Opening up an unexplored market with "logic" and "passion." A former Recruit sales manager talks about the joys of working at XICA

Yuji Nakashima, who joined Recruit Jobs Co., Ltd. as a new graduate in 2007, won the 500 MVP award out of about 2009 people in sales. After that, he led an organization of up to 80 people as a team leader and organization head.

He joined XICA in October 2020 and is currently the head of the Business Headquarters/Customer Success Division/Account Executive Department, where he provides support for new customers.MAGELLANI am responsible for proposing and providing services to existing customers.

Why did Nakajima leave Recruit, where he had built up a strong track record and felt a sense of fulfillment, and choose to move to a venture company, XICA? We asked Nakajima about his career aspirations, the exciting challenges and fun of working at a venture company that is moving from a startup to the next phase.

Yuji Nakashima
General Manager, Business Headquarters/Customer Success Division/Account Executive Division, XICA Corporation

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics at Ritsumeikan University, he joined Recruit Jobs Co., Ltd. as a new graduate in 2007. He was selected as the 500 MVP for sales out of approximately 2009 candidates. After that, he was involved in employment matching as a team leader and organization head in multiple areas including Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shizuoka. As an organization head, he led an organization of up to 80 people. In October 2020, he joined XICA as Deputy Director of the Sales Department of the MAGELLAN Business Division. He is currently Director of the Solutions Management Department and Director of the MAGELLAN Department, responsible for proposing MAGELLAN to new customers and providing services to existing customers.

The difference between "Recruitment Advertising Sales" and "Magellan Sales"

── Nakajima-san, you worked in recruitment advertising sales at your previous job at Recruit. What do you think is different about the sales work you're currently doing at MAGELLAN?

When I was in charge of recruitment advertising in my previous job, I found it difficult to measure the effectiveness of ads after they were posted.

On the other hand, MAGELLAN is a SaaS tool that aims to maximize the advertising effectiveness of clients. In order to realize the true value of the tool, it is necessary not only to install it but also to use it continuously.

After introducing Magellan, is it incorporated into the PDCA of your marketing activities? It is very important that Magellan's results and achievements are shared and reported to internal stakeholders and the management board.To achieve this, we need to communicate more deeply with our customers and support their use of Magellan.A product's true value can only be realized through the power of tools, and only when people are involved.That's what makes it different from job advertisements, and what makes it difficult.

-- What kind of difficulties do you face?

The need to change clients' business practices and organizational cultureis not it.

Some clients would like to have the budget allocation that comes from analysis, but find it difficult to change all of their actions based on the suggestions obtained or to implement a consistent marketing PDCA cycle from analysis to operation.

The reason why customers want to outsource actions to other companies is due to the customs of the advertising industry that have been built up over the years. As mentioned in the interview between XICA's CEO Hirao and Magellan's first PM Iwasawa, the business custom of "company grasping the ROI of advertising" has not yet taken root throughout the advertising industry. Rather than considering actions based on the analyzed figures, many companies follow the business custom and think that "it is more efficient to leave everything to the client's agency."

However, it is the customer who has a deep understanding of their company's issues and has highly accurate hypotheses for solving them.The quickest way to maximize advertising results is for customers to consider and execute their own actions based on the analysis results, and CS will accompany those actions as much as possible.Only then will you understand the true value of Magellan.

In order to change your business practices and organizational culture,We take a step deeper into our clients' lives and build strong relationships with them through the power of people.I think it is.

Adding "people's feelings" to logic

-- It seems like building a relationship of trust with your clients is very important. What do you pay particular attention to specifically?

In order to encourage customers to use Magellan proactively, we first strive to help them understand the characteristics of statistics. Statistics is a method of predicting the future from past analysis, so it is not always possible to predict the future with 100% certainty. In today's rapidly changing world, it is especially important to understand the premise behind these predictions. We encourage our customers to not blindly accept the results of our analyses, but toI would like to foster a culture of making convincing decisions through internal discussions based on the results of the analysis.

Of course, that doesn't mean leaving the outcome up to the client.A companion who knows the client better than the client and makes proposals that will truly help the company growThat's why we, Sales and Customer Success, exist.

In order to accompany our clients towards achieving results, we are working to increase close communication, deepening our understanding of their business and listening to the true feelings of stakeholders.

-- Is there anything that you as team members keep in mind in order to learn how to interact with clients in a more in-depth way?

We value the "XICA WAY," which is a summary of XICA's code of conduct. In particular, I want everyone to be aware of the "love of challenges." I often tell frontline staff, "If it's in the best interest of the client, let's step forward and make proposals."

There are many members at XICA who are good at logical thinking. Therefore, their proposals and communications are correct and based on logic. That is a wonderful thing, and it is one of XICA's strengths. However,People are motivated by proposals that are based on solid logic and an understanding of the client's mission, strategic direction, relationships with superiors, the organization, and other departments, and their roles.I think what motivates people is the desire to sincerely deepen relationships and the emotional desire to be of help.

During business negotiations, we don't just explain the product, but also convey our passion for seriously solving problems. Each of these actions leads to trust, making people think, "I want to work with this person." I would like to bring back to XICA the essence of what I learned during my time at Recruit.We will combine the strengths of data science and analysis that XICA has with "people's thoughts"I think that’s exactly what I should be doing.

The challenge of creating a market that does not yet exist

── You are planning to combine your knowledge from Recruit with the strengths of XICA. What kind of experience did you have at Recruit?

I joined my previous employer, Recruit Jobs, as a new graduate and worked there for 13 years. I started out as a cold call salesman and gradually moved on to recruiting for small and medium-sized companies and large corporations. After that, I was given the opportunity to experience almost every role a player could play, including planning the recruitment of about 1000 people per year at a well-known company.

In my seventh year, I was given management responsibilities relatively early among my peers. At my peak, I was managing 7 people. The scale of my work grew and I was entrusted with influential tasks, so every day was rewarding.

── That's amazing. Even though you were finding your work very rewarding, why did you consider changing jobs?

I started thinking about changing jobs about 4 or 5 years after I started working as a manager, and about 10 years after joining the company. At that time, Recruit had a share of about 3,000 billion yen out of the 1,500 billion yen non-regular employment market. I was working to increase that share by 1 or 2%, but I suddenly started to feel uneasy about my way of working.

The reason why I originally joined Recruit wasI was attracted to the speed at which he started his own business and the brilliant strategies he used to grow it.However, I think he felt uncomfortable with the current situation where he was only able to protect his large business.

So, looking back on my career, I remembered that the most enjoyable time was when I was assigned to the Sapporo office. When I was assigned to the office, our market share was 20%. I increased it to 40% in one fell swoop, and went from second to number one in Hokkaido.I want to take on an exciting challenge that will greatly expand the situation in front of me. I want to create with my own hands businesses and markets that do not yet exist in the world.So I started thinking about changing jobs.

── I'm sure you had a variety of options for your new job, but why did you choose XICA?

At first, I thought about moving to a group company within Recruit, and I also received many job offers from other companies."I want to discover fascinating services and products that I don't know about yet and expand their value." "I want to take on the challenge of creating a market that doesn't exist yet."and decided to go outside.

I met XICA by chance.The originality of spreading Japan's one and only statistical analysis tool to the world, and the consistency of the story of "visualizing the previously invisible effects of advertising and linking it to client decision-making"I found it very appealing.

In my previous job, I was only able to produce results based on experience and the cases accumulated in my company in the recruitment advertising business, and I often felt frustrated because I couldn't achieve results. I think the value of Magellan, which derives optimal output based on client data, is wonderful, if I may say so myself.

Combining my sales strengths with XICA's technical capabilities will bring innovation to the long-established advertising industry.I was convinced and decided to join the company.

Now is the most interesting phase as we move towards the next phase

── Nakajima-san's passion for XICA was apparent. Please tell us about your future challenges as the head of sales and customer service.

The first thing I want to try is"A winning formula"In the human resources field, the equation for achieving sales results was clear, such as "number of people x strength of product x amount of action." External factors such as the seasons when there are many transfers and resignations were also clear, making it easy to create a sales strategy.

However, the circumstances of corporate marketing activities are completely different depending on the client. It is extremely difficult to find common ground and pattern sales activities. That's what makes it interesting, but I want to find a formula that will allow everyone to achieve results as quickly as possible.

── Are there any challenges in building an organization?

The most urgent task in organization is"Recruiting middle management"At my previous job, I learned that "Recruit's strength is the strength of its middle management." To become a strong organization, we need tough personnel who can bridge the gap between management, the field, and clients and respond accurately to requests from all directions. I would like to work on both internal training and external recruitment.

-- I imagine there will be many challenges ahead.

That's right. Now that we are moving from a startup to the next stage, I think we will be faced with many bigger and more complex challenges.That's why XICA should be able to gain the most interesting experiences right now.Only a few years will tell whether the company is successful, but I believe that with the help of my trustworthy colleagues at XICA, we can overcome any challenges, and I would like to take on the challenge.

*The affiliation and title of the interviewee are those at the time of the interview.

[Interview and text] Fumiaki Sato
[photograph]Daisuke Koike
[Planning and editing] Yuko Kawabata (XICA)