Episode #350: Buyers Have Many Woes And We Need These In Sales

Why do sales meetings stall when buyers say “we have no problems”?

Because a buyer without visible pain feels no urgency to change. After years of online meetings, face-to-face conversations are exciting, so salespeople often meet anyone willing to talk. But if a buyer believes everything is “all good,” the meeting can die quietly.

Your role is not to pitch harder. Your role is to reveal the hidden cost of inaction. Doing nothing is never free—there is always a price for staying the same. When buyers see that price clearly, they re-engage with you as a partner, not a vendor.

Mini-summary: Buyers who claim “no problems” still face risks. Great salespeople surface the cost of doing nothing through smart questions.

Many unprofessional salespeople jump into solution details too early. They skip discovery and assume their product fits. This creates two immediate failures:

1. They don’t know the buyer’s real needs.

2. They can’t persuade buyers who think they are already covered.

In Japan, where trust and relevance are earned carefully, premature pitching signals self-interest. The buyer mentally checks out and focuses on ending the meeting quickly.

The only way through a wall of non-interest is to ask questions that plant seeds of doubt—questions that make the buyer rethink what they assumed was settled truth.

Mini-summary: In Japan, skipping discovery kills credibility. Insightful questions are the fastest path to relevance.

Buyers often live inside their company’s groupthink. Internally, one “accepted truth” dominates. That single truth can blind them to emerging risks or better approaches.

Salespeople, however, hear patterns across industries. You see issues buyers haven’t noticed yet—or don’t want to notice. Your job is to respectfully challenge fixed beliefs and show how dangerous “one truth” thinking is in a complex, shifting market.

In Japanese companies (日本企業 / Japanese companies) and multinational firms (外資系企業 / multinational companies), this ability to broaden perspective is what separates a salesperson from a strategic advisor.

Mini-summary: Great questions disrupt internal groupthink and reframe the buyer’s reality using industry-level insight.

What does this look like in a real business case (DEI)?

Many companies invest heavily in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). They believe more diverse voices—women and younger employees especially—lead to higher innovation.

But in traditional structures, older male leadership often dominates decision-making. The organization focuses on the WHY of DEI but fails to reach the HOW—the practical behaviors that create real innovation.

So even with strong campaigns, results stall. No innovation boost appears. Motivation fades.

This gap is exactly where question-led selling becomes powerful.

Mini-summary: DEI efforts often succeed at “WHY” but stall at “HOW.” That gap creates a valuable, honest sales conversation.

You ask questions that force the buyer to measure results against their goals—then let silence do the heavy lifting.

Example questioning flow:

• Reality check:
  “Change fatigue is real, especially when teams don’t see benefits. You’ve worked on DEI for a while—are you seeing concrete changes in innovation yet?”

• Challenge the assumption:
  “If not, could it be that you’re close to a breakthrough, but something beyond the WHY is missing?”

Notice what you don’t do: you don’t volunteer the solution. You guide the buyer to name the missing piece themselves.

When buyers say it, it becomes truth. When salespeople say it, it sounds like a pitch.

Mini-summary: The best questions make buyers diagnose their own gap. Your patience turns their realization into commitment.

Why is patience so critical in consultative selling?

Admitting failure—especially admitting that a competitor’s solution isn’t working—is emotionally hard. Buyers instinctively defend the current approach.

If you “rescue” them too early with your answer, you trigger resistance. But if you patiently guide them to discover the problem themselves, they invite your solution.

Well-designed questions create that discovery moment.

Mini-summary: Buyers must reach the conclusion themselves. Patience plus strong questions beats aggressive persuasion every time.

• Buyers with “no problems” still pay a hidden cost for inaction—your job is to reveal it.

• In Japan, pitching before discovery reduces trust and relevance.

• Strategic questions disrupt groupthink and open buyers to new truth.

• The buyer’s self-discovery is the real turning point in consultative sales.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.