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Selling software in Japan

Keeping your eye on the fundamentals is a business development baseline in most markets but especially so in Japan, says Yasuki Takano, Vice President Sales – Japan for Maximum Availability, a global leader in high availability and disaster recovery software solutions.

When the New Zealand company started developing its business in Japan in 2003 it was very much a case of starting from scratch in a very dynamic and competitive market.

“Everything was in front of us,” says Mr Takano.

Much has been achieved in the past five years over a short space of time, thanks to the company sticking to a number of key principles.

“Our start-up strategy was to have a New Zealand-based team of experienced Japanese sales executives going into the market on a rotational basis to establish our presence,” explains Mr Takano.

“As part of that thrust we quickly saw the importance and need to set up a dedicated corporate office. This presence was a key factor to our business development strategy which, in turn, was focused on building our customer base via a network of Japanese business partners.

“Having a physical presence in the market is in my opinion a mandatory requirement to being successful in Japan, not just from a customer perspective but also for our business partners who want to make sure that they have the support from a sales and technical team that is close-at-hand.”

The company appointed a local technical specialist and established an office in the New Zealand Business Centre, located in the heart of Tokyo’s business area and is part of the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Beachheads programme.

“It’s a huge strategic asset for us to be in the Business Centre. The quality of the office and where it is situated is very important in terms of our focus on the market and our proximity to business partners.

"It also provides an important signal that we have NZTE support in this important market. There is no question that our association with NZTE has given us additional ballast and an ability to leverage our position in Japan.”

As a very niche-market-focused company offering cutting-edge software solutions, Maximum Availability has concentrated its sales effort on entering into relationships with Japanese partners who have the local knowledge, experience and resources to sell its solutions to end-users.

“You need to make sure you’ve got the right business relationships in place and that will provide a stable foundation from which to grow,” says Mr Takano. “New Zealand businesses that try to find short-cuts in this regard do so at their peril in Japan.

“It is also important to focus on delivering an offering that meets the exacting standards set by businesses in the Japanese market. Understanding the customer and their needs is a cliché in some parts of the world, but in Japan it’s a “make-or-break” factor to success.

"That’s certainly what we have focused on and it has translated to year-on-year sales growth and an ever-increasing number of happy customers. On the back of this we’re planning to go from strength-to-strength in the future.”

Originally published on the NZTE website in June 2008.