Episode #95: Follow Up In Business In Japan

There are two elements of follow up in Japan. One is when you have concluded the deal and it is time to effect the delivery of the service or product. Prior to that, there has usually been a long drawn out process going on, where the buyer side have “been thinking about it”. Actually they have been thinking about it because they need to get consensus internally on whether they should do the deal or not. They are trying to ensure they have minimized any risk, that they have all the checks and balances in place. So this can take a lot of time and it is very frustrating for the seller.

However, when they have finally gotten everyone on board then they strike the deal and now they expect everything to be done by yesterday. The demand for speed on the execution of the deal is always there in Japan. Now in the West we tend to be the polar opposites. We are fast to strike a deal and slow to effect the delivery. Be aware in Japan that once the gun goes off, then things have to be primed to spring into action. That means we have to have the logistics side of our delivery ready to go and at speed.

The other art of follow up here is a bit trickier. We have lots of meetings with clients, they are thinking about it and we keep seeking out new clients. We can’t sit around waiting for a decision, we have to keep moving forward. The problem arises that we lose touch with people we spoke to some time ago, because we have moved on. We are looking for the next potential deal and we keep adding these potential deals to the list. We need to have a good system of follow up. They said they would think about it and we need to set a cadence for the follow up to see how they are tracking internally. We need to work out the frequency of follow up. That requires a good tracking system for clients we have met but who have not yet bought from us.

They also benefit from the follow up because they also drift. After they have met us they get swept up in work as well, and trying to get people together internally to discuss the arrangements can take time and they also get distracted. Remember it is very rare that the buyer will ever experience any urgency about buying anything.

As the volume builds the capacity for our memories to deal with all the complexity gets challenged. This is where client management systems and alert systems are needed. We need to set this up to help us keep up with all the many things we are doing. Someone you met six weeks ago may be a distant memory and you can barely remember what you talked about. What is worse you have become totally distracted by clients you are talking to now and you have not been doing a good job keeping in touch with that buyer as they work their way through the deliberation process.

It happens pretty easily if you are busy working on leads. As an example, in just a two day period this week, I had a lunchtime networking event, another one that evening, one at breakfast the next day and then another luncheon after that breakfast. I collected a wad of meishi or business cards, some can just be filed into our CRM system, but others need to be contacted to arrange a meeting. So you send off the email to get together. The trick today though is that nobody answers your email and nobody is ever there to answer your follow-up call, so people go into the Bermuda Triangle of Sales Follow-up – they disappear. Unless we have a good system of dealing with all of this we will be wasting a lot of energy and opportunities to do more business.

So follow-up in Japan has its own peculiarities and we have to be ready to deal with them. Speed in response to a go decision and keeping in touch with potential buyers through the long journey to a “yes” is absolutely required for success here.