Making the right offer to the right client,
in the right order.
One of the main obstacles that most foreign companies face is the step after the second meeting: the initial pitch goes well, the second is followed by mainly questions; but then, discussions seem to stop here.
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Here is the reason: major Japanese companies are extremely risk-averse and very few have the desire to be the "first-to-try" in the market. It is also aggravated by the multi-layered approvals required especially for a budget that exceeds their department's capacity, a service that requires a replacement of an existing one, or when it involves collaborating with other departments.
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As a result, what Brand Anchor Japan focused on with a data analytics company was to "create a track record" that their product was tested & stable with no surprises. We intentionally went for the medium sized companies in Japan with an offer for a free trial, together with a condition that they would let us use their name in our case study.
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This first step not only enabled the sales activity with the large Japanese companies to move smoothly, but the data analytics company was also able to get valuable feedback on their product from a local standpoint, and hence "localize" before presenting the service to other companies.
A collaborative approach to clarify the client's pain points.
What is often a huge bottleneck in a sales discussion is the lack of awareness on the Japanese company's side about their own issues and pain points. You would be surprised how few companies could give you a one-liner explanation about their goal and obstacles.
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This is what Brand Anchor Japan does with every partner: we initiate the "what is your pain point" discussion by using various case studies and imaginary scenarios to better understand what it is that they are looking for. It is only after a series of hypothetical questions that the client will finally start elaborating on their pains, so presentations always work best when you start off with case studies that clearly demonstrate the initial pain poit and the resolution.
Thorough research while building a foundation for B2B partnerships in the market.
Our client in the medical device industry wanted to see whether there was potential demand in Japan for its financial product.
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We did a preliminary research to come up with a list of hospitals that use similar devices as well as competitors and their characteristics.
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What we also did was to approach several hospitals ourselves for interviews while explaining the strengths of the product.
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We continued to interact with the hospitals throughout the research period, which enabled us to jump start the sales process once the client was ready to enter the market.
