Sales in Japan: 7 Unconventional Tactics

Many CEOs I meet in Japan lament that their sales teams are underperforming. They see it in the behaviors and the results. Yet what to do about it is often elusive. Below are 7 unconventional tactics I advise CEOs to consider.

1. Impose new behaviors first — mindset shifts follow. Buy-in is optional.

If you are a leader seeking rapid change in your sales organization, forget about buy-in. Change behaviors first, and mindset will follow. Nothing shifts mindset faster than experiencing real success. Get your salespeople to try the new approach — cajole them if you must. Tell them you’re skeptical too, but ask for their cooperation in a trial to generate definitive evidence. Let success drive the buy-in.

2. Treat sales as a noble profession.

Salespeople enable others to improve their lives. I have clients whose salespeople help business owners become wealthier, help individuals fight off deadly diseases, and help car owners keep themselves and their families safe. It is often a salesperson — not some AI bot on a server somewhere — who connects people with that value, without whom they might otherwise miss out entirely.

Do your salespeople know that? Do your leaders?

In a small Tokyo sales office of a Kansai-based company, the sales manager habitually turns away salespeople from other companies who call unannounced — regardless of what they have to offer, including products and services that might genuinely benefit the business. He does this in full view of his own sales staff, yet expects those same people to be received and heard when they make the same kind of calls on prospects.

If a sales manager visibly turns away visiting salespeople while expecting his team to be welcomed by prospects, he has already told his team everything he really thinks about their work. If you want customers to welcome your salespeople and listen to what they have to say, your leaders must treat other companies’ salespeople the same way.

3. Coach salespeople to ask, listen, and provide valuable insights — not pitch.

Too often, salespeople believe they need to know everything about a buyer before a meeting, then demonstrate that knowledge by expounding on a marketing message. Better to be an ignoramus and ask questions than to assume you know the business, motivations, and objectives of your buyer — and be wrong.

I recently observed a role play in which a salesperson told the buyer: “This product requires bi-weekly application rather than weekly, and let me tell you all the reasons why that’s good for you” — rather than simply asking: “For many of our customers, lower application frequency is a priority. Is that true for you, or is something else more important?”

Are your salespeople asking pointed questions, listening, and learning through conversation — or dominating the meeting with a pitch?

4. Replace value propositions with buying propositions.

A value proposition presumes that all customers value the same thing in the same way. It is no more than a generic, educated supposition that may or may not be right. A buying proposition, however, closes deals — and the two are not the same.

A friend of mine once described a large company choosing a mobile telecommunications provider. The winning salesperson led with network coverage, capacity, and speed. He got the business — but for none of those reasons. The buying proposition for that account was the ability to deliver real-time cricket scores to mobile devices. Everything else was noise. Who would have known without asking?

Are your salespeople making buying propositions specific to each prospect, or blindly pitching a standard value proposition and hoping it sticks?

5. Coach salespeople to assert expertise, not submit.

Too many salespeople treat a sales meeting like an oral exam — as if they are being scored on how many questions they answer correctly. Yet the best salespeople are genuine experts in their domain, and they assert that expertise. A sales meeting is a dialogue, not a one-way inquisition.

In a recent role play, a buyer asked: “We need an ERP system to improve customer service. How long will implementation take and what will it cost?” The salesperson fumbled through a hurried, awkward response. A far better answer: “Why do you believe it’s an ERP system that will improve customer service, as opposed to something else?”

Are your salespeople behaving like experts in front of prospects — or like pupils sitting an oral exam?

6. Challenge the assumption that rank blocks access to senior economic buyers.

Japanese society is supposedly so hierarchical that rank supersedes everything. I hear this constantly — and it is far too much of a generalization.

I frequently hear Japanese salespeople claim they cannot possibly meet with a senior economic buyer — the person with independent authority to spend money — because that person outranks them. Rank disparity becomes an excuse to deal with junior-level gatekeepers who are empowered only to say “no” and never to say “yes.”

The only people who believe rank parity is essential to hold a meeting are insecure gatekeepers with no economic buying authority — and mediocre salespeople. Real value knows no rank. No buyer will turn away a sales rep who can convincingly help him make millions for his business over something as trivial as job titles.

If you find that your sales managers are required to appear alongside a sales rep to close a deal, ask yourself whether the sales rep is necessary at all.

7. Eliminate distributor relationships that have outlived their value.

We are living in a post-distributor age. Gone are the days of cajoling distributors into representing your products to customers — often poorly. CEOs I know are frequently warned against ending dealer or distributor relationships that no longer serve the business, told that customers will abandon them and their companies will be blacklisted in Japan.

I have never seen such predictions of doom come to pass. What I have seen, repeatedly, is businesses capturing dramatically better margins, improving customer relationships, and reclaiming control of their own brand the moment they act. In every industry there is a disruptor. If you don’t yet see one in yours, make sure that disruptor is you — while you still can.

So, what do you think? Which of these will you deploy today? And I’m curious — what unconventional tactics do you use to boost sales capabilities and results in Japan, or elsewhere in the world? Drop me a line. I’m interested.