FACTS:

You don’t need to speak Japanese to sell to the Japanese!
Japanese students today must take 6 years of English to graduate from High School.
Anyone under 40 (approx.) has had major exposure to English.
The older the person, the less practiced the English is.
Many Japanese hide their English abilities for 2 big reasons:

1. They are not comfortable with their pronunciation, and do not want to embarrass themselves.

2. They can understand you, but you can’t understand them. Nice buying edge.

Your goal with this program is to get your Japanese customers to admit to their understanding of English, at least a little bit, (Sukoshi). You can achieve this by demonstrating your interest in their language, and your willingness to mispronounce it.

To help you, I offer what I call Hauole Phonetics, in parenthesis.

It all starts with the GREETING…The first impression in Japan, for customers is a greeting at the door with “IRRASSHAIMASE”, (ear-ah-shy-maw-say), meaning, “welcome to our store”. This is good to know, however (unless you are Japanese), your initial greeting should be in English. You do not want to sound patronizing.

In Hawaii say, “Aloha”, they will have fun returning the greeting, and you have already begun to establish communication.

You can now (if you want to) add to “Aloha” with a follow up comment, in Japanese, as clumsy as you might say it.

OPTIONAL GREETING ADDITIONS:

Welcome IRRASSHAIMASE (pronounced> ear-ah-shy-mah-say)
Good Morning OHA YO GOZAIMASU (pronounced> ohio-go-zye-moss)
Good Afternoon KONNICHIWA (pronounced> cone-eech-chi-wah)
Good Evening KONBANWA (pronounced> cone-bon-wah)

Your first 2 Japanese phrases to learn are:

1.) Do you understand English? - EIGO GA WAKARIMASU KA? (pronounced> Egg-oh-gah-wa-car-eee- mas-ka)
Nine times out of ten your customer will say, “Sukoshi” (a little bit). Then you say:

2.) I don’t understand Japanese - NIHONGO GA WAKARIMASEN (pronounced> knee-hon-go-gah-wah- car-eee-moss-sen )
Nine times out of ten your customer will laugh, and communication has begun.

Using these two phrases will force welcome (and fun) communication and establish which language will be used. Any other Japanese phrases you can learn will serve to add to this experience and your communication, but none are necessary beyond this point with most customers.

Japanese travelers come to Hawaii, and other U.S. Resort areas in huge numbers, spend 5 times what other travelers spend, and do it in less than half the time. Resort retail salespeople owe it to themselves and their stores to learn how to sell to the Japanese.

The first step is an understanding of some basic facts that attribute greatly to the huge amounts spent by our Japanese visitors.

The next step will be how to align yourself to successfully sell to the Japanese. Some companies exist on Japanese sales, some others can’t seem to crack the market even though they may sell very similar products at fair prices. None of this is coincidental.

1. The Japanese government encourages worldwide travel to its citizens, Hawaii and other U.S. Resorts are seeing increasing numbers of Japanese visitors.

2. Today’s visitors are more affluent than in the past. They are proud of their success and ability to travel the world. They express this pride in what they wear, where they go, and what they buy.

3. Honeymoon season is March through June, even though most were married in Japan before December.
(more…)

Understanding these 2 factors can amount to huge sales for you.

The 2 biggest factors that will determine your success are:

1. II OMYAGE - That means good OMYAGE, or souvenir. To qualify as good (II) OMYAGE your product must be in one of two categories:

A. Worldwide Name Brand Products: We all know who they are, and Japanese travelers spend millions on them.

B. Locally Made: Products that originated in the place being visited, or are in some way are unique to the place being visited.

The OMYAGE givers determine the amounts being spent. Visitors have all ranges of OMYAGE obligations to fulfill. Millionaires must buy trinkets, and workers often times buy gifts for millionaires.

2. SERVICE - In Japan, the customer is the King or Queen, OKYAKUSAMA. People who grow up in that culture expect good customer service. Companies, who learn how to combine appropriate service with II OMYAGE, will sell well to the Japanese.

We sell to the Japanese the same as we do to anyone.

1. Establish Communication.
2. Give Information.
3. Assist in the buying decision.

All three are impossible until you accomplish number one: Establish Communication.

Remember, this program is How to sell to the Japanese WITHOUT Speaking Japanese.

The Japanese people understand that the customer is king. They institutionalize that philosophy in the term meaning customer (Okyakusama).
The title Sama in Japan represents a very high, even a God like person. Every customer entering a store in Japan is GREETED. This is something that westerners can learn from, and be aware of when selling to Japanese customers.
My father used to say, “The two rules of selling are, number 1, the customer is always right, and number 2, when that is not the case, refer to rule number one.
While that is good advice when selling to anyone, it is crucial when selling to the Japanese.