Episode #86: The 105 Centimeter Salesman

How is it possible that a salesman who can barely see over the counter become the top salesman in his company? We all think we have our problems but compared to Toshiya Kakiuchi we have nothing to complain about. With his limitations, he succeeded in sales, so if he can do it then what is our excuse?

The Bank of japan has forecast that nearly sixty percent of Japan’s regional banks will suffer net losses ten years from now. They are facing a dwindling client base brought on by accelerating population decline in many regions across Japan and the tightening profitability of their businesses. The worsening performance of regional banks is bad news for companies and other borrowers that sustain regional economies. Mergers will help to some extent but this won’t fix their profitability problems. In the April-December period in two thousand and eighteen more than eighty percent of the seventy nine regional banks listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and other markets posted either reduced profits or losses. In other news, according to a recent survey by En-Japan Inc, close to forty percent of employers feel they have low retention rates for regular employees hired in the middle of their careers. Companies said that nineteen point two percent of midcareer hires were likely to quit between six months and a year after being hired. Another five point eight percent left in less than a month. One in three forms said a midcareer hire was prone to quitting in less than six months. Finally, The number of children in japan fell by a third during the Heisei period running from nineteen eight nine until this May. The number aged under fifteen was estimated at fifteen point three three million, as of april this year, down one hundred and eighty thousand from a year ago.

Salespeople are world class whiners. They are the most creative group amongst all professions for coming up with excuses about why they can’t meet their targets. The sale’s life requires a constant stream of new buyers. Marketing is permanently inhabited with ne'er-do-wells, who are sabotaging the sales department’s efforts with underdone campaigns and inept promotions. When the leads are few and far between, desperate measures are called for and the chief villain of the piece is cold calling. Everyone will assure you that you can’t cold call in Japan.

Salespeople everywhere are delicate blossoms. They get a rocket from their boss about their poor results and try to cold call potential clients over the phone. They get total, irreversible rejection and quit phoning after the third call. There is a variety of cold calling which is even more debilitating and that is tobikomi eigyo(飛び込み営業). You have probably seen some seriously stressed out younger person in your reception hall of your office, hanging around looking totally out of depth and out of place, getting the bum’s rush from the most lowly ranked person on your company’s totem pole. That was a tobikomi eigyo salesperson, someone who just drops by unannounced and devoid of an appointment, always unceremoniously shown the door.

Imagine if you were so short, that the receptionist can’t even see you unless she stands up and peers well over the counter. Or, that the typical unmanned reception phone and organisational chart are at such a height and depth, that you can’t even use them. This presumes you can even get into the building, in the first place.

Toshiya Kakiuchi was born with a brittle bone crippling disease that confined him to a wheelchair. He applied for jobs, found the going tough, then one day a firm which built websites, accepted him as an employee. He expected to be seated at a desk, building websites in the safe bosom of the office. His boss told him to head off to the sales department. “You have to get out there and cold call offices door to door, tobikomi eigyostyle, looking for companies who need a website”.

Seated in his wheel chair, he was only 106 centimeters tall, found that most buildings were difficult to access because of vertiginous stairs. His sales comrades were seeing 40 or 50 companies a day and he was only seeing 5, if he was lucky. Yet, in a short space of time, he became the top salesperson in that company.

After his talk to the Economist Conference Network event, I asked him about how he managed it. With only a limited number of calls he could make in a day, he had to really make every post a winner. He found a way to turn his disadvantage into an advantage. We have tobikomi eigyopeople coming to our office every month, trying to sell us one thing or another. Like everyone else, we send forth the lowest person in the chain of command to shoo them away (nicely of course, because we are Dale Carnegie!). Do we remember any of them 30 seconds after they have moved on to the next company’s reception area? No. Kakiuchi san, though, is definitely memorable, distinct, differentiated. You are not going to forget him turning up to you office. He told me that he had to just keep going back again and again. Eventually he would get to talk to a decision-maker who could buy and they did buy.

So, for all those able bodied salespeople out there whining in their suds about how tough sales is, stop it right now – you have nothing to complain about. Kakiuchi san found a way through by differentiating himself, by having grit and stick-ability to keep going back despite being constantly rejected. He was physically weak but mentally tough.

Today he runs his own company Mirairo that researches, designs and consults on the needs of the disabled. He has produced an app called Bmaps that tells the disabled where there are stairs, elevators, physical barriers on their route to their destination. His book Barrier Value (バリアバリュー) tells his story of how he overcome his challenges. With our aging population demographics, we will all be needing his company’s services in the future, as our hips and knees weaken and those stairs are looking like Everest.

So salespeople, don’t complain about cold calling. Read Kakiuchi san’s book and reflect on how lucky you are, with so much sales opportunities right in front of you.