My biggest takeaway from this book was that the Japanese see everyone in the company as marketers and that often they do no even employ a marketing department. (Not to self: must find new career if moving to Japan) I think that this can be applied to any B2B company. I know here at ReachForce we have multiple departments working directly with customers and other than writing case studies, I have very little interaction with customers. We do obviously have current customer programs, as evidenced by this book club, but our sales, operations and customer success management teams are really on the front lines and know the most about what our customers and prospects think about us.

As marketers, we should use this to our advantage. We should empower those customer facing teams to know what we are doing in marketing and make sure they are well educated on any upcoming product launches. They can then in turn empower our customers with this information. These teams are also a useful source for gathering feedback. They can be especially helpful in determining new products and features. Developing personaes is very popular right now and they are the best source to tell you about your customers. Knowing as much information as possible about your customers will not only help you to further develop those relationships but to also help you find more prospects that match their profile.

Did you have any takeaways from this chapter or have any personal experience working with Japanese companies?