Kaname Nakano
Sales Representative, Japan
In my daily work, you will usually find me in our office in Tokyo or in another part of Japan talking to a potential customer or setting up a housing exhibition hall. As a Sales Representative, I travel all over Japan and experience the country I live in, which is something I really appreciate.
However, these days due to the pandemic, I still do my work from home. I have online talks with customers, and although it is from a screen, I managed to convince one of Japan’s leading house builders to install 10 windows in their new showroom through online promotion. It is definitely a new experience for me because I have always done my work by communicating face-to-face with people. I have worked with sales my entire working life and most of the time has been in VELUX. I joined VELUX in 1989 and besides being a sales representative, I have worked with order management and promotion of after sales service of our products. I have had many great work experiences with VELUX. Especially one time where we got to do a TV broadcast with a Japanese female fashion model and talent on one of Japan’s biggest TV channels. She was really interested in getting a VELUX window installed in her home, so we helped her do that while broadcasting the installation.
Right now, I have an ongoing project where we work to get VELUX windows installed in public toilets around Japan. Because of the toilets’ slightly sloped roof, there is a huge potential and a market for our Fixed Curb Mount skylights (FCMs). My job is therefore to convince architects and sales people that the FCMs’ design, performance and ease of maintenance make a perfect product for the public toilets. At the moment, five out of six public toilet manufacturers have been asked to use our FCM product, which I am really proud of as a VELUX influencer. It is my ambition that a VELUX window eventually will be installed in every public toilet all over Japan.
It is my ambition that a VELUX window eventually will be installed in every public toilet all over Japan.
When I am not working, I spend time on my house and my garden. My house is small but has 12 skylights, so I guess you can say that I live by my sales arguments. At the moment, I have started a mini-project of replanting and redecorating my garden, which is going to be really nice when it is finished. Other than that, I go sea kayaking from time to time, play on my ukulele and go on family trips. Recently, we had a family trip where we went horse riding for 6 days in Mongolia through grasslands, forests, desert areas, mountains and wetlands and camped in tents during the night. I really appreciate going on these trips in nature. I have been on trips to Mongolia four times and I was finally able to also bring my family because everyone had learned how to ride a horse. Now all of them rides a horse better than I do.
