Pages 177-181
It is widely considered that Japanese SME manufactures in supporting industry such as die makers and foundries depend on their main customer. However, there are several firms that can acquire new customers and change their business relation.Why can they obtain new customers and new order? Many aspects of the process of the new customer acquisition on Japanese SMEs in supporting industry remain poorly understood. Thus, in this paper, we tackle this puzzle with qualitative approach from the viewpoint of salesperson in those firms. From our case studies, we find that many of mangers develop human resource that is related to the new customer acquisitions and, build the sales and marketing function in their companies. Additionally, it is also observed that the internal position of the sales department becomes higher through those policies
