Japan loves detail. A lot more detail than we expect in the West. I remember a lecture I attended at an academic conference on Sino-Japanese relations here in Tokyo in the early 1980s. The Professor was making this point about the Japanese love of detail by relating how a Zen metaphor had been imported into Japan from China. In the Chinese telling, there was a bucket to draw water from the well and there was no great attention placed on the apparatus, but instead on the broader philosophical Zen point. This was the main objective of the telling of the story.
In the Japanese version, there was a lot of minute detail about the circumference and depth of the well, how it was dug out and reinforced, the construction of the bucket and the rope and a host of other statistics, somewhat diluting or even obscuring the broader philosophical Zen point.
The takeaway for us in sales is that the Japanese buyer has an insatiable need for details. This is cultural, but also a defensive posture to help them ensure they don’t make a bad decision to entrust their company’s fortunes to us. The idea is that the more information they can assemble, the greater the likelihood they won’t get into any trouble in the future.
Usually, we will have corporate brochures, flyers, catalogues etc., to show the client. We should make a point of emphasising how long we have been in operation and, in particular, how long we have been here in Japan. Longevity in Japan is its own proof of acceptance by the market and therefore validates risk reduction to take us on as a supplier.
When we start outlining the scope of our services, we should be prepared to go into a lot more detail than we would normally need to bother with in a Western context. If you ever look at Japanese local websites, they are exploding stars of massive details and the screen is saturated in text. I don’t think we need to go that far, but we do need a balance.
There are some busy people who will just scan the content and be satisfied with that and others who will want all the detail. We can cater to both by using headlines and summaries and other pages or resource sections for packing in the gory details.
We are all busy and social media is training us to have shorter and shorter concentration spans, so the first sentence in any paragraph has to be well constructed. We want to plant a hook in that opening volley which captures the curiosity and intrigue of the buyer to keep reading. Don’t start with boring bumf and expect to have your content consumed by the reader. We need to keep repeating this hook idea every paragraph.
Most Japanese companies do not want Minimum Viable Products tested on them or to be a pioneer in their industry. These things work in the West, but Japan expects the product or solution to work perfectly from the outset and to have no problems and no defects. Adjusting the solution based on buyer feedback isn’t an option once you have sold the solution. It has to work from the get go. Testing something new is not attractive to the buyer, because the risk is felt to be too high. Therefore, it is always good to come armed with case studies about other clients who have benefited from your solution.
This is not that easy in Japan, because clients often won’t allow you to promulgate that they are even a client, let alone share what you did for them and what happened. Clients would tell me they couldn’t allow us to mention they were a client because it wouldn’t be fair to our competitors! Huh? But this is Japan, and this is how they see these things. Corporate secrets are well guarded here, so getting a case study together is no snap.
Always make sure you have information about yourself and the company's history. The buyers want to know who they are dealing with. You will need to include basic details about the company like who are the executives, the headquarter address, your main bank, the amount of capital you hold, etc.
In my case, I always refer to myself as “Dr. Story”, because I have a Ph.D. and that is a big differentiator with my competitors in the corporate training market. Do you want to be taught by a guy with a Ph.D. or some bozo with no credentials? I will also sometimes mention I have a M.A. from Sophia University here in Tokyo, because that says “l am a local” to the Japanese buyer.
I will often mention I am a 6th Dan in traditional Shitoryu karate, because that tells the buyer I am really serious about Japan and have deep knowledge of the culture and language. When I have the chance, I will also reference the 9 books, three in Japanese, I have published and the multitude of podcasts and videos I have released, because that is a massive form of credibility building. It says I am a serious expert in my field and you should use me rather than someone else who doesn’t have any of these proof points.
We need to think carefully about what we hand over to the buyer and what we put up on our website. With their distributed decision-making system, many people we will never meet will be taking a look at us. We have to anticipate their questions and concerns and cover those off in our materials.
