Episode 320: Client Contact Insights In Japan

Japan is merciless with salespeople. When you call the client’s company everyone is doing their absolute best to make sure you don’t get to talk to the boss. They won’t tell you their name, they don’t offer to take a message for you, the whole vibe is “get lost”. If you don’t know the precise name of the person you want to speak with, then the wall of steel descends very quickly. They will question you as to why you want to speak to the person in charge, tell you that the person will call you back. They never will.

No one wants to take any responsibility in the Japanese system, so that is why they won’t share their name. They don’t want to get scolded by the boss, so that is why they won’t put you through. The boss is a salaried employee and they won’t take calls from people they have never heard of. They don’t think, “this might be a business opportunity that will help my company”. They think, “I don’t want to have to deal with people I don’t know, especially foreigners, because it is risky”. Risk aversion is a big thing here and the easiest way of never taking a risk is never doing anything new or different. It has worked for thousands of years here.

So how do we break through the steel barrier. Many companies have meetings on Monday mornings, so invariably no one is around to take the call, even presuming you know their name. The last day of the month is also a very busy day for many companies, so that is another hard one. Days with a five in the date called gotoobi (5th, 10th,15th, 25th) are also busy days in Japan because they are cut off dates for invoice submissions, monthly invoice payments, salary payments, Government department submission dates, etc.

If we want to call a company and we don’t know the person’s name, then we should try and do it before the gate keepers arrive for work or after they have left for lunch or for after they have departed at the end of the day. This is not fool proof, but the chances of talking with someone with a bit more authority goes up.

Those tasked with taking general calls to the company or section, are usually female, young and at the very, very bottom of the hierarchy with no authority, except to make your life a misery. Companies don’t understand that these staff are the bearers of the brand to the outside world, so invariably they are not properly trained. They think their job is to screen out all salespeople and all unknowns.

I called the new President of a major Italian brand here in Tokyo to say hello and thank him for his business, as we had been commissioned by his headquarters to provide training for them. I didn’t know his name because he had just arrived and that information was not public at that point. I could never get past the gatekeeper. She would always tell me he wasn’t available and that he would call me back. That never happened. I am the President of the company delivering training for his company, to develop his business, to help hit his targets. You would expect he would want to talk with me. No such luck. In the end, I got so frustrated, I just gave up trying to talk to him and left the training delivery logistics to my staff. I never did meet him in fact and he was posted to a new country.

Here are some ideas. Even if you don’t know the name of the person send a package to their title within the company. This package might contain your company brochure or a small gift, but whatever it is, preferably make it slightly bulky to excite curiosity. Then, when you call asking for them, mention to the gatekeeper that you want to follow up on the package you recently have sent to them.

That package, by the way, once received by the target will probably go straight into the waste paper bin sitting next to their desk, unread, possibly unopened, because they don’t know who you are. This “send the package then call” technique will slightly increase your chances of getting put through.

Try to make the call before 9.00am, after lunch at around 1.10pm and again after 6.00pm. The junior people will usually arrive around 9.00am or 9.30am. They will have to man the phones from 12.00pm while all the important people go to lunch. This means you have a slightly better chance of talking to the boss when they are back from lunch and the junior person is not there. Companies are more concerned these days about junior, non-manager staff working overtime, so the junior people will be gone after 5.00pm or 5.30pm. The managers however are still there. Obviously the same considerations apply if you know the person’s name. Your chances of connecting will go up.

If you have met them before, you can say that you are calling to follow on with them on that recent conversation you had. Or you are calling to follow up on that email that you have sent them. Or that you are calling to get an answer to your question in the email you sent to them. More senior staff will generally recognize you have a business connection established and are more likely to put you through.

Why don’t they ever call you back? They recognize you are trying to sell them something and that means making a change in the supply arrangements. Change triggers a lot of requirement for internal harmonisation of a new supplier choice. They have to get the hanko seals stamped on the submission they will have to circulate to all those effected by the new decision. It will also probably require individual meetings with certain key people to secure agreement. It is a lot less work, trouble, time loss and risk to just ignore you in the first place.

Yes, you can get through but it is not easy. You need to try some tactics to make it possible. Have these issues in mind before you reach for the phone. This will save you a lot of frustration and lost time.