Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
"PANEL: Boost Your Sales in 2008!"

Brian and Dan’s credentials
Brian Nelson’s management experience and leadership abilities have helped build ValueCommerce into one of the leading Internet Sales and Marketing companies in Japan over the last eight years. In 2005, Brian worked out a partnership with Yahoo! Japan, in which Yahoo! Japan paid 10.9 billion yen (just over US$100m) in an all cash deal for 49.71% of ValueCommerce. In 2006, Brian took ValueCommerce public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (code: 2491).
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Dan Harris has been in B2B sales and marketing for 27 years, with most of that in Japan and the rest in New York. In his positions at Sony (industrial products), Salomon Brothers, PacificData, and SAS Institute, he has spearheaded the introduction of new products, created and executed lead generation programs, trained salespersons, provided marketing support and, of course, set up and conducted innumerable sales calls. Dan also has a book on B2B sales in Japan due out in 2008.

Discussion Highlights
Question from the floor: How do you find good sales people?
Dan: As far as finding candidates, you just have to use every method you can. If you can afford it, you can use recruiters. You can go directly to job sites and advertise yourself on them. You can use your own connections, and don’t hesitate to mention to people that you are looking. Having found the candidates and getting into the selection process, the best way that I have seen for selecting good sales guys – guys that can really sell – is to have them sell to you during the process, and the toughest approach I’ve seen for doing that is to make them go through the process of contacting you to arrange the time of the interview so that they have to go through your gatekeeper and they have to make all the arrangements themselves as if it were a sales call to get in front of you. If they can do that, they have shown they can do the basics of selling. The second part of it then would be, at some time in the interview process, to have them sell you something…the number one point that I have come across in judging whether or not the person is a serious sales person is, as they start into that sales process, whether they ask you if it is ok to ask you some questions. If they know enough about the process to, number one, know they should be asking you questions and, number two, to ask you whether it’s ok to ask you questions, then they are true blue sales people.

Floor: How do you keep them (sales people) motivated?
Dan: What I’ve seen is be willing to pay very well, and pay does not mean this very confusing word “competitive salary.” “Competitive” doesn’t really mean competitive, it means average. If you want to get the best, you have to pay very well. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s automatic - you can set it up that the guys make a lot of money if they sell a lot. In Japan, at one point, for a couple of years I worked totally on commission, but I don’t think you can get good quality people now if you insist on the sales person working 100 percent on commission – that’s the ultimate performance based. But, recently I have seen situations where you can get it to 60 to 70 percent base and 30 to 40 percent commission, and if they hit target they make a very good income. If they go beyond that, you scale it so the income increases progressively. If they hit double target or triple target, they just break the bank. And don’t be afraid of guys making more than you do – if they’ve done that well, your company is well ahead of the game.

Brian: I agree with Dan’s last point especially. At ValueCommerce we have a standard rule that I want the sales people to make more than me. In past years, that would be around 20 or 25 million yen for the top sales consultant, and we have consistently had one or two since 2003. This is important to us. It’s also very important to let staff know that someone achieved that level of success – don’t tell them the name of course, unless they want to let them know themselves, but let them know that it actually happened. The other thing is that I always try to pay five percent of gross profit on all new deals as a minimum…and try to scale up from there based on target and over-target achievement.

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Floor: How do you get sales staff to accept a new sales process?
Dan: Well, you could try to play hard ball and they do it or they are out the door. But, there are ways that I’ve seen that seem to work in a more practical sense. For example, there was a fellow at UPS from America that wanted to improve the systems here in Japan. What he would do would be to get with some of the people and get them to adopt the new practices and help them succeed, and use that as an example to get the more resistant types to do it and so establish a beachhead, so to speak, and take that beachhead and (over 3 months, six months or a year) expand that more and more throughout the rest of the sales staff… Additionally, be persistent with the sales people, not on a random basis, but almost on a daily basis. Take it down to the level that “Ok, this is what we want to see from you,” “this is what you’ve got to be doing every day…” You don’t have to scream and shout, but you do have to be very insistent about it. If you can get them through the habit forming period, which may take a couple of months, after that it becomes habit and then you take it from there.

Brian:…I agree with Dan, showing those examples is the most powerful thing, but if you don’t have time to show examples then you just have to move forward, and make sure the people who are joining the company understand and believe in the sales processes. The best way to work on that is, I believe, and this is on the back of what Dan was saying, after you have those examples is to make sure that they are celebrated on an ongoing basis through special prizes and award ceremonies, and/or by making sure there are e-mails sent around to the sales groups and non-sales groups. Sales people are not always egomaniacs, but they do like to hear the words “thanks for getting out there in the summer heat wearing a shirt and necktie while were back here in front our computers in khakis and polo shirts.” Doing that and showing that the process is working is a great way to follow up.

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Floor: What are ways of building up trust with Japanese clients?
Dan: Whether they are Japanese or American, or European or whatever, I think the principles are pretty much the same. But, with us as foreigners in Japan, what I’ve seen over the years is if you can provide evidence that you can actually do what you are suggesting to the prospects – it can be case studies, it can be references; anything that shows that your company is solid and that you already have customers – that kind of solid evidence will take you a long way. A second part of it is to show that you as a foreigner are in Japan, let’s say, for the long term, that you understand Japan, that you are part of the scene and not just here temporarily. Those two points, the evidence and showing that you are part of the scene, will take you a long way.

Final Comments
Dan: We’ve talked about process, but a very early step in the process relating to your sales staff is to get them to identify their own personal goals, whether that is money or satisfaction, or whatever it is, and show them how they can make those goals through achieving their sales targets. If they haven’t convinced themselves that they have sufficient goals that they can reach through performing for you then the results are going to be very mediocre at best, so getting those goals established in the minds of the sales guys is a very important first step.

Brian: With regards to the sales person’s goals, I would add something to reinforce what Dan said. Even in the interviews when you are trying to find great sales people, we at ValueCommerce now ask five questions about people’s goals, and this is something I barrowed and altered a bit based on the teachings of Robert Kiyosaki and Steven Covey. Steven Covey wrote the Seven Habits books and daily planners to improve personal planning and organization habits and skills. Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad, teaches you to link those goals to a focused design on how your future should be safer with regards to financial independence and understanding…So, I put those two concepts together and turned them into interview questions (to find out about people’s goals).

In ten years, where do you physically want to be located?
In ten years, who do you want to spend time with?
In ten years, what will your hobbies be?
In ten years, what kind of lifestyle do you plan to have?
In ten years, what activities to you want to do after you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed every night to achieve 1 to 4?

Summary by Rob Goss, freelance writer & editor (www.tokyofreelance.com)