The American businessman's mistakes (Part 1):
The Japanese right-hand man

You may remember our story of the American businessmen sent to Tokyo.

An American company sent a sales representative to negotiate a potential sale in Tokyo. The American approached the Japanese company, used their English interpreter, and made his pitch to the people in charge of such purchases. Already, you can likely guess a couple mistakes he has made, (our post last week on building relationships is one clue).

So he was thanked for the presentation, and told that he would be contacted soon with an answer. A few days went by, and he was preparing to return to America. He hadn't heard from the company yet and contacted the gentleman who did the interpretation (the only English speaker in the company he knew of). After taking his call the Japanese man told him, "It's difficult to answer at this time." The American delayed his trip home, waited a few more days waiting for an answer, and then he called the gentleman back. "I am sorry, but it is really difficult at this time." Another delay, and then a third call was made, now nearly two weeks after the original visit. Again the American seller got the same answer. Time was of the essence. Why couldn't this Japanese firm make a decision? Frustrated, the American went to drown his sorrows at a British-style pub in Tokyo. There he met another foriegner, shared a few beers and told his story. The other American responded by saying, "Then what are you still doing here?"

"Obviously, I am waiting to hear their answer!" replied the increasingly frustrated businessman.

"But, you have already heard their answer," countered the other American. "Their answer is 'no'."

I concluded that (at least) four major errors were made by this travelling businessman and his home company. If you have followed this blog at all you can guess the first mistake rather easily.

1) Building a relationship. You can see our earlier post on the importance in building relationships before doing actual business.

Then we come to the second mistake our ambitious salesman made:

2) A Japanese right-hand man. We see that our American friend "used their English interpreter". This is a common mistake that especially medium to small size businesses do to cut costs. "They have an interpreter? Terrific! That'll save us hundreds of dollars a day!" But isn't that hundreds of dollars worth it when the difference is making or not making the sale?

Mr. Shintaro Tominaga visited our offices recently, and he reminded us of the need for the Japanese right-hand man when doing business negotiations. This "right-hand man" isn't necessarily an interpreter (and not necessarily a man, either, but for simplicity's sake he'll be a "he" today). He may be a consultant, an advisor, or just a low-man in the company who happens to be Japanese. When it comes to important and expensive deals, the Japanese feel most comfortable doing business with the Japanese. This is slowly changing, but without a doubt, given the choice, a Japanese company would rather be buying from another Japanese company rather than a foreign company. You can argue there is a certain caché associated with being an "international company", but when contracts are signed and money changes hands, the Japanese businessman is going to feel better knowing there is a Japanese person on the other side. This creates not only a sense that communication is really happening (the Japanese confidence level in English is usually far below acual ability), but also there is the sense of having a "business confidant" in sharing the same home country.

We are sometimes asked to send interpreters for business negotiations, and we have to be careful in these situations. There are times when sending a native Japanese speaker is advantageous, and other times when a non-native Japanese speaker is a better choice. In our case, we are more often hired by the American company, so our job is to represent the needs of our client accurately. It isn't uncommon for the representatives of the Japanese company to try to subtley squeeze information from the interpreters if they are native Japanese. Depending on the situation, sometimes a non-native Japanese speaker is more appropriate. Native speakers have finished a job feeling a bit uncomfortable at being asked for "business hints" from the Japanese guests. The American company is the client, but at the same time the interpreter doesn't want to be rude to the fellow Japanese who have travelled so far. Now before we lay judgement down, would an American not do the same in the reverse situation? Alone in a strange country, would you not see this fellow American acting as interpreter as a beacon of information?

We do not only do interpretation, but consulting, based on many of the very issues discussed here. We have seen great results when we consult with an American company engaging in business with Japan, not only because it helps the Americans learn about different communication styles, but also it shows the Japanese company that the Americans are serious enough about the business, nay, the relationship to take the time to hire US/Japanese business consultants.

Now where did the poor American salesman go wrong next? What compounds the mistake by our friend is his follow-up calls to the interpreter for an answer on their decision. We'll get into that more in Part 2...