It always astonishes me that many salespeople have very little sense of proper timing to start selling their product or service. In the sales call, they are in a rush to get down to business. Japan has mastered the idea of building some rapport before starting the sales conversation. Small talk predominates at the commencement of the meeting and then smoothly glides into the main discussion. Western business people are all "time is money" focused and want to "get straight down to business". They consider that preamble to be a waste of their valuable time.
Japan has a preference for the long-term view and business partnerships. The "devil" they know is much preferred to the "angel" they don't, which is why, usually, the same suppliers get called back every year. New leaders, new staff in decision making positions can eject you from the sales supply conveyor belt, but that is usually because they have their own preferred supplier "devil" they know from past dealings.
Everywhere in the world I believe people like to do business with people they like. We may be forced to do business with people we don't like, from time to time, but all things considered, we all still like to do business with people we like. That early component of the rapport building stage of the sales conversation about the weather, where is your office, how long have you been in Japan etc., is designed to see if you are someone who is likeable.
Trust is the other biggie and the first meeting is mainly geared to determine if the buyer can trust you and your firm in that order. By listening and observing how we behave, the buyer is trying to get a fix on our degrees of reliability. This factor is more important in Japan because of all the tight interlocking relationships in play here. There are many more layers of distribution in Japan, so an error or a problem in any part of the food chain, can have adverse impacts down the line. The last thing a buyer wants is an unhappy buyer of their own products or services down the line of distribution, because of something we did or didn't do.
Believing we are saving time by cutting to the chase, getting down to business immediately is actually wasting your time in Japan. It is a waste because the whole sales process is probably de-railing the possibility of a sale at the very start.
Another observation I would make is that even those who observe the sales niceties in Japan, get straight into their "pitch" immediately after the small talk is finished. This is a big mistake. The loquacious salesperson is the thing of legend. Talk, talk, talk is the idea, somehow overpowering the buyer's resistance with our onslaught of logic and data.
Take your time, concentrate on building rapport and trust. Use the time available in the meeting to let the client do most of the talking and get them speaking about their business, the current market conditions, the relevant timing, their preferences, their frustrations, their experience and their biases. When we know these things, then we have something to talk about, but not before.
