Episode #228: How To Sell On Clubhouse For The Japan Market

Japan is a complex market. Brash plugging of your wonder widget won’t work here. American style sales techniques are always a lot more aggressive than will be tolerated in Japan and so fail with prodigious regularity. So I added the key words “For The Japan Market” to the title of this piece, to make sure I was talking about a niche I understand. Clubhouse is an app on your iPhone, which is a doorway to an audio world, bristling with myriad rooms, devoted to every possible topic, across every time zone. Hosts organize rooms and you can swan by and decide to join the discussion, if the title grabs your fancy.

So where do we draw the line on self-promotion and solution promotion? There are topics exclusively devoted to making money such as marketing, social media, equities, real estate etc. You enter these rooms expecting to pick up valuable insights which will help you do better with your investments. You choose this type of room because you know there will be others also interested in this topic. I think it would be rare to go into a room expecting to buy something, while you are in the room.

For Japan, the content marketing approach is more acceptable. Rather than being on the receiving end of a sales pitch by some svelte voiced golden warbler, you are more likely to appreciate information based on which you can make a judgment about parting with your hard earned moolah. As with all sales, buyers first purchase us and then the good or service we proudly represent.

In an audio world like Clubhouse, the only visual clue is our tiny photograph on the screen and the details we have chosen to enter into our profile. We should make both professional and congruent with our industry. In some cases, that may mean being photographed in full business battle dress or it may mean a more casual approach. We shouldn’t mix them up though. Also, the first three lines of our profile is what people can see below our photograph, so that content has to ooze expert credibility in our field.

All the other clues are coming from our voice. Do we sound smart? That means are we demonstrating we are articulate, by being concise, considered and insightful. The delivery of the content should have a voice brimming with confidence and devoid of filler words like um and ah. We will only have a few minutes to speak, so we need to create an impression in the listener such that they would like to hear a lot more from us.

I had an example of that recently, not on Clubhouse but on video. My organisation sent out a link to a video of Scott Galloway, a Professor at New York University Stern School Of Business. I had never heard of him before, but they included the video because he was making a point which they agreed with and were using him as a relevant expert to support their case. This first exposure was dynamic. “Wow, who is this guy? He sounds really smart. I want to hear more from him”.

Is this how people will perceive you when you are active on Clubhouse? I am certain that Prof G, as he calls himself, was totally well prepared for that video and knows his stuff. So we have to be the same. That means we search out rooms on topics which relate to what we sell. “Fish where the fish are biting” type of basic sales nous. We may have to sift through a lot of dross to find the gold, but that is the Clubhouse reality, as it is currently configured. Once we identify where our buyers are located, we need to become regulars to those sessions. We should be following the people who are also in the room and trying to connect with them on LinkedIn etc. If we have a strong profile and are a regular, the hosts are likely to give us the opportunity to contribute. We should be totally prepared for that with two tools. A simple timer, so we know when we have reached three minutes and we should voluntarily stop speaking. Also, have a note pad with the key bullet points, and be well prepared ready to pontificate.

We must try and come across with the highest value contribution in the time we have, so that the audience goes, “Wow, who is this person? Sounds really smart. I want to hear more”. When we follow up after the session with the people we think can become clients, they are more likely to want to interact with us because they have built up a solid and positive impression, from what we said and how well we said it.

Pitching will be met with skepticism, because the trust hasn’t been built. We need to show our intellectual goods first and then we can move to a direct contact, making it a warm rather than cold call. It sounds like a Zen riddle, but Clubhouse should be selling without appearing to be selling. Provide massive value first, connect and then follow up.