From our experience, inquiries from international clients—especially from the U.S.—rarely convert into contracts compared to those from Japan. Out of ten international inquiries, only one or two typically lead to an actual agreement. In contrast, with Japanese domestic clients, that number is at least double, often more. In other words, with domestic clients, one contract might come from every two or three inquiries, while with international clients, even one successful deal out of five inquiries feels like a good outcome.
It’s puzzling, but we’ve heard similar stories before. A long time ago, a trading company representative told us that as soon as they mentioned specific numbers or pricing, communication with international prospects often stopped altogether.
One reason might be that, unlike Japanese companies, many international —especially American—companies reach out to marketing agencies at a much earlier stage. Instead of contacting us after an internal decision has been made to “start SEO” or “outsource marketing,” they often do so while they’re still considering their options.
Of course, this varies by company, but in many U.S.-based organizations, even mid-level staff such as managers or specialists are given significant decision-making authority. They might be responsible for developing strategies and selecting vendors, and in some cases, they can approve deals worth a million dollor on their own.
However, these projects sometimes start informally—an individual employee decides to “look into Japan-focused SEO,” spends a month gathering information, collects quotes from several agencies, and nearly finalizes a choice. Then, when the proposal finally reaches upper management for approval, the project suddenly gets shut down. From our side, it can feel like we’ve been led along only to have the opportunity vanish at the last moment.
It’s also possible that international clients tend to collect more competing quotes than Japanese ones.
In any case, when inquiries come from out of Japan, it’s best to approach them with patience and the understanding that closing the deal will likely take more time—and might not happen at all.
