Engineers’ becoming a top salesperson

Yang, a Seiwajuku member and a president of a uniform distribution company, asked Mr. Inamori * how his company can reinforce the sales department as Yang is not good at sales.

Mr. Inamori shared with Yang important tips on how to improve the sales performance of Yang company.

The tips are as follows;

1 The sales is becoming a servant of your clients

“Yang knows that sales is crucial part in his business, but Yang said he has a trauma that he has always fails in sales … I think that sales are rather becoming servants or bachelor of your clients. In other words, it is sales to remain humble as a servant for your client. However, as Yang is smart and cleaver, it is difficult to actually keep his position below the client. Also, he tends to stick with his own style and hard to communicate with his clients. “said Mr. Inamori.

→ I think our world and the universe are really well structured. Perhaps, Yang might have been a servant of some person in his previous life. To improve his soul and spirits, Yang has to overcome this task: learning how to remain humble and serve as a servant. Thus, Yang was allocated the role of the top of sales force. Until Yang completes this mission, his duty- learning humbleness and fulfilling others as a servant- would come again and again to his life.

From the psychological approach, Yang can consult with an therapist and look into himself, his subliminal mindset: why he feels uncomfortable in becoming servant for others. This may work to re-write subliminal mindset, then helps to change Yang’s attitudes towards others. This may work to improve Yang’s sales skills from the inside, I mean the mental aspects.

2 Demonstrating top’s commitment in sales

“Actually, I don’t like chatting. At a social event, I get a glass of drink, go to the corner and stay alone. As I am basically an engineer, I am simply not good at having a nice conversation with others. But I eventually started a company to produce fine ceramics, I had to sell them. When I visited laboratories of a major Japanese companies in Tokyo, I had to talk with Kansai accent mixed with that of Kagoshima. It was painful and made me really intimidated. I feel uncomfortable with sales talk due to my complex, in your case, simply due to your pride. I had to sell the product anyway. Thus, I had to keep challenging to talk with clients who are less likely to buy our products. However, I can tell you that my words with strange accents were far more convincing than sales talks released by skilled salesmen. Kyocera has become such a well-known company in the world because we have developed technology that is second to none in the world, but besides, we made utmost efforts to sell them.

→ I was very surprised to know that Mr. Inamori was not good at chatting. Mr. Inamori speaks very well on DVDs and audio materials. His story is always easy to follow and understand. I wonder how much efforts Mr. Inamori made to develop his speaking skills. Through repeated trial and error, Mr. Inamori got to learn how to sympathize with customers. I think he also learned how the customer feel like buying the products from Kyocera. As a result, he realized that it is the consciousness/ mindset that is communicated to clients when he was selling good products. All the efforts come from the determination to commit ourselves to sales.

3 Feeling & understanding clients’ concern & anxiety

“Large Japanese manufacturers have a sort of prejudice, and they had never got fully convinced that they should use a product developed by Kazuo Inamori, the owner of a small-enterprise in Kyoto. They were making products by using technology of American electronics companies. Then I came up with the idea of selling my product to big American companies. Japanese companies may have been educated by those Americans. I went to the United States even though it was only 4-5 years since Kyocera was established ….Not being good at sales looks simply just excuse, Yang. ” said Iamori.

→ It seems that Inamori understood the actual anxieties and concerns of procurement person in client companies. In Japanese major companies, no one wants to take responsibility if they deal with a small company with unknown credit. Inamori never complained procurement guys, nor blamed of them. Rather, upon understanding the concern, Inamori determined to raise their recognition among US industry so that Japanese companies indirectly admit Kyocera’s credit. The process had been driven by Inamori’s understanding of counterparts’ mindset.

for NO 4 to 6, I will explain in the next blog.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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