[Special Interview] Success of BtoB marketing and ABM (Account Based Marketing) in Japan Part 2

In

the first part

of the interview, he talked about ABM.

What exactly is marketing? Mr. Niwayama says that there is actually no precise definition of marketing. What can we do to control such vague and unclear marketing? I was given a hint.

How will B2B marketing methods change after the advent of generative AI? Explained by a B2B marketing guru

Why is marketing difficult?

Why is marketing difficult? The reason for this is related to the fact that business opportunities are not always open to begin with, which I mentioned in the first part.

“For example, let’s say there was a company that said, “We don’t implement sales support tools (SFA) because both the president and managing director hate SFA.”

However, one day, the president of his company went to a gathering of his peers and asked a rival company, “What’s going on lately?” ‘ I asked him, ‘No, it’s already grown, it’s grown.’ This fiscal year’s financial results are tough. We need to take tax-saving measures.”

I couldn’t help but think, “Why is it so good? When I asked him, he replied, “Actually, we put in SFA at the end of the second term before last.” When we managed projects using the pipeline, we found that there were a lot of things that were missing. If you give them precise instructions, they will be able to do it.”

When the president returned to work, he hurriedly asked his employees, “Why doesn’t our company include SFA? What kind of antennas are you guys putting up?’

From that moment on, all of our employees go into a frenzy of searching for SFA on the Internet, finding and applying for seminars, watching demos, and ordering materials. In this way, business opportunities emerge suddenly. One of the current marketing trends is customer journeys, but many customers don’t follow them. It is rare for a company’s needs to follow the journey map we have drawn, and one day they suddenly emerge. Marketing is about making sure you don’t miss out on that opportunity.”

Business opportunities that seem sudden but are actually being “nurtured”

Mr. Niwayama continues.

“Even if you write a journey map, the actual journey doesn’t really go that far.That’s why we don’t completely ignore journeys, but we need to create a system that doesn’t overlook sudden germination.Grows deep within the customer’s company. It is important and difficult to detect such opportunities without missing them, and to build a system that can reach you before the business opportunity closes.

However, although these things may seem sudden, they are actually nurturing.

For example, isn’t there hay fever? A person who was taken to a cedar forest for the first time in his life will not get hay fever just because he takes a deep breath.

If you continue to smoke for a long time, the moment the accumulation exceeds a threshold, you will develop hay fever. The same goes for nurturing. We will continue to introduce our solutions through case studies. Someone will be in trouble at that time. “I’m sorry, what should I do? When I was like, “The president is angry,” I was like, “Huh? Have you seen this situation in an email before? ‘ Search your computer. “This is it! There are examples of solutions.” I clicked on it. “This looks similar now. How did you solve it? ” “This or this?” What is this tool? ” and clicked, “Is this the product?” ! ! ” By understanding this behavior, you can understand business opportunities. I will design what we can do to avoid overlooking these customer movements.”

Why Japanese download media is not useful

Download media is one type of nurturing, but Mr. Niwayama says that download media in Japan rarely leads to orders. What is the reason?

“Many downloadable media have come out in Japan, but the reality is that they are not doing very well.

I think there are probably many companies that are working on it, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave it as it is now.

The reason is that the repeat rate is too low. People use it at least once because it’s a novelty, but it’s hard to get them to continue using it, and the conversion rate is low.

In terms of area, Japan is smaller compared to other countries, so if you want to learn more about this product or see an explanation or demo of this product, contact the company and you’ll probably get a sales call. Probably. The reason why you don’t do that and download materials from the media is because you don’t want to meet the sales person yet. I’m interested in this product, but I don’t want to meet the sales person yet. When I’m in that state of mind, I download a white paper. However, the company that purchased the tool has to pay the cost quickly, so they start selling hard even to people who don’t want to meet with the sales person yet. As a result, they are inconvenienced. The people on set are like, “What the heck, they say it’s hot, so I come and find out it’s really cold.” If you don’t like it, it’s the end of the story. The moment you find out that someone doesn’t like you, you start yelling at your company’s sales staff. “What did you guys do? You were holding back our sales! ”. This is why download media is not working. ”

Marketing is an element for designing communication

So how can we make more use of downloaded media? As a hint, Mr. Niwayama talks about the fundamentals of marketing.

“The reason I have been able to continue working in marketing for over 30 years without getting tired is because marketing, broadly speaking, is about “science” and “sensibility.” I think I have been able to continue working for 36 years because I felt comfortable with this balance. I think so.”

As Mr. Niwayama says, marketing is by no means something that can only be done using science, statistics, and technology. In order to increase sales through marketing activities, the interpersonal element, or so-called “sensitivity,” ultimately matters. Using our customer database as a starting point, we nurture our customers over the long term with targeted and optimized content, and continue to communicate while maintaining close relationships until their needs emerge. If you can’t do that, it will be difficult to increase sales even if you introduce the latest MA tools.

Mr. Niwayama says:

“The key is communication design. How to design communication. It requires the skill to incorporate various elements such as the unique circumstances of BtoB, current cutting-edge technology, and laws regarding personal information into the design.”

Seminar methods vary depending on the purpose and phase.

Mr. Niwayama says that marketing is a combination of “science” and “sensibility.” And it’s not just about downloadable media. Mr. Niwayama also talked about another case.

“For example, the same goes for seminars. There are three stages of seminars in the marketing process. First, when using them for lead generation, the more they are, the better. Collect as many business cards as you can and start communicating with them. This is your lead generation strategy.

In the case of nurturing, the maximum number of people is about 40. If there are more than that, I won’t be able to ask questions and I won’t be able to calm down. At this stage, you shouldn’t follow too closely. In terms of customer psychology, I would still like to maintain a 40:1 relationship. This is because there is a need to obtain information on a 40:1 basis before listening on a 1:1 basis.

In the initial phase of sales, a roundtable format is best. Drinks will be served, and the seminar will focus on question and answer sessions. More than half of the time will be spent on discussion or Q&A. There were 15 people at most. Two or three people come from one company, so even if 10 people come, there will be three companies. But that’s fine. After that it will be 1 to 1.

Originally, seminar planning should be used differently depending on the purpose and phase. However, if we don’t have marketing knowledge within our company, we won’t know what to do, and we won’t be able to attract customers or make sales.”

Theodore Levitt, whom I met when I was

20

, inspired me to study marketing.

Mr. Niwayama boasts 36 years of experience in the marketing industry. What made Mr. Niwayama interested in marketing in the first place?

“I discovered marketing when I was 20 years old.I happened to come across a book by Theodore Levitt in the university library and thought it was interesting.After I started reading the book, it probably took about 3 days for me to realize that this is it! I thought I would probably do this for the rest of my life.I have never gotten bored of it in the 36 years since.I am truly happy to have found something that I am passionate about.

When I was a university student, I formed a club called the Marketing Research Group and was the representative, and I continued to conduct marketing research on my own. I took some classes at university, but marketing at that time was based on statistics, so it was boring. There was a gap between the marketing I had read about and fell in love with and the marketing classes I had taken. This is not the marketing I love. In the end, I decided to study on my own.

After graduating, I worked as a consultant for two marketing companies and started my own business at the age of 28. My career has been in marketing ever since.”

From a consulting company that does not take responsibility to a contracting company that does even dirty work

Mr. Niwayama’s marketing life continues.

“After our establishment in 1990, until around 1996 and 1997, we only provided marketing consulting.However, consultants should not be responsible for the results.This is because the results of consulting projects are 100% customer responsibility. That’s why in the old consulting education, consultants were only supposed to give advice and analyze, and not commit to the results. If we do that, the problem at hand will not be solved, and the customer will remain in trouble.We give appropriate advice and the customer says, “That’s right,” but it doesn’t solve the problem. We only get paid for the amount of consulting we do.

Normally, we should be told, “You’re a bad doctor for not solving our problems,” but for some reason in Japan people say, “I’m really sorry.” My employees are full of idiots.” I’ve always felt frustrated about these days, thinking, “This doesn’t work.” Around 1997, we gathered all our employees and said, “I’m no longer doing consulting.” Changed from consulting to contract work. I can’t stand this stress any longer. I decided to become an outsourcer. After that, most of the employees quit. People who want to become consultants don’t want to do such dirty work.

In the end, we realized that there was a need, so we continued to provide consulting only to clients who contracted our services, but we took it off the menu and started a company that handles content management, analytics, MA operations, etc. for our clients all by ourselves. Things have changed since 1997.”

BtoC

is a world where things happen that even professionals can’t understand.

The major change from consulting to contracting was to specialize in BtoB.

“Until then, we supported both BtoB and BtoC.

I believe that as a consultant, I have to have some kind of edge, and what I was best at, or rather, what I liked, was how to utilize customer data, including management.

I realized that we needed to utilize new technology called databases to manage customer data and conduct marketing that would provide even greater benefits to customers.

At that time, we were dealing with both BtoB and BtoC, but the reality is that BtoC is so emotional that you don’t really understand why it succeeds or fails.

For example, can you explain why Coca-Cola sells so well?

Even though I’ve been in marketing for 36 years, I actually can’t do it. After all, the only people who would be in trouble if Coca-Cola ran out are the related companies.

Maybe it’s because it’s delicious, but no one knows if Coca-Cola really tastes better than other drinking waters.

Even though the recipe has not been made public, it is actually selling all over the world. In the BtoC world, things like that that cannot be explained happen.”

In

BtoB

, if the marketing design is good, results will definitely be achieved.

“On the other hand, BtoB is a very space-oriented world.In order to use the company’s money instead of your own, there is a process of persuading a third party.It’s what we call approval.Therefore, it is extremely logical. Therefore, if your marketing design is good, you will definitely get good results.From 1997 onwards, I decided to focus my marketing work solely on BtoB.

Before the Lehman Shock in 2008, our customer list was mostly foreign IT companies. At that time, Japanese companies, especially major companies, did not do any marketing.

However, due to the Lehman Shock, the economy entered a recession. Since we are a marketing company, our performance always increases during recessions. When the economy is good and goods and services are selling like crazy, people don’t think to start marketing.”

Japanese companies don’t start marketing until there’s a recession.

“Up until now, there was an automobile parts manufacturer that had always received orders within its affiliated company.However, due to the economic downturn, one day the parent company suddenly said to them, “You can now go into sales outside of the affiliated company. However, although the parts manufacturer has 8,000 employees, there are only two salespeople, and I am confused because they have no marketing or sales know-how. At that time, he suddenly remembered, “By the way, about two years ago, there was this strange guy who said that Japanese manufacturing industries also need marketing,” and he actually contacted us. The company was a parts manufacturer.Many companies only think about starting marketing when the economy is in recession and they are desperately trying to get by.

Currently, Japanese manufacturing industries often lose out to overseas companies. Even though we are competitive in terms of product specifications, prices, sales resources, maintenance, etc., we are not chosen by customers. “Why aren’t sales so high? ”. When we think about it, what are we lacking? That’s marketing.

When overseas companies that specialize in marketing such as Siemens and Philips become competitors, our company’s presence is remembered.

Furthermore, even if the overall economy is good for major Japanese companies, there are some products, divisions, and regions that are struggling. For example, overseas Asia is weak. I can help you with that. I think the Lehman Shock triggered a renewed awareness of the importance of marketing.”

In this interview, we will discuss what ABM is. It was also found that the flow of marketing is changing in line with Japan’s economic situation. There is no doubt that ABM has great potential for the success of Japanese companies’ BtoB marketing in the future.

In order for Japanese companies to make another leap forward, I would like them to start thinking about marketing. This will surely be the shortcut to your company’s success.

Ichiro Niwayama Symphony Marketing Co., Ltd. Representative Director

Born in 1962, graduated from Chuo University. Established Symphony Marketing Co., Ltd. in September 1990. He has worked on numerous marketing projects including database marketing consulting and internet business. In 1997, we started Japan’s first marketing outsourcing business focusing on BtoB. We provide marketing services both domestically and internationally to major companies in various industries such as manufacturing, IT, construction, service, and distribution.

A marketer who strives to provide practical marketing methods and know-how within companies through lectures on over 100 seminars a year and serialization in numerous marketing media such as “Marketing Campus”, which he writes as Professor Noyan. We are sending out messages to.

Japan Human Resources Business Council (Vice Chairman)

Member of DMA (Direct Marketing Association: Headquarters New York)

Director of IDN (InterDirect Network: Headquarters Romania) Visiting Professor, Chuo University Graduate School of Business