3 Ways Agencies in Japan Can Get New Business

We were at a networking event in Japan the other night and had the chance to meet someone who had over 20 years of B2B experience in Japan’s marketing world.

While we have our own ideas on how to best grow a business in Japan, which we’ll be holding a networking event on later this month, we asked him what his thoughts were on getting new business here and he had more than we imaged to tell.

With that being said, we decided to give three quick suggestions based on over a decade of experience on how agencies in Japan or outside of Japan can get new clients and some suggestions on what they can do now to start the journey.

Work with the barriers to entry, not against them

The biggest problem that startup or existing companies have in Japan is that they’re too desperate to make a buck and in the process they forget about their customer.

When it comes to B2B sales in Japan you have to recognize how long everything takes when it comes to decisions.

For example, we once had a scope of work that took almost a year to get signed. Yes, one year. Truth is we had forgotten about the client and the project until they called us up one day and said, “Let’s go!”.

While frustrating, this also had us ask a lot of new questions about processes in Japan and how to work with them and not against them.

In these cases, most agencies forget about the client or try and go above them to the key decision maker.

While there is nothing wrong with this, we’ve found more success in not trying to jump over walls but rather working with them and trying to ride the wave instead of getting past it.

For us this means asking our customer what in our portfolio they can afford, what would help them most now and how can we work our way to where we both want to be in the future.

Because this is a more relational approach and Japan business is almost 100% relational, this style of sales seem to work and has been doing great for us.

Sure, we have to sacrifice margin at the beginning but because our business is about more than just dollars and rather serving the Japanese companies in anyway we can we’re willing to take this risk for the reward we know it will reap down the road.

Find a way to partner with more agencies

In the US very few agencies partner, mostly because it’s a giant “s-show” where everyone is fighting for scopes of work.

On several accounts I’ve had friends of mine go directly behind my back and ruin years of friendship just to steal a client and win some business, in short that’s New York for you.

Now, not to say the same issues don’t exist in Japan, they do.

However, because of the cultural norms here agencies realize they won’t lose their clients (who will most likely never leave them because they’ve been family-friends for years) but they also want to serve them better as a result.

This means they’re looking for vendors who can provide a better 360 service to that client.

So if you’re an agency that has a specialty of some kind, this is a great way to differentiate yourself and get into the game as a specific player that can help them provide a better service to their client.

To do this, work more our your positioning strategy.

For example, what do you offer that is unique and different than most agencies or that another agency can utilize? Then work on how that’s getting communicated (in Japanese) to ensure such positioning is being seen and heard across as many touch points as possible.

Try focusing on foreign buyers or markets

Regardless of Japan’s current economic issues, there will be a surge taking place in the next few years where companies will be looking to invest in the Japanese economy, build businesses here, and use it as a port to tackle the rest of Asia.

When this happens, they’ll most likely be looking for an agency too.

I know for a fact several smaller agencies that have optimized their websites SEO for this purpose so strategically that they get at least one new lead a week for people looking for digital agencies in Japan that are bilingual.

If you’re looking for new business, try updating the copy and language on your site to attract more foreign buyers entering the market and it might lead to some big results in the end.

Finally, don’t forget the importance of global market entry for Japanese companies. Because of the declining population in Japan, many companies are making foreign market entry a priority as oppose to a passive thought.

This means that the export business is going to be big, very big.

When this happens Japanese companies will be looking for marketing and advertising help in order to appeal to different consumer sets.

Is that agency you? It could be.