Episode #369: The Real Know, Like And Trust In Sales In Japan - Part One -KNOW

We have all heard this bromide about Know, Like and Trust in sales, but have we really deeply explored what it means in today’s post-Covid business climate? Over the next three contributions, I am going to go deep on these three aspects of sales.

The Marketing Department will work on promoting the brand, but it very rare that they ever promote individual salespeople. Let’s assume they won’t be spending any money on us and so we are on our own. Grant Cardone is a really hard driving, hard core American sales trainer who I like, but who I know would be a disaster in Japan. Nevertheless, he makes a very good point when he says in sales we are all invisible. This is the “know” problem. How can people buy from us, if they have never heard of us.

During Covid, the entire networking apparatus just broke down. Participating in online events, we could see people trapped in their tiny little boxes on screen, but we couldn’t connect with them. What a frustrating time that was in the sales profession. Fortunately, networking at live events is now back in fashion. Are you making the most of this opportunity? This is such a great chance to meet people and make a personal connection directly with buyers and allow us to set up a sales call with them. Within ten seconds you should be able to tell if this person is a prospect or not. If they are not, then go find someone who is. It is time to get back out there and “work the room”.

Cold calling was a nightmare too. The decision-makers were camped out at home and we didn’t have the foresight to collect their mobile numbers prior to the pandemic. That meant a call to the general number was the only alternative. Astonishingly, many firms I called hadn’t mastered the logistics of remote work. They had a central phone number, but no one was picking up the phone. What a mess. Even if you rang the central number and managed to speak with a human being, they were savage beasts, hell bent on getting rid of salespeople.

They are still savage beasts post-Covid and getting through to buyers is still tough, tough, tough. Target the person you want to connect with and send them a package by mail and that same junior person who was blocking your call from getting through will diligently place that parcel on their desk for you. Existing clients are always the backbone of most sales efforts, because finding new clients is so difficult. That doesn’t mean we should give up on cold calling though. As I said, we should carefully target who we think we can help and sniper-like, focus on connecting with them.

Social media is another dimension where we can become known. Where is the attention focus in Japan for your buyers? Finding out this type of general information would be straightforward you would think, but across the various sources, the discrepancies in reported numbers are just astonishing. I honestly don’t know who to believe, but according to humblebunny February 2023’s 8th edition, the order of ranking of monthly users in Japan is YouTube (102m), Line (92m), Twitter (59m), Instagram (49m), Facebook (26m), TikTok (18m), Pinterest (9m), and LinkedIn (3m).

This is where your clients potentially have their attention, but do you know which platforms they visit? Also, what about you - where can you be found? Are you using the same platforms as your buyers? Think about who is your target market, which platforms are they using and most importantly, what is your presence on those platforms? Are you just a consumer of other people’s content and not a creator for these platforms? Does that demarcation make any sense, if you want people to know who you are?

As a creator, which mediums are going to get you in front of your potential clients. Can you produce text content which marks you out as an expert in your field? Can you get your text content on to platforms to distinguish yourself from your competitors? Even if you cannot do this easily, AI has the capacity to assist and it is very fast. The danger is that at this stage in AI’s development, the content can easily become rather generic. That is why if you can add your secret sauce, your special spice, to help you to stand out in your fellow AI dependent crowd.

Can you produce video? Absolutely. Everyone has a high-quality camera in their mobile phone today, so the barriers to video production have really come down. Video is good, because we can see you and we can more easily connect with you. We feel like we can know you. What about audio? The soundtrack can be easily stripped out of video and bingo, you now have an audio version of the same content. Or you could create a podcast and have your guests provide the majority of the IP and you just add your two cents worth.

Do you have to be handsome and beautiful and sound fantastic for these mediums? Many people won’t do video or audio, because they lack confidence in how they look and sound. Is that you? Think about rock musicians? Are they all gorgeous and good looking with great voices? Mostly no, but they still sell millions of albums. I like Sting, John Lennon and Bob Dylan and do they all have great voices? Handsome? Not really. So we don’t have to be self-conscious about how we look and sound thus limiting ourselves in terms of becoming creators for our audience of buyers. If the content is compelling, people will ignore how you look and sound.

It is time to network, cold calling and maximise the use of social media. How else are you going to get known?

In the next edition we are going to look at how to be LIKED in sales.