Episode #145: Generating Your Own Leads In Sales

Why do many B2B companies in Japan struggle to generate enough qualified leads?

In Japan, even strong marketing rarely creates enough sales-ready opportunities. Marketing can attract attention through segmentation, SEO, and paid search, but sales teams still face a gap between interest and conversion. That gap is especially wide in Japanese B2B environments, where trust-building and face-to-face meetings remain essential.

Mini-summary: Marketing sparks interest, but Japan’s relationship-driven B2B culture requires sales to actively convert and create leads.

Marketing is critical for early-stage lead creation. Typical channels include:

• Database segmentation to tailor offers to specific buyer groups

• Content marketing optimized for SEO

• Buying ad words for PPC (pay-per-click)

• Lead capture through white papers, eBooks, and inquiry forms

These tactics encourage potential buyers to “raise their hand.” But from a sales perspective, that’s only the starting point; it doesn’t reliably produce enough qualified prospects ready to meet and decide.

Mini-summary: Marketing creates visibility and inbound leads, but sales must turn that attention into real pipeline.

Sales success is predictable when you track your KAIs (Key Activity Indicators). KAIs connect activity to outcomes, such as:

1. Outreach → Contact Ratio
   If you email or call a certain number of prospects, you will get a consistent number of replies.

2. Contact → Appointment Ratio
   In Japan, face-to-face meetings are often required in B2B, especially for new suppliers.

3. Appointment → Deal Ratio
   Track how many meetings become signed business.

Once these ratios are clear, salespeople can stop guessing and start managing performance like a system.

Mini-summary: KAIs reveal the real math of sales—what actions consistently create results.

Start with your target, then work backward.

Example:

• Average deal size: ¥1,000,000

• Annual target: ¥30,000,000

• Deals needed: 30 per year

If your KAI ratios show:

• 1 deal per 5 appointments

• 1 appointment per 10 contacts

• 1 contact per 20 outreach attempts

Then you can calculate exactly how many outreach actions you must do weekly or monthly. Most salespeople never measure this, so they “ramble through the year” hoping results appear.

Mini-summary: Knowing KAIs lets you calculate required activity and hit targets with intention, not luck.

What can sales control that marketing cannot?

Marketing outcomes are influenced by many external factors, so sales shouldn’t depend on them. What sales can control:

• How many networking events you attend

• How many cold calls you make

• How many reactivation calls you do to orphan clients

• Whether you focus on ideal client profiles

When you own these controllable activities, you control your destiny.

Mini-summary: Sales must focus on controllable actions, not wait for marketing to deliver enough leads.

Why is cold calling so difficult in Japan—and how do you break through?

Cold calls in Japan usually fail unless you know the exact person’s name. The gatekeeper—often a junior staff member—has mastered the art of blocking salespeople:

• “Who are you?”

• “Why are you calling?”

• “We will call you back.”

• Then silence.

Simply asking for “the sales manager” almost never works.

Mini-summary: Japan’s gatekeeping culture makes cold calling hard, but a smarter approach can open doors.

What cold-call message works better in Japan?

Use industry-rival insight as credibility:

“Hello, this is ___ from Dale Carnegie Training Japan. We’ve been working with companies in your industry, including rivals, helping their sales teams win new business. Their managers are seeing strong results. I’d like to discuss whether we could create similar success for you. Could you please connect me with your sales manager?”

Why this works:

• You’re not “random.”

• You bring proof from their competitive world.

• You trigger curiosity and fear of missing out.

Mini-summary: Mentioning competitor success reframes the call from interruption to opportunity.

Assume persistence is required. Gatekeepers often go silent, hoping you’ll give up and say, “I’ll call back later.” Don’t.

Key tactic:
Call back every few hours until you reach the sales manager. Consistency wears down the wall.

Mini-summary: In Japan, polite persistence is not optional—it’s the path through the gate.

Cold calling takes:

• Discipline

• Courage

• Thick skin

• Time blocks protected like client meetings

Make a daily “appointment with yourself.” Schedule and block the calling time. If you defend client time, defend prospecting time the same way.

Mini-summary: Cold calling works when you treat it like a serious, scheduled business activity.

• Marketing generates leads, but sales must convert and create enough pipeline.

• KAIs turn sales from guessing into a measurable system.

• Reverse-engineering your target shows exactly how much activity is required.

• In Japan, competitor-based credibility + persistent follow-up is the cold-call breakthrough.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.