the net in a grand slam final.

Deep into the fifth set, Lily’s frustration became obvious, her wide smile morphing into a frown. I had moved in the negotiations $50 RMB, while she had discounted to less than 10% of her initial asking price.  But that’s how the game is played in downtown Shanghai, China.  This bustling market scaling up multiple stories high — replete with all the delights and junk a discount hungry tourist can buy.

Lily and I grinded to an agreement, she sneered, “you a tough man.” With a chuckle, I said goodbye, knowing I had still left money on the table. But, to spend another five minutes squabbling over what was essentially a few Aussie dollars seemed counterproductive. It was my last day in China and I was on a mission to buy as much cheap crap as I could in the least amount of time.

In every stall I observed salespeople working to a similar sales process. They always request a ridiculously high price. Rejected by the customer, the salesperson asks what the customer desires to spend. Incremental counter offers then move the customer towards a price that both agree on. In Australia, this is called haggling; an art frowned upon. In Asian, it’s simply part of a commonly respected and tested sales process.

While the traditional Asian method for negotiating is unlikely to meet with approval in Australia, there are still many elements to this method that can be applied here. If you look closer you may even find some real genius in this seemingly ancient dark art.

The salespeople I encountered weren’t that savvy or polished, yet when they applied their process and believed in it, it rarely failed them. They always begin by asking what you want to pay, successfully gauging the customer’s expectations. They proceed to explain all the benefits of the product to position it in its most valuable light. The salesperson then makes an outrageously high offer, the customer’s counter offer then establishes their level of buy-in.

And so the process moves forward.

The salesperson understands the more time a customer spends in dialogue with them; the more likely they are to buy. Should a considerable amount of time pass in negotiations, and the customer then walk, I frequently observed salespeople mutating from broad smiling, amiable creatures into spitting vipers disgusted by the customer refusing to engage the process until the final agreement.

Clearly the methods that Chinese salespeople employ with the locals are different. This denotes they understand who their most profitable customers are, namely; bright eyed tourists, who will pay more and engage willingly in their process, so they structure their time and approach accordingly. 

Last but not least, each salesperson demonstrated the most vital element of success in any field: persistence. Incredibly relentless in their pursuit of the sale, they work with a methodology, which frankly, most Western salespeople couldn’t be bothered with.

This type of process is indeed gruelling, with every customer being engaged in a structured and patient way. This approach takes discipline, persistence and patience, the cornerstone of any successful salesperson no matter what part of the world you do business in.