Product Support In Japan: The Key to Greater Sales
Author: Smolen Associates
Product support in Japan should not be an afterthought to the sales process. Instead, it should be part of it. Unfortunately, the inevitable result of the traditional split of the sales and support organizations means that sales sells and the support people are then tossed the ball. Yet, support typically has the most customer contact after the sale, so why not begin the process of building the next sale with a satisfied, referenceable customer? Your interests in the Japanese market are best served by an organization in which sales and support operate as a true team.Referenceable customer are an imperative in the Japanese market. The country is small. Word travels quickly. Japanese customers will sit on the fence, waiting to see who commits, and who is satisfied, before they commit themselves. So, building great relationships for the sales team, in addition to providing solutions to customers’ problems, is the mission of product support. But, how do you deliver product support in Japan? There are really only two choices: do it here, or do it there.
Doing it from here in the US is tough, fraught with hurdles: cultural, linguistic, stylistic, not to mention that Japan is halfway around the world. Their day is our night. You receive messages in an English which is difficult to decipher. Your support team is expected to behave in a manner which is literally foreign to them. The bottom line is a customer communications nightmare.
So, most companies, rather than going it alone, do it there by choosing a Japanese distribution partner to handle the marketing, sales and support of their products. Alternatively, they establish a small subsidiary in Japan with a one or two person technical team.Supporting your products from Japan means your technical representation is in the hands of people who, by nature of their birth and upbringing, understand the highly ritualized and formalized culture of the Japanese market. This is certainly a step in the right direction, yet nonetheless the cultural, linguistic and stylistic hurdles still remain. Your communications burden is simply shifted from your customer to your Japanese partner.
There is only one way to avoid the communications quagmire: build Japanese expertise into your product support team You can hire your own bilingual, bicultural technical expert to guide your US support group as they deal with your Japanese customers and/or partners. In essence, create your own Japan department. This is a great solution if you can find the individual with the right mix of business, technical and cultural understanding, and you have the luxury of time Or you can outsource the product support function to specialists in Japanese product support who can represent your technical interests on the ground in Japan and yet who understand you. In this model, letting your Japanese partner manage marketing and sales, while your specialists handle support, provides the optimal solution to quickly building a product support group which is capable of creating your Japanese face and delivering support in a manner which is consistent with Japanese cultural and business expectations. All of which adds up to creating customer who are satisfied and easily referenced, which in turn forms the basis for greater sales.
Whether you hire your own Japanese expertise or outsource it, every US company needs a Japanese specialist on its team to turn product support from a communications nightmare into a driving force for sales.
For additional information contact:
Smolen Associates
900 Bush Street, Suite 4,
San Francisco, CA 94109
tel: 415.447.9736
info@smolenassoc.com
Copyright 1999 by Smolen Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
