Episode #347: Has Covid Changed The Way We Sell In Japan?

If you are in the consulting or selling fields, then telling buyers that what went before is now irrelevant is an attractive way to generate revenues. You can see numerous offerings in social media about the “new” dimension and their “out with the old” remonstrations. Thinking about this for Japan, what has happened here, as buyer concerns about Covid begin to ebb away. The biggest difference is we are now back in the office for 70% of companies. We can make office visits once more, after having been relegated to doing Zoom calls for the last three years. It also means that face-to-face networking events are being scheduled again, after a long hiatus.

One thing I learnt during Covid was the importance of getting client mobile phone numbers into the database system. When the buyers were working from home, it was almost impossible to get hold of them. The general number on their business card would throw up some mightily unhelpful junior person, designated to answer incoming calls. Their lack of enthusiasm for that task was only surpassed by their obvious distaste for “grubby” salespeople calling the boss.

“I will pass your information on and Suzuki san will call you back” was a typical riposte I received. Three years later, I am still waiting for those various Suzuki sans to call me back. Was Suzuki san actually informed that I called? Was a message passed on or did the whole promise just immediately evaporate the moment the call ended? I will never know, but I know that nobody ever called me back. For cold calls, they had worked out that if they put us through to the section chief or the division chief, they exposed themselves to being scolded for doing so and therefore they just shut down that option. Again, the go to method was “I will pass your information on and someone will call you back”. No calls were returned and in this case I strongly suspect that they did absolutely nothing.

What about now? Most people are back in the office today and when we call, we have a higher likelihood of catching them at work. One thing I always recommend is to leave a recorded message if their system allows it. Rather than calling and just hanging up if the answering system kicks in, at least register that you called and that you want to speak. Naturally, we shouldn’t rely on them hearing the message and then calling us back. We should call back again until we get through. The fact that they have been called is there and they are mentally ready for your call when you finally get through.

Getting appointments has also returned and meeting them in their office is again a possibility. I prefer to meet them in their office, because you get more immersion on their culture and branding when you can do that. It is highly convenient for them and they feel relaxed in their own environment. They can also effortlessly grab other people who may become pertinent to the conversation when we meet in their location.

The questions to be asked have morphed. Now a good warm-up opening question is about what has changed for their company or business since Covid. This is a broad sweep which will immediately tell you how they have fared during Covid. It will also tell you if they are still mainly working from home or whether they have switched it to back in the office three days a week, etc. Maybe what you were discussing three years ago may be relevant still and there are additional items which they now need your help with. This warm-up question opens up channels of questioning to ascertain where the solutions are needed and allows us to quickly zero in on what we can do for them.

They may try to expand post-Covid and now have a problem recruiting staff or a retain staff problem. Often, in these cases, they may need to outsource more of the business than prior to Covid. They may have invested in technological solutions to drive down their reliance on staffing. They may have had a “good” pandemic and really boosted revenues over the last three years. Now however, they are coming off those inflated highs and things are slowing down. Today they are subject to HQ instructions to freeze hiring and cut costs, as other regions leap out of the Covid frying pan into the global recession fire.

We should never say “no” for the buyer and we should presume there are plenty of the things we supply which they still need until we are told differently. We don’t want negative thinking such as “I talked to them three years ago, but everything will have changed now, so there is no point going back to them”. Our mental frame has to be whatever they needed three years ago has probably not been solved and actually has been joined by additional needs, which will open up an even bigger market for us.

Although the fundamentals of selling remain unchanged for the past three years, the access barrier is finally declining. Therefore, we must act quickly and reach out to our clients. They have new requirements and we have the solutions, so we need not be shy about contacting them and checking on how they are going.