Committee | Sales Development
STRATEGIES IN SALES Committee provides sales information, training, and networking By Megan Waters ACCJ Journal editor-in-chief
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stablished in 2001, the Sales Development Committee now has some 150 members, marking a 20 percent year-onyear increase. According to the committee vice chair, Eric Wedemeyer, the functionbased committee has a wide reach and focuses on providing participants with tangible business benefits. “Virtually every ACCJ member company engages in sales, so our activities are relevant to an exceptionally broad portion of the membership”, Wedemeyer explained. The committee provides three main benefits for its members. • Information. This enables members to find out what is happening in markets and sales arenas through speaker events and annual surveys. • Training. These opportunities give members a chance to brush up on sales-related skills. • Networking. All events are designed to provide networking opportunities, and often include participation by other chambers. Last December 17, the committee held a successful luncheon, at which was discussed the topic “From Zero to a Billion Dollars: The Road to Success for adidas Japan” (see page 32). Looking ahead, the group plans to hold numerous speaker events, training sessions, a networking event, and committee organizational meetings. “The speaker events will continue to feature executives from leading companies, focusing mainly on sales strategies that have worked for them in 18 | ACCJ JOURNAL • FEBRUARY 2014
Japan,” said Carlo La Porta, co-chair of the committee. Also in December, the group conducted an inaugural survey on the State of Sales Development in Japan. The 42 respondents—comprising committee and non-committee members—share a special interest in sales development issues and represent a broad spectrum of industries. According to La Porta, the survey is intended to provide benchmarks for international sales executives looking for guidance on how to improve the effectiveness of their sales activities in Japan. “The results underlined the importance of high-quality, skilled sales staff in achieving sales objectives in Japan,” said Thomas Shockley, co-chair of the committee. “Many of the companies responding noted concerns about staff hiring and training, and were especially keen to improve communications and basic sales skills. “Respondents were optimistic overall, and many noted that their sales were growing and that they planned to add additional sales staff ”, he said. Key results: • A majority (61 percent) of respondents said sales had risen over the previous three years. • Asked where they planned to increase investment in their sales operations over the next year, respondents mostly said they would add sales staff (56 percent), followed by those who anticipated increasing brand- and awareness-building
“Virtually every ACCJ member company engages in sales, so our activities are relevant to an exceptionally broad portion of the membership”.
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activities, such as advertising (54 percent). The least likely targets for additional investment included current sales staff compensation (33 percent) and direct sales activities, such as online sales (36 percent). • Companies with more than 10 staff were most concerned about maintaining price levels (33 percent consider this a major problem), as well as motivating and training current staff (22 percent). Companies with 10 sales staff or less were more worried about recruiting staff with the right skills (a major issue for 44 percent), as well as identifying and reaching qualified leads (38 percent). • When asked to consider sales challenges specific to doing business in Japan, respondents were most concerned about hiring (“finding staff to fit our culture,” a major difficulty for 20 percent), building trust with Japanese clients (9 percent), and creating understanding between Japanese sales staff and nonJapanese management (9 percent). • Referrals were the most common source of new sales leads for respondents (44 percent got more than half their leads from referrals), followed by networking (18 percent, rising to 35 percent for companies with 10 or fewer sales staff). Only 6 percent of respondents got more than half their new leads from cold calling, while referrals and networking were expected to increase as lead sources in the future. •