343 Reducing Buying Friction In Japan

<p>Victor Antonio is one of my favourite podcasters on sales and he recently had an episode on reducing friction in the sale.  This got me thinking about how would that work in Japan?  A big barrier to sales in Japan is the culture.  I remember a business contact of mine, a long time Tokyo resident, <span lang= "EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">who</span> moved from Japan to Hong Kong a few years ago, pre-pandemic. I asked him what differed from doing business there compared to here.  He noted a big difference in Hong Kong was businesspeople there were <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">“</span>interested in doing business<span lang= "EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">”</span>. </p> <p>I asked him what he meant by that?  He replied, “In Japan when you go to a networking event<span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">, p</span>eople are not interested in meeting new people all that much.  There is a lot of hesitancy in Japan and a fear of new people they don’t know.  In Hong Kong, everyone is interested to find out if there is a way to do business together and build their business<span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">es</span>”.  I thought about that statement and actually it is true.  When I go to the Japanese language only business networking events, as opposed to the international Chamber of Commerce events conducted in English, there is a big difference. </p> <p>At the Japanese only events, very few people will walk up to someone they don’t know and introduce themselves.  I do it, but I am a <em>gaijin</em> and the same rules don’t apply to me as much as they do to Japanese businesspeople.  I have had to train my Japanese sales team to walk up to people they don’t know and meet them, because left to their own devices, they would do what everyone else does, which is not all that much. </p> <p>The accepted play here is to seek people you already know and talk with them and if they can introduce you to someone they know, then that is how you meet new people.  I noticed with my team that they would meet someone <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lan