Hidden in the basement of a building, located next to a Tokyo subway station, is the tiny Sukiyabashi Jirō restaurant, run by the self-named Master Jirō, who has dedicated all of his 93 years to perfect the art of sushi.
Jirō Ono is a true legend of the sector and a few years ago he was also the protagonist of the documentary “Jirō and the art of sushi”, which tells of his journey and his constant and exasperated search for perfection.
This – and his 3 Michelin stars received in 2008 – have made Sukiyabashi Jiro one of the most coveted and sought after restaurants in the world.
Jirō does not have an a la carte menu. Each meal consists of 20-21 pieces of freshly prepared sushi from Jirō based on the fish available that day and a dinner costs the equivalent of about €250. Considering that a meal lasts about 20 minutes, the cost per minute is around €10-15.
If you arrive late, you will lose your spot. If you try your luck and enter the restaurant without a reservation to get a vacancy, you are kindly bounced and invited to book by phone (the only channel accepted).
Reservations begin the first of the month for the following month and the seats are sold out within a few hours. The staff does not speak English and if a foreigner wants to make sure he can taste the Master’s delicacies, he must convince a Japanese friend (or a high-level hotel) to make a call on his behalf.
In short, eating sushi from Jirō is truly a feat. However, it is venture that people are willing to make in order to experience an extraordinary meal of that kind.
Very different from what happens in your company, when the customer enters, he demands everything immediately, with a discount and on his terms.
As much as everyone likes to think “Ah, but people want to pay little, people look for who knows what, customers are unfaithful”, in reality it’s a nice fairy tale.
We have said it a thousand times, but I’ll repeat it in a more subtle way. When people are trying to buy something, if they don’t understand why they should buy X rather than Y, with the same perception they will try to spend less.
People are not stupid. They don’t want to spend more without reason and it’s normal that this is the case.
But if you manage to position yourself as “the person to turn to”, as the reference point in your industry, then customers will make false papers in order to do business with you.
Jirō has positioned itself as an absolute authority in the field of sushi. And in fact people are willing to jump through hoops – and pay for rice by weight of gold – just to get a taste (literally) of the master’s skills.
It is not a price problem. The authority linked to the activity in question makes sure that people know perfectly well what type of extraordinary experience they will live and this makes them willing to open their wallets without saying a word.
And if you are not at this level, it means that you are still perceived by customers as the all you can eat buffet in your town, or as yet another place where you can eat sushi without art, experiencing something that is not different in any way from the media on the market.
The 2019 edition of Winning Salesman will focus on helping you get out of this situation. I will provide you with all the real tools, most concrete strategies and necessary procedures that you need to implement in your company now in order to acquire the power of authority.
In a nutshell, everything you need to:
- be able to sell a greater amount of products or services per transaction, without resistance from customers and without having to cut prices to do so;
- be welcomed by even the most prestigious or important clients who wouldn’t even look your way in the past;
- give a sense of urgency to all customers, who will suddenly stop postponing and want to get started immediately, with deposits and substantial advance payments ready.
And this is only an infinitesimal part of what I will help you achieve during the next Winning Salesman, to be held in Barcelona from November 28th to December 1st, 2019.
If you are dying to find out what other promises I’m committed to making you, click on the button below.
Rock ’n’ Roll!
Frank