vol.

01

My goal is to be the most supportive to our clients.

I can witness manufacturing directly through my work.

I work as a salesperson of ball screws and ball screw actuators, both are machine elements, in Japan. Mainly, I am engaged in PR of our products through the distributers, and preparatory meetings with designers from equipment manufacturers to decide their specifications. Also, it is essential to share what we discuss in the meetings with other departments such as Sales Operations, Engineering, and Production Control. I sometimes plan and manage exhibitions. The range of my work is various. Since we handle machinery parts, I often support our clients from their production development phase. It is exciting to see plenty of pre-debut products and witness manufacturing in Japan directly through my work.

We respond to requests from our clients persistently.

Now, I am focusing on improvement of products that have been already adopted. Even after our clients adopt our products, they may notice new needs such as higher precision, more miniaturization and more cost reduction as they use. To be chosen firstly as a consultant of such new needs from our clients, I regard the steady sales activity as the most important. It may take less than a week from the consultations to offering proposals and receiving orders. Sometimes, it can take a couple of years. In some cases, we manage to receive orders after taking over from the predecessor. Patience is required to deal with product improvements.

Many colleagues balance their jobs and private successfully.

We often have casual talk each other and it makes the atmosphere of the workplace cheerful. All the senior colleagues, including those belong to different departments from me, give me advices cordially. Now I need to be the one who give advices.
You may think that sales workers always deal with clients all day long and all year long. Actually, working days and holidays are clearly divided since we belong to a B to B company. Possibly because of this, many colleagues balance their jobs and private well. I was surprised at how easy to get paid leave. Of course I need to manage my tasks, but I can work very comfortably.

Though it was hard to get involved in a lot of people inside and outside company toward the same one goal, I could really felt of my growth as a salesperson.

It was hard when we launched mass production of a new product. Though I heard a client I was in charge of was going to request a large number of orders of the product, it was unclear if we could receive the order. The production line of the product overlapped with the one of another product in the plant. To arrange the production system immediately, I asked the plant to prepare it moving forward, frequently checked the situation the client faced, and managed the schedule. Thanks to the efforts of many, we could somehow receive the order. Though it was hard to get involved in a lot of people inside and outside company toward the same one goal, I could really feel of my growth as a salesperson.

I would like to continue to challenge myself to do not only the job I have been given but something other than it.

My goal is to be the most supportive one for our clients. To support, I need to understand our clients. I always think, “Why do they choose our products?” and “What do they need?”. Though I do sales activity basically in my area of responsibility, I sometimes visit our clients outside of it and check the situation with my own eyes if it is necessary. By gaining information voluntarily, I can deepen my understanding of our clients. I would like to continue to challenge myself by doing not only the job I have been given but something other than it. KURODA has the atmosphere to encourage the employees to do so.