I want to passionately sell only our own products that cannot be obtained through agencies.

– In my current position as an AP (sales), I am engaged in expanding chat commerce and creating a market. Did you have any connections with ZEALS before joining?

Originally, I was in sales at an advertising agency and had the opportunity to discuss ZEALS at that time. Through conversations with hospitality in chat, I heard about their service that supports decision-making, and I intuitively felt a possibility, thinking, "This is interesting."

In fact, I had the opportunity to propose ZEALS' services to a client, and the response was quite positive. I remember feeling that there was potential in a new conversational experience-type advertisement by incorporating chat into advertising, which had primarily been about "viewing," allowing for better engagement with customers.

At the same time, while I felt a sense of fulfillment in proposing various media as an agency, I had a rising desire to "sell only our own products passionately like ZEALS." Around that time, after about six months, I saw a job posting for ZEALS. I thought it was a company that could respond to this enthusiasm, so I joined.

Zero knowledge of the financial industry. After extensive reading and role-playing, I became independent in the third month.

– You joined ZEALS with a strong passion for their products. What kinds of tasks have you been responsible for up until now?

I was assigned to a new AP for finance and have been working on expanding the chat commerce market. To be honest, I was surprised by this assignment at first. I had a long career history in apparel, tangible products, and retail media, so I assumed I would be in charge of the cosmetics or D2C industry.

Having zero knowledge of the financial industry, I asked senior colleagues who had expertise in this field and read numerous books on finance to learn about the entire landscape and practices in this industry. In the beginning, my focus was on absorbing knowledge.

In parallel, I practiced sales role-playing. It was a practice where I would speak out loud by myself. This kind of commitment to basics paid off, and I was able to pass the AP Quest (a process to evaluate sales skills, industry understanding, and product understanding through role-playing based on practical scenarios) in the shortest time possible. A month passed by this point.

From the second month, while accompanied by a senior employee, I became the main speaker during negotiations. However, while I could make proposals, I struggled to respond well to questions from the other party; that was the wall I faced in my second month. I spent a lot of time catching up to deepen my understanding of our product. By the third month, I aimed for complete independence, and opportunities to conduct negotiations by myself increased. Around this time, I was in a phase of obtaining leads on my own and advancing negotiations. By the way, since I had a background from an advertising agency, I reflected that when proposals were made with agencies, I was able to respond smoothly without any major communication issues.

Perhaps because this speed of response was appreciated, by my third month, I was also entrusted with the responsibility of training new graduates. I didn't expect to be in charge of new graduate training right away, but teaching others provided me with a chance to systematically organize my understanding, which deepened my insights.

While one might have the impression that I was able to adapt smoothly up until this point, there were, of course, challenges unique to being in finance. Particularly, the long lead time from proposal to closing matters. For instance, "Is there any risk?", "What are the benefits?", "Is there any issue regarding security?" It typically takes 3 to 6 months from proposal to decision-making due to the lengthy internal approval processes. Looking back, I was quite happy when I finally received the first order after overcoming these challenges.

By the time six months had passed, I was not only a new AP but also took on existing AP responsibilities. By overseeing existing projects, I was able to directly hear the issues and requests that arose from existing customers, which further deepened my understanding of them. I feel that around this time, the scope of new proposals suddenly expanded.

After gaining a broad range of experience, starting in the second half of my ninth month since joining, I became the new sales leader and took on the responsibility of achieving team goals. I visualized "How much market potential does ZEALS have?" and "How much share do we currently have?" Based on that, I determined which industries and companies we should aggressively pursue at this time for sales. By formulating a data-driven sales strategy, I expanded orders both as a team and as an individual. I was pleased to have secured an order from a major credit card company just before the end of a term when we were aiming to meet our goals.

While dedicating myself to work in this way, a year and a half later, I was promoted to the head of the division that primarily deals with the insurance and securities industries. As the division leader, I think about how to grow each project and how to secure new orders together with my members, visiting clients together and engaging in discussions. Thanks to these efforts, I feel that expectations and relationships with ZEALS have increased, and sales have also been trending upward. My team members are incredibly reliable, and they always help me.

The ability to think about what can be done without being swayed by external factors, take action, and produce results is required.

– As both a team and an individual, you have achieved your goals. Looking back, what skills do you think are necessary at ZEALS?

Firstly, I think the energy and action necessary to commit to achieving goals (numbers) is paramount. This feels like the most important thing. Since it is a startup, and we are fostering a new market in chat commerce, there are many things we can encounter that are out of our control, such as external factors. Therefore, the ability to think about what can be done, take action, and produce some form of results is required.

Moreover, even when talking about sales, there are many stakeholders, including not only clients but also agencies. Communication skills tailored to each stakeholder are necessary. In particular, the team I belong to deals with enterprise companies, and different types of communication are required depending on the roles.

Furthermore, understanding one’s own products and being able to confidently convey them to others is important. While it helps to have knowledge of various industries, I think that as long as there is a willingness to learn diligently after joining, it will be fine even without prior knowledge. In fact, I had no prior involvement with the financial industry before joining, so having a mindset to continually catch up on information is likely crucial.

– ZEALS has declared its vision to "elevate Japan and the world." Through your work, where do you think you embody this vision?

When I joined a year and a half ago, the insurance industry had very few implementations, but it has rapidly expanded since then. In particular, I feel that our progress in implementations, especially in the life insurance sector where the number of companies is limited, has contributed to delivering "hospitality" to many end users.

To realize the vision, I think it is important to practice ZEALS' values (guiding principles), which include "From ZEAL: Commit with passion," "Bet on Paradox: Question the obvious and move beyond expectations," and "United Will: Achieve results as a team." Personally, throughout my career, I have consistently focused on results, without compromise, and always aimed to positively surprise clients.

Since we are still a startup, there is a lot of change. I believe that people who can positively enjoy such an environment are what we need.