It is a no brainer that our work place is changing rapidly. Companies that used to think implementing and improving online capacity as secondary are now facing to make tough decisions. We invite Jun Miura, Founder & Director of  FooLaiBo Co., Ltd, a company that has been pursuing customer success implementation for Japan based companies and now leading the online implementation sector to share insights on how old school companies can improve in the current dynamic.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to start your company in the first place?

Although the founding of FooLaiBo Co., Ltd. itself was due to the external factors: leaving previous job,  I have realized on the way that my sales experience and customer success experience were valuable information for clients, and this realization helped me build and deepen my confidence for my current business activities.

At the same time, it is also true that I have always thought that I could provide clients with something more authentic to my ability, and the current environment provided me with the idea that if people are refrained from going out which also means companies not being able to do offline sales activity which relates to the importance of  online business negotiations in our current society. And this directly relates to my skillset of online sales.There for if I can help companies build the online capacity, the problem current environment is causing for companies can be solved.

Once I realized this in through logical thinking I decided to focus on consulting work that can help companies install the online capacity for business and sales activities.

Can you share the biggest challenges that you had to overcome since you started this initiative?

I think my target is not IT startups that are strong in IT skillsets, but rather non-IT companies that are still old school. And reaching to them requires introduction through Chamber of Commerce how ever so far there has been no substantial interest from the the 23 branches we have approached.

Although I haven’t had a massive hardships, if any thing because I have been in the IT industry for a long time, at the moment I am not well connected to the companies that requires the solution we provide and this will be something to over come as we move forward.

What advice would you have for people and companies you serve?

Until now, I think that there are many companies that will think about offline sales activities when they hear the term "sales”. At those companies, offline sales are rooted in the company culture, so just introducing tools such as Zoom and teaching the employees how to use them does not establish the capacity for online sales activities.

Also, even companies get used to using the tool, things to be aware of from a sales standpoint are different from the things you should be aware of when conducting visiting prospects offline. If you do the same as traditional sales, such as presentation of materials, and hearing, you will not be able to achieve the results required online.

In order to achieve good results in online business negotiations, it is necessary to correctly learn the ideas and know-how unique to online business. Of course, you can make your own corrections by learning from experience, but it will take a lot of time and money. In that respect, consultants can save companies a substantial amount of time and money.

How do you think that your initiative will make a huge difference in people’s life?

First of all, if you can do business online, you will not have to physically move around , so you can prevent stress and physical exhaustion due to wasteful train movement, and in our current environment can reduce the risk of infection.People can contribute to their and others’ health which is most important  before getting into business related conversation.

In Japan, it is often times said that the companies has low productivity level, but I think that has to do with requirement of physically coming to work and commute, so I think we can change that by introducing online sales activities.

What is the future plans for  FooLaiBo Co., Ltd.?

I believe that the change in our current society will continue at least by the end of 2020, so I would like to make it my mission to support more than 100 companies in implementing online sales capacity by the end of this year.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I write articles related to things shared. You can find my work from below.

https://www.innovations-i.com/column/all_article/customer_success/

Thank you for the opportunity.