Episode #85: Networking When Doing Business In Japan

There are two varieties of networks here for me - the Japanese speaking and the English speaking. With regards to the Japanese speaking groups, there are a few things which are a bit different. Japanese people are raised not to talk to strangers and guess what, they carry this idea over to networking events as well. In a typical Japanese event, it goes like this: if I know you and I meet someone else I know, I will introduce you to each other. I won't walk up to a complete stranger and start introducing myself.

This is how it is done here, but it is pretty limited in terms of how many people you can get to meet. In our case, with my team, we bowl straight up to strangers at networking events and introduce ourselves. If you are going to create a contact point with someone new, you have to make it happen. You have to be polite and reasonable, but you also have to break through the barriers.

As a foreigner, the social rules are not as strict for me, as compared to my Japanese team members. Often I am the battering ram, to walk up to groups standing around in a semi-closed circle and break in. I then introduce my staff member to everyone and away we go. I just keep repeating this all evening and we get to meet a lot of new people and some potential clients.

At English speaking events there are two varieties again, those who are Japanese and those who are foreigners. The Japanese always get there early and they will go straight to the tables and sit down, uninterested or unable to meet anyone. I don't let that little detail stop me. I walk straight up to them and introduce myself, "May, I meet you? My name is Greg Story" as I extend my business card to them. They are usually a bit taken aback, because they thought they were safe from having to meet anyone new or speak in English, but after starting the conversation they warm up.

If you go to networking in pairs or groups, my rule is don't sit on the same table. How are you going to meet anyone if you sit together. This happened the other day. I was at a networking event and two representatives from a foreign embassy, who are involved in furthering commercial relations with Japan, were all poised to sit down together. I was in that business for twelve years for Australia, so I suggested that was plan was not possibly the best use of their opportunity and that they should “work the room”. I don’t think they quite managed that bit, but they at least sat separately and met many more people

My Dale Carnegie Training Japan rule is we divide the room up. I will take this half, you take the other half and we will get back together at the end and exchange notes on who we met at the event. This sounds simplistic, but so many times I meet people sitting together who are from the same company. Why would you do that? I also start with the people sitting down at other tables and leave my own table until last. I walk around meeting everyone at the other tables and then finally at my own table, because I will have a chance to engage with them over lunch.

The organisers sometimes provide a list of who has signed up to attend the event and this is very handy. If they haven't done that, it is always a good practice to get there early and check the name badges. This allows you to put a face to the name of those people you have already met and to identify some people you may want to meet. It is also a good practice to ask the organisers to introduce you to people you want to get to know or at least point out who is who, so that you can go and introduce yourself.

I position myself right near the door, so I can meet people as they come in.

I recommend you always have a couple of key questions which will help you to know if this is a potential client. If they are not a potential client, then move on because time is tight and time is money. I see some people getting trapped and they manage to spend all the time speaking with just the one person. I do this parting very politely and say, "thank you, I am going to meet a few more people today" and move on. I am there to find clients and this is not a social activity for me whose main purpose is to chat with new people over lunch. I do that too, but that is not why I am there. I want to build my contact base and find buyers. That is the point of networking. To know and to be known.

In our ancient Western fairytales, the wicked witch turned the beautiful princess into a frog and she can only be released from the spell, if the frog is kissed by the handsome prince. That is all the potential client networking guidance you will ever need right there. You have to kiss a lot of frogs, before you find the beautiful princess. You don’t know which of these people at the networking event is going to be the next client for you, so start kissing as many frogs as possible, from start to finish, if you want to build your business in Japan.