The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan: Recent Episodes

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Our mental approach to what we do has a huge influence on the result. We recognise this easily in sport and business, yet when it comes to presentations and public speaking, we often forget it.

For many people, the problem starts long before they walk onto a stage or into a meeting room. We may carry old fears about speaking in front of others into adulthood. Then, as our careers advance and presenting becomes unavoidable, we focus immediately on slides, content and logistics rather than first getting our mindset right.

That is a mistake. A presentation puts our personal and professional brand on public display. How we think about the presentation influences how confidently we deliver it, and confidence has an enormous impact on how the audience judges our credibility.

Why is mindset so important for presentation success?

Your presentation mindset affects how confidently you speak, how your audience perceives you and ultimately how much impact your message creates.

Many professionals approach public speaking with negative self-talk. They imagine forgetting their words, being judged by the audience or making a mistake. Sometimes that fear may stretch back many years.

I certainly experienced this myself. I successfully avoided public speaking until I was around 29 years old because I was fearful of it.

Eventually, career progression makes avoidance impossible. Presentations, meetings, conferences, sales pitches and leadership communication all require us to stand up and communicate ideas.

The danger is concentrating entirely on mechanics—slides, timing and logistics—while ignoring the mental preparation required to perform confidently.

Confidence and credibility are closely connected when we present. We may feel nervous internally, but hesitation and uncertainty weaken the delivery of our message.

Do now: Treat mindset preparation as part of presentation preparation. Before thinking about slides, decide how you want to think, feel and appear when you speak.

Does confidence matter more than having great presentation content?

Excellent content is important, but audiences also judge whether the speaker appears confident and credible enough to make that content worth listening to.

I recently watched a speaker whom I initially thought was impressive. When I analysed the presentation afterwards, however, I realised he had not actually provided much breakthrough information or many particularly valuable insights.

What impressed the audience was his confidence.

He stood in front of everyone looking completely comfortable being there. The audience was buying his confidence as much as his actual message.

This is an important warning for presenters who believe their content will somehow compensate for poor delivery.

We sometimes tell ourselves, "My information is excellent, so the presentation technique doesn't really matter."

That is rarely a sensible strategy.

Most presenters are competing for attention. Their audience has other priorities, other thoughts and, increasingly, a device sitting directly in front of them providing unlimited alternatives.

Do now: Never rely on content alone. Build both sides of the presentation equation: a valuable message and a confident delivery.

How can presenters compete for the audience's attention?

Presenters have to combine worthwhile content with engaging delivery because the audience can mentally—and digitally—leave the presentation almost instantly.

Modern audiences are accustomed to multitasking.

While supposedly listening to us, someone may be checking email, searching Google, scrolling through LinkedIn or looking at social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and countless other digital distractions are competing directly with the speaker.

That means our presentation needs sufficient energy, confidence and value to hold attention.

We have to sell two things simultaneously.

First, our message is worth hearing.

Second, we genuinely believe in what we are saying.

Reading paragraphs of text from notes while barely looking at the audience makes both objectives much harder.

Instead, know the material well enough to speak naturally from key points. Work the room. Look at people. Communicate the ideas rather than simply reading words.

That becomes considerably easier when we have created the material ourselves or thoroughly adapted material someone else prepared.

Do now: Know the content well enough to engage with the audience rather than hiding inside your notes.

What is the best structure for preparing a confident presentation?

Start with a strong opening, organise the presentation around three to five major points and deliberately design both your conclusion and your final close after questions.

Presentation confidence becomes easier when the structure itself is clear.

Begin with a powerful opening and introduce the central message you eventually want the audience to remember.

Then isolate three to five key points that make your argument. Support those points with evidence, examples, stories or other material that gives the audience a reason to believe you.

The close also needs planning.

I recommend having your first close ready before the question-and-answer session and then a second close after the Q&A.

Why?

Because finishing with the final random audience question allows somebody else to determine the last thing everyone hears.

Instead, answer the questions and then reclaim the room with your final message.

A clearly organised presentation also reduces nervousness because you always know where you are going next.

Do now: Build a visible presentation roadmap: opening, three to five key points, evidence, first close, Q&A and final close.

How much should you rehearse a business presentation?

Rehearsal is essential because knowing the information is different from being able to deliver that information confidently in front of an audience.

One of the most common mistakes is spending nearly all the preparation time making slides.

People adjust fonts, move boxes around, search for images and keep rewriting content until the presentation date arrives.

Then they discover they have hardly practised actually delivering the talk.

In effect, the first full rehearsal takes place in front of the audience.

That is not preparation. That is experimentation.

Rehearsing shows us whether the timing works. It identifies awkward transitions. It reveals sentences that looked fine on paper but are difficult to say naturally.

We also discover where to pause, which words require stronger emphasis and where the energy of the presentation needs to change.

Once we understand the cadence and flow, confidence increases because fewer elements of the presentation feel unpredictable.

Do now: Protect rehearsal time in your schedule. Don't allow slide preparation to consume the time needed to practise the actual delivery.

Can visualisation and positive self-talk improve presentation confidence?

Mentally seeing yourself deliver the presentation successfully helps replace a fear-based starting point with an expectation of control and competence.

In the weeks leading up to an important presentation, we naturally think about what we want to say.

Use that process deliberately.

Look for useful examples, quotations and evidence. Think about how you will explain the important ideas. Then play the presentation through in your mind.

See yourself speaking confidently.

Imagine the audience paying attention, nodding and responding positively.

See yourself enjoying the presentation rather than enduring it.

This is also where our internal language matters.

If we repeatedly tell ourselves that public speaking is frightening and that we are terrible presenters, we reinforce exactly the mindset we are trying to escape.

Change the conversation.

Think instead about the professional opportunity. Every presentation allows us to strengthen our personal brand, demonstrate expertise and become better at communicating ideas.

Do now: Rehearse physically and mentally. See the successful presentation before you deliver it and replace negative self-talk with purposeful preparation.

Presentation success starts before you begin speaking

The biggest change we can make may have nothing to do with PowerPoint, microphones or presentation technology.

It starts with how we think.

When we know the content, rehearse properly and understand the flow, we can relax. We know the timing. We know where to pause. We know which words deserve extra emphasis and how the argument fits together.

Instead of dreading the presentation, we can start enjoying it.

We should also actively look for opportunities to speak rather than avoiding them. Presentation confidence is developed by presenting.

Change the mindset and you change the starting point.

Change the starting point and you dramatically improve the possibility of producing the presentation result you need.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Leadership Emotional Control: Why Effective Bosses Must Respond Rather Than React

Are you moody?

We might immediately say no. We see ourselves as upbeat individuals, smoothly navigating our way through the workday.

Good.

The problem is that the workplace is roiling with confirmed, card-carrying boss watchers. They have their antennae out every time we appear, as they gauge the risk level of any interaction with us today.

Should I raise that project possibility? Talk about the budget? Have that revenue-results discussion?

They have been studying our body language, our gait, face and voice with such intensity that they can easily distinguish our mood on any given day — and sometimes throughout the day.

This is why emotional self-control matters so much in leadership. The boss doesn't only manage work, deadlines, budgets and people. The boss also influences the emotional climate of the workplace.

1. Why Does A Boss's Mood Matter So Much?

We radiate information to our team whether we intend to or not.

If we are troubled, have we been sufficiently skilled actors to mask the emotions coursing underneath that bespoke suit? When everyone around us is losing their equilibrium, do we maintain ours? When people are panicking, are we an amplifier or a suppressor?

We are the boss, so we set the tone for the day.

If we are up, positive and composed, we have a much better chance of taking everyone else up with us. Conversely, if we are worried, concerned, irritated or down, we can drag the entire crew towards the bottom.

The scary part is how hard it can be to draw people back up and how quickly we can sink their boat.

Leadership presence is therefore not just what we say. Our face, posture, tone of voice, pace and behaviour are constantly signalling whether we are calm, accessible and in control.

1. Are Employees Really Watching Their Boss That Closely?

Absolutely.

The workplace is full of highly experienced boss watchers.

They are trying to work out whether this is a good moment to raise a difficult issue, ask for a decision, discuss revenue results, flag a project problem or mention a budget concern.

They read our body language. They listen to our voice. They notice whether we look rushed, irritated, distracted or relaxed.

That has an important leadership consequence.

If people conclude, "The boss is in a bad mood today, I won't mention it", important information may stop travelling upwards.

The problem could be a customer complaint, a project delay, an underperforming employee or a commercial opportunity. Whatever it is, we need to know.

A leader who cannot control their emotional signals may unintentionally train the team to avoid bringing them bad news.

That is dangerous.

Effective leadership requires the opposite: people need to feel able to tell us what is really happening.

1. Does A Leader Have To Be Positive All The Time?

We need to be circumspect about what we say and how easily external events control our mood.

Suppose we wake up and the look of the sky determines how we feel.

Somber rain clouds, driving sleet or ice-cold snow might encourage us to complain about what a "lousy day" it is.

Alternatively, crisp blue skies, fluffy white clouds and gorgeous warm sunshine might make us announce, "What a great day".

Both statements can be dangerous for a leader.

Why?

Because both tell everyone that our mood can be randomly controlled by the weather.

We have to be the sunny boss every day, regardless of the meteorological conditions.

That doesn't mean pretending everything is wonderful when it isn't. It means controlling the emotional signals we transmit.

We can note that it is raining and remember to take the brolly. That is enough.

The weather doesn't get to run the boss.

1. What Does Mood Have To Do With Procrastination?

There are other moods we need to be vigilant about.

If the mood doesn't grab us, do we start procrastinating on certain unpalatable tasks?

Especially the difficult ones.

The boring ones.

The time-consuming ones.

The ones requiring us to really think hard.

We scan our carefully considered priority list for today's assault on the workload and spy that one particular item has now crept towards the upper reaches of the "to do" pile.

Do we inwardly wince?

Then comes the frantic search for an escape route.

Maybe a quick diversionary attack on email. Social media. Papers scattered across the transom. That telephone call we suddenly remember we need to make.

In other words, every possible activity other than the irksome burden sitting directly in front of us.

Leadership discipline means doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done, rather than waiting until we happen to feel like doing it.

1. What Should A Boss Do When Someone Lets Them Down?

This is where emotional control becomes much harder.

The news arrives that something hasn't been completed on time, on budget or to the required standard by one of the team.

We were hurtling down the highway of happiness, fully charged and in control of the day, and suddenly this train wreck appears on the horizon threatening to derail our positive mood.

The immediate reaction may be frustration.

Anger.

Disappointment.

Disbelief.

But the boss is not allowed the luxury of reacting.

As the boss, we can only respond.

That distinction is critical.

Reaction is immediate. It is emotional. It allows the first impulse to take control.

Response requires us to create some mental space between the event and what we do next.

What actually happened?

Why did it happen?

What is the impact?

What needs to happen now?

That is leadership rather than impulse.

1. What Is The Difference Between Reacting And Responding As A Leader?

Responding means engaging both the head and the heart.

The head asks: What are the facts? What went wrong? What needs to be fixed? What is the business impact?

The heart asks: What is happening with this person? Was the issue carelessness, lack of capability, unclear expectations, poor communication or circumstances outside their control?

We are not pretending disappointment doesn't exist.

We are controlling what we do with it.

That matters because people learn very quickly how the boss behaves when things go wrong.

If every mistake, delay or disappointment triggers an emotional explosion, people develop an obvious survival strategy: avoid bringing the boss bad news.

Then the leader has created a much bigger problem.

We need our people to tell us about mistakes, delays, risks and failures early enough for us to do something about them.

Leadership emotional control is therefore not about being emotionless. It is about ensuring our emotions do not interfere with sound judgement, communication and trust.

The Leadership Standard: Respond, Don't React

The discipline is to exercise super control over our moods so that we intentionally influence both ourselves and our team.

We need to do the things we need to do when we need to do them.

Tasks will still irritate us.

People will still disappoint us.

Projects will still go wrong.

The weather will continue doing whatever it feels like doing.

None of that removes our responsibility as the boss.

The boss is not perfect.

But everyone attached to the oars on the galley deck is watching.

That means we do not get the luxury of simply reacting.

We respond.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and X/Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication and Japanese business culture. He also hosts six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews — focused on practical strategies for executives and professionals working in Japan.

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Salespeople cannot rely entirely on marketing to keep their pipelines full. Marketing may generate enquiries through search engine optimisation, online advertising, white papers, eBooks, webinars and social media, but sales professionals must also create their own opportunities.

This is especially important in Japan, where gaining access to a new business-to-business buyer can be difficult. Receptionists and gatekeepers are trained to protect busy executives, unfamiliar suppliers are treated cautiously and salespeople often give up after one unsuccessful attempt.

The solution is to understand your sales numbers, identify your ideal prospects, reserve time for prospecting and persist until you reach the right decision-maker.

Why are sales leads so important?

Leads are the lifeblood of sales because every new client, appointment and contract must begin with a potential opportunity entering the sales funnel.

Marketing teams work hard to generate inbound leads. They segment databases, develop content marketing, improve SEO performance, purchase pay-per-click advertising and encourage potential buyers to download reports or submit enquiries.

These activities are valuable, but they are rarely enough to support every salesperson's revenue target. Marketing controls the campaigns, budgets, timing and targeting. Individual salespeople cannot simply sit back and wait for qualified prospects to appear.

Professional salespeople therefore take responsibility for generating additional opportunities through referrals, networking, cold calling, dormant-account reactivation, industry events and direct outreach.

Do now: Calculate how many active opportunities you currently have and compare that number with what you need to achieve your annual sales target.

What are Key Activity Indicators in sales?

Key Activity Indicators, or KAIs, measure the controllable actions that eventually produce sales results.

Revenue is a lagging indicator. By the time a salesperson discovers that sales are below target, it may be too late to recover. KAIs provide earlier warning signals by tracking activities such as telephone calls, prospecting emails, LinkedIn approaches, referrals requested, appointments secured, proposals submitted and follow-up conversations completed.

The important step is to calculate the conversion ratio between each stage. For example, how many initial approaches produce a conversation? How many conversations produce a meeting? How many meetings produce a proposal? How many proposals become contracts?

These ratios allow salespeople to replace hope with mathematics. They can work backwards from the revenue target and identify the prospecting activity required each week.

Do now: Start recording your approaches, conversations, appointments, proposals and completed sales so you can identify your true conversion ratios.

How can salespeople calculate the leads they need?

Salespeople can calculate their required lead volume by working backwards from their revenue target, average deal value and conversion rates.

Imagine that your annual target is ¥30 million and your average sale is ¥1 million. You therefore need approximately 30 completed sales. Suppose one out of every three proposals becomes a contract. You would need around 90 proposals.

If half of your initial meetings develop into proposals, you would need approximately 180 meetings. If one meeting is secured from every ten meaningful prospecting conversations, you would need around 1,800 conversations.

The actual numbers will vary by industry, territory, product complexity, brand strength and sales cycle. Enterprise software, professional services and capital equipment may require longer sales processes than lower-value transactional services. Nevertheless, the principle remains the same: your target should determine your activity.

Do now: Work backwards from your target and convert the annual requirement into monthly, weekly and daily prospecting numbers.

How can salespeople identify better prospects?

The best prospects are companies that resemble organisations where you have already produced meaningful results.

Salespeople often waste time approaching companies simply because they are large, famous or nearby. A more effective approach is to define an ideal client profile using industry, location, employee numbers, business model, growth stage, decision-making structure and likely business problems.

Existing clients provide valuable clues. If you have helped one five-star hotel in Tokyo improve its sales performance, competing hotels may face similar challenges. If you have solved a leadership issue for one technology company, other firms expanding across the Asia-Pacific region may be experiencing the same problem.

This does not mean revealing confidential client information. It means converting your experience into relevant insight. Buyers are more interested when you understand their sector, competitive pressures and likely operational difficulties.

Do now: Select three successful clients and identify ten organisations with similar characteristics, challenges or commercial priorities.

How do you get past a gatekeeper in Japan?

To get past a gatekeeper, give a specific, credible and commercially relevant reason why the decision-maker should speak with you.

Cold calls in Japan often fail because salespeople ask vaguely for "the person in charge" or "the sales manager". The receptionist does not know the caller, sees no obvious benefit and is expected to protect senior colleagues from unwanted interruptions.

A stronger approach establishes credibility and relevance immediately:

"Hello, this is Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training Japan. We specialise in developing leadership, sales, communication and presentation capability. We have been helping companies in your industry improve new-business acquisition. Your organisation may be facing similar challenges, although I cannot be certain until we speak. Could you please connect me with the person responsible for sales development?"

The objective is not to pressure the receptionist. It is to provide enough legitimate business context for the request to make sense.

Do now: Prepare a 20-second opening that explains who you are, whom you help, the result you create and why the conversation may be relevant.

How persistent should salespeople be?

Salespeople should be professionally persistent without becoming aggressive, deceptive or disrespectful.

Many prospecting attempts fail because the salesperson gives up after one call or email. The decision-maker may be travelling, attending meetings, managing a crisis or concentrating on an urgent deadline. A lack of response does not automatically mean rejection.

Persistence requires a planned follow-up cadence. You might call again at a different time, send a brief email explaining the commercial relevance, share a useful insight or ask a mutual contact for an introduction. Each contact should add context rather than merely repeating, "I am following up."

In Japan, patience and consistency matter because trust usually develops gradually. At the same time, repeated contact must remain respectful. Salespeople should never misrepresent relationships, invent referrals or harass employees.

Do now: Create a follow-up sequence using several channels and give every contact a useful, business-focused reason to respond.

How can salespeople make time for prospecting?

Prospecting must be placed in the calendar as a protected appointment, not treated as something to do when everything else is finished.

Salespeople usually protect meetings with existing clients because those appointments feel immediate and important. Prospecting is easier to postpone because the reward is uncertain and rejection is uncomfortable. As a result, administration, internal meetings and email consume the day.

The answer is to block out recurring prospecting time. During that period, turn off unnecessary notifications, prepare a focused target list and concentrate only on creating new conversations. Some salespeople work best early in the morning, while others find decision-makers easier to reach later in the day.

Managers should also measure the quality and consistency of prospecting activity rather than looking only at month-end revenue.

Do now: Reserve a non-negotiable prospecting block in your calendar every working day and prepare the target list before the session begins.

Conclusion

A healthy sales pipeline is not created by optimism. It is built through disciplined activity.

Marketing can provide valuable inbound opportunities, but salespeople must also create their own leads. They need to understand their Key Activity Indicators, calculate the prospect volume required, target companies that match their ideal client profile and develop a credible reason for decision-makers to engage.

In competitive B2B markets such as Japan, reaching the right person may require patience and repeated effort. The salespeople who succeed are not necessarily the loudest or most aggressive. They are the professionals who consistently protect prospecting time, communicate relevant value and persist respectfully.

Block the time. Make the approaches. Measure the results. Improve the ratios. Take command of your sales pipeline.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results.

Greg is the author of the best-selling books Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. His YouTube programmes include The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews.

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Japan's younger generation wants something different from the traditional boss. They need leaders who can explain the WHY behind the work, communicate persuasively, develop careers, build confidence and act as personal coaches.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? We should be able to knock that lot off before lunch. Well, maybe not.

The problem is that Japan no longer has the luxury of getting this wrong. The country's demographic decline means younger employees are becoming an increasingly scarce and valuable resource. As of March 2026, Japan had approximately 36.2 million people aged 65 and over but only around 13.3 million under the age of 15.

For Japanese companies, retaining and developing young talent is moving from being an HR issue to becoming a business survival issue.

Why do Japanese bosses need to become coaches?

Japan's shrinking workforce means companies cannot afford to keep losing talented younger employees because their managers do not know how to lead, develop and coach them.

Competition for younger Japanese workers will intensify as the population declines. The OECD continues to identify severe labour shortages caused by Japan's ageing and declining population, particularly among SMEs and non-manufacturing businesses.

You can already see the impact in construction, retail, convenience stores, hospitality and food service, where companies increasingly depend on non-Japanese workers.

This completely changes the role of the boss.

Commanding people to do things may have survived in an era when labour was plentiful. It becomes considerably less effective when good employees have alternatives. The modern leader has to persuade people that staying, learning and developing within the organisation is worth their time.

Do now: Stop thinking of coaching as an optional HR activity. In Japan's labour market, developing and retaining people is becoming a core management responsibility.

Are young Japanese employees really leaving companies so quickly?

Yes. Roughly one-third of recent Japanese university graduates leave their first employer within three years, making early-career retention a significant management issue.

The latest Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare figures show that 33.8% of university graduates entering employment in 2022 left within three years. For high-school graduates, the figure was even higher at 37.9%.

The rate also varies enormously according to company size. Among university graduates working for organisations with fewer than five employees, 57.5% left within three years. For companies employing 1,000 people or more, it was 27.0%.

Money, job content, career opportunities and workplace conditions all matter, of course. But the immediate boss has enormous influence over an employee's daily experience.

Young employees are constantly asking themselves: Am I learning? Am I progressing? Does anyone here care about my future?

Do now: Treat retention as something managers influence every day, rather than something HR discovers during the exit interview.

Why are many Japanese middle managers weak at coaching?

Most Japanese middle managers were never systematically taught how to coach, so organisations often reproduce yesterday's management habits through OJT.

On-the-job training is deeply embedded in Japanese corporate life. OJT itself isn't the problem. The problem is what happens when the person delivering the OJT has never received professional leadership or coaching training.

The previous generation teaches the next generation what they themselves were taught.

If you had a brilliant mentor, excellent. You were lucky.

But hoping that every manager magically develops coaching capability through experience is not a management development strategy.

The traditional Japanese boss was often expected to be technically competent, experienced and knowledgeable. The modern boss needs those qualities plus communication, persuasion, feedback, career development and coaching skills.

That is a substantial shift.

Do now: Companies should explicitly train managers in coaching rather than assuming that being promoted automatically equips someone to develop other people.

How should a Japanese manager coach a younger employee?

Effective coaching starts by identifying the skill required, agreeing on the desired outcome and making sure both the manager and employee own the goal.

First, identify what capability is actually needed. There may be twenty possible things the person could improve, but trying to coach everything simultaneously is hopeless.

Prioritise.

Then picture the desired result together. What does good performance look like? What is the gap between current performance and that outcome?

Next comes attitude.

Different people are motivated by different things. What gets the boss excited may completely underwhelm a twenty-seven-year-old team member.

This is where trust becomes critical.

How well do you actually know the people working for you? What are their career ambitions? What interests them? What worries them? What skills do they want to develop?

The more time leaders invest in knowing their people, the easier it becomes to find the individual triggers that encourage improvement.

Do now: Diagnose before coaching. Agree on one important development goal and understand why achieving it matters to that individual.

Why don't managers spend enough time coaching?

The biggest constraint on coaching is often not knowledge but time, because many managers are trapped dealing with urgent operational problems.

Coaching requires bandwidth.

The boss needs time to identify the skill, explain it, demonstrate it, observe the employee practising it and then provide useful feedback.

That is hard when every working day is dominated by emergencies.

Using the classic time-management framework, many managers live almost permanently in Quadrant One: important and urgent. Coaching sits mainly in Quadrant Two: important but not yet urgent.

The irony is that ignoring Quadrant Two often manufactures tomorrow's Quadrant One problems.

If you never develop people, they remain dependent on you. If they remain dependent on you, more decisions and problems land on your desk. Now you are even busier and have even less time to coach.

It becomes a vicious cycle.

Do now: Put coaching time into the calendar before the week fills with emergencies. Developing capability today reduces management dependency tomorrow.

What type of feedback do younger employees need?

Young employees need immediate feedback on both what they are doing well and how they can become better, rather than recognition only when the final result arrives.

Many organisations wait until the task has been completed before providing recognition.

That is too late.

Younger or less experienced employees are continually moving outside their Comfort Zones. They are doing things they haven't done before and often don't know whether they are succeeding.

They need two forms of feedback.

Good: What exactly are they doing well?

Better: What specifically could they change to improve further?

Recognising baby steps and partial successes is important because confidence grows through evidence of progress.

If we simply throw young employees into difficult assignments and leave them to their own devices, failure can damage their confidence and reduce their appetite for taking risks in the future.

Demonstrate. Let them practise. Observe. Coach. Encourage. Repeat.

Then, when the result is achieved, provide recognition in a form that actually matters to that individual.

Do now: Don't save feedback for performance reviews. Give specific "good" and "better" coaching while the employee is actually learning.

The Japanese boss must become a super coach

The modern boss in Japan has to give younger employees many of the things previous generations of managers should have received themselves but often didn't.

Yes, that may seem unfair.

Today's managers are being asked to communicate better, explain purpose, build trust, understand individual motivation, manage their own time, develop skills, provide continuous feedback and actively support careers.

That is the job now.

Japan's demographic situation makes continuing with the old model increasingly dangerous. There are fewer young people coming into the workforce, while companies still need talent to grow, innovate and compete.

The organisations that develop strong coaching managers will have a major advantage.

The question for every boss is therefore straightforward:

Am I merely managing the work, or am I developing the people who will be capable of doing that work without me?

The time for a new model of leadership in Japan isn't sometime in the future.

It is now.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Business professionals invest considerable time researching, designing and rehearsing presentations, yet many treat the finished talk as a one-off event. That approach wastes valuable intellectual property. A strong presentation should become a reusable asset that improves through repetition, audience questions, feedback and adaptation for different groups, venues and formats.

Why should presentation content be reused rather than discarded?

A well-prepared presentation is an intellectual asset, not a disposable performance that should vanish when the event ends.

Researching the topic, selecting evidence, shaping the argument, building slides and rehearsing the delivery can require many hours. Using all of that work only once resembles the Japanese idea of sunae: creating an intricate sand artwork and then sweeping it away. There are occasions when exclusivity matters, but most business presentations contain ideas that can be refined and reused for different audiences. The core message may remain stable while the examples, case studies, data and emphasis change. Reuse also improves commercial return because the original preparation cost is spread across several speaking opportunities. For executives, consultants, trainers and subject-matter experts, a presentation can later become an article, podcast, webinar, workshop, video series or client briefing.

Do now: Treat every completed presentation as reusable intellectual property and store the slides, notes, sources, stories and audience questions together.

Does repeating a presentation make it stale?

Repeating a presentation usually makes it stronger because live delivery reveals improvements that rehearsal alone cannot uncover.

No two presentations are exactly the same unless the speaker reads a script word for word, which is rarely a good idea. The audience changes, the room changes and the speaker naturally phrases points differently. After the first delivery, you discover where attention rises, where the logic feels weak, which stories connect and which slides take too long. That knowledge allows you to create a better second version. Professional actors perform the same production repeatedly but still bring energy and variation to each performance. Business speakers can do the same by reconnecting with the importance of the message and responding to the people in front of them. Familiarity should reduce anxiety and free the speaker to concentrate more fully on the audience.

Do now: After every presentation, record three elements to retain, three to improve and one experiment to try next time.

How can audience questions improve presentation content?

Audience questions expose information gaps, unclear assumptions and practical concerns that should be incorporated into the next version.

Speakers design presentations from their own knowledge and perspective, so they cannot anticipate every issue the audience will raise. Questions reveal what listeners truly care about, what they misunderstood and what evidence they need before accepting the argument. A repeated question may deserve a new slide, an example or a clearer explanation in the main presentation. An unexpected objection may uncover a hidden stakeholder concern. This is particularly useful in business-to-business settings, where audiences include different functions such as finance, operations, human resources and sales. Each group interprets the same recommendation through a different lens. Capturing those questions creates a practical research agenda and makes the next delivery more relevant, persuasive and complete.

Do now: Keep a question log after every talk and update the presentation when the same concern appears more than once.

What should be changed between one presentation and the next?

The best repeat presentations preserve the central message while adjusting content, timing, examples and delivery to fit the new audience and situation.

A slide deck should never become a museum exhibit. Data may become outdated, examples may lose relevance and the available speaking time may change. The first delivery often shows that some slides are unnecessary, while other points need more space. Constructive feedback may also reveal confusing graphics, weak transitions or jargon that excludes part of the audience. Adaptation is not recycling in a lazy sense; it is product development. The speaker should review the audience profile, organisational context, venue size, event objective and desired action before each engagement. A presentation for a small executive group needs a different level of interaction and detail from a keynote delivered to thousands, even when the underlying topic is identical.

Do now: Revalidate the audience, objective, timing, evidence and call to action before every repeat delivery.

How does venue size affect presentation delivery?

Larger venues require more deliberate vocal energy, physical expression and message simplicity than smaller rooms.

A presentation that works for twenty people may fail in front of five thousand. In a large auditorium, facial expressions are harder to see, subtle gestures disappear and audience feedback becomes less immediate. The speaker must project greater energy, use broader movement, create stronger vocal contrast and organise ideas into memorable blocks. Visuals should also be simpler because small text and complex charts become useless at distance. Mastering a new environment normally requires repeated exposure. One large-stage appearance can reveal the adjustments needed, but competence develops by returning to that type of venue and applying what was learned. The same principle applies to virtual presentations, hybrid events, boardrooms and classroom training: each environment has its own performance demands.

Do now: Build separate delivery notes for small rooms, large stages and virtual settings, even when using the same core content.

How can speakers create more opportunities to present?

Speakers improve fastest when they actively manufacture opportunities to deliver, refine and repurpose their best material.

Waiting for invitations produces too little practice. Professionals should approach industry associations, chambers of commerce, conferences, client communities, universities, podcasts and internal company forums with a clear topic and audience benefit. Hosts may request exclusivity, but speakers can explain that every version is customised and updated for the specific group. The material can also be divided into smaller talks or expanded into workshops, making it suitable for multiple formats. Keeping a catalogue of proven topics makes outreach easier. The objective is not to repeat a frozen speech endlessly; it is to create a cycle of delivery, feedback, improvement and redistribution. That is how experienced speakers develop polished content and confident performance.

Do now: Identify five organisations or platforms that serve different audiences and propose a tailored version of your strongest presentation.

How should speakers leverage presentation content?

Presentation content should compound in value. The first delivery is not the finish line; it is the first live test of the message. Repetition reveals what works, audience questions strengthen the content and different venues expand the speaker's capability. Keep every useful asset, improve it systematically and convert the core ideas into multiple formats. Practice does not arrive by accident, so create the next opportunity rather than waiting for the telephone to ring.

Quick actions for business presenters

Archive every presentation with its notes, sources, stories and audience questions.

Conduct a short review immediately after each delivery.

Update evidence, examples, timing and slides before presenting again.

Adapt delivery style to the room, platform and audience size.

Proactively seek new speaking opportunities for proven topics.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.

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"We are not after the sale. We are after the reorder."

"You can't use consultative selling until you build that trust bridge first."

"If you're not a good storyteller, then you better learn to become a good storyteller."

"Doing nothing has a cost — opportunity cost."

"What is your true intention? Are you just trying to make a sale, or are you building a lifetime relationship with this buyer?"

Dr. Greg Story is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and has spent around forty years living and selling in Japan. His sales career began remarkably early, at sixteen, selling Encyclopaedia Britannica door-to-door in Brisbane, Australia — an experience he freely admits he was "absolutely hopeless" at.

He later established his own consulting company, where necessity forced him to sell his own professional services despite having no formal sales training. He subsequently joined Jones Lang Wootton, now JLL, where he began learning sales more systematically through experience, observation and on-the-job development.

After discovering the world of professional sales training, he studied the methodologies of leading sales trainers and initially brought a Western consultative-selling approach with him when he began working in Japan in 1992. He quickly discovered, however, that simply transplanting Western sales techniques into Japan did not work.

His experience selling in the Japanese market led him to modify the conventional consultative approach by placing considerably more emphasis on trust, gaining permission before questioning buyers, understanding Japanese organisational decision-making and developing relationships aimed at generating repeat business rather than simply closing individual transactions.

That experience ultimately became part of the foundation for his book Japan Sales Mastery and his broader work training sales professionals in Japan.

Selling in Japan requires more than importing a successful Western sales methodology and assuming it will work unchanged. For Dr. Greg Story, that lesson became obvious after arriving in Japan and discovering that the consultative selling techniques he had learned elsewhere were producing disappointing results.

The missing element was trust.

Traditional consultative selling encourages the salesperson to ask detailed questions about the buyer's organisation, problems and needs. Yet Japanese buyers may be reluctant to disclose potentially sensitive information to somebody they have only just met — particularly when that person is an unfamiliar supplier.

Story therefore developed an additional bridging step: first establish enough trust and then obtain permission to ask questions. Only after that permission has been established can genuine needs discovery begin.

This affects how solutions should be presented as well. Japanese sales presentations often remain at the specification level, concentrating heavily on technical details. Story argues that specifications alone do not create compelling buying reasons. Salespeople must move through a sequence: specification, benefit, application of that benefit to the client's organisation, evidence from a comparable client and finally a trial close.

Evidence is particularly important because the buyer must reduce the perceived risk associated with choosing a new supplier. A short story about a similar organisation facing a similar issue can help the buyer visualise how the proposed solution might work inside their own company.

Understanding internal decision-making is equally important. In larger Japanese companies, the person attending the sales meeting may not possess final decision authority. Proposals can move through multiple sections and stakeholders, with numerous people capable of stopping a decision and relatively few capable of approving it.

This makes patience essential.

Japanese buyers are often managing two competing risks. Moving first creates personal and organisational exposure if the decision fails. Yet doing nothing can also create opportunity cost if competitors move ahead. Effective salespeople therefore help buyers recognise both sides of the equation while reducing risk through evidence, pilot projects or small trial orders.

Regional differences matter too. Story characterises Nagoya as highly conservative and price-sensitive, Osaka as more commercially direct, and Tokyo as more ambiguous in its communication of buying intentions.

Above all, Story argues that salespeople in Japan should change the objective itself. The goal should not simply be winning the first order.

"We are not after the sale. We are after the reorder."

That philosophy changes sales from a sequence of transactions into a long-term trust-building process. Follow-up after delivery, remaining involved when problems arise and demonstrating integrity throughout the relationship become central elements of sustainable selling.

The underlying Japanese idea Story connects with this philosophy is kokorogamae: preparing one's mind and clarifying one's intention before undertaking the task. For sales professionals, the question becomes simple but profound: is the objective merely to achieve this month's target, or to build a lifetime relationship with the buyer?

Q&A Summary

Why is selling in Japan different?

Dr. Greg Story argues that one of the biggest differences is the amount of trust required before meaningful needs discovery can begin.

When he first used Western-style consultative selling in Japan, he attempted to ask detailed questions about clients' problems and requirements. Japanese buyers were often unwilling to provide such information because he had not yet established sufficient trust.

His solution was to insert another stage into the selling process: establish the relationship and gain permission to ask questions before beginning detailed discovery.

Without that permission, salespeople risk being told simply to "give me your pitch", leaving them unable to determine whether their solution actually matches the buyer's needs.

How should a solution be presented?

Story recommends moving beyond specifications.

His sequence is:

Specification → Benefit → Application of the Benefit → Evidence → Trial Close.

Specifications explain what the solution does. Benefits explain why those specifications matter. The application stage then demonstrates how those benefits would work inside the buyer's particular organisation.

Evidence follows, ideally involving a comparable company that faced a similar challenge and achieved a measurable result.

Finally, the salesperson conducts a soft trial close to discover whether the buyer accepts the logic or still has concerns.

Rather than aggressively claiming that a solution will definitely work, Story recommends a more measured approach appropriate to Japan, inviting the buyer to consider whether similar results might be achievable in their organisation.

Why is storytelling important in Japanese sales?

Evidence becomes considerably more persuasive when delivered through a story.

A salesperson can describe another organisation with similar challenges, explain what happened and show the results produced by the solution.

The objective is to allow buyers to picture the situation in their own minds and recognise similarities with their company.

These stories do not need to be lengthy. Story suggests that around a minute can often be sufficient.

The critical point is relevance. Buyers should be thinking: "That sounds like us. If it worked there, perhaps it could work here."

How should salespeople deal with Japanese risk aversion?

Risk reduction is fundamental.

In many Western organisations, someone who successfully takes a risk may gain recognition, promotion or financial reward. Story argues that Japanese managers may perceive the personal downside of failure more strongly than the upside of taking an unconventional risk.

Consequently, salespeople need to make the proposed decision safer.

They can use relevant case studies, demonstrate longevity and credibility, provide evidence of successful adoption, or suggest a pilot programme, trial order or limited implementation.

At the same time, they should introduce the opportunity cost of doing nothing.

Japanese organisations may prefer following rather than pioneering, but waiting too long can allow competitors to capture clients, market share or technological advantage.

The salesperson therefore helps the buyer consider both risks: the risk of taking action and the risk of taking no action.

How are decisions made inside Japanese companies?

The individual sitting opposite the salesperson is frequently not the final decision-maker.

Larger organisations often require input from multiple departments, divisions or stakeholders. Each party may evaluate how the proposed change will affect their own area.

This can make decisions appear slow or unclear.

A response such as "we need to think about it" does not necessarily indicate rejection. There may genuinely be numerous internal discussions and approvals required.

The salesperson therefore needs a champion inside the organisation who can help explain the solution to other stakeholders and move the proposal through the internal decision-making process.

How should salespeople compete against an incumbent supplier?

Replacing an established supplier is one of the most difficult sales challenges.

Instead of immediately demanding that the buyer abandon the incumbent, Story suggests introducing the argument that relying entirely on one supplier itself creates risk.

The prospect might consider using an additional supplier for a small portion of the business.

This enables the challenger to demonstrate service quality through an actual assignment while allowing the buyer to evaluate performance without undertaking a major organisational change.

A small trial can therefore create the opening from which a larger relationship develops.

What is the ultimate sales lesson?

The objective is the reorder, not merely the first sale.

The first transaction establishes an opportunity. The repeat order demonstrates trust.

Story argues that salespeople therefore need to remain engaged after the contract is signed. They should maintain contact throughout delivery and ensure buyers know that problems will be addressed rather than disappearing immediately to chase another prospect.

This requires what Story describes using the Japanese concept of kokorogamae — preparing the mind and establishing the right intention.

A transactional salesperson enters the meeting thinking about quotas and closing.

A relationship-focused salesperson enters thinking about creating enough trust to build a long-term business relationship.

For selling successfully in Japan, Story believes that distinction is fundamental.

Author Credentials

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

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Business responsibility begins when we stop waiting for better circumstances and start working with the assets already in our hands. We cannot rewrite our upbringing, erase every poor decision or arrange for a white knight to rescue us. We can, however, decide what we will do next. That shift—from wishing to acting—is the foundation of personal accountability, resilience and forward momentum in business.

Why is personal responsibility essential for success in business?

Personal responsibility matters because progress begins when we accept that our next move is ours to make.

Modern business culture constantly exposes us to polished images of success: wealthy founders, star athletes, glamorous executives and perfectly curated careers. The comparison can leave us feeling that we were dealt the wrong hand. Perhaps we lacked money, education, connections, timing or opportunity. Some of those disadvantages may be real, but repeatedly wishing they were different produces no commercial result. In Japan, Australia, the United States or Europe, employers and clients ultimately respond to what we contribute now. Accepting responsibility does not mean denying unfairness or pretending the past was painless. It means refusing to let those facts dictate every future choice. Leaders and professionals become more credible when they replace blame with agency, concentrate on what they can influence and take the first practical step themselves.

Do now: Identify one business problem you have been blaming on circumstances and write down the next action that remains within your control.

How can professionals stop living in the past?

We move forward by accepting the past without allowing it to dominate today's decisions.

Everyone has made poor choices, trusted the wrong people, missed opportunities or stayed too long in an unhelpful situation. The productive response is not to deny those experiences, nor to relive them endlessly. The goal is to separate memory from paralysis. A useful mental image is to place the event inside a sealed glass room: it remains visible, so the lesson is not lost, but the worry cannot leak into today. This is similar to the Dale Carnegie principle of living in 'day-tight compartments'—dealing with the demands of the present rather than dragging yesterday and tomorrow into every hour. For businesspeople, this matters because rumination consumes attention, weakens judgement and delays action. Reflection should extract a lesson, define a safeguard and then release energy back into the present.

Do now: Write down the lesson from one past setback, the safeguard you will use next time and the decision you will make today.

What does it mean to become your own first responder?

Being your own first responder means creating a rescue plan instead of waiting for someone else to solve your situation.

When a crisis occurs, first responders enter the scene, stabilise the immediate danger and move people toward safety. The same sequence works in a career or business setback. First, stop the damage: reduce unnecessary spending, address the neglected client, apologise for the error or ask for the missing information. Second, stabilise the situation by clarifying priorities and securing support. Third, move toward recovery through consistent action. Mentors, managers and colleagues can help, but they cannot supply our commitment for us. The fantasy of a perfect boss, investor, customer or opportunity arriving at exactly the right moment is comforting and dangerous. In startups, multinationals and small businesses alike, the person closest to the problem usually has to initiate the recovery.

Do now: Define the immediate danger, the stabilising action and the first recovery step for your most pressing business problem.

What is the locus of control in business?

The locus of control is the boundary between what we can influence and what we cannot, and effective professionals work deliberately inside that boundary.

Economic conditions, exchange rates, competitors, corporate politics and customer budgets may sit partly or completely outside our control. Our preparation, communication, use of time, relationship-building and follow-through do not. Confusing these categories creates frustration because we spend energy arguing with reality. Strong leaders acknowledge external constraints, but they do not use them as a permanent alibi. They ask better questions: What information can I obtain? Who can I speak with? Which capability can I strengthen? What experiment can I run? This is not simplistic positive thinking. It is disciplined resource allocation. Attention is a scarce executive asset, and every hour spent worrying about an uncontrollable factor is an hour unavailable for a controllable action.

Do now: Divide a page into 'Control', 'Influence' and 'Outside my control', then move your next action into the first two columns.

Why is time our greatest professional asset?

Time is our most democratic business asset because everyone receives it, but results depend on how deliberately it is invested.

Money, qualifications, networks and authority are unevenly distributed. Time is also constrained, but every professional still decides how much of it goes to high-value work, low-value activity or avoidance. The language of investment is useful here. A meeting, sales call, training programme or hour of focused work should create a return. That return may be revenue, stronger capability, a better decision, a protected relationship or reduced risk. Busy people often confuse motion with progress, filling the day with email, internal discussion and reactive tasks. Responsible professionals audit where their time goes and redirect it toward the few actions that support their goals. In knowledge work, uninterrupted concentration and thoughtful preparation frequently produce more value than visible busyness.

Do now: Review yesterday in 30-minute blocks and identify one activity to stop, one to delegate and one high-value activity to expand.

How do vision, goals and action steps create forward momentum?

A clear personal vision becomes practical only when it is translated into realistic goals, milestones and scheduled actions.

Responsibility is not merely an attitude; it needs an operating system. Begin by describing where you want to be in the near future: the work you are doing, the value you provide, the relationships you maintain and the standards you live by. Next, select a small number of high-priority goals that would make that future more likely. Each goal then needs milestones, deadlines and precise actions. 'Become a better leader' is too vague. 'Hold a monthly development conversation with every direct report and record agreed next steps' can be executed and measured. The same principle applies to sales, financial health, professional development and wellbeing. Small completed actions create evidence that change is possible. That evidence builds confidence, and confidence makes the next action easier.

Do now: Choose one 12-month objective, define the 90-day milestone and schedule the first 30-minute action in your calendar.

What should leaders and professionals do now?

Taking responsibility for ourselves in business does not mean pretending that luck, inequality, bad management or past mistakes do not matter. It means deciding that they will not have the final word. We acknowledge what happened, extract the lesson, focus on the locus of our control and invest our greatest asset—time—in a clear vision and practical actions. Nobody else can complete that process on our behalf. The moment we stop waiting for rescue and begin acting as our own first responder, momentum returns.

Quick Actions

Accept the facts of the past without continuing to fight them.

Separate useful lessons from unproductive worry.

Define what is within your control or influence today.

Audit how you are investing your time.

Translate your vision into measurable goals and scheduled actions.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie 'One Carnegie Award' (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyo (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Toreningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemasho (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban 'Hito o Ugokasu' Rida (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives seeking practical success strategies in Japan.

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Too many senior executives treat presentations as an unavoidable corporate ritual rather than a high-stakes opportunity to build trust, strengthen the brand and move an audience to action. A weak presentation does more than waste time. It can damage the speaker's professional reputation, reduce confidence in the company and squander a story that people might otherwise remember for years.

Why are so many executive presentations underwhelming?

Many executive presentations are underwhelming because the speaker relies on information instead of communication. A slide deck full of data may be accurate, but accuracy alone does not create interest, emotion or conviction.

In Japan, where audiences are often polite and unlikely to interrupt, a dull presentation can continue without visible resistance. That silence is dangerous. The audience may look attentive while mentally checking out. Senior leaders sometimes assume their title, subject expertise or corporate brand will carry the message. It will not. A presentation needs a clear narrative, vocal energy, purposeful body language and a reason for the audience to care. This is especially important when the organisation has faced public criticism, market setbacks or a reputational crisis. Those experiences contain drama, tension and lessons, yet many leaders flatten them into timelines and bullet points. The result is technically correct but emotionally empty.

Do now: Audit whether your presentation gives the audience a compelling reason to listen, not merely information they could read elsewhere.

How does a poor presentation damage a company's brand?

Every executive presentation is a live demonstration of both the leader's personal brand and the organisation's corporate brand. When the speaker appears tired, monotone or disengaged, the audience often transfers that impression to the company itself.

Brand building is not limited to advertising, public relations or digital marketing. A president, country manager or senior executive standing in front of an audience is the brand in human form. If the delivery is wooden, the company can appear complacent, bureaucratic or uninspiring. This effect is amplified when the business has already endured negative publicity. A strong recovery story can rebuild confidence, but a weak retelling may confirm old doubts. Global companies in Japan spend heavily on reputation, employer branding and stakeholder engagement, yet one poorly prepared speech can undermine that investment. The audience may forget the financial statistics, but they will remember whether the leader seemed credible, passionate and worth following.

Do now: Treat each speaking opportunity as a brand-building event with the same seriousness as a major client meeting or media interview.

Why are stories more persuasive than slide data?

Stories are more persuasive because they help audiences experience change, conflict and resolution rather than merely observe facts. Data explains what happened; a well-told story shows why it mattered.

A business recovery offers natural narrative structure: the initial success, the crisis, the pressure, the characters involved, the decisions made, the lessons learned and the comeback. This is far more memorable than a series of charts. Cognitive research consistently shows that people organise information through narrative, while experienced presenters know that emotion helps ideas stick. In a Japanese business context, stories can also make difficult lessons easier to discuss without sounding accusatory. The speaker can reveal mistakes, humility and resilience while protecting individual dignity. Slides should support the journey, not replace it. A single photograph, timeline or before-and-after chart can reinforce the story, but the speaker must remain the main event.

Do now: Convert one important set of statistics into a story with a beginning, turning point, struggle, decision and result.

How can speakers use their voice to keep an audience engaged?

An engaging voice uses contrast: stronger and softer volume, faster and slower pace, deliberate pauses and emphasis on key words. A monotone delivery makes every idea sound equally unimportant.

Executives often concentrate so heavily on remembering content that their delivery becomes flat. They speak in one gear from start to finish, depriving the audience of signals about what matters most. Strategic pauses create anticipation. Lowering the voice can draw listeners in, while greater vocal strength can mark a decisive moment. Keyword emphasis makes the central message easier to recall. This does not require theatrical exaggeration. The aim is controlled variation that matches the meaning of the story. In multilingual or cross-cultural settings, vocal clarity becomes even more important because some listeners may be processing the message in a second language. A speaker who sounds energised also gives the audience permission to become interested.

Do now: Mark your script for pauses, emphasis and changes of pace, then rehearse aloud rather than silently.

What role does body language play in executive presentations?

Body language makes the speaker's conviction visible. Facial expression, posture, eye contact and gestures should reinforce the emotional highs and lows of the message.

A blank face paired with rigid posture creates distance, even when the content is important. Audiences look for consistency between words and behaviour. If the speaker describes a crisis without concern, or a breakthrough without energy, the message feels inauthentic. Effective executive presence does not mean constant movement or oversized gestures. It means standing with balance, looking directly at different parts of the audience, using gestures that illustrate scale or direction, and allowing the face to reflect the story. Japanese audiences may prefer a more controlled style than some Western audiences, but controlled does not mean lifeless. Calm authority and visible commitment can coexist.

Do now: Record a rehearsal on video with the sound off first. Check whether your physical delivery communicates the message without words.

How can leaders make a presentation memorable for the right reasons?

Leaders become memorable when they combine a clear message, an energising story and credible delivery. The goal is not entertainment for its own sake, but an experience that helps the audience understand, feel and remember the point.

Most listeners will not retain every statistic, slide or supporting detail. They will remember the central story, the emotional impression and whether the speaker appeared authentic. That is why preparation should begin with one question: what should the audience think, feel and do after this presentation? Every example, slide and story should support that outcome. A presentation about corporate recovery should leave people with confidence in the organisation's resilience. A leadership speech should make the future feel possible. A client presentation should make the value of action clear. The speaker's energy must be appropriate to the stakes. When leaders present with passion, precision and humanity, they strengthen trust in themselves and in the company they represent.

Do now: Define the one sentence you want the audience to repeat after the presentation, then build the entire talk around it.

What should leaders do now?

Substandard presentations are not harmless. They consume attention, weaken credibility and can damage brands that took years and significant investment to build. Leaders should stop treating speaking as a transfer of information and start treating it as a moment of influence. Use stories to bring business experience to life, vary the voice to create contrast, align body language with meaning and make the audience feel the journey. Every presentation is an opportunity either to build the brand or to erode it. There is no neutral option.

Replace one data-heavy section with a short business story.

Rehearse vocal emphasis, pauses and pace before presenting.

Record a practice delivery and review facial expression and body language.

Reduce slide content so the audience focuses on the speaker.

End with one clear message and one specific action for the audience.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

Greg has written several books, including three best-sellers - Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery - along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyo (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Toreningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemasho (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban Hito o Ugokasu Rida (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

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Visionary leadership does not begin with a corporate slogan, a strategy deck or an inspiring town hall. It begins with the leader. Before executives can credibly ask others to commit to a future, they need a clear picture of the future they are building for themselves, the values that will guide them and the goals that will turn aspiration into reality. In Japan, where employees often watch leaders closely for consistency between words and behaviour, that personal clarity matters even more.

What is visionary leadership?

Visionary leadership is the ability to describe a compelling future and help people see how their work connects to it. It is not vague optimism. It combines direction, meaning and practical movement. A visionary leader explains where the organisation is going, why the destination matters and what people must do next. Leaders at companies such as Toyota, Sony and Rakuten are judged not only by the ambition of their ideas, but also by whether they can translate those ideas into decisions, priorities and behaviour. In Japan, employees may be cautious about openly challenging a senior leader, so the vision must be especially clear. If the message is fuzzy, people will wait, interpret it differently or continue doing what they have always done. Vision becomes credible when it gives people a usable picture of the future and a reason to move toward it.

Do now: Describe the future in one clear paragraph, then identify the three behaviours people must change to make it real.

Why must visionary leadership start with the leader's own life?

A leader cannot convincingly guide others toward a better future while living without direction personally. Employees quickly detect inconsistency between what leaders preach and how they actually operate. A leader who urges discipline but is chronically disorganised, or speaks about long-term thinking while constantly reacting to short-term pressure, loses credibility. Personal vision creates internal alignment. It forces leaders to decide what kind of person they want to become, how they want to treat others, what relationships matter, what standards they will live by and what experiences they want to create. This is not self-indulgence. It is leadership preparation. In Japanese organisations, where trust often develops through observation over time, consistency between private discipline and public leadership is a major source of authority. The leader's own life becomes evidence that intentional progress is possible.

Do now: Write a personal vision covering character, relationships, health, finances, learning, lifestyle and contribution.

How should leaders create a personal vision?

A personal vision becomes powerful when it is concrete enough to see, feel and test against daily choices. General wishes such as "I want a good life" or "I want to be successful" are too vague to guide behaviour. Leaders should picture where they will live, who will be around them, how they will spend their time, what work they will be doing, how they will be regarded and what they will contribute. A written description can be strengthened with photographs, images, sketches or a vision book. This is similar to how companies develop a brand concept for a new business: the more specific the desired future state, the easier it becomes to make choices that support it. The point is not to create a fantasy. The point is to turn an abstract future into a practical reference point for decisions.

Do now: Create a one-page future-state description and add visual images that make the desired life specific and memorable.

How do goals turn vision into reality?

Vision provides direction, but goals provide movement. Without goals, even an inspiring future remains a pleasant idea. Effective leaders break the vision into measurable outcomes, milestones and timeframes. They also avoid focusing only on corporate achievement. A complete leadership life includes professional, family, financial, health, friendship, personal-development and lifestyle goals. These areas influence one another. A leader who achieves business success while damaging health or relationships may eventually undermine the very leadership capacity the organisation depends on. Goals should therefore be linked back to the larger vision and reviewed regularly. A ten-year vision may require annual priorities, quarterly milestones and weekly actions. This creates a visible path from today's behaviour to tomorrow's desired state. It also gives leaders a practical model they can later use when helping employees develop their own goals.

Do now: Convert the vision into annual goals, quarterly milestones and one action for the coming week.

How does personal vision strengthen corporate leadership?

Personal vision strengthens corporate leadership because it improves focus, judgement and credibility. Leaders who know what matters to them are less likely to be pulled in every direction by urgent requests, internal politics or short-term noise. They can make clearer trade-offs because they have defined priorities and standards. This discipline carries directly into strategic leadership. A leader who has learned to connect long-term vision with milestones, resources and behaviour in personal life can apply the same logic to a business. In Japan, this is particularly important when organisations are navigating demographic pressure, digital transformation, global competition and slower consensus-based decision processes. Employees need leaders who can hold a long-term direction while still moving the organisation forward step by step. Personal clarity does not replace corporate strategy, but it makes the leader more capable of creating and sustaining it.

Do now: Identify where your daily calendar contradicts your stated priorities, then remove or delegate one low-value activity.

How can visionary leaders help team members achieve their goals?

Visionary leaders gain willing cooperation when they help people connect organisational success with personal progress. Employees do not commit deeply to a vision merely because it appears in a presentation. They engage when they can see how the future will help them grow, contribute, gain skills, build confidence or achieve goals that matter to them. This requires leaders to ask questions, listen carefully and understand individual aspirations. Zig Ziglar's famous idea that we can get what we want by helping others get what they want captures the principle. In Japan, where employees may not immediately state personal ambitions to a senior leader, trust and patient conversation are essential. The leader's role is not to promise every outcome, but to create development opportunities, provide coaching and show how individual effort connects to a meaningful future.

Do now: Ask each direct report what they want to become better at over the next year and agree on one concrete development opportunity.

Conclusion

Visionary leadership is not a performance. It is the disciplined practice of seeing a better future, defining it clearly and helping others move toward it. The starting point is personal: leaders must clarify who they want to become and how they intend to live. Goals then turn that vision into milestones and action. Once leaders have created alignment in their own lives, they are better equipped to establish direction for the organisation, earn trust and help team members achieve meaningful progress. The strongest vision is not simply announced. It is modelled, translated into decisions and reinforced through daily behaviour.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including ザ営業, プレゼンの達人, トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう and 現代版「人を動かす」リーダー. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.

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Salespeople often think the biggest obstacle to winning business is the buyer, the price or the competition. In reality, the salesperson's lack of self-awareness is often the real problem. When sellers talk too much, miss buying signals, push products that suit their own targets and fail to adapt when a conversation goes wrong, they damage trust and reduce the lifetime value of the client relationship.

Why is self-awareness essential in sales?

Self-awareness helps salespeople recognise when their behaviour is helping the buyer and when it is quietly destroying the opportunity.

A sales conversation can go off course very quickly. The seller may dominate the discussion, miss the client's cues or continue with small talk that has already become awkward. The danger is that many salespeople do not notice the decline because they are concentrating on their own agenda. In consultative selling, the buyer's reactions are data. Facial expression, tone, hesitation, shorter answers and changes in energy all signal whether trust is strengthening or weakening. This matters especially in Japan, where buyers may avoid direct confrontation and communicate discomfort indirectly. A self-aware salesperson notices the shift, pauses and changes direction before the meeting enters a death spiral. The professional question is not, "Am I delivering my pitch?" It is, "Is this conversation creating value for the buyer?"

Do now: Monitor the buyer's energy, response length and questions. When engagement drops, stop presenting and ask a useful question.

What should a salesperson do when the conversation is going badly?

When a sales meeting starts going wrong, the best recovery move is usually to stop talking and start asking questions.

Weak sellers often react to a difficult conversation by talking faster, adding more detail and pushing harder. That is the equivalent of leaning on the shovel and digging the hole deeper. Questions give the buyer more control, reveal what has been misunderstood and allow the salesperson to regroup. Useful recovery questions include: "What would be most helpful for us to clarify?", "Have I understood your priority correctly?" and "What would a successful outcome look like for you?" The salesperson normally arrives with a selling plan, while the buyer may not yet have a clear buying plan. This creates an opportunity to guide the discussion, but guidance is not the same as domination. Strong salespeople maintain direction while remaining flexible enough to follow the client's real concerns.

Do now: Prepare three recovery questions before every client meeting so you can reset the conversation without becoming defensive.

Why is selling the wrong solution so damaging?

Selling a product that delivers little or no return for the client may create one small sale, but it can destroy a much larger future relationship.

A salesperson may feel successful after persuading a buyer to purchase a slow-moving product or a solution carrying a higher commission. Commercially, however, that first transaction can be a disaster. The buyer eventually discovers that the solution produces limited value, trust collapses and the seller's credibility disappears. In close business communities, the reputational damage can spread through referrals and informal networks. The correct measure is not the revenue from the first order but the client's lifetime value, repeat business, cross-selling potential and willingness to recommend the salesperson. A peanut-sized initial sale can become extremely expensive when it makes the seller radioactive in the market. Ethical selling and long-term profitability therefore point in the same direction: recommend what genuinely advances the client's objectives.

Do now: Before proposing anything, state the client's expected return in measurable terms. If the value is unclear, keep diagnosing.

How does customisation improve client value?

Customising the solution around the client's objectives usually increases relevance, perceived value, satisfaction and return on investment.

Off-the-shelf solutions are attractive because they are fast, familiar and operationally efficient. The problem is that the client's needs may not fit the standard package. Trying to force the buyer into the seller's preferred solution creates the classic square-peg-and-round-hole failure. Customisation does not always mean rebuilding the entire offer. It may involve changing the sequence, scope, examples, delivery format, timeline, success measures or support structure. In B2B sales, those adjustments demonstrate that the salesperson has listened carefully and understands the organisation's context. The solution should connect directly to the outcomes discussed during discovery. When that alignment is visible, the buyer can explain the investment internally, decision-makers see a clearer business case and implementation has a better chance of succeeding.

Do now: Link every element of the proposal to a stated client need, business outcome or decision criterion.

How do commissions and internal pressure distort sales judgement?

Commission structures and management pressure can tempt salespeople to prioritise their own short-term interests over the buyer's best outcome.

Sales incentives shape behaviour. When one product pays a higher commission, sellers may emphasise it even when another option is better for the client. Managers can create the same distortion by demanding that the team push the solution that benefits the company most. The salesperson may rationalise the recommendation because rapport has already been established and the buyer appears willing to trust the advice. That is precisely why the behaviour is dangerous. Trust gives the seller influence, and using that influence to foist an unsuitable solution on the buyer begins haemorrhaging credibility immediately. Sales leaders should therefore review whether compensation, product campaigns and quarterly targets reward client value or merely product movement. Sustainable sales cultures align incentives with retention, implementation success, repeat business and measurable customer outcomes.

Do now: Audit your incentive plan for conflicts between what pays the salesperson and what best serves the client.

What does client-centred ROI look like in practice?

Client-centred selling focuses first on the buyer's return on investment, not the seller's commission, quota or internal product target.

The salesperson's role is to help the client make a sound commercial decision. That means clarifying the problem, defining the desired outcome, identifying constraints and testing whether the proposed solution will produce a worthwhile return. ROI may involve revenue growth, cost reduction, risk avoidance, productivity, retention, speed, quality or strategic capability. The appropriate measure varies by industry and purchase, but the discipline remains the same. Sellers should ask how success will be measured, what happens if nothing changes and which stakeholders must see value. This approach increases trust because the buyer can see that the salesperson is willing to recommend a smaller, different or delayed solution when that is the better decision. Ironically, concentrating on the client's ROI is also the strongest route to the seller's long-term ROI.

Do now: Build proposals around the buyer's success metrics and include a clear method for reviewing results after implementation.

What should salespeople remember?

Sales self-awareness is not a soft or optional capability. It directly affects trust, proposal quality, reputation, repeat business and client lifetime value. Strong salespeople recognise when a conversation is failing, use questions to recover, resist incentives that distort judgement and shape solutions around the buyer's objectives. The central rule is simple: make the solution fit the client rather than making the client fit the solution. Focus on the client's ROI first, and your own commercial results will become more sustainable.

Quick actions for salespeople and sales leaders

Notice when the buyer's engagement changes and adjust immediately.

Replace excessive talking with diagnostic and recovery questions.

Refuse to recommend products that do not create credible client value.

Customise the solution around the buyer's objectives and constraints.

Measure success through client ROI, retention and lifetime value.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.

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Sales leaders often blame weak performance on the individual salesperson, but the deeper problem is frequently a mismatch between the company's expectations, hiring system, onboarding process and incentive structure. In Japan, where recruiting experienced salespeople is difficult and replacing an underperformer can take months, leaders cannot afford a revolving door. They need to define the type of salesperson required, establish realistic performance norms, build the right compensation plan and set targets that encourage effort rather than surrender.

Are your sales hiring expectations realistic in Japan?

Many sales performance problems begin before the salesperson joins, because the company has not clearly defined what success should look like.

A founder, country manager or sales director may assume that an experienced hire will arrive, understand the market immediately and start producing revenue. That "plug-and-play" expectation is dangerous in Japan. Relationships, internal approval processes, brand recognition and access to decision-makers all influence how quickly a salesperson can gain traction. Startups face a different challenge from established multinationals: they may offer speed and freedom, but lack leads, systems and market credibility. Before blaming the new hire, leaders should audit the role itself. Is the territory viable? Is the value proposition clear? Are there enough qualified prospects? Is management providing coaching, introductions and sales tools? A salesperson cannot compensate forever for a weak commercial system.

Do now: Write down the first 90-, 180- and 365-day outcomes you expect, then confirm that the company is providing the market access, support and resources required to achieve them.

Do you need a sales hunter or a sales farmer?

A hunter creates new business, while a farmer develops existing accounts; hiring one and expecting the behaviour of the other creates predictable disappointment.

Japan has many capable relationship managers who excel at maintaining trust, expanding established accounts and coordinating internal stakeholders. These farmers are valuable, especially in long-cycle B2B sales, professional services and major-account management. Hunters are different. They prospect, open doors, tolerate rejection and create opportunities where none previously existed. During interviews, ask candidates where their current customers came from. Were they inherited from a departing colleague, supplied by marketing, allocated by the boss or already inside the company's client base? That suggests farming experience. Candidates who can explain how they identified targets, gained access, created urgency and won previously unknown buyers are demonstrating hunting behaviour. Neither profile is automatically superior; the question is whether the profile matches the commercial need.

Do now: Classify the role as primarily hunting, farming or hybrid, and build interview questions that require candidates to prove where their past revenue actually came from.

How long should a new salesperson take to produce revenue?

The correct ramp-up period should come from historical performance data, not the leader's personal memories, impatience or hope.

Sales leaders often say, "I did it quickly, so they should be able to do it too." That comparison may be unfair. The leader may have joined when the market was stronger, inherited better accounts, possessed deeper networks or benefited from a more experienced manager. A more objective approach is to review every salesperson who joined during the past five to ten years and track monthly revenue from Day One. Calculate the typical production level by quarter, removing extreme top and bottom performers when the sample is large enough. This creates a practical benchmark for onboarding, coaching and forecasting. A complex enterprise sale may require a longer runway than transactional consumer sales, while a recognised brand may shorten the cycle compared with an unknown entrant.

Do now: Build a month-by-month ramp-up curve from previous hires and use it as the baseline for coaching conversations, forecasts and probation reviews.

How should sales leaders measure new-hire performance?

Revenue matters, but early-stage performance should also be measured through controllable activities and pipeline quality.

A new salesperson may not close major business immediately, especially where buying decisions involve procurement, legal, finance and multiple executive stakeholders. Leaders should therefore track leading indicators alongside lagging revenue. Useful measures include target-account coverage, qualified meetings, decision-maker access, proposals issued, opportunity value, next-step discipline and movement through the sales pipeline. The aim is not to reward empty activity. Fifty unqualified calls are less useful than five serious conversations with the right buyers. Managers also need to inspect conversion rates: prospect to meeting, meeting to proposal and proposal to close. These measures reveal whether the problem is prospecting, discovery, solution design, credibility, pricing or negotiation.

Do now: Create a balanced scorecard combining revenue, qualified pipeline, conversion ratios and agreed weekly prospecting behaviours.

Does your sales incentive scheme reward the behaviour you want?

Compensation plans shape behaviour, so leaders should not expect aggressive new-business development from a scheme that mainly rewards account maintenance.

In Japan, fixed salaries with bonuses are common, while American-style commission-only structures are rare. A high base salary may provide security, but it can also reduce the urgency to prospect in a risk-averse environment. Straight commission on all revenue can also favour farmers, because inherited or repeat business may pay as well as difficult new-account acquisition. A stronger design distinguishes between existing-account revenue, expansion revenue and genuinely new business. It should also be easy to understand. If salespeople need a spreadsheet and a finance specialist to calculate their reward, the plan will not motivate daily behaviour. The company must also avoid creating a scheme designed mainly to protect its own margin while asking the salesperson to carry all the risk.

Do now: Test whether the plan pays more for the behaviour the company claims to value, especially new logos, strategic products, margin quality and sustainable account growth.

How high should a salesperson's target be?

A sales target should stretch performance while remaining credible; an impossible number causes people to disengage rather than accelerate.

Leaders sometimes raise quotas because the business plan requires more revenue, not because the territory can realistically produce it. When the gap between the target and the salesperson's own sense of capability becomes too large, motivation can collapse. The salesperson may stop believing that extra effort will matter, protect themselves psychologically and settle into lower performance. Target-setting is therefore both analytical and managerial. Review territory potential, historical conversion rates, average deal size, sales-cycle length, available leads, account concentration and the salesperson's experience. Then explain the logic. A demanding target can energise people when they can see a path to achievement, receive regular coaching and know that exceptional results will be rewarded fairly.

Do now: Pressure-test each quota against territory data and pipeline maths, then agree on the specific activities and support required to reach it.

What should sales leaders do now?

Sales leaders should stop treating every performance failure as proof that they hired the wrong person. Sometimes they did. Often, however, the company recruited a farmer for a hunting role, expected revenue too quickly, measured the wrong indicators, designed an uninspiring incentive scheme or set a target with no credible pathway. In Japan's tight talent market, replacement is not a strategy. The better approach is to define the role precisely, benchmark performance objectively, coach the controllable behaviours and align rewards with the results the business genuinely needs.

Check whether the recruiting process is selecting farmers when the business actually needs hunters.

Create realistic production norms based on the ramp-up history of previous sales hires.

Use leading indicators and conversion ratios to diagnose where performance is breaking down.

Redesign incentives so new business, strategic growth and healthy margins are rewarded clearly.

Set stretching but credible targets supported by territory data, pipeline maths and coaching.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives seeking practical success strategies in Japan.

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Persuasion starts with being concise and clear. If the audience cannot follow the speaker quickly, they will not be persuaded, no matter how clever the message may be.

In this Age of Distraction, speakers are competing with mobile phones, email, LinkedIn, Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, and every other digital escape route. Leaders, executives, salespeople, trainers, consultants, and presenters in Japan, Australia, the United States, Europe, and across Asia-Pacific need structure, evidence, timing, and strong openings and closes. Persuasion is not a lucky accident. It is designed.

Why must persuasive speakers be concise and clear first?

Persuasive speakers must be concise and clear because audiences will not accept a message they cannot follow.Rambling kills attention, and confusion kills trust.

Many speakers want to be more persuasive, but persuasion is impossible when the audience is lost. In business presentations, sales pitches, investor briefings, training sessions, and leadership town halls, listeners decide quickly whether the speaker is worth their attention. If the speaker rambles, they reach for their phones. If the message is mystifying, they escape into digital safety. Conciseness and clarity create the foundation for influence.

Do now: Before trying to persuade, ask whether your audience can explain your main point in one sentence.

How should speakers open a persuasive presentation?

A persuasive presentation needs a strong opening that wakes the audience up and tells them why they should listen now. The opening is the dynamite, the nitro, and the fuse.

The first moments of a talk must break through complacency, sloth, and slumber. A weak opening wastes the audience's best attention. A strong opening may use a provocative statement, a sharp question, a surprising statistic, a customer story, or a vivid problem. In Japan, where business presentations can sometimes begin slowly and formally, a crisp opening helps both local and international audiences understand the value immediately.

Do now: Design the opening separately. Do not drift into the talk and hope the audience comes with you.

Why should presentations be organised in five-minute blocks?

Five-minute blocks help speakers keep the audience attached to the message by regularly changing the rhythm.Every few minutes, the audience needs a fresh reason to stay engaged.

A persuasive talk should not run as one long stream of explanation. Around every five minutes, the speaker should switch it up with a story, a strong slide, a quotation, a question, a demonstration, or an example. This prevents the presentation from becoming predictable. In executive briefings, sales presentations, board updates, and training programs, five-minute blocks create momentum and make the message easier to remember.

Do now: Map your next presentation into five-minute sections, each with a clear purpose and engagement device.

How does evidence make a speaker more persuasive?

Evidence makes a speaker more persuasive because it proves the claim and reduces audience doubt. Strong opinions need credible support.

When speakers make provocative claims, they must bolt on proof. Data, statistics, survey results, testimonials, case studies, customer feedback, and benchmark comparisons all increase credibility. In B2B sales, leadership communication, consulting, and training, unsupported assertions sound like opinion. Supported assertions sound like business logic. The speaker's job is to make it easy for the audience to believe the point without working too hard.

Do now: For every major claim, add one proof point: data, example, testimonial, or result.

What structure makes a persuasive talk easy to follow?

A persuasive talk becomes easier to follow when the speaker chooses a clear structure and stays with it. Logical flow prevents the audience from getting lost.

The structure may be thematic, chronological, micro to macro, problem-solution-result, past-present-future, or challenge-action-outcome. The exact model matters less than the discipline of choosing one. Speakers get into trouble when they let the muse take them on a scenic journey without direction. Audiences are lazy escape artists. If they have to work too hard to follow the thread, they leave mentally.

Do now: Choose one organising structure before building slides or writing the script.

Why are bridges important in persuasive presentations?

Bridges are important because they guide the audience from one section to the next without making them work.They stitch the whole presentation together.

Useful bridges sound simple: "We have covered XYZ, now let me explore ABC." "In a moment, let's look at how the economy may affect our projections." "There are three key things we must be vigilant for; the first is…" These verbal signposts help listeners understand where they are and where the speaker is taking them. In cross-cultural presentations, especially when English is a second language for some audience members, bridges reduce confusion and increase trust.

Do now: Write transition lines between sections before rehearsing the full talk.

How does rehearsal improve persuasion?

Rehearsal improves persuasion by forcing the speaker to tighten language, control timing, and remove excess. The stopwatch is the speaker's weapon of choice.

Unrehearsed speakers often discover too late that they are running out of time. Then they "whip through" the final slides and cheat the audience out of important information. Rehearsal with a stopwatch exposes rambling, weak sentences, unnecessary detail, and poor pacing. It helps the speaker sharpen the prose, focus on the essentials, and give the strongest points the time they deserve.

Do now: Rehearse with a stopwatch and cut anything that does not support the main persuasive point.

How should speakers close a persuasive presentation?

A persuasive presentation needs two closes: one before Q&A and one at the very end. Both should reinforce the main message and leave the audience with a memorable conclusion.

The pre-Q&A close protects the core message before the discussion begins. The final close after Q&A puts the bow on the whole enterprise. These closes are opportunities to hammer the main conclusion, underscore the punch line, and make the key idea stick. A weak close lets the message fade. A strong close leaves a thought pounding in the audience's ears long after they leave.

Do now: Write both closes in advance. Never improvise the final impression.

Final summary

Persuasion is built on concise language, clear structure, credible evidence, and disciplined rehearsal. Speakers who ramble or confuse the audience lose the chance to influence them.

A persuasive talk needs a strong opening, five-minute content blocks, logical flow, verbal bridges, proof for major claims, stopwatch rehearsal, and two strong closes. In the Age of Distraction, audiences will not work hard to follow the speaker. The speaker must make the journey easy.

Quick actions for speakers

Plot the talk in five-minute brackets.

Create bridges that lead the audience into each next section.

Use a stopwatch to tighten the delivery.

Support major claims with evidence.

Spend proper time designing the opening and both closes.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）, and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Leaders receive automatic compliance from their title, but they do not receive earned trust by command. Position power may get people to follow instructions, laugh at the boss's jokes, and say "yes," but it will not create deep commitment, innovation, or discretionary effort.

In Japan, Australia, the United States, Europe, and across Asia-Pacific, leaders in multinationals, SMEs, startups, and family businesses face the same problem. They confuse authority with trust. The team may obey, but obedience is not the same as willing cooperation. Real trust is built through consistent communication, proper delegation, follow-through, and time spent understanding people.

What is the difference between automatic trust and earned trust?

Automatic trust comes from position power, but earned trust comes from repeated behaviour that proves the leader is reliable. A title can force compliance, but it cannot command genuine commitment.

Automatic trust is the basic respect given to the role. People follow the reporting line, attend meetings, and respond to instructions because the leader has authority. Earned trust is different. It is based on the reality of daily interactions: whether the leader listens, explains decisions, follows through, keeps promises, and treats people fairly. In Japanese organisations, where hierarchy and seniority can be powerful, the gap between obedience and trust can be especially easy to miss.

Do now: Ask whether your team is following you because they trust you, or because your title requires it.

Why does trust affect delegation and time management?

Trust affects delegation because leaders who do not trust their team keep too much work on their own shoulders.That destroys both people development and executive time management.

When leaders fear that others will make mistakes, miss deadlines, or mishandle responsibility, they avoid delegating. The result is a double loss. First, team members lose the chance to grow through accountability and higher-level tasks. Second, the leader becomes trapped in low-value and medium-value work instead of focusing on strategic priorities. This pattern appears in corporate Japan, regional offices, startups, and global firms alike. Poor delegation is not just a workload issue; it is a trust issue.

Do now: Identify one task you are holding because of low trust, then decide what support would make delegation possible.

How does earned trust increase discretionary effort?

Earned trust increases discretionary effort because people are more willing to go beyond the minimum when they believe in the leader. Trust turns paid labour into deeper commitment.

Discretionary effort is the jewel every leader wants. It shows up when people innovate, create, think ahead, take ownership, and step up without being forced. Employees are paid for their work, but extra commitment cannot be bought by salary alone. It is released through trust. When trust levels are high, people bring more energy, ideas, and resilience. When trust is low, they do only what is necessary and protect themselves from risk.

Do now: Build the conditions where people want to contribute more, rather than merely comply.

How do leaders accidentally destroy trust?

Leaders destroy trust when their words, reactions, and follow-through do not match what they claim to value.Trust is built slowly but can fall through the floor in one bad interaction.

A leader may lose their temper, lash out, dismiss a suggestion, promise action and then do nothing, or say one thing while doing another. Each moment withdraws from the trust account. When a team member offers an idea and the boss reacts harshly, that person's "innovation ticket" is cancelled. Others notice too. In Japanese workplaces, where people may already be cautious about speaking up, one poor reaction can silence future input for a long time.

Do now: Treat every reaction to bad news, ideas, or mistakes as a deposit or withdrawal from trust.

What kind of communication actually builds trust?

Trust-building communication explains the why, listens seriously, asks for input, and goes beyond telling people what to do. Talking a lot is not the same as communicating well.

Many leaders believe they communicate because they issue instructions, chair meetings, and give updates. That is not enough. Communication that builds trust requires time and curiosity. Leaders need to explain the purpose behind decisions, listen to concerns, seek ideas beyond their own experience, and understand what motivates each person. This takes longer than command-and-control leadership, but it creates stronger alignment. For Japanese teams, global project groups, and cross-cultural organisations, explaining the "why" is especially important because assumptions may differ.

Do now: Replace one directive conversation with a "why, input, and listen" conversation this week.

How should leaders delegate to build trust?

Leaders should delegate by matching tasks to the person's development path, not by dumping unwanted work.Proper delegation is a trust-building conversation.

Delegation fails when it feels like a hospital pass: bothersome, unpleasant, and pushed downward because the boss is too busy. Professional delegation is different. The leader explains the value of the task, connects it to the person's career growth, asks them to create the plan, agrees on milestones, and monitors execution without micromanaging. This approach builds accountability, confidence, and capability. It also frees the leader to focus on higher-level work only they can do.

Do now: Before delegating, explain how the task helps the person grow, then let them shape the plan.

Final summary

Trust cannot be commanded by title, hierarchy, or authority. It is earned through repeated communication, proper delegation, consistency, and genuine consideration for the team.

Leaders who do not trust their people fail to delegate. Because they fail to delegate, they lose the time needed to communicate properly. Because they do not communicate properly, they fail to build trust. That loop must be broken deliberately.

The price of earned trust is time and consideration. Leaders who truly value their people must move them higher on the priority list and prove it through consistent action.

Quick actions for leaders

Understand the difference between position power and earned trust.

Delegate properly by linking tasks to development.

Check whether you are truly communicating or just issuing instructions.

Make time to understand what inspires, interests, worries, and motivates your team.

Follow through consistently so trust grows over time.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）, and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Presenting products professionally is not just about explaining features. It is about holding attention, guiding the buyer's thinking, and making the value of the product easy to understand.

Salespeople, executives, product managers, founders, trainers, and technical specialists are all competing with smartphones, short attention spans, and audience impatience. In Japan, the United States, Europe, and across Asia-Pacific, even a strong product can be weakened by flat delivery, endless talking, and no clear emphasis on what matters most.

Why do product presentations fail even when the product is good?

Product presentations fail when the speaker makes the product sound boring, complicated, or indistinguishable from every other option. A strong product still needs strong delivery.

Many presenters rely too heavily on specifications, slides, and technical explanations. They assume the product will sell itself. It usually will not. Buyers, procurement teams, senior executives, and end users need help understanding why the product matters now, how it solves their problem, and what makes it different from competitors. A monotone explanation turns valuable product information into white noise.

Do now: Do not just describe the product. Guide the audience to the value, risk reduction, and business impact.

How does monotone delivery damage a product presentation?

Monotone delivery damages product presentations because the audience stops hearing what is important. When every sentence sounds the same, benefits, proof points, and differentiators disappear.

A flat voice makes product messaging feel lifeless. The presenter may be describing innovation, cost savings, productivity improvement, quality control, customer experience, or safety, but the buyer hears a refrigerator hum. In Japanese business settings, presenters may be used to a flatter speaking rhythm, but when selling in English or to international audiences, more vocal contrast is needed. The speaker must create highs, lows, rhythm, and energy.

Do now: Use voice modulation to make the product's most important benefits stand out.

Why are pauses important when presenting products?

Pauses help buyers process the value of the product before the next point arrives. Without pauses, one feature drowns the next.

Product presenters often rush because they know too much. They try to explain every function, every technical detail, and every comparison. The problem is that the buyer's brain needs time to translate information into relevance. A pause after a key benefit, price point, case study, performance result, or risk-reduction claim gives the audience time to think, "How does this apply to us?" In Japan, pauses are especially valuable when listeners are processing English as a second language.

Do now: Pause after the product's strongest value claims, not just at the end of slides.

How should presenters highlight product features and benefits?

Presenters should emphasise the few product points that matter most to the buyer's decision. Not every feature deserves equal vocal weight.

Democracy is fine in politics, but it is deadly in product presentations. If every feature is delivered with equal emphasis, the buyer cannot tell what is essential. The presenter should punch key words such as "lower cost," "faster implementation," "reduced downtime," "higher conversion," "safer operation," "Japan-ready support," or "measurable ROI." This is how the speaker guides the audience through the intended decision path.

Do now: Before presenting, underline the key words you want buyers to remember.

How can salespeople keep buyers from checking their phones?

Salespeople keep buyers engaged by creating contrast, relevance, and movement in the presentation. The phone wins when the speaker becomes predictable.

Modern buyers can escape instantly to email, LinkedIn, Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, news, or internal messages. That means product presenters must earn attention continuously. Use questions, pauses, examples, customer stories, comparisons, and vocal variety. A B2B buyer wants to know how the product reduces pain, saves time, makes money, prevents mistakes, or improves results. A professional product presentation should feel like a guided business conversation, not a technical data dump.

Do now: Build the presentation around buyer problems, not your internal product catalogue.

What should professionals practise before presenting a product?

Professionals should practise voice modulation, pauses, and key-word emphasis before every important product presentation. Delivery is part of the product's perceived value.

A brilliant product can look ordinary when presented badly. A practical way to improve is to record the presentation and listen honestly. Are you varying your pace? Are you slowing down for the most important points? Are you pausing after strong claims? Are you hitting the words the buyer must remember? CEOs, sales managers, consultants, startup founders, and technical specialists all need this discipline.

Do now: Record your product pitch and check whether the buyer can hear the value clearly.

Final summary

Professional product presentations require more than product knowledge. They require delivery skill. Voice modulation, pauses, and key-word emphasis help buyers understand what matters and why it matters.

In the smartphone era, boring delivery loses attention quickly. The best presenters do not drown buyers in information. They guide the buyer's thinking, highlight the value, and make the decision easier.

Quick actions for presenters

Vary your voice so the product does not sound boring.

Pause after key benefits, proof points, and recommendations.

Emphasise the words you want the buyer to remember.

Focus on buyer problems before product features.

Record your presentation and listen for monotone delivery.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）, and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Speakers are now competing with mobile phones, short attention spans, and the audience's constant temptation to escape to the internet. A monotone delivery makes that escape almost irresistible.

A presentation can have a powerful topic, a brilliant speaker resume, and a room full of interested people, yet still fail if the delivery puts everyone to sleep. Whether speaking in Japan, Australia, the United States, Europe, or anywhere across Asia-Pacific, leaders, trainers, salespeople, and executives need vocal variety, pauses, and emphasis to keep attention alive.

Why do monotone speakers lose their audience so quickly?

Monotone speakers lose audiences because the brain stops receiving useful signals of change, importance, or emotion. When every word sounds the same, listeners struggle to know what matters.

A monotone voice becomes verbal white noise. Like the steady hum of a refrigerator, it may be present, but it does not stimulate attention. In Japanese business presentations, monotone delivery is often explained as a language and cultural pattern, because Japanese speech can sound flatter compared with English. Yet when speaking in English, especially to international executives or mixed audiences, the speaker must work harder to create highs, lows, contrast, and rhythm.

Do now: Record your next talk and check whether your voice rises, falls, speeds up, slows down, and signals meaning.

How does mobile phone distraction change public speaking?

Mobile phones punish boring delivery faster than ever because the audience has an instant escape route. If the speaker does not hold attention, the internet will.

Before smartphones, bored audience members had fewer options. They might stare at the ceiling, doodle, or politely suffer. Now they can check email, LinkedIn, Slack, WhatsApp, news, stock prices, or sports scores within seconds. This makes voice modulation a business survival skill, not a theatrical extra. In corporate training, sales presentations, town halls, investor briefings, and conference speeches, the speaker is competing against a personal entertainment machine in every hand.

Do now: Assume the audience will leave you mentally unless your delivery gives them a reason to stay.

Why are pauses so important in presentations?

Pauses are powerful because they give the audience time to process, translate, and absorb the message. Continuous talking drowns one idea beneath the next.

Many speakers fear silence. They rush, fill every gap, and treat a pause as a failure. In reality, pauses are pattern interrupters. They tell the brain, "Something has changed. Pay attention." For Japanese audiences listening in English, pauses are especially useful because they allow mental translation and comprehension. For global audiences, pauses also create authority. Leaders who pause sound more confident than leaders who machine-gun words at the room.

Do now: Insert short pauses after important points, transitions, numbers, questions, and recommendations.

How can speakers use voice modulation effectively?

Voice modulation works by adding contrast through volume, pace, pitch, and energy. The audience needs vocal variety to stay mentally engaged.

A strong speaker does not need a radio announcer's baritone voice. The goal is not to sound like a professional narrator. The goal is to guide listeners. Speed up to show energy. Slow down to show importance. Add strength to key phrases. Drop the voice to create seriousness. Lift the voice to create curiosity. This is especially important for executives, trainers, and salespeople who need to persuade, not merely transfer information.

Do now: Practise one paragraph three ways: stronger, softer, faster, and slower. Notice how meaning changes.

Why should speakers emphasise key words?

Speakers should emphasise key words because audiences need help identifying what matters most. Without emphasis, every sentence sounds equally important and equally forgettable.

Democracy is excellent in political systems, but not in speeches. In presentations, some words deserve more weight than others. The speaker must decide which words carry the meaning and then punch them vocally. This creates a mental path for the listener. In sales, leadership, teaching, and keynote speaking, key-word emphasis helps the audience follow the speaker's intended logic, emotion, and conclusion.

Do now: Mark your script before presenting. Underline the words you want to hit harder.

What should leaders and presenters do to avoid boring delivery?

Leaders and presenters should check their delivery by recording themselves and listening honestly. Self-awareness is the fastest way to escape monotone hell.

Most speakers do not know how they actually sound. They judge themselves by intention, not by audience experience. Recording reveals whether the talk has vocal variety, useful pauses, and highlighted key words. This matters for CEOs, sales managers, trainers, consultants, academics, and anyone presenting ideas. People attend talks to be informed, persuaded, motivated, entertained, or ideally all four. They do not attend to be gently sedated.

Do now: Tape your next presentation. Listen for modulation, pauses, and emphasis before blaming the audience.

Final summary

A monotone presentation kills attention, no matter how strong the topic or impressive the speaker's credentials. Audiences need vocal variety, pauses, and key-word emphasis to stay engaged.

Speakers are not just delivering information. They are guiding attention. In the smartphone era, boring delivery is punished immediately. The good news is that voice modulation, strategic pauses, and emphasis can all be practised.

Quick actions for speakers

Add voice modulation by varying strength, pace, pitch, and energy.

Use pauses so the audience can process what you have said.

Emphasise key words to guide listeners toward your message.

Record your delivery and listen for monotone patterns.

Do not rely on topic quality alone to hold attention.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）, and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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In Japan, many leaders worry they are surrounded by people who agree too quickly, avoid bad news, and keep quiet when the boss is wrong. That silence is dangerous. It hides risk, weakens decision-making, and encourages executives to build beautiful ladders against the wrong wall.

This is not just a Japanese leadership issue. It appears in multinationals, SMEs, family businesses, startups, and government agencies across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the United States. The difference in Japan is that hierarchy, harmony, seniority, and group responsibility can make "speaking truth to power" feel personally risky.

Why do employees in Japan say "yes boss" even when they disagree?

Employees often say "yes boss" because hierarchy, risk avoidance, and group harmony make open disagreement feel dangerous. In many Japanese workplaces, the safest career move is to blend in, avoid blame, and let responsibility dissolve into the group.

This becomes a major leadership problem when the boss has a bad idea. The original Tokyo Olympic Stadium controversy and the Toyosu market issues showed how difficult it can be to identify clear accountability when decisions go wrong. In Japan, success often has many parents, while failure can become an orphan. Compared with flatter US startup cultures or some European consultation models, Japanese corporate life often places greater weight on rank, silence, and consensus.

Do now: Leaders should ask, "Am I getting the truth, or just polite agreement?"

How does power distance damage leadership decisions?

Power distance damages decisions by discouraging subordinates from sharing negative information early. When people fear being criticised, ignored, or humiliated, they delay warnings until the damage is already done.

Senior leaders often succeed because they push through resistance. That drive can become their strength and their weakness. After years of winning arguments, launching initiatives, and forcing change through slow-moving systems, the leader's ego can quietly become overinflated. In Japan, where introducing anything new often requires enormous persistence, the "bulldozer boss" may look effective at first. Over time, however, that style teaches everyone to stay silent.

Do now: Watch for hesitation, doubt, or reluctance. These may be early warning signals, not disloyalty.

Why do successful bosses stop listening?

Successful bosses often stop listening because their past victories convince them their judgement is usually right.The more they win debates, the easier it becomes to confuse confidence with accuracy.

This is especially risky for executives who are fast-paced, action-oriented, and under pressure. They prefer speed, clean decisions, and no loose ends. Listening to a subordinate's concern can feel like wasted time when the inbox is overflowing and urgent tasks are piling up. Yet the people closest to the gemba—the actual workplace reality—often know things the boss does not. Toyota's famous respect for frontline insight shows why the gemba matters: real conditions are not always visible from the executive office.

Do now: Slow down before responding. The person in front of you may hold the missing piece.

What should leaders do when subordinates challenge their ideas?

Leaders should avoid immediate judgement and create enough psychological safety for people to speak honestly.The first response should be curiosity, not a counterattack.

When someone raises an objection, the boss should not launch a "nuclear harpoon strike" to wipe out resistance. Instead, pause, keep a neutral face, and say: "Thank you. This is an important consideration, and I want to give the idea sufficient time to mull it over." That simple sentence changes the room. It shows that disagreement is not career suicide. In multinationals, SMEs, B2B sales teams, and professional services firms, this habit can improve risk detection, innovation, and accountability.

Do now: Replace instant rebuttal with one question: "What are you seeing that I may be missing?"

How can Japanese executives build a speak-up culture?

Japanese executives can build a speak-up culture by repeatedly proving that bad news is welcome before decisions fail. One polite invitation is not enough; people need months of evidence.

If the boss has spent years interrupting, dominating, and dismissing alternative views, employees will not suddenly trust a new listening style. Everyone will watch the first brave person who speaks up. If that person is punished, ignored, or publicly crushed, the old silence returns immediately. If they are thanked and heard, others may slowly follow. This is behaviour change work, not a slogan. Leaders must give full concentration, turn off the mental white noise, and listen without preparing their counterargument.

Do now: Reward early warnings. Make the person who raises risk feel safer, not smaller.

What leadership habit matters most for better decisions?

Humility is the leadership habit that protects executives from their own certainty. Leaders must become less attached to the automatic belief that their judgement and experience are always enough.

Humility does not mean weakness. It means recognising that rank does not create perfect information. In Japan's seniority-conscious workplaces, the person with the lowest title may still understand the customer, factory floor, sales objection, or internal bottleneck better than the president. The leader's job is not to win every argument. The leader's job is to make the best possible decision with the best possible information.

Do now: Ask regularly, "What bad news am I not hearing?" Then stay quiet long enough for the answer.

Final summary

"Yes boss" cultures feel efficient, respectful, and harmonious until the wrong decision becomes expensive. Leaders in Japan, and everywhere else, need people who will tell them the truth before the damage is done. That requires patience, humility, and repeated proof that dissent is not punished.

The best leaders are not the ones who dominate every conversation. They are the ones who create enough trust for others to improve the decision before it is too late.

Quick actions for leaders

Check whether you are surrounded by "yes" men and women.

Notice whether you are the last person to hear bad news.

Stop bulldozing every disagreement.

Do not respond immediately when you hear an opposing view.

Become more humble about the limits of your own judgement.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）, and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Sales conversations need structure, not spaghetti. In Japan especially, the best salespeople do not simply pitch, push and hope. They build bridges between each phase of the buyer conversation: rapport, permission to ask questions, solution presentation, objection handling and the final close. These bridges make the sales call feel natural, respectful and useful for the client.

For executives, sales leaders and B2B professionals, the real lesson is simple: a sales process is not just a checklist. It is a conversation road map. When each transition is handled smoothly, the buyer feels understood rather than sold to.

Why do sales conversations need bridges?

Sales conversations need bridges because buyers rarely move smoothly from greeting to decision without guidance. A bridge is the short phrase, question or transition that helps the buyer follow the logic of the meeting.

In Japan, where trust, politeness and context matter deeply in business, these bridges are even more important. A salesperson who jumps too quickly into the pitch can feel abrupt, especially compared with the slower relationship-building style common in Japanese B2B sales. In the US, a direct "Let's get down to business" approach may be accepted. In Japan, the same move can miss the social rhythm that helps buyers relax and open up.

Do now: Map your sales call into phases and write one clear bridge sentence between each phase.

How should salespeople start a meeting in Japan?

Salespeople in Japan should start by using small talk, meishi and respectful observation to build trust before discussing business. The beginning of the meeting is not wasted time; it is the first sales bridge.

Business cards remain a gold mine in Japan. The buyer's meishi can reveal their title, division, company structure, location, seniority and sometimes even regional clues in their name. A skilled salesperson uses these details naturally. For example, commenting politely on a rare kanji reading or asking about the buyer's role can start a human conversation. This is different from many Western business settings, where business cards have become less central and meetings often begin more transactionally.

Do now: Treat the first three minutes as a trust-building phase, not an awkward warm-up.

Why should salespeople ask permission before asking questions?

Salespeople should ask permission because questioning the buyer can feel intrusive unless the purpose is clearly explained. In Japan, this bridge is vital because direct questioning may be seen as rude if handled poorly.

Many Japanese salespeople avoid asking diagnostic questions and instead launch straight into the pitch. That creates a problem: without questions, the salesperson cannot know which solution matters. If a company has 155 training modules, products or services, presenting everything overwhelms the buyer. A better bridge is: "We may be able to help, but I am not sure yet. Would you mind if I asked a few questions so I can understand your situation?" This makes the questioning feel respectful and useful.

Do now: Never interrogate. Ask permission, explain the benefit, then diagnose.

How do you move from questions to the solution?

The best bridge from questions to solution is a short confirmation that shows the buyer you listened. Before presenting, summarise the need and explain that you have narrowed the options.

This is where many salespeople lose control of the conversation. They ask good questions, then dump too much information on the buyer. In B2B sales, especially with executives, SMEs and large Japanese firms, clarity beats quantity. A strong bridge sounds like: "Thank you, I now understand what you are looking for. Based on your priorities, I believe this solution fits best." This tells the buyer the pitch is not generic. It is selected for them.

Do now: Present only the solution that matches the buyer's stated need. Leave the rest out.

What is the best way to check buyer interest during the sales presentation?

A trial close is the bridge that checks whether the buyer is following, interested and comfortable. The simple question "How does that sound so far?" can reveal confusion, hesitation or hidden objections.

This is not a hard close. It is a conversational checkpoint. After explaining the feature, benefit, application and evidence, the salesperson pauses and lets the buyer react. In Japan, where buyers may avoid direct confrontation, these gentle checks are especially useful. They give the buyer permission to raise concerns without losing face. Compared with more aggressive American closing styles, this approach is low-pressure but still commercially effective.

Do now: After each major solution point, ask a soft trial close before moving forward.

How should salespeople handle price objections?

Salespeople should bridge into objections by thanking the buyer and asking why they feel that way. The best response to "Your price is too high" is not a defence; it is curiosity.

A calm answer might be: "Thank you. May I ask why you say that?" Then stop talking. Silence is powerful. The buyer may reveal they are comparing against a cheaper competitor, working with a fixed budget, unsure of value, or testing whether a discount is available. Each answer requires a different response. If the salesperson guesses, they may answer the wrong objection. In Japanese sales, where open disagreement can be subtle, this bridge helps uncover the real issue.

Do now: Do not fight objections. Clarify them first, then answer the real concern.

Conclusion: What should sales leaders do now?

Sales leaders should train their teams to build bridges, not just deliver pitches. A strong sales call has a clear flow: rapport, permission, diagnosis, tailored solution, trial close, objection handling and final decision. Each phase needs a transition that feels natural to the buyer.

For Japan-focused sales teams, this is especially important. Respectful pacing, small talk, meishi awareness, permission-based questioning and low-pressure closing all help buyers feel safe enough to engage. The goal is not to manipulate the conversation. The goal is to make it easier for the buyer to understand, trust and decide.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō, Purezen no Tatsujin, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā.

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews, followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Videos can lift a business presentation, but they can also hijack it. In the Age of Distraction, leaders, executives and salespeople cannot afford to let a slick corporate video, slide deck or screen become the star of the show. The presenter must remain the dominant force in the room.

Why can videos weaken a business presentation?

Videos weaken presentations when they take control away from the speaker. The audience may enjoy the production quality, but that does not mean they remember the message.

Business events, audiences in Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, London and New York are already conditioned by TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Netflix, gaming, live sport, fireworks, music and fast-cut visual storytelling. Against that competition, a presenter standing with a slide advancer can look very small unless they bring energy, conviction and control. The problem is not video itself. The problem is using video as a substitute for presence, persuasion and leadership.

Do now: Use video only when it strengthens your message. Never let it replace your role as the communicator.

Should presenters use videos in speeches and corporate talks?

Yes, presenters can use videos, but only when the video serves a clear business purpose. A video should support the speaker, not become the presentation.

A product launch, recruitment event, sales meeting or company town hall may benefit from video if it shows proof, customer emotion, technical evidence or a hard-to-explain process. Toyota, Rakuten, Salesforce, Apple and other major brands understand the power of visuals, but strong presenters still frame what the audience should notice. SMEs and startups often make the mistake of thinking "slick" equals "persuasive". It does not. The video creates an impression; the speaker creates conviction.

Do now: Before playing a video, ask: what exact point does this prove, and why is the speaker still necessary?

How should you introduce a video during a presentation?

A presenter should introduce a video by telling the audience exactly what to look for. This creates anticipation and turns passive watching into active listening.

Instead of saying, "Let's watch this short video," give the audience a mission. For example: "In this clip, listen carefully to what our Chief Scientist says about the future of this technology. That one point may change how you see the whole issue." This works in boardrooms, sales pitches, leadership training and conference keynotes because it focuses attention. In Japan, where audiences may be polite but reserved, this framing is especially useful because it gives people permission to engage mentally before the clip begins.

Do now: Always provide a verbal set-up before the video. Tell people what matters before they press play in their minds.

What should a presenter do after showing a video?

After the video, the presenter must connect the evidence back to the core message. Without that wrap-up, the video becomes entertainment rather than persuasion.

A strong outro sounds like this: "What I like about that message is that it shows we can control our future if we choose to take that route." That sentence links the video to the speaker's argument. In B2B sales, leadership communication and investor presentations, this is where authority returns to the presenter. The video supplies colour, proof or emotion; the speaker supplies meaning. Without the follow-through, the audience forgets the clip within thirty seconds.

Do now: After every video, summarise the lesson, connect it to your thesis and tell the audience what to think about next.

Why is handing out slide decks before a presentation risky?

Handing out the slide deck beforehand often destroys audience connection. When the speaker is on slide two and the audience is already reading slide eighteen, the presentation has split in two.

Slides, videos and documents can all become competitors for attention. In an executive briefing, the audience may stop watching the presenter and start analysing the deck. In a sales meeting, procurement may jump straight to pricing. In a training room, participants may scan ahead and miss the emotional build-up. This is especially dangerous in the smartphone era, where one small moment of boredom sends people to email, chat apps or social media.

Do now: Control the timing of visual information. Keep the audience with you, not ahead of you.

What is the biggest mistake company presidents make with videos?

The biggest mistake is hiding behind a corporate propaganda video instead of speaking as the chief evangelist. A president, CEO or country manager should not surrender the room to a screen.

Senior leaders must win trust through voice, conviction, eye contact and message ownership. When a company president plays a long corporate video to avoid speaking, the audience notices. In Japan, the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, employees and clients expect leaders to embody the enterprise, not outsource belief to a production agency. A polished video cannot replace courage. It cannot answer questions, read the room or create human connection.

Do now: Leaders should speak first, frame the video, return after it and make the message unmistakably personal.

Final summary

Videos in presentations are not the enemy. Uncontrolled videos are the enemy. The speaker must dominate the room, guide the audience's attention and use every visual element as a servant to the message. In the Age of Distraction, presenters need energy, structure and authority. Otherwise, the screen wins and the speaker disappears.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver global leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō, Purezen no Tatsujin, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts, plus YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews.

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We cannot stop the mind from travelling backwards into memory or forwards into imagination. That is part of being human. The real issue is not remembering the past or preparing for the future. The real issue is the worry we attach to both.

How can we stop worry from taking over our thinking?

We do not need to stop remembering the past or thinking about the future; we need to strip out the worry attached to both. Memory and forecasting are survival mechanisms, because they help us learn from yesterday and prepare for tomorrow.

The trouble starts when recollection becomes rumination and preparation becomes anxiety. In business, leadership, sales, education, and personal life, this pattern is familiar. We replay a painful meeting, a failed presentation, a lost opportunity, or an unfair comment. Then we imagine tomorrow going even worse. That mental habit drains energy from the one place where we can actually act: today.

Mini-summary / Do now: Recall and prepare, but remove the worry flavouring. Treat worry as the optional extra, not the main meal.

Why do William James and Victor Frankl matter to mental freedom?

William James and Victor Frankl both point to the same powerful truth: we can choose our attitude, even when we cannot choose every circumstance. James reached this through psychology and philosophy; Frankl reached it through suffering and survival.

William James, the Harvard academic often called the father of American psychology, argued that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. Victor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor and author of Man's Search For Meaning, found that the last human freedom is the ability to choose one's attitude in any given circumstances. Different men, different eras, different experiences — yet the conclusion overlaps beautifully. We may not control everything that happens, but we can work on how we think about it.

Mini-summary / Do now: Stop treating attitude as decoration. It is a core operating system for how we live and lead.

Why do painful memories keep replaying in our minds?

Painful memories replay because the brain wants to protect us from repeating mistakes, but protection turns into punishment when we keep attaching worry to the memory. That old mental movie can run for years if we keep pressing play.

We remember humiliation, insult, degradation, or unfairness because the mind flags those moments as important. It says, "Watch out, this hurt you before." That may help us learn, but it can also trap us. The article's practical advice is not to deny the memory. We observe it, acknowledge that it happened, and tell ourselves we are not going back there. This resembles meditation: notice the breath, notice the thought, but do not attach yourself to it.

Mini-summary / Do now: Let the memory appear, but do not let it become your identity. Notice it, learn from it, and move your mind elsewhere.

How can we prepare for the future without becoming negative?

Future thinking helps when it prepares us, but hurts when it becomes doom and gloom dressed up as planning. The goal is not to ignore the future; the goal is to stop inviting disaster into today.

The mind imagines what could go wrong because it wants us to be ready. That is useful in leadership, sales, crisis management, public speaking, and family life. The problem begins when imagination disables optimism. We attack our own confidence before the event has even arrived. The better approach is to ask, "What is the worst that can happen?" Then mentally accept that possibility and immediately ask, "How can I improve on the worst?" That turns fear into preparation and paralysis into action.

Mini-summary / Do now: Visualise the possible problem, then plan many ways to defeat it. Make the brain a solution factory, not a fear factory.

What does living in "day tight" compartments really mean?

Living in "day tight" compartments means protecting today from yesterday's pain and tomorrow's imagined disasters. It is a Dale Carnegie stress management principle that keeps attention on the only day where action is possible.

Think of each day as an air-tight container. Yesterday cannot be changed, and tomorrow has not arrived. We still learn from the past and prepare for the future, but we do not let their worry components invade today. This is especially relevant for executives, managers, salespeople, educators, and professionals in high-pressure environments. If today is full of yesterday's resentment and tomorrow's fear, there is no mental room left for clear decisions, useful conversations, or effective action.

Mini-summary / Do now: Seal today. Learn from the past, prepare for the future, but do today's work with today's energy.

Where is real freedom located?

Real freedom sits in our ability to decide how much worry we attach to memory and foreboding. We may not stop every thought from appearing, but we can work on the meaning we give it.

The article's action steps are direct. Recall the past, then quickly swap the message to something more positive. Visualise the future issue as a possibility, then plan many ways to defeat it. Cure the worry virus, because that is where freedom lives. Time is spelt life. That line matters. If time is life, then the way we spend our attention becomes the way we spend our life. We can let life happen to us, or we can decide how we are going to lead it.

Mini-summary / Do now: Do not wait for the mind to become silent. Lead it. Choose your attitude, choose your focus, and choose today's action.

Final Summary

Freedom is not the absence of difficult memories or anxious future thoughts. Freedom is the ability to recognise them, neutralise the worry, and choose a better mental response. William James reminds us that attitude can alter life. Victor Frankl reminds us that attitude remains a human freedom even under extreme circumstances. Dale Carnegie's "day tight" compartments give us a practical daily method.

The past can teach us. The future can prepare us. But worry should not be allowed to steal the present.

Quick Actions for Leaders and Professionals

• Recall the event, then deliberately shift to a more useful thought.
• Ask what the worst future outcome could be, then plan ways to improve it.
• Protect today from unnecessary past and future worry.
• Treat attitude as a leadership discipline, not a mood.
• Remember that time is life, so attention needs direction.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

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Great presentations are not speeches delivered from a mountain top. They are conversations that make the audience feel included, respected and quietly persuaded. In Japan, where hierarchy, humility and group sensitivity matter deeply, the way we stand, speak, gesture and connect can either build trust or create distance. The best presenters know how to reduce that distance fast.

Why should presenters be more conversational?

Presenters should be conversational because audiences trust speakers who feel accessible, not distant. A formal stage, lectern, microphone, slide deck and commanding tone can all create a psychological wall between speaker and listener.

In Japan, that wall can feel even higher because physical elevation and hierarchy carry cultural meaning. Standing above a seated audience often requires humility at the start. The same lesson applies in boardrooms in Tokyo, sales kick-offs in Singapore, leadership forums in Sydney and investor briefings in New York. People may respect expertise, but they are persuaded by connection. A conversational tone says, "We are in this together," rather than, "I am above you."

Do now: Reduce distance early. Speak with the audience, not at them.

How does hierarchy affect presentations in Japan?

Hierarchy affects presentations in Japan because the speaker's physical and vocal authority can unintentionally imply superiority. That can weaken connection before the message has even begun.

Japanese business culture, from keiretsu conglomerates to SMEs and professional services firms, places high value on respect, status awareness and situational humility. A presenter standing above the room, controlling the lights, slides and microphone, may look powerful but also remote. In the US or Australia, confidence may be read as leadership. In Japan, unsoftened authority may feel cold. The answer is not to become weak or timid. The answer is to balance gravitas with warmth. A short apology, a friendly tone and inclusive body language can reset the relationship.

Do now: Keep authority, but wrap it in humility and warmth.

How can speakers include the audience naturally?

Speakers include the audience naturally by referring to real people in the room in a positive, respectful way. Mentioning someone's name can instantly turn a speech into a shared experience.

For example, saying, "Suzuki san made an interesting point before we began," or "Tanaka san is a great example of this principle," makes that person feel recognised. It also tells everyone else this is not a canned lecture. This works in Japanese leadership training, B2B sales presentations, client briefings and internal town halls. The key is sincerity. Do not embarrass people, expose private comments or manufacture fake intimacy. Use names to build belonging, not to show off your networking skills.

Do now: Before presenting, meet people. Then weave one or two names into the talk respectfully.

What tone works best for persuasive presentations?

The best persuasive tone is warm, chatty and authoritative at the same time. Think of a smart conversation over the backyard fence, not a grand oration in a five-star hotel ballroom.

A conversational style does not mean flat, casual or sloppy. Monotone delivery still puts people to sleep. Strong presenters vary speed, pause before key ideas, emphasise important words and use vocal contrast. Dale Carnegie-style communication, executive coaching and modern presentation training all point to the same practical truth: audiences stay with speakers who sound human. The tone should feel conspiratorial in the best sense, as if the audience is being trusted with useful insight that matters to them.

Do now: Replace "performing" with "sharing something valuable with people I respect."

What gestures and eye contact make a speaker feel inclusive?

Inclusive gestures and balanced eye contact make the audience feel invited rather than targeted. Open palms, calm movement and six-second eye contact create connection without pressure.

A useful gesture is the broad, welcoming movement of drawing the audience toward you, as though including everyone in the same conversation. Another is pointing with an open palm rather than a finger. Finger-pointing can feel aggressive, especially in cultures where harmony and face-saving matter. Eye contact should be long enough to be personal, but not so long that it becomes invasive. Around six seconds per person is a practical guideline. Startups, multinationals, universities and sales teams all benefit from this because human attention responds to respectful focus.

Do now: Use open hands, inclusive gestures and calm eye contact to lower resistance.

Should presenters make fun of themselves?

Presenters should use light self-deprecating humour because it reduces status distance and makes expertise easier to accept. The trick is to do it sparingly and naturally.

When a powerful leader, professor, executive or technical expert takes themselves too seriously, the audience may admire them but not warm to them. A small joke at your own expense says, "I am human too." That matters in Japan, where humility helps build trust, and in Western markets where authenticity is prized. The danger is overdoing it. Too much self-mockery can look fake, needy or manipulative. The goal is not comedy. The goal is connection.

Do now: Add one modest human moment, then return to delivering value.

Final summary

Being chatty when presenting is not about lowering standards. It is about raising connection. The speaker still needs structure, evidence, energy, gestures, eye contact and clear calls to action. What changes is the relationship with the audience. Instead of standing apart as the expert on the stage, the presenter becomes a trusted guide sharing useful insight with people in the room.

For leaders, executives, trainers and salespeople in Japan and beyond, the sweet spot is simple: be serious about the message, but not too serious about yourself.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews.

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In B2B sales, the real money is often not in the first deal. It is in the follow-up, the reorder, the cross-sell, the upsell, and the referral. Too many salespeople rush off hunting for the next buyer after the contract is signed, leaving serious revenue sitting on the table.

Why should salespeople follow up after delivery?

Salespeople should always meet the buyer after delivery because that is when satisfaction, problems, and future opportunities become visible. The sale is not finished when the agreement is signed; it is only entering the proof stage.

In Japan, where reliability, timing, and quality control carry enormous weight, delivery performance can make or break the relationship. A buyer may have internal customers, supply chain deadlines, storage constraints, or senior managers watching the result. If the product or service arrives late, incomplete, or below expectation, the salesperson needs to know immediately and fix it fast.

Do now: Get into the buyer's diary after delivery. Treat post-sale follow-up as part of the sales process, not as an optional courtesy.

How does follow-up create more sales opportunities?

Follow-up creates more sales opportunities because a satisfied buyer is far more open to repeat business, cross-selling, upselling, and referrals. The buyer has just experienced the reality of what was promised.

Salespeople often become so busy chasing new accounts that they miss the warmest opportunity in front of them: an existing client who is happy. In B2B markets, especially in Japan, buyers often begin with a small order to test service quality, response speed, and consistency. If the seller passes that first test, the next order may be larger. Over time, trust compounds.

Do now: Ask, "Are there other needs you currently have where we may be able to assist?" That simple question can unlock hidden revenue.

Why is Japan a high-trust, high-risk-aversion sales market?

Japan is a high-trust sales market because buyers are cautious, detail-focused, and highly sensitive to mistakes that disrupt their own customers. Risk aversion is not a weakness; it is a commercial reality.

Compared with faster-moving US startup environments or more transactional markets, Japanese companies often prefer gradual confidence-building. A small first order may be a test of whether the seller can deliver consistently. Procurement teams, department heads, and end users may all be watching for reliability. One logistical failure can damage more than a single order; it can damage the buyer's internal credibility.

Do now: Move quickly when problems appear. Speed, apology, correction, and prevention matter enormously in Japanese business relationships.

What is the account development matrix in sales?

An account development matrix helps salespeople see what they already sell, what they could sell, and where future opportunities exist inside each client account. It turns account growth from guesswork into a visible plan.

Across the top, list each client. Down the side, list each product or service. Mark "A" for what you currently supply, "B" for high-probability opportunities, and "C" for lower-probability possibilities. This simple framework exposes how often salespeople get pigeonholed by the buyer, or by their own habits, into selling only one narrow solution.

Do now: Before meeting a satisfied client, prepare the matrix. Walk into the conversation knowing what else may genuinely help them.

How should salespeople ask for referrals?

Salespeople should ask for referrals by narrowing the field, not by asking the buyer to think of everyone they know. A broad question creates mental overload.

"Do you know anyone who needs this?" sounds harmless, but it forces the buyer to scan their entire universe. A better approach is specific: "Thinking of your golf group, is there someone who would also benefit from the solution you are enjoying?" That question gives the buyer a clear mental category and real faces to consider. The same works for industry associations, suppliers, business partners, alumni groups, or executive networks.

Do now: Ask referral questions that point to a defined group. Make it easy for the buyer to help you.

What should sales leaders teach their teams about post-sale selling?

Sales leaders should teach that selling continues after the first contract because satisfaction is the gateway to account growth. The best sales teams do not separate closing, delivery, service, and expansion.

For SMEs, multinationals, and professional services firms, post-sale discipline is a competitive advantage. The salesperson who checks satisfaction, solves issues, maps account potential, and asks for referrals becomes a trusted partner rather than a one-time vendor. In sectors such as manufacturing, training, consulting, technology, logistics, and B2B services, this approach protects revenue and expands lifetime customer value.

Do now: Build post-delivery meetings, account matrices, and referral questions into the sales rhythm. Do not leave them to chance.

The first sale is only the starting line. Strong salespeople do not vanish after the agreement; they return after delivery, check satisfaction, fix problems fast, and look for the next useful way to serve the buyer. In Japan especially, where trust, consistency, and risk reduction are central to business, post-sale follow-up is not polite administration. It is strategic selling.

FAQs

Why is the first sale not enough in B2B sales?

The first sale is only enough if the salesperson has no interest in long-term account growth. In most B2B relationships, the first deal proves whether the seller can deliver quality, reliability, and service.

When is the best time to ask for more business?

The best time to ask for more business is after the buyer has received the product or service and is satisfied. That is when the promise and the reality are closest together.

What is the biggest mistake after closing a sale?

The biggest mistake is rushing off to chase new prospects while ignoring the existing buyer. That buyer may have repeat orders, other needs, or valuable referrals ready to discuss.

How can salespeople ask for referrals more effectively?

Salespeople should ask referral questions that focus on a specific group or context. Narrowing the question helps the buyer think of real people quickly.

Author bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers: Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery. He also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews.

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Low Energy Doesn't Work When Presenting

Why does low energy ruin a business presentation? If we do not grab attention and interest at the start, our message disappears. That is the core problem with low-energy presenting. A speaker can be intelligent, prepared, well read, and backed by strong content, yet still fail to leave any memorable impression. When the delivery lacks force, the audience hears the words but does not retain them. When the opening feels ordinary, the talk feels optional rather than compelling.

Many business presentations fall into this trap. The presenter covers the material, answers the questions, and gets through the slides. On paper, the job looks complete. In reality, the talk does not create impact. The audience does not feel moved, challenged, surprised, or inspired. There is no sense of wow. The presentation simply fades away.

Good is not enough. Competent is not enough. We need another ten degrees of heat. That extra energy changes how the room responds. It changes whether people lean in or tune out.

Mini-summary: Strong content alone does not create a strong presentation. Energy and impact decide whether the audience remembers us or forgets us.

What does a flat opening do to an audience? A flat opening tells the audience that nothing important has started. That is dangerous, because people arrive with full minds and fragmented attention. They are already thinking about emails, phones, meetings, deadlines, and the internet. If our opening sounds like a continuation of casual chat, we fail to draw a line between ordinary conversation and formal presentation.

If the speaker's voice before the talk and at the start of the talk stays at the same level, and the body language also stays the same, there is no signal that the presentation has truly begun. The audience receives no energetic cue to stop, focus, and listen. If the speaker does not change gear, the room does not change gear either.

This matters because first impressions are decisive in presenting. We only get a few seconds to secure attention. The audience must quickly feel that something worth hearing is now happening. Without that sharp transition, the message struggles to get into their consciousness.

Mini-summary: A weak opening does not just feel dull. It actively prevents the audience from shifting into listening mode.

Why do presenters need a stronger opening than they think? Presenters often assume that if they are prepared, the audience will naturally pay attention. That assumption is wrong. The audience does not arrive empty and ready. The audience arrives mentally crowded. Because attention spans are small and distractions are everywhere, we need to break into their awareness with deliberate force.

We need a crowbar and a jemmy to get into the audience's full brain. Attention is not given automatically. We have to earn it. Our first words must tell people that the talk has begun, that they should pay attention, and that they should stop whatever mental activity came before this moment.

A stronger opening does not mean random loudness or artificial drama. It means intentional design. We need opening words that carry hooks. We need a beginning that creates curiosity, tension, surprise, imagery, or credibility. A presenter who plans this well makes it easier for the audience to grant attention and keep granting it.

Mini-summary: Audiences do not hand over attention for free. We must claim it quickly and deliberately through a purposeful opening.

What kinds of hooks make an opening memorable? Several practical hooks help a presentation cut through. One option is story. If we lure the audience into a scene, they begin to picture it mentally. That matters because word pictures engage imagination, and imagination increases attention. Another option is a striking statistic. When a number surprises people, it interrupts routine thinking and makes the brain take notice. A third option is a quotation from a famous person. That can add instant credibility and frame the argument with authority.

The common principle behind all of these hooks is design. We cannot leave the opening to chance. We must decide in advance how we will get cut through. A presentation opening should never be an accidental warm-up. It should be a calculated intervention.

This is particularly important in business settings, where audiences often think they already know what is coming. A well-designed opening disrupts that assumption. It says this talk deserves fresh attention.

Mini-summary: Memorable openings rely on deliberate hooks such as story, vivid imagery, surprising statistics, or credible quotations. Planning creates cut through.

How do voice, eyes, and body language increase presentation power? Delivery creates physical presence, and physical presence helps capture attention. Five important resources are eyes, voice, gestures, posture, and positioning. These are not optional extras. They are part of the message.

Voice comes first because it breaks into audience consciousness fast. When we lift our volume, people stop what they are doing and listen. A stronger voice signals urgency and importance. When we support the voice with a gesture, the overall impact grows. The audience sees and hears our intent at the same time.

Eye contact needs precision. We cannot spread weak eye contact across the whole room and expect impact. Instead, we should choose one person near the middle and give that person strong eye contact for around six seconds. Then we repeat that process across the audience. In a large room, that still works because people near the intended recipient often feel included in the gaze.

Positioning also matters. If we move physically closer to the audience, we increase immediacy. If the audience is seated and we remain standing, our height adds to presence. That physical advantage can help reinforce authority and focus.

Mini-summary: Presentation power comes from coordinated delivery. A stronger voice, targeted eye contact, clear gestures, and purposeful movement make the speaker harder to ignore.

Why is it better to start strong than build energy slowly? A good start is easier to continue than trying to build up power gradually. This matters because audiences make early judgements. If we start small, they often categorise the talk as low priority. Once that happens, it becomes much harder to lift the room later.

A slow energy build may feel natural to the speaker, but it usually works against audience psychology. People decide quickly whether to commit attention. Because of that, the presenter should begin with enough energy to command the room, then maintain that level throughout the talk. We can vary that delivery with vocal range and pauses, but the baseline energy must stay alive.

If a talk starts small, stays small, and finishes small, the entire presentation remains muted, flat, unremarkable, and forgettable. That is the cost of not turning up the inner thermometer.

Mini-summary: Starting strong gives the presenter control early. Starting small makes it difficult to recover audience attention later.

What practical steps help speakers avoid forgettable presentations? First, we should recognise that audiences are almost comatose when we begin. That does not insult the audience; it reminds us how much competition there is for attention. Second, we should remember that modern attention spans are tiny and distractions are constant. Third, we should actively search for a wow opening rather than settling for a routine start.

Fourth, we should marshal every available tool: eyes, voice, body language, gestures, posture, and positioning. Great presenting is not just about words. It is about total delivery. Fifth, we should begin with strength rather than hope to grow into it later.

When we apply these actions, we stop treating presenting as a simple transfer of information. We start treating it as a high-impact communication event. That shift changes outcomes. Audiences notice, remember, and respond.

Mini-summary: Speakers avoid mediocrity by planning a wow opening, using all delivery tools, and maintaining strong energy from start to finish.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするの wa Yamemashō), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Educational Trends Not Matching Industry Needs

Why does Japan's education system still look strong on basics but weak on industry alignment?

Japan's education system remains highly effective at teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. That foundation is not the issue. The deeper issue is the growing mismatch between what industry needs and what the education system continues to produce. Because the system still rewards predictable academic performance, it keeps feeding students into established pathways rather than preparing them for a changing labour market.

This is a structural gap, not a minor adjustment problem. Japan built a highly efficient machine for standardisation, progression, and exam performance. That machine still works well on its own terms. The problem is that business now needs people who can think, adapt, innovate, and create value in uncertain conditions, while the education system still prioritises passing the next gate.

Mini-summary: Japan still succeeds at foundational education, but success on basics does not mean success in preparing people for modern work. Because the system prizes progression over adaptability, the gap with industry needs continues to widen.

How does the education escalator shape student behaviour and career outcomes?

Japan's education and employment path can be understood as an escalator. If students enter the right elementary school, they can move to the right middle school, then the right high school, then the right university, then the right company. Because each stage connects to the next, families invest early and heavily in keeping children on that path.

This escalator creates discipline, predictability, and social order. It also creates pressure to conform. Students and parents focus on getting into the correct institutions because the long-term rewards appear to depend on those decisions. The result is a system that values endurance and performance inside existing rules rather than curiosity outside them.

That cause and effect matters for business. When people spend years learning how to advance through a narrow sequence of tests and credentials, they become highly skilled at compliance and persistence. They do not automatically become skilled at questioning assumptions, exploring alternatives, or generating new ideas.

Mini-summary: The escalator model rewards getting into the right institutions and staying on track. Because advancement depends on fitting the system, students develop conformity and endurance more than creativity and independent judgement.

What does cram school culture reveal about the values driving the system?

A vivid example is a week-long training camp for sixth-year elementary students preparing for middle school entry. The details are stark: headbands, relentless testing, group study, adults shouting abuse, harsh rebukes, slogan chanting, and a highly commercial operation that generated more than $2 million in a week. Because parents believe the right school placement is critical, they accept extreme preparation methods and high costs.

This example reveals several values at work. First, effort is glorified. Second, pressure is normalised. Third, rote learning and exam technique remain central. Fourth, emotional intensity is treated as a legitimate way to toughen children for competition. This atmosphere can even be linked to martial training and to the way some companies later discipline staff.

The point is not only that the system is strict. The point is that strictness is organised around exam success, not around cultivating judgement, imagination, or problem-solving. Because the reward structure centres on entry into the next institution, training providers focus on what gets measurable results inside that framework.

Mini-summary: Cram school culture shows how deeply exam success shapes parental choices and student experiences. Because the system rewards test performance, pressure and rote methods remain commercially and socially accepted.

Why has rote learning remained dominant despite concerns about creativity and innovation?

Rote learning and exam technique often continue from childhood through the start of university. That continuity matters because it shapes habits of mind over many years. Students learn to memorise, repeat, and perform rather than analyse and create. Because those methods help students move through the education pipeline, the system keeps reproducing them.

Japan did try a different direction through yutori kyoiku, or relaxed education. The aim was to move away from pure rote learning and encourage analysis, thinking, and creativity. But the experiment did not last. Poor results on standardised international tests triggered a backlash, and the reform was discarded.

That reaction exposes a core contradiction. If the national goal is creativity and innovation, then measuring success mainly through standardised tests pushes the system back towards standardisation. Because the measure favours the old model, reform that seeks different outcomes struggles to survive.

There is also a more modern challenge. In the internet age, factual recall is less valuable than it once was because information is widely accessible through search engines. If knowledge can be found quickly, then the real competitive advantage shifts towards interpretation, judgement, communication, and innovation.

Mini-summary: Rote learning remains dominant because it still helps students pass through the system and because reform was judged by measures that favoured the old model. In a search-driven world, that creates a dangerous lag between education and real work needs.

What happens at university and why does that matter for employers?

University is often a weak link in the talent pipeline, except for very specific career tracks such as medicine, elite bureaucracy, or jobs tied to national exams. Outside those paths, undergraduate life is often unusually leisurely. On top of that, demographic decline means barriers to university entry are falling as institutions compete for survival.

Because youth numbers are shrinking, entry becomes easier. Because entry becomes easier while academic demands remain limited in many cases, graduation can lose signalling value. The challenge is no longer only access to university, but also what university genuinely contributes to work readiness.

For employers, this matters directly. If universities are not consistently producing graduates with strong creativity, practical skills, or business-relevant abilities, then firms inherit a weaker starting point. That was less dangerous when companies invested heavily in internal development. It becomes much more dangerous when firms no longer provide that same training depth.

Mini-summary: University may be becoming easier to enter and easier to complete, but that does not mean it produces stronger talent. Because academic progression can outpace capability development, employers face weaker preparation among new recruits.

Why are Japanese companies less able to fix the skills gap themselves?

Japanese companies historically did not depend heavily on academic institutions to prepare employees. That made sense under lifetime employment. Because people stayed for the long term, firms could invest in training and later capture the return.

That arrangement has weakened. The "lost decade" cut deeply into in-company education, and many training budgets never came back. Instead, firms leaned on on-the-job training, but that was never enough to fully replace systematic development. Because companies reduced formal investment, capability building became thinner over time.

Now another pressure is rising: job mobility. The old social contract between company and employee is weakening, while demographic change is making young workers scarcer. Because younger talent will be in short supply, they will gain bargaining power and move more freely for better opportunities. They will resemble baseball free agents switching teams for a better deal.

This creates a double problem. Education is not producing what employers need, and employers are not training as comprehensively as they once did. At the same time, people are more likely to leave before firms can recover training investments.

Mini-summary: Companies used to compensate for education gaps through long-term training, but that model has weakened. Because budgets fell and mobility rose, firms now face a sharper talent risk from both ends.

What is the long-term business risk and what should leaders do now?

The central warning is blunt: Japan's educational ladder is up against the wrong wall. The future of work will demand different skills, knowledge, and abilities from employees over the next twenty years. The current education system will not produce those capabilities at the level companies need.

That means leaders cannot wait for public reform. There are too many vested interests keeping the current system in place, so change will be slow. Because systemic reform is unlikely to arrive quickly, business leaders need to rethink their assumptions, strategies, plans, and targets now.

The practical challenge is clear. Companies that prepare early for the coming war for talent will be in a stronger position. Preparation means questioning inherited assumptions about recruitment, training, retention, and capability building. It also means facing the possibility that yesterday's model of education-to-employment progression no longer matches tomorrow's business reality.

Mini-summary: The risk is not abstract. Japan may produce fewer recruits with the capabilities companies need, while firms also struggle to develop and retain them. Leaders who prepare now will be better placed to compete in the coming talent battle.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Buyer Style Knowledge Is Key

Why is buyer personality style more important than national culture in Japan business communication? When many of us think about doing business in Japan, we immediately focus on cultural differences between Japan and the West. That makes sense, because Japan does have distinct cultural patterns. However, buyer personality style often matters more in the actual communication moment than broad national culture.

Cultural factors create the base layer. On top of that, there are individual differences in how Japanese buyers think, decide, communicate, and respond. Because those personality-style differences directly affect meetings, negotiations, and relationship building, they often have a greater impact on business outcomes than general cultural assumptions. If we rely only on "Japanese culture" as our guide, we can miss what is really driving the buyer's behaviour.

The practical implication is simple. We are unlikely to change our own core personality style, and we are certainly not going to change the buyer's style. What we can change is our communication style. Because communication is flexible, we can adjust our approach to fit the person in front of us.

Mini-summary: National culture matters, but personality style often has more influence in real business conversations. Because of that, flexible communication becomes a major advantage.

How can we understand buyer personality styles through a simple two-axis model? Buyer style can be understood through two intersecting axes. The first is a horizontal axis based on assertion. On one side are people who are low in assertion. They speak quietly, keep a low profile, do not openly state strong opinions, and spend more time observing than acting. On the other side are highly assertive people. They express opinions strongly, speak with vigour, and can come across as pushy, loud, or aggressive.

This horizontal axis helps us quickly estimate how directly someone is likely to communicate. In first meetings, this is often one of the easiest signals to notice. Tone, pace, volume, and directness all reveal where the person may sit.

The second is a vertical axis based on people focus versus outcome focus. At the top are people who care strongly about others, feelings, and human considerations. They refer to the impact on people when making decisions. At the bottom are individuals who are highly outcome-driven. They focus on results, numbers, and key performance indicators. For them, performance matters more than how people feel during the process.

Because these two axes cross, they create a practical way to interpret buyer behaviour. A person may be assertive and outcome-driven, or quiet and people-oriented, or assertive and highly social. This matters because each pattern requires a different communication style.

Mini-summary: The model uses assertion and people-versus-outcome focus to explain buyer behaviour. Because these dimensions are easy to observe, they give us a practical guide for adapting our communication.

What is a Driver personality type in Japan business? A Driver sits high on assertion and high on outcome orientation. This style often cuts across typical expectations about indirect Japanese communication. These buyers are more direct than many other Japanese counterparts.

Drivers are often founders or business owners. They treat time as extremely valuable, so they do not want extended small talk or ceremony before getting into business. They want to move quickly, get to the core issue, and make decisions without delay. Because they are busy and time-poor, they respond well to efficiency and decisiveness.

This style can be a major advantage for speed. A Driver may decide on the spot without consulting others, which is different from the slower consensus-building process that many people associate with decision-making in Japan. However, there is also a risk. If they say no, that decision can be final. There may be little room to revisit or reopen the discussion later.

This means the communication burden is on us to be sharp, relevant, and outcome-focused from the beginning. If we waste time or wander into relationship talk that does not serve their goal, we may lose momentum and credibility.

Mini-summary: Drivers are assertive, direct, and strongly focused on results. Because they value speed and outcomes, they often make quick decisions, but their rejection can also be final.

How should we communicate with Driver buyers? We need to make a clear behavioural adjustment when speaking with Drivers. We should raise our vocal energy and increase the strength of our body language. A flat or hesitant presentation will not match their pace. They expect confidence.

We should also get straight to the point. Rather than circling around the topic, we should tell them what they should do and give three good reasons why that course of action makes sense. Because they care about outcomes, our message should focus on results, delivery, and practical gain.

What should we avoid? Drivers do not want relationship-building for its own sake. They do not want tea, extended rapport rituals, or unnecessary detail that delays action. They want to know whether we can produce the result they need. If the answer is yes, they are ready to move. If the answer is unclear, interest drops quickly.

Because of this, clarity matters more than charm. Speed matters more than ceremony. Strong recommendations matter more than vague discussion.

Mini-summary: With Drivers, increase energy, be direct, and focus on results. Because they prioritise speed and outcomes, communication should be concise, confident, and commercially relevant.

What is an Amiable personality type and why does it require a different approach? The Amiable style sits low on assertion and high on people orientation. This is almost the opposite of the Driver. Amiables want warmth, trust, and relationship comfort before they commit to business. That is why it makes sense to start with a cup of tea and get to know each other first.

These individuals tend to speak quietly, use less energetic body language, and prefer listening to dominating the conversation. Their communication is softer and more considered. They are also slower to decide, because they want to make sure everyone will be comfortable with what happens next.

In organisational settings, Amiables often play an important stabilising role. They are the glue of the organisation. After a difficult meeting, especially one dominated by hard-driving personalities, they may be the ones who check on others and restore harmony.

Because their focus is on people, emotional safety and group acceptance matter. A hard push for action may create resistance. A human-centred explanation works better.

Mini-summary: Amiables are quiet, relationship-oriented, and careful decision-makers. Because they care about harmony and people's feelings, trust-building becomes essential.

How should we communicate with Amiable buyers? When speaking with Amiables, we need to do almost the reverse of what we would do with a Driver. We should lower our voice, reduce our visible energy, and create a calmer atmosphere. Fast, forceful communication may feel overwhelming to them.

We should also emphasise how people will feel about the decision we are proposing. That means explaining the human benefits, not only the commercial outcome. If a decision will support the team, make people more comfortable, or reduce internal friction, those points should be highlighted.

This approach works because Amiables do not separate decision-making from relationships. Trust and comfort are part of the decision. If they do not feel secure with us, progress slows. If they do feel understood, cooperation becomes much easier.

Mini-summary: With Amiables, speak more softly, reduce pressure, and stress the people impact. Because trust and harmony shape their decisions, the relationship matters before the transaction.

What is an Expressive personality type and how do they respond? The Expressive style is assertive like the Driver, but more people-oriented. These individuals often tell jokes, smile frequently, bring a lot of energy, and enjoy social settings. They are commonly found in roles such as sales, training, or acting, where energy and interaction are part of success.

Expressives love the macro view. They are future-focused, idea-rich, and excited by possibility. In a meeting, they may grab a marker and start brainstorming on the whiteboard immediately. They are interested in vision, momentum, and what could be achieved next.

Because they are enthusiastic and socially engaged, they often invite others into dinners, parties, and events. Relationship-building is important to them, but not in the careful, quiet way of the Amiable. For Expressives, connection is energetic, expansive, and imaginative.

The challenge is detail. They tend to dislike petty detail, and for them much of the detail feels petty. Salespeople often dislike post-call CRM updates even when marketing wants precise data. That captures the style well: the big idea excites them, but the administrative detail drains them.

Mini-summary: Expressives are energetic, social, and future-focused. Because they care more about vision and momentum than detail, communication should be lively and big-picture.

How should we communicate with Expressive buyers? To connect with Expressives, we should increase our own energy and be ready for a more social rhythm. These buyers respond well to enthusiasm, spontaneity, and broad directional thinking. A stiff, over-structured approach can lose them.

We should talk about the big picture, the future, and the exciting possibilities ahead. Rather than drowning them in evidence and data, we should give them a compelling overview that matches how they process information. Detail-heavy communication can reduce engagement quickly.

This does not mean facts are irrelevant. It means the order matters. With Expressives, interest usually comes first through vision and connection. Technical detail may need to come later, or in a lighter form.

Mini-summary: With Expressives, lift the energy and focus on vision rather than detail. Because they engage through ideas and people, an upbeat big-picture style works best.

About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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What do entrepreneurs really need beyond cash flow and capital? Most entrepreneurs start by thinking success depends on money. Sufficient cash flow and capital matter, but they are not the deepest drivers of business success. They are the result of earlier decisions. Because of that, we need to look further upstream and identify the capabilities that produce better decisions in the first place.

For most businesses, technology alone does not create success. That might happen in rare cases, but most entrepreneurs still need strong human capability. The three core requirements are mastering time, cloning ourselves through others, and becoming persuasive.

This matters because business owners often focus on visible outcomes instead of invisible causes. When we focus only on revenue, capital, or resources, we can miss the behaviours that generate those results. The real leverage comes from how we work, how we build others, and how we influence people.

Mini-summary: Money matters, but it sits downstream from better decisions. Entrepreneurs win by mastering time, multiplying themselves through delegation, and persuading others effectively.

Why is time the highest-value resource in a business? Time is more valuable than money because it directly shapes business performance. How we spend our time can make or break the business. Because time is fixed and cannot be recovered, poor control over it creates inefficiency, wasted effort, stress, and missed opportunities.

Entrepreneurs often try to do too much. That behaviour feels productive, but it usually produces overload rather than progress. When we take on everything ourselves, we become run ragged by endless demands and lose the ability to focus on what matters most. The result is movement without momentum.

We need to stop treating busyness as a badge of honour. Constant activity is not the same as effectiveness. If our schedule is full of low-value actions, then we are spending our most precious resource badly. That weakens the business over time because important work gets delayed while urgent distractions take over.

The underlying message is simple: unless we control time, time controls us. When that happens, we lose strategic clarity, execution discipline, and personal sustainability.

Mini-summary: Time is the entrepreneur's highest-value resource because it shapes every result. When we misuse time, we create stress, waste, and missed opportunities instead of progress.

How can entrepreneurs audit their time and reset priorities? The first practical step is a time audit. Create a spreadsheet and track time usage in 30-minute blocks for a week. This exposes reality. Many entrepreneurs think they know where their time goes, but the result will probably come as a shock.

After the audit, make a ranked list of what only you need to do. This list should be ordered by importance, not by convenience or habit. Then compare the real audit with the ideal priority list. Because the two usually do not match, the gap reveals where the entrepreneur is losing control.

This comparison is powerful because it removes self-deception. It shows whether we are spending our days on high-value decisions, leadership, and growth, or whether we are drowning in reactive work. Once we see the mismatch clearly, we can begin to correct it.

A useful mantra is: "I can't do everything on this list everyday but I can do the most important thing". That shifts focus from unrealistic ambition to disciplined prioritisation. Each day, we should reorder the list, identify the number one priority, and complete it first. Then move to number two. If something urgent changes the situation, then re-rank the list and continue to attack the highest-value item first.

Mini-summary: A weekly time audit exposes where time really goes. A daily priority reset then helps entrepreneurs move from reactive busyness to focused execution.

Why do entrepreneurs struggle to delegate? Busyness is directly linked to poor delegation. When we do not have trusted people around us, we cannot transfer responsibility. Because we do not delegate well, we stay overloaded. Because we stay overloaded, we never find the time to develop others. This creates a painful cycle.

That cycle traps the entrepreneur like a rat on the treadmill. The business then suffers in predictable ways. Projects stagnate. Important tasks never start. Details fall through the cracks. The owner becomes the bottleneck, and the organisation loses leverage because everything depends on one person.

There is also a personal cost. Chronic overload can damage health. Stress is not only a productivity issue; it is a sustainability issue. When an entrepreneur refuses or fails to build trusted support, the business and the person both pay the price.

The deeper problem is not a lack of desire to delegate. It is often a lack of method. Many leaders either hold on too tightly or dump work carelessly. Neither approach develops capable people.

Mini-summary: Entrepreneurs struggle to delegate because they lack trusted people and a clear method. That creates a cycle of overload, stalled projects, and long-term stress.

What is the right way to delegate and develop key people? Do not dump tasks on people and hope for excellent work. That is fantasy. Effective delegation requires communication, ownership, and follow-through.

First, meet with the delegatee and explain the task in a way that connects with their growth and success in the business. This matters because people commit more strongly when they can see how the work helps them, not just how it helps the boss. The conversation should focus on their interests, not only ours.

Second, help them lead the design of how the task should be done. That creates ownership. When people shape the approach themselves, they become more engaged and more responsible for the outcome. Delegation then becomes development, not simple work transfer.

Third, monitor milestones to make sure they stay on track. Delegation is not abandonment. It needs active oversight without smothering control. Finally, praise people during the process, not only at the end, and celebrate completion when the task is done.

Because better time control creates space, entrepreneurs can invest that space in training key people. That training increases trust. Increased trust improves delegation. Better delegation then creates more leverage and more time. This is the positive cycle we want to build.

Mini-summary: Good delegation connects work to personal growth, builds ownership, tracks milestones, and recognises progress. Done well, it multiplies the entrepreneur through the team.

Why is persuasion essential for entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs need to influence investors, potential new staff, valuable existing staff, and clients. All of these groups decide whether to support us, join us, stay with us, or buy from us. Because of that, persuasive ability is not optional.

If we are unclear and unimpressive as speakers, people struggle to believe in us and follow us. Force is not a good substitute. A tyrant may get compliance for a while, but that is not the same as commitment. Communication that attracts, reassures, and inspires works better than communication that intimidates.

Honey does better than vinegar. People respond more positively to leaders who can connect well, explain clearly, and inspire belief. Persuasion is therefore a strategic business skill, not a cosmetic extra.

We should not expect to figure this out alone. Training matters. There is already a great deal of knowledge about what works in speaking and presentation. If we invest time in learning those skills, we can lift our ability to influence others dramatically.

Mini-summary: Persuasion matters because entrepreneurs must win belief from investors, staff, and clients. Clear, inspiring communication creates stronger followership than force or vague messaging.

How can entrepreneurs become more persuasive? There is no excuse today for failing to become more persuasive. Knowledge and experience about effective speaking are widely available. The barrier is not access. The barrier is willingness to invest the time.

That point connects back to time mastery. If we do not control our schedule, we will never make room for the training that improves our influence. But once we get time under control, we can develop speaking ability with intention.

The High Impact Presentations course is recommended as the Rolls Royce of presentation training. The promise is clear: with focused investment, entrepreneurs can join the elite levels of persuasion power in two days. Whether we take that exact course or not, the message remains the same. Persuasive ability can be trained, improved, and applied.

The broader conclusion is that entrepreneurial success rests on disciplined use of time, deliberate development of others, and the ability to inspire people. These are not soft extras. They are the core drivers that turn effort into results.

Mini-summary: Entrepreneurs become more persuasive by making time for training and improving their speaking method. Persuasion is learnable, and it strengthens every important business relationship.

About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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How should we use visuals in a presentation without letting slides take over?

The core rule is simple: visuals should support the presenter, not compete with the presenter. Many people preparing a slide deck for a keynote presentation ask the same questions. What is too much? What is too little? What actually works? The answer is that less usually works better because crowded slides pull attention away from the speaker.

When a screen is filled with paragraphs, dense sentences, and too much information, the audience starts reading instead of listening. Because the audience can read for themselves, therefore the presenter loses connection, energy, and authority. The screen becomes the focus instead of the person delivering the message.

A better approach is minimalist visual design. Use single words, one number, a simple photograph, or a short list of bullet points. This gives the audience a fast visual cue and leaves space for the presenter to explain the meaning. The visual sets the direction, and the speaker provides the value.

Mini-summary: Presentation visuals work best when they reinforce the speaker rather than replace the speaker. Because less content creates more attention on the presenter, therefore simpler slides are usually stronger slides.

What is the best amount of text to put on a presentation slide?

The guidance here is to avoid paragraphs and even avoid full sentences when possible. Single words can be extremely powerful because they force focus. One word can frame an idea. One number can frame a result. One image can frame a story. Then the presenter talks to that word, number, or image.

This matters because audiences process visual information very quickly. If they can understand what they see almost instantly, they remain with the presenter. If they need to decode a cluttered slide, they switch away from the speaker and into private reading mode.

Bullet points can still work, but only when they remain minimalist. The goal is not to place every thought on screen. The goal is to create a prompt that supports live communication. A slide is not a document. A slide is a visual partner to spoken communication.

Mini-summary: The best amount of text is usually far less than presenters think. Because shorter text is easier to absorb, therefore the audience stays engaged with the speaker instead of drifting into reading.

What is the two-second rule for presentation slides?

The two-second rule is a practical test for slide clarity. If something appears on screen and the audience cannot see it and understand it within two seconds, then it is probably too complicated. That means the slide needs to be stripped back until the point becomes immediately clear.

This rule is useful because it forces discipline. Presenters often believe more detail is more helpful, but the opposite is usually true in live delivery. Because the audience has only a moment to interpret what is on screen, therefore the message must be instantly visible and instantly understandable.

The two-second rule also protects pacing. If the audience grasps the slide quickly, the presenter can keep momentum. If they cannot, the energy drops while people try to work out what they are seeing. Clear visuals keep rhythm, confidence, and attention moving in the right direction.

Mini-summary: The two-second rule is a speed test for comprehension. Because a live audience needs instant clarity, therefore anything that takes too long to understand should be simplified.

What is the six by six rule in presentation design?

The six by six rule is another way to keep slides minimalist. It means six words on a line and six lines on a screen. This forces compression and makes the presenter choose only the most important words.

The value of this rule is not mathematical perfection. The value is restraint. Many presentation problems begin when speakers try to place too much explanation onto the slide itself. Because that creates visual overload, therefore the audience starts reading instead of listening.

Using six by six thinking helps presenters edit aggressively. It removes clutter, sharpens the main point, and creates cleaner visual structure. Even when a slide does not follow the rule exactly, the rule still acts as a strong guide towards brevity and readability.

Mini-summary: The six by six rule is a practical discipline for reducing clutter. Because visual restraint supports listening, therefore fewer words usually produce stronger presentations.

Which fonts and text styles are easiest to read on screen?

Readable fonts and text sizes matter more than many presenters realise. A suggested standard is 44-point font for titles and 32-point font for body text. These sizes improve visibility and help the audience absorb the message quickly.

In terms of font type, sans serif fonts such as Arial are easier to read on screen. Serif fonts such as Times or Times Roman include extra decorative detail that can become distracting in a presentation setting. Because presentation slides must be read at speed and at distance, therefore simpler fonts generally perform better.

Text styling also needs discipline. All uppercase should be used very sparingly because it feels like shouting at the audience. Underline can be used, but only occasionally. Bold can help, but overuse weakens its effect. Italics are harder to read, so they should be used very modestly.

Mini-summary: Large, simple fonts improve visibility and reduce distraction. Because clear typography supports fast reading, therefore sans serif fonts and restrained styling are better for presentation slides.

When should we reveal content step by step, and when should we show it all at once?

Transitions should be used with intention. Sometimes it is effective to reveal one concept at a time. When only one idea appears on screen, the presenter can focus the audience on that one point without competing with multiple lines of content.

At other times, showing all the content at once can help because the audience can read the full structure while the presenter walks through it. The key issue is not whether one method is always right. The key issue is understanding the difference in usage and choosing the method that fits the message.

Because transitions affect attention, therefore they should serve the presenter's communication strategy. If the goal is focus, gradual reveal can work well. If the goal is orientation, full display can work well. The presenter should choose based on what helps the audience follow the message most easily.

Mini-summary: Both step-by-step reveals and full-content displays can work. Because each method serves a different communication purpose, therefore presenters should choose deliberately rather than use transitions casually.

What kinds of visuals work best in presentations?

Pictures are highly effective because they carry visual appeal and immediate meaning. A relevant photograph of people, a book, or another useful subject can be understood in about two seconds. Once the audience understands the image, they are ready for the presenter's explanation of why it matters.

Charts also have specific roles. Bar graphs are useful when the presenter wants to compare items or variables. Line charts are useful for showing change over time because audiences can quickly see whether something is rising, falling, or staying flat. Pie charts are useful for showing parts of a whole or the share of something.

The mistake comes when presenters overload the screen, especially with too many pie charts at once. Because pie charts become hard to interpret in groups, therefore they quickly lose their usefulness. The lesson is not to avoid visuals. The lesson is to match the right visual to the right purpose and keep the screen uncluttered.

Mini-summary: Pictures and charts work well when each visual has a clear job. Because different visuals explain different kinds of information, therefore presenters should choose visuals by purpose and avoid overcrowding the screen.

Which colours work best on presentation slides?

Colour choices affect visibility and contrast, but many people do not use them well. Black, blue, and green are identified as strong colours for screens. They are generally easier to see and combine effectively for contrast.

Useful combinations include black with blue and green with black. These pairings help establish readable contrast without creating unnecessary strain. In contrast, orange, grey, and especially red can be harder to use effectively. Red in particular can be difficult to see, so it should be used sparingly.

Because colour influences how easily the audience can process the screen, therefore colour decisions should be practical rather than decorative. Good colour use supports clarity. Poor colour use weakens it.

Mini-summary: The best slide colours are the ones the audience can read easily. Because clarity matters more than decoration, therefore black, blue, and green are safer choices, while red should be used with care.

Why do most presentations get visuals wrong?

The most common mistakes come from overloading the screen, ignoring readability, and forgetting that the audience should focus on the speaker first. People often use too many words, too many visual elements, too many charts, or styles that distract rather than support.

The advantage is that improvement does not require complicated design theory. It requires applying a few simple guidelines with consistency: keep slides minimalist, use the two-second rule, follow six by six thinking, choose readable fonts, use text styling sparingly, match transitions to purpose, select visuals carefully, and use colours that improve contrast.

Because very few presenters get all of this right, therefore anyone who understands these basics can stand out quickly. Better visuals do not just make slides look better. They make presenting more effective.

Mini-summary: Most visual mistakes come from complexity and distraction. Because simple guidelines solve most of those problems, therefore presenters who apply them can move ahead of the crowd.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Why do difficult people feel so hard to deal with at work?

Most of us never received a practical playbook for dealing with difficult people. School rarely teaches negotiation with taxing personalities, and workplace induction training usually skips it too. Because the "how to handle conflict" manual never shows up, we often react on instinct. That instinct can turn into email wars, tense phone calls, or arguments that go nowhere.

Because difficult interactions feel personal, we may treat the person as the problem rather than the issue. That approach fuels ego, defensiveness, and miscommunication. When we shift the mindset and treat the interaction as a real-life learning lab, we start with more control and more options.

Mini-summary: We struggle with difficult people because we lack training and we personalise the conflict. A learning mindset changes the starting point.

How does a positive attitude change the outcome of a difficult conversation?

A positive attitude is not about pretending everything is fine. It is a decision to treat the interaction as a learning experience that builds win-win interpersonal skills. Because you enter the conversation expecting progress, you look for solutions instead of searching for proof that the other person is "a major pain."

This mindset shifts your language, tone, and patience. It also reduces the chance you react from your "hot buttons" when tension rises. When you begin from a constructive stance, you create better conditions for clarity and agreement.

Mini-summary: A positive attitude frames conflict as skill-building. Because you focus on learning, you reduce reactive behaviour.

Why should you meet face to face instead of arguing by email or phone?

Email wars drag out conflict. Phone calls can compress complex issues into rushed, emotional exchanges. Face to face works better because you can read cues, slow down, and create a shared space for problem solving. Neutral ground helps too, because neither person feels they own the territory.

Meeting over coffee or lunch away from the office can lower the temperature. Because the setting feels less combative, the conversation can become more direct and practical.

Mini-summary: Face to face reduces misinterpretation and escalation. Neutral ground supports calmer, clearer discussion.

How do you clearly define the issue when both sides think they are right?

Sometimes two people argue about different things under the same banner. One person thinks the issue is performance, the other thinks it is process, respect, or accountability. Because the label is shared but the meaning is different, the argument stays stuck.

Define the issue in commonly understood words. If the issue is big, break it into smaller parts you can handle one by one, with concrete detail. Because you create shared definitions, you reduce confusion and move closer to agreement.

Mini-summary: Conflicts persist when the "issue" means different things to each person. Clear definitions and smaller parts create progress.

What does "do your homework" mean in a negotiation with a difficult person?

Do your homework by starting with the other person's situation and building the argument from their perspective. Because this process exposes gaps in your information, you can correct assumptions before you speak. You also prepare for negotiation by deciding your BATNA: the best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or your walk-away position.

Then determine what you can accept, what you can live with, and what would be an ideal outcome. Because you know your limits and your preferences, you negotiate with steadiness rather than impulse.

Mini-summary: Preparation means understanding their perspective and your own boundaries. BATNA clarity prevents weak or reactive decisions.

How do you take an honest inventory of yourself before a tough discussion?

Self-awareness matters. Identify aspects of your personality and style that help or hinder interactions. Nominate your "hot buttons" that trigger an internal explosion, then decide you will not react that way.

Watch your language and tone. In arguments, most of us default to sharper language and harsher tone than we intend. Because tone escalates conflict faster than facts, controlling it keeps you in the conversation rather than in a fight.

Mini-summary: Knowing your triggers and controlling tone reduces escalation. Self-awareness keeps you intentional under pressure.

How do shared interests help when conflict magnifies differences?

Conflict magnifies perceived differences and minimises similarities. Shared interests reverse that effect. Look for common goals and desired outcomes. Often there is a common objective, and the disagreement is about the best path to achieve it.

Keep attention on the common goal and the desired future. Because the conversation stays future-focused, it keeps moving forward rather than replaying blame.

Mini-summary: Shared interests shrink the "us versus them" mindset. Focusing on the future keeps momentum.

How do you deal with facts, not emotions, when ego gets involved?

In sport we say: play the ball, not the opponent. Focus on the issue, not the messenger. Maintain a goal-oriented rational approach, even when ego enters the room. De-personalise the conflict by separating issues from personalities.

Instead of being defensive, ask clarifying questions that get them talking and you listening. Because listening lowers resistance, it often reveals what they really want and what they fear losing.

Mini-summary: Separate people from issues to stay rational. Clarifying questions and listening reduce defensiveness.

Why does honesty reduce conflict rather than inflame it?

Honesty and transparency help the other side understand what matters to you and why. State your goals, issues, and objectives clearly. Do not assume it is obvious. Often it is not obvious at all.

Because clear intent reduces guessing, it cuts down misinterpretation and allows the other person to respond to your real position rather than a story they invented.

Mini-summary: Honest clarity prevents misunderstandings. When you state your goals plainly, you reduce speculation and friction.

How do alternatives and evidence create real compromise?

Create options and alternatives to show willingness to compromise. Frame options by considering their interests. Back up your plans with evidence. Because evidence anchors the discussion in reality, it reduces the pull of ego and emotion.

Options also prevent deadlock. When you propose workable paths rather than a single demand, you increase the chance of an agreement both sides can accept.

Mini-summary: Alternatives prevent stalemates and signal flexibility. Evidence supports credibility and keeps the conversation grounded.

What makes someone an expert communicator during conflict?

Be clear, be clear, be clear. Ask questions. Paraphrase for understanding. Check their understanding of what you are saying. Miscommunication often sits at the centre of conflict, so communication skill is not "nice to have." It is the mechanism that turns tension into action.

Because checking understanding catches errors early, it stops small misunderstandings from becoming big disputes.

Mini-summary: Expert communication relies on clarity, questions, and paraphrasing. Checking understanding prevents conflicts driven by confusion.

How do you end a difficult interaction on a good note?

If there is follow-on action, shake on it. Agree specific action steps, who is accountable for what, by when, and how. Because vague agreements collapse later, specificity protects the relationship and the outcome.

Ending well also protects future cooperation. A clean close makes it easier to work together again.

Mini-summary: A good ending requires specific actions and accountability. Clear commitments reduce future conflict.

How do you "enjoy the process" when dealing with taxing personalities?

Reflect and learn from every interaction. Set your own criteria to evaluate the process and solution, then write it down as a record for future reference. See your growth as being aided by understanding and learning from different points of view.

Tricky personalities will not conveniently go away. You can repeat the same procedures and wonder why nothing improves, or you can change your approach. Do not go crazy: practical tips reduce stress and support a more rewarding future.

Mini-summary: Reflection turns conflict into learning. Changing your approach improves results and reduces stress.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Why does Japan feel more formal in business than countries like Australia or the United States?

In Japan, formality is tightly linked to what is perceived as polite behaviour. If you come from a business culture that is more casual, the Japanese approach can feel unexpected, even hard to fathom. In countries like Australia, the United States, Canada, and similar places, you can build rapport with relaxed posture and informal talk. In Japan, that same approach can land badly because it may look like a lack of respect.

This matters because the meeting is not only about exchanging information. It is also a ceremony of respect. If you treat it like a casual chat, you may unintentionally signal that you do not value the other person's position or the effort they have made to host you.

Mini-summary: Japan's formality is not "extra"; it is a visible form of politeness. Casual behaviour can read as disrespect.

What is the most formal kind of business meeting you might encounter in Japan?

The most formal meeting described here is presenting credentials to the Emperor at the palace as part of an Ambassador's arrival in Japan. The visiting Ambassador does not go alone. There is an entourage of senior officials, a formal waiting arrangement at Tokyo Station, and transport to the palace in a horse drawn carriage with a mounted escort. A senior Japanese Cabinet member attends the party.

What makes this level of formality so intense is protocol. There are rules for how you walk, stand, move, speak, and sit. The atmosphere is "formal beyond words". The point is not comfort. The point is honouring the role, the setting, and the status of the meeting.

Mini-summary: The Emperor meeting illustrates Japan's highest-end protocol: controlled movement, strict behaviour, and a ceremonial atmosphere.

Why can a meeting with ordinary business people still feel like a ceremony?

The story that follows is striking: the second most formal meeting is not with royalty, but with fishmongers in Osaka. The context is introducing an Australian Ambassador to importers who deal with Australia, including a large seafood business and a major customer of Australian produce.

The company turns out its entire echelon of senior management, and the meeting becomes a stiff affair, a complete ceremony in itself. The reason is status. The visiting Ambassador is treated with "above God" respect. In other words, rank drives the formality, and the organisation shows politeness by staging the meeting as a formal event.

Mini-summary: In Japan, formality can rise sharply based on the visitor's rank, even in industries you would not expect to be ceremonial.

How does posture and seating affect perceived respect in Japanese meetings?

In Japan, small physical behaviours carry big meaning. A vivid example comes from a meeting in Osaka with the Vice-Governor. The Vice-Governor sits ramrod straight, leaving a gap between his spine and the back of the chair. He is upright and formal.

By contrast, the visiting Australian official lounges back with legs kicked out, as if watching sport at home. The contrast is "stunning", and it triggers the formality-politeness construct. In a Japanese context, lounging in a formal meeting does not look polite. It does not look respectful. The speaker even tries to raise the issue subtly afterwards, but the cognition gap is too big.

Mini-summary: In Japan, posture is communication. Formal upright seating signals respect; casual lounging can signal the opposite.

Why do Japanese meeting rooms sometimes make rapport difficult?

The physical environment can reinforce the formality. Some Japanese meeting rooms have massive chairs with solid wooden arm rests. They are heavy and set far apart across the room, creating significant distance between the two sides. Because you sit so far apart, it becomes very hard to build rapport.

This matters especially for service and training businesses, where you need to show materials and demonstrate solutions. At that distance, you cannot easily share documents, point at details, or create momentum. The room design itself can slow down persuasion.

Mini-summary: The room layout and furniture can enforce distance, which makes rapport and practical demonstration harder.

What should foreigners do when the room setup prevents effective discussion?

If you need to show something to the buyer, you may have to change the situation. The described approach is practical: stand up, move, and sit closer so you can present your solution properly. But you also need to recognise the formality rules. You apologise for breaking protocol, then you do what is needed to communicate.

A Japanese visitor is unlikely to alter the seating arrangement, which can make being a foreigner an advantage. You can sometimes break through the formality in ways that a Japanese participant would not attempt. The key is judgement: you need to know when it is appropriate and when it is not.

Mini-summary: If distance blocks communication, foreigners can sometimes reposition, but should apologise and use careful judgement.

Why is a highly formal room sometimes a sign of respect rather than a barrier?

The most formal meeting rooms are not always chosen for efficiency. They can be selected as a sign of respect. The host may have plenty of less formal rooms where business is easier across a table. But because of your rank, you are placed in the big, formal, impersonal room.

The formality reflects how much politeness the host is showing to the visitor. It can feel almost impossible to do business in that room, yet it is also a strong indicator that you are being honoured. The recommended mindset is appreciation: recognise that the difficulty is part of the respect being offered.

Mini-summary: The room can be inconvenient on purpose; in Japan, formality often equals respect.

How should you treat visitors when you are the host in Japan?

The script flips the situation: if you are receiving visitors, what degree of respect are you showing them? A practical example is walking visitors out to the elevators. In Japan, that can be part of being polite and showing respect. If the visitor does not rank that level of respect, then it is "sayonara at the door".

This is a useful self-check for international teams operating in Japan. Hosting behaviours are not neutral. They are read as signals of status and consideration.

Mini-summary: Hosting rituals matter. Walking visitors out can be a visible signal of respect in Japan.

What does "thoughtfulness" look like in Japanese social and business life?

Japan's politeness is linked to formality and thoughtfulness. The narration highlights how thoughtful behaviour can be surprisingly deliberate. A wedding example shows this: a wealthy family chooses a smaller wedding of about 100 people, close friends and relatives, instead of an extravagant affair full of high-powered business contacts.

The speaker's wife believes they were invited for a thoughtful reason: to introduce them to their own neighbour. That neighbour is connected to the Takarazuka troupe and becomes a major Japanese actress and celebrity. Despite living next door, they had never even seen her; introductions go through the maid. The wedding creates a rare chance to meet.

Mini-summary: Thoughtfulness can be strategic and relational, creating introductions and connections that would otherwise never happen.

How can you apply Japanese expectations to your own client meetings?

The script asks directly: what are you doing to be thoughtful with clients, and what can you do for them? The practical advice is to be more formal than normal in meetings, because it will be seen as polite. This can be a big adjustment for Australians in particular, where business culture is described as easygoing and casual.

The narration links these behaviours to historical patterns, noting that how you sit, stand, walk, move, and speak were determined rigorously in samurai days and have trickled down into today's polite behaviour.

Mini-summary: If you want to be seen as polite in Japan, raise your formality and show thoughtfulness through actions, not just words.

When is informality acceptable in Japan, and what is the common mistake foreigners make?

There is a clear boundary: when you go out drinking together, it becomes extremely informal, and that is the correct environment for it. Japan does not mix the settings. The problem in more informal countries is the tendency to mix them, being informal when you should be formal.

The closing warning is blunt: if you insist on doing it "your way" and refuse to be Japanese about it, good luck. You will never be Japanese, but you can be considered polite from the Japanese point of view. The recommended approach is to lift your formality levels during working hours, and then enjoy informality after work, where it fits.

Mini-summary: Japan separates formal work etiquette from informal social time. Do not mix them, and aim to be polite in the Japanese context

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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How do you pump up an audience without feeling manipulative?

You pump up an audience by combining storytelling with audience participation, then using both in moderation. The goal is not to "perform" for performance's sake. The goal is to lift the room's energy so people pay attention while you deliver your key message. When you overdo it, it can feel manipulative. When you use it lightly and intentionally, it feels engaging and memorable.

A simple mental check helps: is your showmanship serving the audience's understanding, or serving your ego? If it supports understanding, it stays on the right side of the line.

Mini-summary: Blend storytelling and participation to lift energy and attention, but keep it moderate so it stays authentic.

What can business presenters learn from television preachers?

Television preachers are often master storytellers who know how to work an audience. Even if you are not looking for salvation, you can watch them for practical lessons in how they keep people listening. They usually take familiar stories and make them feel immediate, relevant, and personal.

The useful takeaway for business is not their promises. It is their method: they connect a point to a story people already recognise, then draw a conclusion that tells the audience what to do next.

Mini-summary: Watch skilled presenters to learn story-driven attention control, then apply the method ethically in business.

Why do parables and "mini-episodes" work so well in presentations?

Parables work because they are mini-episodes that teach a point through a situation, not a lecture. They turn an abstract idea into a vivid example. In a business talk, you also have a topic, a key message, and a platform. The question is how to make that key message land.

Stories do this because people can see them. The best stories are the ones an audience can picture in their mind's eye. It is like reading a novel after you have already seen the movie or television series: the scenes, characters, and backdrops appear instantly, and meaning becomes easier to grasp.

Mini-summary: "Mini-episodes" create mental pictures, and mental pictures make key messages stick.

What makes a story "visual" in the audience's mind?

A visual story has people, places, and a clear incident that points toward a course of action. Ideally, the people are familiar types or even people the audience knows already, because familiarity accelerates understanding. The locations should be easy to imagine, because shared imagery reduces cognitive load.

Then you weave your point into the story and draw conclusions about what the audience should do. The story is not decoration. It is the delivery system for your message.

Mini-summary: Use recognisable people, imaginable locations, and a specific incident that naturally supports your conclusion.

How do you tell a story that reinforces a business lesson about keeping key staff?

You create a scene that feels real, then connect it to a leadership choice and its consequence. For example: imagine the "top gun" salesperson getting called into the big boss's plush Presidential office. The dark panelled walls, hardbound books, massive mahogany desk, expensive paintings, and carefully coiffed secretary signal power and success.

Then you introduce the twist: the salesperson has met an annual sales quota in just two weeks and expects accolades. Instead, the boss wants to lower the commission rate because the salesperson is making more than the President. This is where the story sharpens into a lesson about ego and incentives.

The punch line is simple: leaders must take ego out of the equation, and create reward systems that keep top talent. The story makes that conclusion more powerful because the audience has already "seen" the office and felt the tension in the conversation.

Mini-summary: Set a vivid scene, reveal the ego-driven mistake, then connect it to reward systems that retain top performers.

How does the Ross Perot example strengthen the message?

It adds consequence and credibility to the storyline. In the example, Ross Perot leaves IBM, creates Electronic Data Systems, and becomes a billionaire. The point is not celebrity. The point is the cost of mishandling talent and incentives.

When you connect a leadership decision (lowering commission due to ego) to a high-stakes outcome (losing a star who goes on to massive success elsewhere), you make retention real. It is no longer a theoretical human resources topic. It becomes a leadership risk with a clear mechanism: mishandle reward and recognition, and you push your best people out the door.

Mini-summary: The example turns retention into a cause-and-effect leadership risk: ego-driven rewards decisions can drive top talent away.

When should you use audience participation, and what does it look like?

Audience participation works best after you have built the story and you are ready to turn energy into agreement. A simple prompt can do the job: "Bosses in the room, if you do not want to lose your top talent, say 'no way'."

Your delivery matters. You can cup your hand to your ear to invite a response. If the response is flat, you can say, "Ah, I didn't catch that?" while cupping your hand again. When they answer "no way", you affirm them: "That's right! I am with you, I don't want to lose any of my key people either! Now let me give you some ideas on how we can achieve that."

This is showmanship, but it is controlled showmanship. It creates a moment of shared commitment, then transitions smoothly into practical guidance.

Mini-summary: Use participation to convert attention into agreement, then move immediately into actionable ideas.

How do you combine storytelling and showmanship into one seamless segment?

You tell the story, deliver the conclusion, then ask the audience to verbally align with the conclusion—before you provide solutions. In practice, it sounds like this sequence:

1. vivid scene (office, symbols of power)
2. surprising conflict (cutting commission due to ego)
3. consequence example (Ross Perot leaves and succeeds)
4. leadership conclusion (reward systems, ego out of it)
5. audience call-and-response ("no way")
6. bridge into advice ("Now let me give you some ideas…")

This structure keeps the audience engaged while you "download" your key points, without relying on hype.

Mini-summary: Build scene → conflict → consequence → conclusion → participation → practical next steps.

What is the main caution when using these techniques?

Moderation. Storytelling plus showmanship can quickly feel manipulative if you overdo it. The aim is to lift energy and focus, not to pressure people emotionally. If you stay grounded in a real point and you treat participation as a brief engagement tool, you become more memorable as a presenter in a good way.

Mini-summary: Use the technique lightly; the goal is attention and clarity, not emotional control.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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What has changed in coaching, and why should business leaders care?

The classic image of a coach delivering a half-time, Churchillian speech to whip the team into a frenzy is fading. The most successful modern coaches rely less on mass emotional rallies and more on human psychology, insight, and superb communication skills. Because motivation is personal, therefore leadership methods that treat everyone the same often fail to lift performance.

Business leaders keep inviting sports coaches to conferences, off-sites, and retreats to learn motivation. People return to work energised, but they frequently do not adopt what they heard because they are not clear on how to do it in daily leadership. The missing link is practical application: what a leader actually does with each person, in real conversations, at work.

Mini-summary: Modern coaching is less "rah rah" and more psychology and communication. Because the "how" is unclear, therefore inspiration often does not turn into action.

What leadership lesson comes from competitive sport and coaching experience?

The narrator's background adds weight to the message: arriving in Japan in 1979 to study karate, competing internationally, and later serving as a national coach for Australia. That experience creates a comparison point between different leadership cultures.

The core lesson is that motivating and coaching people is a craft. It is not just intensity, authority, or toughness. It is the ability to understand what moves each individual and to communicate in a way that helps them perform.

Mini-summary: High-level sport reveals that performance depends on how people are motivated and coached. Because motivation varies, therefore leaders must learn to lead individuals, not crowds.

What is "gaman," and what does it reveal about leadership patterns in Japan?

The Japanese sports leadership model is described as antiquated, with one standout strength: "gaman" (perseverance). The Japanese really know how to gaman. At the same time, there is a love of technology, which shows up as lots of equipment in sports training. But leadership soft skills are still underdeveloped.

This matters for business because leadership habits transfer. If the dominant leadership approach in sport relies on endurance and hierarchy, leaders may carry those patterns into organisations, especially when those leaders grew up inside that system.

Mini-summary: "Gaman" highlights perseverance as a strength, but soft skills lag. Because leadership patterns spill over, therefore business can inherit outdated methods.

How do university "clubs" reinforce hierarchy-based leadership behaviours?

University "club" members are said to learn leadership lessons built on age seniority, group dominance, rigid hierarchy, and suppression of the individual. That is presented as a feudal, militaristic approach spilling over from domestic sports into business.

In modern business, where talent engagement, communication, and initiative matter, this blueprint is not described as "sparkling." The risk is that organisations end up with leaders who default to command-and-control, and teams who learn to comply rather than contribute.

Mini-summary: University clubs can teach hierarchy and conformity. Because modern business needs initiative and communication, therefore this leadership blueprint can become a liability.

What did John Ribot say in 1988 that reframed motivation?

In 1988, the narrator attended a luncheon speech by John Ribot, CEO of the new Brisbane Broncos rugby league club. Ribot contrasted old-style coaching technology with a psychology-based approach. The key point: in the modern era, leaders coach each player individually, and the big "rah rah rally" style is gone.

Ribot's example makes the principle concrete. One player responds to accountability framed through money and consequences: remind him of his big salary package and that he better perform or else. Another player needs the opposite: remove pressure, and say, "it's a beautiful day to play football, go out there and enjoy yourself." The content changes because the person changes.

Mini-summary: Ribot's insight is individualised coaching. Because different people respond to different cues, therefore leaders must tailor motivation person by person.

How does individualised motivation translate into day-to-day business leadership in Japan?

The lesson for business in Japan is to train leaders to motivate teams one person at a time, based on what that person finds motivational. It sounds obvious, but many people have little experience being led this way or leading others this way.

Instead, leaders often do whatever they want and others have to fit in. Many leaders act like "Driver" personality types, living by "my way or the highway." That approach can be fast, but it can also crush engagement, learning, and discretionary effort, especially when people feel unseen or misunderstood.

Motivating others requires understanding their interests and aspirations. That means leaders cannot rely on a single motivational script. They need to know what matters to each person and adjust how they challenge, support, and communicate.

Mini-summary: Business leadership improves when motivation is individualised. Because "Driver" leadership ignores differences, therefore it often underperforms compared with tailored coaching.

Why are communication skills and relationship time non-negotiable for motivating people?

The narration is direct: communication skills and time invested in getting to know the person are critical. Without time and communication, leaders cannot discover interests, aspirations, and motivational triggers.

The obstacle is the time-poor world of doing more, faster, with less. Under pressure, leaders skip steps and rush toward the finish line. The cost of skipping those steps is that leaders never truly know their people. When leaders do not know their people, motivation becomes generic. When motivation becomes generic, it becomes weaker.

The narration then asks a blunt question: how many business leaders can you think of who are really great communicators or motivators? And what about yourself? That question shifts the content from critique to self-audit.

Mini-summary: Motivation depends on knowing people, and knowing people depends on communication and time. Because time pressure encourages skipping steps, therefore leaders must choose to invest anyway.

What is the practical commitment being asked of leaders?

The close is a call to action: pause, reflect, and commit to improve. Business success is built through people, individual by individual, and the time to start is right now.

To make this real, the narration provides action steps that translate the philosophy into leadership behaviour: reduce mass broadcast communications and increase one-on-one opportunities; get to know the team better; find out what motivates them and work off that base; and improve communication skills through better awareness of others.

Mini-summary: The commitment is personal improvement and individual-focused leadership. Because success comes through people, therefore leaders must act now and do the one-on-ones.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Why are case studies so hard to publish with Japanese clients?

Case studies are supposed to make selling easier. We are told to show a prospective buyer that "someone like you" succeeded, and that proof builds confidence. The problem is that in Japan, getting client cooperation is hard because many Japanese companies tightly control what information leaves the firm. That is not a minor obstacle; it changes what "credibility" looks like in the field. Instead of expecting public permission, we have to design proof that respects confidentiality while still feeling real and specific.

This is why case studies in Japan often feel scarce compared to what overseas sales textbooks assume. If the client will not approve a named story, the seller must still communicate outcomes, the problem that created urgency, and what changed after the solution. We can do that, but we need a format that works inside the constraints.

Mini-summary: Japanese companies often restrict external information, so sellers must build credibility without relying on public, named case studies.

What can we do when the client will not allow a published case study?

We can create two types of case studies: verbal and print. The key is not the medium; it is the discipline. People are time poor, so clarity and brevity matter in both formats. A verbal case study is what we say in meetings, in a tight narrative that helps the buyer picture themselves. A print case study can be a one-page story we bring into the room, written in a way that does not require the client name to be effective.

The practical aim is to give enough detail to feel credible, while keeping the organisation anonymous. This is not about hiding; it is about focusing. We choose details that explain the business pressure and the human reality, without exposing confidential data. When we do that consistently, the story becomes a reusable sales tool, even in a market where public testimonials are difficult.

Mini-summary: Use verbal and print case studies that are short, clear, and designed to work even when the client name cannot be revealed.

Why should we start a case study with the outcome instead of the problem?

We should start with the outcome, the result, because attention is scarce. If we begin with background and mechanics, we lose the listener to competing distractions. When we lead with the "wonderful and extensive outcomes" of the solution, we create curiosity. The buyer wants to know: could that happen here? That is the moment when credibility starts to form.

Outcome-first also helps the buyer mentally extrapolate. If the result is relevant, the listener can map the story onto their own organisation. That mental transfer is the whole point. If the outcome is not something the buyer can imagine achieving, then the case study has no meaning for them. The result is not decoration; it is the gateway to relevance.

Mini-summary: Outcome-first case studies keep attention and help the buyer translate the result into their own context.

How do we make the problem section persuasive instead of boring?

After we put the "goodies" in front of the buyer, we explain the issue we solved. The best way is a story, not a technical breakdown. Mechanics alone are boring and they rarely motivate action. What motivates is the human and organisational cost of the problem: the pressure, the stakes, the fear of failure, and the impact on real people.

That is why the example of a stressed section manager works. When we describe a manager under intense senior pressure, losing sleep, developing health problems, and worrying their team will miss deadlines and lose face, we create emotional connection. Now the buyer sees more than a spreadsheet; they picture the scene in their own frame of reference. This makes the problem feel urgent and real, and it sets up the solution as relief, not merely a process change.

Mini-summary: Storytelling makes the problem feel real by showing human stakes, which is more persuasive than a mechanical explanation.

How should we describe the solution so buyers believe it and remember it?

The solution section is the "how we did it" part, but it should not read like a sterile checklist. We need to combine the solution description with the impact it had on individuals and the team. We can explain the features, but we must link them to benefits: what changed for the company, how time was saved, how deadlines were met, and what the team did differently because of those benefits.

The example of software that isolates critical steps and saves hundreds of hours works because it connects capability to outcome. It then closes the loop with human impact: stress reduced, health stabilised, and the team recognised as heroes. The celebration is not fluff; it is proof of emotional resolution and social recognition. That is memorable, and memory helps sales because buyers recall stories, not lists.

Mini-summary: Describe features only as a bridge to benefits and human impact, so the buyer remembers both the outcome and what changed inside the team.

How can we use anonymous case studies in real sales conversations?

Even if we cannot reveal the client's name, we can still bring rich episodes into meetings. The trick is to avoid the dry rendition. If we tell the story with emotion and clarity, the listener identifies with the scenario and cares what happened. That caring is what makes the case study do its job: it builds trust and reduces perceived risk.

The final step is organisational discipline on our side. We have the raw material already: rich detail, real moments, and practical lessons. The irony is we often fail to collect and structure it. We need to find our hero stories, capture the key details, and turn them into tales that make benefits feel applied and real. When we do that, confidentiality stops being a blocker and becomes a boundary we design within.

Mini-summary: Use anonymous, story-driven episodes in meetings, and systemise the collection of hero stories so you can reuse them consistently.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

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Why are annual sales targets "irrelevant" once they are set?

Annual sales targets often feel like the main event, but this script argues they are already decided: "The targets for the year are already set or will be set shortly". Because the number is locked in, therefore obsessing over it does not change your daily behaviour, your sales conversations, or your results. What matters is what you will do to improve yourself this year so hitting those targets becomes "more certain and easier to do".

The practical warning is about momentum without reflection. We "roll one year into the next" and keep operating without "interventions to recalibrate what we are doing and why we are doing it". Because habits drive behaviour, therefore bad habits become "the enemy of progress". The next step is to identify the habits that reduce results and ditch them on purpose. Mini-summary: Targets do not create results. Habits and interventions create results.

How does a "victim mentality" form in sales, and why does it hold people back?

The script frames a common pathway into sales: "Sales is the refuge of failures from other jobs." People lose a job, companies always need salespeople, and they "find themselves in a sales job". Because they "get no training", therefore "the job is horrible", and confidence takes a hit.

That is where mindset collapses into identity. The text describes "chains of low esteem and low self confidence", and says it becomes hard to break free. This matters because sales is a communication profession. If you approach buyers with low self-belief, therefore you will avoid control, accept poor meeting structures, and fall back on pitching instead of diagnosing needs. The intervention is simple and direct: "Decide you will become a professional." Mini-summary: No training creates pain, pain creates low confidence, and low confidence keeps you unskilled. Decide to be professional to interrupt the cycle.

What does "study sales and communication" actually mean in practice?

The script is specific: if you cannot read, "listen to audio or watch videos". Because there is "so much free content marketing pieces available out there today", therefore access is not the barrier. The barrier is the decision to take learning seriously and make it routine.

It then pushes beyond free learning to paid training: "Get yourself on a sales training course and even if you have to borrow money to go on that course, do it". The reason is outcome-based: "the investment will repay you a hundred fold and more". The text even offers a named option: "Naturally I recommend a Dale Carnegie sales course for you, but at least get training." Because training upgrades skill and confidence, therefore the "difference is night and day" and so is the "money flow" that comes back as a result. Mini-summary: Use any learning format you can sustain, then commit to structured training because skills change outcomes fast.

What is "kokorogame" and why does "true intention" change sales results?

"Kokorogame" is translated as "true intention" and is treated as pre-performance preparation. The script uses Japanese cultural examples: in martial arts "we meditate", in flower arranging "the master strips the flower stems", and in shodo "the calligraphy expert rubs the ink stone". Because these rituals set the mind for the task, therefore they improve the quality of what follows.

Sales is framed the same way. Before you sell, the fundamental question is: "Why are we selling? Is it to make ourselves money or make the client money?" Because your intention shapes your behaviour, therefore the answer triggers "a chain reaction of further decisions and actions". That chain defines whether you are "professionals or transients in the world of selling". If your intention is client-centred, therefore your questions, pacing, and recommendations become more useful and more credible. Mini-summary: "Kokorogame" is mental set-up. Intention drives decisions, and decisions drive behaviour in sales conversations.

Why is buyer-controlled selling "ridiculous" in Japan, and what should replace it?

The script makes a strong claim: "In Japan, in 99% of cases, the buyer controls the sales conversation and this is just ridiculous." The reason is role clarity. "The salesperson's job is to help the buyer make the best decision to advance their business." Because buyers are busy and have blind spots, therefore leaving them to "self-service" produces weak decisions and weak outcomes.

The corrective is also direct: "Decide to control the sale conversation." That does not mean dominating the buyer. It means structuring the conversation so the buyer reaches a better decision faster. If the salesperson does not lead, the script says it "only happens when the salesperson is inadequate and untrained". Training and professionalism therefore show up as meeting control: the ability to guide, clarify, and then present the right solution. Mini-summary: Buyer control leads to self-service and poor decisions. Sales leadership means guiding the decision process, not delivering a random pitch.

How do you stop being a "pitchperson" and start selling with questions?

The mechanism is permission and diagnosis. The script says we need to "ask questions of the buyer to find out (A) do we have what they need and (B) if we do have it, then present the solution" so the client thinks, "fantastic – this is just what we need". Because questions reveal needs, therefore you can match your solution to the buyer's real situation, not their surface request.

The obstacle is cultural and behavioural: "we will be dragged into the mud and the blood of giving our pitch by the buyer unless we get their permission to ask them questions." It labels the pattern: "Japanese salespeople are pitchpeople not salespeople." The logic is blunt: "How on earth do you know what the client needs unless you ask them questions first? Well you don't". Because "the buyer is God and God demands the pitch", therefore the salesperson must "intervene and redirect the conversation." Once you have permission to ask questions, "life gets good and you will get sales." Mini-summary: Permission to question is the turning point. Questions replace guesswork, and control replaces pitching.

Why does pitching fail as a primary sales strategy?

Pitching is described as luck: "a very tenuous way of striking it lucky and happen to chance upon what the buyer wants." Because pitching is not diagnosis, therefore it depends on coincidence rather than clarity. You might hit a buyer's need by accident, but that is not a repeatable method for consistent sales performance.

The script concludes that if you only focus on three things, you become "much more professional and skilful": attitude, skill, then product knowledge on top. The three themes are: decide to become professional, train sales and communication, and control the sales conversation through permission-based questioning. Because these are foundational behaviours, therefore product knowledge becomes more powerful instead of being wasted in a generic pitch. Mini-summary: Pitching is guessing. Professionalism, training, and question-led control make selling repeatable.

Author Bio The author writes about selling and communication in Japan, including "kokorogame" (true intention) and how salespeople can shift from pitching to professional, question-led selling. The author also wrote about these ideas in the book Japan Sales Mastery and recommends structured sales training, including a Dale Carnegie sales course, to lift skill, confidence, and outcomes.

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Presenting to a very large audience demands a different approach because distance changes what people can see, hear, and feel. The core problem is not your content — it is visibility and connection at scale. When the venue grows, you shrink. The solution is to deliberately "big up" your delivery so the people seated at the far extremes still experience your presence and message.

What changes when you move from a normal room to a large venue?

Large venues create the tyranny of distance. Because the back rows sit so far away, the speaker looks "quite small" from those seats, which means subtle gestures and normal stage behaviour lose impact. Therefore you must scale up what you do on stage so you do not look like "a peanut" to people at the far extremes. When you accept that the room makes you smaller, you stop relying on nuance and start designing for the cheap seats at the back. Mini-summary: Because distance reduces your visibility, you must deliberately enlarge your delivery so your message still lands.

How do you diagnose what the back row experiences?

Arrive early and sit in the most far flung locations: the last row at the back or the rear seats on an elevated tier. Because you see the stage from the hardest viewpoint, you learn how small a speaker looks from there and you adjust accordingly. This is a practical, reality-based check: instead of guessing, you confirm what the audience will actually see. Then you can design your presence for the far extremes, not only for those close to the stage. Mini-summary: Because you cannot improve what you have not observed, sit in the back and design for what you see.

How do you avoid stage-edge mistakes in big venues?

Big venues often have a defined space between the front row and the stage, sometimes with an orchestra pit. Because you will stand very close to the apron to be more easily seen, you must know where "far enough forward" is before you begin. The risk increases once you start scanning for faces high up on the back tiers, because your eyes go up and you stop looking down where you are walking. Curved stages make it easier to forget the edge is not straight. Therefore, check the front of the stage beforehand so you can move with confidence and stay safe. Mini-summary: Because large stages include hidden hazards, you must inspect the front edge early and set your safe boundary.

What microphone choice and gesture size works best at scale?

Use a pin microphone so your hands stay free for gestures. Because you are effectively "a peanut" to the people in the cheap seats at the back, your gestures must become much larger than anything you have used before. Therefore, use double-handed gestures to fill up more of the stage with your presence. When you use open palms to signal trust, spread your hands far wider than the boundaries of your body. When you indicate something "high", raise your hand as high above your head as possible so it has impact. Mini-summary: Because the audience sits far away, you need free hands and much larger gestures for visibility.

How do you use audience participation to create energy in a massive room?

Ask the audience to raise their hands for a common experience, but do not overdo it. Because many people do the same thing at the same time, crowd dynamics and crowd psychology kick in: the room becomes "infected" with energy and agreement. This shared movement also feeds back into you on stage, giving you a serious energy lift. When a big audience leans in, the connection feels electric, so use that surge to reinforce your message and build momentum. Mini-summary: Because synchronised audience action amplifies energy, a simple show of hands can lift the entire room.

How do you project ki, voice, and eye contact to the back wall?

Marshal your ki or chi for the task and mentally push your energy to the very back wall of the hall. Because you are miked up, you do not need to yell; yelling will distort the sound. Instead, direct your voice strength to the last rows without forcing volume. Then use your eyes to reach the whole space. Break the audience into a baseball diamond: left, centre, right field, plus inner and outer field. Work those six sectors by picking out individuals and looking straight at their faces. Even if they are blurry outlines to you, people around them will feel seen because they believe you are looking at them. Mini-summary: Because a large hall demands deliberate reach, project energy and voice to the back while distributing eye contact by sectors.

How should you move on a big stage without distracting people?

Avoid nervous wandering, where a speaker goes up and down continuously and distracts from the key message. Because constant movement draws attention to itself, it pulls focus away from what you are saying. Instead, use controlled movement with purpose. Walk slowly to the extreme left edge, stop, settle, and speak to that side. Return to centre, stop, settle, and speak. Then move to the right and repeat. Keep cycling through walk-and-settle so each section feels included, and do not forget the front row because your presence has the strongest immediate impact there. Mini-summary: Because pacing distracts, move with intention: walk, stop, settle, and speak to each section of the room.

Author Bio Dr Greg Story is the host of THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show. He is a Dale Carnegie Award winning Franchise Owner, Master Trainer, President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and three time best selling author. He brings the show to you from the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

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What problem is Japan actually facing with its ageing population?

Japan is ageing rapidly, and most of the attention goes to welfare, health, and pension systems. The less-discussed problem is what to do with the "young" oldies—people reaching 60, the retirement age, while still having decades of life ahead of them. Because many are healthy, active, relatively digital, and well-connected, therefore they do not fit the old model of "retire and disappear". They also believe the government pension system will break down under the weight of their cohort's numbers, therefore they do not feel confident about having enough money to last their lifespan. The result is straightforward: they want to keep working, and many can.

Mini-summary: Japan's challenge is not only an ageing society, but an ageing workforce that still wants, and needs, to work.

Why is "recruit and retain" becoming harder for Japanese companies?

Japan's working population aged 15–64 is projected to decline from 73.7 million in 2024 to 44.2 million by 2060, a 40% drop. Because there are not enough younger workers to match corporate demand, therefore the usual hiring playbook fails. At the same time, because the population itself is getting older, therefore the share of experienced people who could keep working increases. This creates a talent paradox: companies are short of people, but they are also pushing capable workers toward retirement. If companies keep treating 60 as an exit point, they will intensify their own labour shortage.

Mini-summary: A shrinking 15–64 population means the talent pipeline tightens, and the "retire at 60" habit becomes a business risk.

Why is immigration not the main solution being pursued?

The script is clear that bringing in foreigners is not considered an option to make up the difference. The Takaishi Cabinet has stated it will never adopt an open immigration policy to solve the labour shortage and will set "strict boundaries". Because immigration is now a big and contentious political topic, therefore the trade-offs feel even sharper. Japan values social harmony highly, and the idea of tolerating large numbers of foreigners with different languages, ethics, morals, social values, and ideas is described as unattractive. Whatever the merits of immigration, the practical point for company leaders is this: they cannot build their workforce plans around it.

Mini-summary: If immigration is politically constrained, then the labour shortage must be solved with domestic talent and productivity.

What role does the trainee system play, and why is it limited?

At lower skill levels, the so-called trainee system has functioned as disguised immigration, bringing in cheap workers from Asia for factory-level work. Because trainees can be repatriated easily, therefore the system has flexibility. However, the system is also attacked for exploitation, and the Labour Standards Inspection Office in 2016 found 70.6% of workplaces hiring foreign trainees were violating labour laws. The government tweaked the system to reduce some of the worst aspects, but trainees remain a temporary approach. They must go home after three years or obtain a work visa. So even where foreign labour exists, it is not a stable, long-term pipeline.

Mini-summary: The trainee system can provide short-term labour, but it is temporary and controversial, so it cannot anchor long-term workforce strategy.

How are companies handling people who would normally retire at 60?

The script points to a common corporate approach: salary drops to half once a person gets to 60, even if they keep working. Because this is a fixed-cost adjustment strategy, therefore it may feel convenient for companies in the short term. But as the bite of not having enough skilled staff becomes more powerful, that thinking must change. If companies need capability, networks, and experience, then a blunt pay-cut model can weaken motivation and reduce the chance that seniors stay engaged and productive.

Mini-summary: A standard pay cut at 60 may control costs, but it can undermine retention and productivity when skilled labour is scarce.

How is technology being used to avoid the immigration option?

Japan is planning to get around the immigration option with technology: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, online services, and automation. Retail banking is given as a conservative example. Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank saw branch visitors drop by 40% from 2007 to 2017, and 10,000 positions were eliminated over a ten-year period. Because customers moved to mobile devices and PCs, therefore service consumption moved online. This shift changes workforce needs: fewer roles tied to physical branches, and more roles that fit a digital service model. Technology is not only replacing tasks; it is reshaping the job mix.

Mini-summary: Technology reduces reliance on physical labour by moving service delivery online and automating tasks, especially in conservative sectors like banking.

What is the hardest leadership problem with keeping seniors employed?

The leadership issue is not simply "keep them". It is how to migrate older workers internally—retaining their networks and experience—while making them more productive in terms of personal output. Leaders want seniors to vacate current leadership roles to make way for the younger generation, but they do not want to lose them at the same time. In banking, older workers who once commanded teams may be asked to move into commission sales arrangements, paid according to productivity. They can work another 10–15 years if they can make the leap to a different role, but that leap is not automatic.

Mini-summary: Companies must redeploy seniors into productive roles while opening leadership pathways for younger staff, without losing senior capability.

What support do seniors and their managers need to make this work?

Seniors may need training in modern sales for new commercial roles, plus support to adjust from being "the boss" to being "one of the troops". Because Japan is a formal hierarchical society, therefore that transition is hard. Mindset shifting is described as the most difficult training at their age and stage, but it can be done. The people leading this group also need excellent people skills. Leaders may need retraining on how to lead their sempai or seniors—an uncommon requirement in Japan, where age is closely tied to power and authority. The workplace becomes a new constellation, and it is described as a zero-sum game of those who get it and those who do not.

Mini-summary: The shift demands reskilling, mindset work, and manager retraining—especially for leading older seniors in a hierarchy-driven culture.

What is the practical takeaway for executives in Japan?

Recruit and retain are described as the bywords of business success now and in the future. The warning is direct: if you have not put together a strategy to motivate seniors to play a more personally productive role, you are behind the eight ball. Because the workforce is shrinking and immigration is constrained, therefore the most realistic pool of near-term capability is already inside the company—among people approaching or past 60. The competitive advantage will come from leaders who can redesign roles, training, pay logic, and leadership pathways to keep seniors contributing while the next generation grows.

Mini-summary: In Japan's labour market, senior talent strategy is not optional—it is a core part of "recruit and retain".

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What makes screen-based messaging harder than in-person presenting?

Most people already struggle to get their message across in a room, and the screen makes that challenge harder. Because remote delivery removes many of the natural cues we rely on in person, a mediocre presenter can quickly become a shambles on camera. The danger is that people imagine the medium excuses weak messaging or amateur delivery, but it does not. If you have a message to deliver, you need to do better than normal, not worse.

The screen also pushes you into a close-up. The audience sees your face more than your slides, so every distraction competes with your message. That means you must treat remote presenting as a serious stage, not a casual call.

Mini-summary: Remote calls amplify weaknesses. Treat screen-based delivery as a higher standard, not a lower one.

How do logistics and wardrobe choices build credibility on camera?

Start with logistics, because your setup becomes part of your credibility. Dress for success and avoid appearing on camera in pyjamas, casual novelty shirts, or anything that signals you did not prepare. Choose full business battle attire and lean toward power colours rather than pastels, because strong, professional visuals support your authority.

Avoid narrow stripes, because video technology can struggle to render stripes cleanly, and that visual distortion distracts the audience. When you look professional, you make it easier for people to trust your message. A business suit can look more powerful on screen than business casual, even if casual is typical in the office.

Mini-summary: Your clothes and setup communicate before you speak. Professional, camera-safe choices strengthen message credibility.

Which simple equipment upgrades stop remote calls from looking and sounding sloppy?

Use tools that reduce friction. A mouse lets you move quickly and accurately compared with a trackpad, so you can manage slides and on-screen actions smoothly. If your laptop or home computer camera is not strong enough, use a dedicated webcam so the audience sees you clearly.

Audio often causes the biggest problems on remote calls. If your home internet connection is not robust, your sound can break up and undermine your authority. Headphones with a microphone attachment make communication clearer and easier for others to follow. Also record sessions when the technology allows it, because reviewing your own delivery helps you spot habits you cannot notice in the moment.

Mini-summary: Upgrade the basics: mouse, webcam, and headset microphone. Clear audio and a clean image remove distractions from your message.

How do you fix eye contact and avoid "nostril focus" on video calls?

Eye contact matters on screen, yet many people create "nostril focus" because the laptop camera shoots up the speaker's nose. This angle distracts the audience and pulls attention away from what you say. The screen adds another problem: the camera sits above the screen, so you tend to talk to the screen rather than to the camera lens.

Train yourself to speak to the camera lens and treat the screen like notes you glance at. Raise the laptop so the camera sits at eye level, which immediately improves the angle and your perceived confidence.

Mini-summary: Look into the camera lens, not the screen. Raise the camera to eye level to eliminate distracting angles.

What lighting and background choices make your message easier to absorb?

Make lighting a priority. If the room looks gloomy, the audience must work harder to read your face, and that weakens engagement. Add lights focused on you so you become the clear centrepiece. Control backlighting: close curtains behind you if outdoor light is too strong, because a bright background can make you hard to see.

Do what you can to control the background so it does not compete with your message. If bandwidth allows, use a virtual background to prevent your home environment from becoming the focus. If you cannot, remove distracting items or reduce background lighting so attention stays on you.

Mini-summary: Light your face clearly and control backlighting. Simplify or darken the background so your message wins the competition for attention.

How do smiling and facial expression change how you sound on screen?

People feel tense and uncertain in an unpredictable business world, and your face can reveal those worries without you noticing. On camera, that matters even more because the audience sees you in a large close-up. Smile deliberately, even if your smile is not perfect, because smiling signals confidence and friendliness.

A simple reminder can help: place a note above the camera that says "SMILE" so you remember during the call. When you smile, you look relaxed and in control, which helps the audience trust you. Frowning, tightening facial muscles, or creasing your eyes sends the opposite signal and undermines credibility.

Mini-summary: Your face communicates your confidence before your words land. Smile on camera to signal control, warmth, and authority.

How do you use body language and energy to own the screen?

Do not let the screen shrink your presence. Body language still communicates powerfully through a camera, so sit up straight, lean slightly forward, and synchronise your gestures with your key points to underscore what you say. Avoid becoming a monotone talking head; speak with passion and animation.

If it helps, stand up to present. Standing can lift your energy and improve your delivery, as long as you keep close enough for the microphone to capture your voice clearly. Treat the room, the screen, and the camera as the same stage. The fundamentals of presenting stay the same; you simply need to make a bigger effort when broadcasting remotely.

Mini-summary: Posture, gestures, and energy drive credibility on screen. Use your body language deliberately and bring passion to your delivery.

How do you improve quickly in this screen-based environment?

Awareness drives improvement. Record sessions when possible, then watch how you come across on screen. Identify distractions such as poor camera angle, weak lighting, flat facial expression, or low energy, and fix them one by one. Repetition and practice turn these fixes into habits.

Remote presenting does not change the fundamentals of messaging, but it raises the bar on visible detail. When you consistently manage logistics, eye contact, lighting, facial expression, and body language, you look professional and your message lands more strongly.

Mini-summary: Review recordings to find what undermines you. Practise the fundamentals until screen-based delivery feels natural and professional.

Author Bio: Dr Greg Story is the host of THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show. He is a Dale Carnegie Award winning franchise owner, master trainer, President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training, and a three time best selling author.

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Why does a request for a proposal in Japan not always mean you are winning?

In Japan, reaching "please send a proposal" can feel like major progress, because it sounds like interest. But the request can also be a polite way to avoid a direct "no". Because Japan is a very polite society, a blunt refusal is often uncomfortable, so people use indirect ways to close a conversation without confrontation. Therefore, if you automatically treat the request as a buying signal, you can waste hours producing a proposal that was never going to be acted on.

The practical takeaway is to treat the proposal request as a checkpoint, not a victory lap. Use it to test fit and seriousness before you invest heavy time in writing.

Mini-summary: A proposal request can mean interest, or it can be polite disengagement. Treat it as a test point, not proof you have the deal.

How can you quickly test whether the proposal request is real or just politeness?

A simple way to test is to agree to provide the proposal, but add a second step: discuss pricing while you are still together. Because you usually understand what will be involved in the solution, you should be able to talk about pricing, or at least the main pricing component, on the spot. If the real issue is budget, raising pricing early helps flush that out immediately.

This approach protects your time. If the buyer reacts as if the pricing is impossible, you have saved yourself from "slaving away" on a document that will be rejected later. If they stay engaged, you have a stronger sign that the request is not just a soft "no".

Mini-summary: Say yes to the proposal, then discuss pricing in the meeting. You are testing budget fit before you spend time writing.

Why does pricing discussion still not produce a clear yes or no in Japan?

Even if you talk about pricing, you should not expect an on-the-spot commitment. Because the person in front of you often needs internal consensus, the decision makers may be "unseen", effectively sitting behind the meeting-room wall. Therefore, the meeting is rarely the final decision point, even when the buyer personally likes your offer.

What you can gain is intelligence. When you introduce pricing, watch body language closely. It can indicate whether you will be a serious contender or whether the organisation will quietly move away from you later.

Mini-summary: Consensus decision making limits instant decisions. Pricing is still valuable because body language can reveal your standing.

Why might Japanese buyers still ask for a proposal even when they do not want to proceed?

There are at least two common reasons. First, they may need something written to show colleagues as part of building consensus. Second, they may prefer to deliver the "no" when you are not physically present, because that is less stressful and less embarrassing. Because people tend to choose the path of least resistance, delaying the refusal can feel easier than saying it face-to-face.

This is why a proposal request, by itself, is ambiguous. You need additional signals to understand whether the written document is for internal alignment or for an indirect rejection.

Mini-summary: They may need paper for internal discussion, or they may want to reject you at a distance. The same request can serve both purposes.

Why does a guilt-based proposal tactic from the United States not translate well to Japan?

One sales tactic described in Victor Antonio's podcast involves highlighting how many hours it takes to create a proposal, to encourage the buyer to give a clear answer. In Japan, this does not work well because the buyer often avoids confrontation. Rather than choosing a firm "no", they may default to "interested but not sure" regardless of reality, simply to keep the interaction smooth.

Because of this, you should avoid methods that depend on direct refusal or open disagreement. Instead, focus on non-confrontational tests such as discussing pricing and observing reactions.

Mini-summary: Techniques that rely on forcing a direct "no" can fail in Japan. Use low-friction tests that do not create confrontation.

What do tatemae and honne mean, and why do they matter for proposals?

Tatemae is the public truth, and honne is the real truth. In Japan, tatemae is a basic tool of polite society. Western businesspeople can feel they were lied to when they first encounter tatemae, but the mechanism is familiar: many cultures use "little white lies" to protect feelings and avoid unnecessary conflict.

Because tatemae exists, your buyer's words can be courteous without being decisive. Therefore, you need to listen for what is not said and to design your process so you can clarify intent without pushing the buyer into an embarrassing refusal.

Mini-summary: Tatemae (public truth) can mask honne (real truth). Your process must account for polite ambiguity.

If you still have to create a proposal, what is the biggest mistake to avoid?

The biggest mistake is sending the proposal by email and letting it arrive "alone and undefended". When the document lands without you, the buyer can misunderstand what you mean. It does not matter whose fault that misunderstanding is; the consequence is that your value can be lost before you ever get to explain it.

Because buyers often look straight to the numbers first, the cost can taint their view of the value explanation that appears earlier in the document. Therefore, you need to control how the document is consumed.

Mini-summary: Do not send an undefended proposal. If they jump to the price first, you may lose the value context.

How should you present a proposal so the value does not get drowned out by the price?

Whenever possible, present the proposal in person. Walk them through the value explanation first, and check along the way that you have correctly understood what they need. This lets you answer questions, clarify misunderstandings, and "shepherd" the buyer through the logic of the offer before they reach the number section.

By the time they see the price, it should be wrapped in context: outcomes, fit, and a shared understanding of the problem. This approach improves your chances because it reduces misinterpretation and keeps the focus on value before cost.

Mini-summary: Present proposals in person and guide the buyer through value before price. Control the sequence, context, and understanding.

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Why is "recruit and retain" becoming the central talent strategy in Japan?

Japan faces a demographic crunch: too few young people can meet employer demand, and this shortage has persisted for years. Since 2015, the shrinking youth population has pushed competition for early-career talent higher. With a smaller talent pool, every hiring decision carries more risk, and every resignation hits harder.

Turnover among new recruits has started climbing again. A few years ago, more than 40% of new recruits left after training; the figure now sits around 34%, and it may rise further. Companies spend heavily to train early-career hires, so losing them soon after onboarding forces employers to pay twice: once to train and again to replace.

Mini-summary: Japan's talent pool keeps tightening, and early departures turn training spend into replacement cost.

How does the traditional April intake model still shape recruiting in Japan?

Major firms still run large-scale April intakes at the start of the financial year, with uniformed new recruits seated in rows. That model remains visible and important, but it no longer tells the whole story. As demand for young workers intensifies, companies can't rely only on a predictable, annual graduate cycle.

Mid-career hiring of younger workers is moving into the spotlight. In practical terms, HR teams shift from one big annual intake to continuous recruiting throughout the year. As the labour market grows more fluid, firms compete for talent in real time—not just once a year.

Mini-summary: The April intake remains, but year-round mid-career hiring becomes strategically central.

Why will mid-career poaching intensify, and what does that change for employers?

Younger employees increasingly know their market value, and recruiters actively scout them. As a result, more young workers will likely move jobs more frequently. Recruiters lean into poaching because high volume can make the model profitable even when individual fees stay modest. Expect a "free-agent" rhythm where people recycle through roles every two to three years.

That churn reinforces itself: recruiters place the same cohort repeatedly, younger workers normalize frequent moves, and employers feel instability as a default condition. If you want stability, you must treat retention as a core strategy—not an afterthought.

Mini-summary: Poaching becomes systematic because volume pays, and frequent moves become a market norm.

When should retention start, and who should it target?

Retention starts earlier than many leaders assume—right when a candidate says "yes." Accepting an offer triggers second thoughts for some people, especially when competing messages, family opinions, or pressure from a current employer shows up.

So retention doesn't only apply to current employees. It also applies to new hires who haven't started yet. Stay in contact, reinforce the decision, and remove the space where doubt grows.

Mini-summary: Retention begins at "yes," not on day one, because buyer's remorse can derail hires before they start.

How should employers respond to counteroffers and the rising cost of replacement?

Incumbent employers will counteroffer more aggressively because replacing people costs more than paying to keep them. Don't wait for a resignation to act. Increase pay and improve conditions before people decide to leave, rather than matching numbers after they quit.

Replacement costs stack fast: lost time, reduced productivity, internal friction, recruiting effort, and onboarding load. If you wait until resignation to respond, you often choose the most expensive option overall.

Mini-summary: Proactive pay and retention reduce costly churn; reactive counteroffers arrive too late and drain productivity.

What is different about onboarding mid-career hires in Japan, especially in large firms?

Mid-career hires arrive one at a time, not in large cohorts. In big firms, HR teams typically manage onboarding, paperwork, and training, but routine can hide weak execution. When teams run a process on autopilot for years, quality slips without anyone noticing.

Treat onboarding like something you continuously inspect. Review how you bring people in, and ask recent hires what worked and what didn't. In a retention fight, onboarding becomes a front-line capability—not a box to tick.

Mini-summary: Large firms need to audit onboarding quality, because autopilot processes can quietly undermine retention.

What do smaller firms need to change to retain mid-career hires?

Smaller firms often provide only the basics: payroll setup, insurance, a desk, and a phone. That approach doesn't protect retention. Busy leaders sometimes avoid investing time in a new hire, but that "time-saving" move often backfires. Under-support raises the risk of early departure—right when the hire matters most.

Owners and senior leaders need to show up more than they used to. Treat talent like gold because the market won't supply easy replacements.

Mini-summary: Small firms must increase leader involvement, because minimal onboarding drives expensive churn.

What does a "well organised and welcoming" onboarding programme look like?

Build a full daily programme in advance: briefings, self-study, mentoring, and training. New hires watch for signals of professionalism, and a clear plan sends a powerful one. That first impression shapes whether they see the company as a stable, well-run home.

Design onboarding templates and reuse them. A template lowers friction, reduces randomness, and makes each new hire's experience more consistent over time. Do the design work upfront and you'll improve execution—and retention—later.

Mini-summary: Planned daily onboarding and reusable templates strengthen first impressions and improve retention by making quality visible.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story (Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making) serves as President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He has won the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" twice (2018, 2021) and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he delivers global programs across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation skills, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has authored several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. Japanese translations include Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He also hosts six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows—The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews—that executives use as ongoing resources for succeeding in Japan.

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Why do clients "check you out" online before the first sales meeting?

Buyers now assume that everything about us is only a few mouse clicks away, so online "checking you out" happens before the calendar invite becomes real. Because this scrutiny is routine and increasing, therefore your credibility is being scored before you speak a word in the meeting. The script frames this as a certainty for salespeople: prospects will look at your social media and search results to decide who you are and whether you are worth their time. Because the check happens before the conversation, therefore it can either lift trust early or create doubt that you have to fight through later. Mini-summary: Pre-meeting research is inevitable. Because it happens first, therefore your digital presence shapes the starting trust level.

What should salespeople assume buyers will find when they search?

Buyers may use a standard search engine, or they may search using tools driven by artificial intelligence, and the question is whether the results look random or controlled. Because random results can misrepresent you or hide your expertise, therefore the recommended aim is "content within your control." The script does not argue for perfection; it argues for intentionality. Because prospects are forming an impression from what is easiest to see, therefore you want the first page to reflect business credibility rather than accidental content. Mini-summary: Buyers will search. Because first-page impressions form quickly, therefore you should control what appears.

How does "content marketing" function as pre-selling for sales professionals?

Content marketing is described as putting your wares up for free on social media to demonstrate you provide value. For sales professionals, the instruction is to be clinical about what you publish. Because your job is to earn trust before the meeting, therefore your content must help buyers solve problems, not merely announce your existence. This is "pre-selling" in a practical sense: your expertise does part of the persuasion before you arrive. Because value is visible, therefore trust is easier to earn when you finally meet. Mini-summary: Content marketing is proof-of-value in public. Because it is visible before the meeting, therefore it pre-sells your credibility.

What kind of content builds credibility without triggering buyer resistance?

The script recommends articles about issues in the industry or market and how to fix those. It warns strongly against propaganda for your company, product, or service. Because audiences disengage at the first blatant hint of gross self-promotion, therefore credibility-building content must sound like useful analysis rather than a brochure. A further advantage is distribution: these articles may also suit industry or business magazines because editors want high-quality free content. Because third-party placement signals seriousness, therefore good articles can multiply your authority beyond your own channels. Mini-summary: Lead with market problems and fixes. Because overt self-promotion repels attention, therefore keep the value educational and practical.

How can one idea be repurposed into blogs, podcasts, and video?

The script outlines a simple repurposing chain: write a blog, then read it into a microphone, record, add light production such as music, and turn it into a podcast. Because many people multitask while learning—walking the dog, running, commuting, or training—therefore audio makes your expertise easier to consume. The same blog can also be delivered on camera to create video content for YouTube, either live-streamed on a phone or recorded with higher-quality gear, including teleprompters, if you choose. Because different buyers prefer different formats, therefore one core idea can become multiple discovery doors. Mini-summary: One idea can become text, audio, and video. Because audiences consume content differently, therefore repurposing expands reach without inventing new topics.

What if you do not like writing but still need to publish?

The script uses Gary Vaynerchuk as an example of someone who relies on video as the main delivery channel and then strips audio for podcasts and turns transcripts into text posts. The practical lesson is not celebrity; it is flexibility. Because some people communicate better by speaking than writing—and many salespeople can certainly talk—therefore recording yourself can be a faster path to consistent publishing. You can then use support to shape transcripts into readable text if needed. Because the medium is a tool, therefore choose the channel that keeps you producing credible content. Mini-summary: If writing blocks you, speak first. Because spoken content can be repurposed, therefore you can still build a strong footprint.

Why do "voice assets" matter for discoverability?

The script flags a shift: search is not only text; voice search is part of the game, supported by artificial intelligence. It argues that if you have not created voice assets like podcasts or video soundtracks, you miss the opportunity to be found by clients. Because buyers learn while doing other things and because search methods change, therefore audio and video become additional ways for prospects to encounter your ideas. This is not about trends for their own sake; it is about making sure your expertise is discoverable in multiple modes. Mini-summary: Voice-enabled content widens discovery paths. Because search behaviour evolves, therefore podcasts and video audio can increase findability.

What is the strategic point of all this online presence?

The script is blunt: "The point is to control what clients will see by getting your best foot forward." Because you will be checked out, therefore the only real choice is whether the buyer finds thin or strong evidence of expertise. The recommended approach is to "cram" your social media with content that makes you look like a legitimate expert. Because credibility can be built before the sales meeting, therefore the first conversation begins deeper and faster. The script ties this directly to the buyer mantra "know, like and trust" and treats online content as an amplifier rather than a replacement for relationship-building. Mini-summary: The goal is narrative control through evidence. Because buyers will research you anyway, therefore fill the footprint with credible proof of expertise.

Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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Why does posture matter for presenters on stage and on camera?

Answer: Posture shapes both breathing and perception. A straighter posture aids airflow and spinal alignment, while signalling confidence and credibility. Because audiences often equate height and upright stance with leadership, slouching erodes trust before you say a word. Mini-summary: Straight posture helps you breathe better and look more credible.

What posture choices project confidence in the room?

Answer: Stand tall with your chin up so your gaze is level. Use intentional forward lean and chin drop only when making a strong assertion—do not default to a habitual lean that reads as weakness. Treat posture as a conscious tool that directs energy toward the audience. Mini-summary: Neutral tall stance for credibility; deliberate lean for emphasis.

How does age-related posture drift affect credibility?

Answer: As we age, hip flexion and a bent back can make us appear physically weaker. Audiences read that as diminished authority. Counteract the effect by elongating through the spine and avoiding any default stoop. Mini-summary: Counter "older = weaker" perceptions with upright alignment.

What common online posture and camera mistakes destroy authority?

Answer: Two frequent errors: (1) excellent posture but a low camera that looks up at you, which reads as distant or aloof; (2) correct camera height but rounded shoulders leaning into the lens, which reads as uncertain. In both cases, the message suffers because the image signals the opposite of expertise. Mini-summary: Bad camera angle or rounded posture undermines expertise online.

How should you set up for online authority?

Answer: Raise the lens to eye level; stand to present if possible to unlock full body language. If seated, sit tall a few centimetres off the chair back, remain vertical, and keep your gaze in the lens. Never slump into the back support, which looks casual and disengaged. Mini-summary: Eye-level lens + upright body = authority on screen.

Why do filler sounds and posture interact so badly?

Answer: Hesitation ("um" and "ah") plus a rounded, forward-leaning posture compound into a single signal of uncertainty. Clean alignment and calm pacing reduce verbal fillers and raise perceived expertise. Mini-summary: Upright posture helps your voice sound more confident.

What is the low-cost posture checklist before you present?

Answer: Straighten through the spine, level the chin, square the shoulders, lift the camera to eye line, and commit to looking into the lens. If you can, stand to present; if not, sit tall, avoid the chair back, and hold posture for the full session. Mini-summary: Five fixes—spine, chin, shoulders, camera, commitment.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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Why do "crash-through" leadership styles fail in Japan?

Force does not embed change. Employees hold a social contract with their firms, and client relationships are prized. Attempts to push damaging directives meet stiff resistance, and status alone cannot compel people whose careers outlast the expatriate's assignment. Mini-summary: Pressure triggers pushback; relationships and continuity beat status.

What happens when a foreign boss vents or shows anger?

Answer: It backfires. Losing one's temper is seen as childish and out of control. Credible leaders stay composed, persuade, and conceal negative reactions with tactful language and controlled body cues. Venting does not move work forward. Mini-summary: Composure and persuasion equal credibility; anger erodes influence.

How should a foreign leader gather input if people will not volunteer it?

Answer: Do not ask for open-ended opinions; ask why a proposed step would be "difficult." In practice, "difficult" signals "impossible," inviting detailed critique. Capture objections comprehensively—then pivot to "how could we make it work?" Mini-summary: Elicit critique with "difficult," then redirect to solutions.

What keeps change stuck, and how do you unstick it?

Answer: Early replies will be half-hearted. Leaders must be politely persistent, repeatedly asking for deeper thinking. Consensus building is time-heavy, but once agreement emerges, execution accelerates because stakeholders are aligned. Mini-summary: Patient iteration builds consensus; agreement speeds delivery.

How does language shape leadership effectiveness?

Answer: Japanese communication is indirect and skilled at masking true reactions; English is more direct. Effective leaders read subtle cues, avoid blunt dismissals, and use careful phrasing to maintain face while guiding decisions. Mini-summary: Indirect language protects face; nuanced messaging earns traction.

Why do headquarters expectations often misfire?

Answer: Timelines ignore local trust-building. Without patience for hearts-and-minds work, targets set from afar become fantasy. Expatriate leaders are squeezed by HQ pressure above and local resistance below. Mini-summary: Unrealistic HQ clocks collide with local consensus cycles.

What is the typical outcome of short expatriate rotations?

Answer: Progress stalls. Just as momentum builds, leaders are reassigned, leaving little legacy and forcing teams to restart under a new boss. Stability and continuity are strategic advantages in Japan. Mini-summary: Short tenures reset progress; continuity compounds gains.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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Why use a one-minute pitch when you dislike pitching?

Answer: In settings with almost no face-to-face time—especially networking—you cannot ask deep questions to uncover needs. A one-minute pitch becomes a bridge to a follow-up meeting rather than a full sales push, avoiding the "bludgeon with data" approach. Mini-summary: Use a short bridge pitch when time is scarce; aim for the meeting, not the sale.

When is a one-minute pitch most useful?

Answer: At events where you are filtering many brief conversations to find prospects worth a longer office meeting. You do not want to spend the entire event with one person; the pitch lets you qualify quickly and move. Mini-summary: Use it to filter fast and set the next step.

How do you grab attention in one minute?

Answer: Lead with numbers. Present three or four intriguing figures in isolation so curiosity spikes, then explain each in context. This avoids long histories and immediately frames credibility, scope and delivery language. Mini-summary: Numbers → curiosity → concise proof points.

What does a practical example sound like?

Answer: Offer four numbers that encode longevity, years operating in Japan, global footprint, and delivery language (e.g., 113, 62, 100, 95) and then decode them in one breath. This communicates soft-skills focus, stability, global coverage and Japanese-language delivery in ~30 seconds. Mini-summary: One sequence, four proofs: what, durability, reach, language.

How do you transition from the pitch to a meeting?

Answer: Ask one immediate question about their current approach (e.g., how they develop soft skills now). If the fit looks real, propose a short office meeting and secure permission to follow up after the event while interest remains warm. Mini-summary: One question → qualify → request permission to follow up.

Why avoid saying more on the spot?

Answer: The purpose is not to solve their problem in the aisle; it is to earn the right to a deeper conversation in their office. Extra detail dilutes momentum and risks turning a brief window into an off-the-cuff presentation. Mini-summary: Do not over-explain; protect the meeting ask.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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Yes—recycling is iteration, not repetition. Each audience, venue and timing change what lands, so a second delivery becomes an upgrade: trim what dragged, expand what sparked questions, and replace weaker examples. The result is safer and stronger than untested, wholly new content. Mini-summary: Recycle to refine—familiar structure, higher quality.

How can you create opportunities to repeat a talk?

Answer: Negotiate for tailoring rather than exclusivity. Many hosts want "unique" content; offer contextualised examples, revised emphasis and organisation-specific language while retaining the proven core. This differentiates their event without forcing you to start from zero. Mini-summary: Promise tailored nuance that keeps the insight intact.

Why are no two presentations ever the same?

Answer: Because you speak to points rather than read a script, phrasing and pacing adapt to the room. Learning from the first run naturally alters how you explain key ideas in the second. That live responsiveness is a feature, not a flaw. Mini-summary: Speaking to points ensures organic variation and improvement.

How should you refine the slide deck between runs?

Answer: Rehearse timing, then cut or expand based on what reality taught you: remove slides that no longer fit the time window, bring forward high-value sections, and add clearer visuals where confusion arose. Keep version notes so changes are deliberate. Mini-summary: Timebox, cut, strengthen—make upgrades intentional.

How do audience questions make version two better?

Answer: Questions reveal blind spots. Capture them, fold precise answers into your next delivery, and pre-empt concerns with tighter explanations or a new example. Constructive feedback should be built into the structure, not left in the Q&A. Mini-summary: Turn questions into content—anticipate rather than react.

How do you avoid sounding flat on the second delivery?

Answer: Treat version two like opening night: begin with the section that drew the most interest last time, vary phrasing, and pace transitions. Room energy, order, and emphasis will differ, which keeps the talk alive without changing the core. Mini-summary: Intentional energy + small shifts = fresh delivery.

Why repeat a talk several times in a short window?

Answer: Repetition under similar conditions exposes timing gaps, weak transitions and unclear points that rehearsal alone cannot reveal. Aim for multiple deliveries in close succession so improvements compound quickly. Mini-summary: Stage time, not slide time, creates mastery.

What should you archive between runs?

Answer: Keep everything—slides, speaker notes, outlines, audience questions and reflections. This personal library lets you plunder proven parts and swap them in quickly, accelerating quality and reducing risk. Mini-summary: Build a reusable bank of assets to upgrade faster.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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In Japan, why is "capable and loyal" no longer enough?

Answer: Technology, the post-1990 restructuring of management layers, and globalisation have reshaped how work moves in Japan. Because hierarchies compressed and expectations widened, teams now face faster cycles and more frequent transitions. AI will add further disruption, so stability must be created by leadership rather than assumed from tenure. Mini-summary: Hierarchy compression + globalisation + AI = persistent change; leadership provides the rhythm that tenure used to provide.

In Japan, what should managers do first to stabilise teams?

Answer: Become organised mentors. Because time chaos at the top cascades downward, protecting calendar space for one-to-ones and guidance is essential. The "oxygen mask" analogy applies: secure your time so you can support others. When managers allocate attention reliably, change feels navigable, not overwhelming. Mini-summary: Protect time → deliver mentoring → convert uncertainty into a manageable sequence.

In Japan, how should career expectations be reset?

Answer: Because organisations are flatter and a demographic wave is cresting, there are fewer classic top roles at the traditional time. Life expectancy is rising, so people will likely work into their seventies; seventy-five may feel young. Set expectations around longer arcs and slower title movement while emphasising capability that compounds. Mini-summary: Fewer rungs + longer careers → plan for slower promotions and longer compounding.

In Japan, what happens around age sixty and why does finance matter?

Answer: Many "retired" employees move to annual contracts at roughly half pay. Because public health funding strains, individual medical cost burdens increase, and support prioritises those on lower incomes. Therefore, financial preparation and investment literacy become urgent well before sixty. Mini-summary: Contract shifts + rising health costs → start financial planning early.

In Japan, how do relationships and visible expertise replace lifetime employment?

Answer: The single-employer model is fading. Because younger professionals will move more, they need broader networks and stronger relationships to get things done. AI and robots remove routine tasks, so genuine expertise—and making sure others know you have it—becomes decisive. Training is the hedge against automation. Mini-summary: Build bigger networks; pair real expertise with visibility to stay valuable.

In Japan, how should younger professionals calibrate ambition?

Answer: "Start at the top" is unrealistic. Because two-year job-hopping weakens skills and ties, patience becomes the deciding factor. Go broad initially to learn the field, then go deep to build automation-proof expertise through exposure and experience. Mini-summary: Depth + patience beat nomadism for durable credibility.

In Japan, how will demographics affect leadership composition?

Answer: Worker shortages and limited immigration will increase female participation; "the boss is a lady" will become normal. Because capability leads outcomes, teams should align expectations with this reality quickly. Mini-summary: Treat women leaders as normal; structure work so capability thrives.

In Japan, what do global matrices and language require day-to-day?

Answer: Cross-border leadership will be common in both directions, often remotely. Translation technology helps, but human-to-human interaction still needs direct fluency; machines will not replace that soon. Mini-summary: Reliable, clear communication plus real language skill underpins trust.

In Japan, what stance should leaders take at this inflection point?

Answer: Be a mentor to both older and younger staff entering unfamiliar terrain. Because AI is a wild card without road maps, managers who adapt processes and expectations will recruit and retain more easily; those who do not will feel increasing pressure. Mini-summary: Organise time, set honest expectations, model steady adaptation.

Author Bio

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, he is certified globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programmes, and has authored multiple best-sellers including Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery, alongside Japanese editions such as Za Eigyō (ザ営業) and Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人). He publishes daily blogs, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces three weekly YouTube shows including The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.

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Salespeople worldwide use frameworks to measure meeting success, but Japan's unique business culture challenges many Western methods. Let's explore the BANTER model—Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, Request—and see how it fits into Japan's sales environment.

1. What is the BANTER model in sales?

BANTER is a simple six-point scoring system for sales calls. Each letter stands for a key factor: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, and Request. A salesperson assigns one point for each element successfully confirmed. A perfect score means six out of six, showing a fully productive meeting.

In Japan, however, acronyms like BANTER face cultural headwinds. Consensus decision-making, indirect communication, and reluctance to disclose financial details make scoring all six nearly impossible.

Mini-summary: BANTER is a six-step framework to assess sales calls. In Japan, cultural barriers make a perfect score rare.

1. Why is budget so hard to confirm in Japan?

Budget transparency is crucial in sales, yet in Japan, buyers rarely share numbers openly. Many fear that revealing too much will encourage vendors to push for higher spending. As a result, responses are often vague or evasive.

This contrasts sharply with Western practices, where budget conversations are normal and allow salespeople to tailor proposals. In Japan, salespeople often end up working blind.

Mini-summary: Japanese buyers protect budget details, leaving salespeople without clear financial guidance.

1. Who really has authority in Japanese companies?

In many countries, the people at the table can make decisions. In Japan, it's different. Authority is diffused through ringi-seido, a process of circulating documents for approval. Stakeholders who never attend the meeting may hold veto power.

This means even strong supporters in the meeting may lack final say. Authority is hidden, and salespeople must navigate carefully.

Mini-summary: Decision-making in Japan is consensus-driven, so real authority is often invisible in the meeting.

1. Do Japanese buyers express their needs clearly?

In consultative selling, uncovering client needs is the first priority. But in Japan, cultural norms make direct questioning difficult. Salespeople often feel compelled to begin with detailed presentations before asking what the client truly needs.

This reversal wastes time and often leaves core needs unspoken. Identifying pain points is possible, but rarely straightforward.

Mini-summary: Japanese sales meetings emphasise presenting solutions before probing needs, making "N" hard to score.

1. Why is timing both clear and paradoxical in Japan?

Japanese buyers are usually precise about timing once a decision is made. Execution must be flawless and fast, sometimes immediate. However, decision-making can take weeks or months due to consensus processes.

The result is a paradox: slow approvals but urgent delivery expectations. At least here, salespeople can usually secure clarity.

Mini-summary: Timing in Japan is paradoxical—decisions are slow, but execution is expected immediately.

1. How do Japanese buyers show engagement?

Engagement is often signalled through questions and objections. In fact, objections are a positive sign in Japan. Silence or polite agreement may actually indicate lack of interest.

This is where salespeople can earn a point in BANTER. Detailed questions show buyers are seriously considering the solution.

Mini-summary: Objections in Japan mean engagement. No objections usually mean no interest.

1. Why do Japanese meetings rarely end with clear requests?

In other markets, meetings often end with a next step: proposal, trial, or follow-up meeting. In Japan, it is common to hear "we will think about it." Far from being a brush-off, this reflects the need for internal alignment.

Still, the absence of a concrete request means this element is rarely scored.

Mini-summary: Meetings end vaguely in Japan, as decisions move to backroom consensus.

Conclusion: What's Japan's BANTER score?

Adding it all up: Budget 0, Authority 0, Need 0, Timing 1, Engagement 1, Request 0. That's two out of six.

It may sound discouraging, but that's the reality of selling in Japan. If you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere. The difficulty makes the victories even more meaningful.

Mini-summary: Japan scores two out of six on BANTER, proving why sales here is among the toughest in the world.

About the Author

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

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In high-stakes business events, especially in Japan, executives are often forced to deliver presentations crafted by others. This creates a dangerous disconnect between speaker and message. Let's explore how leaders can reclaim authenticity and impact, even when the material is not their own. Why is speaking from a borrowed script so risky? Executives frequently inherit content from PR or marketing teams. These materials may be polished, but they are rarely authentic. Japan's perfection-driven corporate culture magnifies the stress, where even a small misstep can harm reputations. When leaders recite material they didn't create, they risk looking robotic, losing credibility, and failing to connect. Communication isn't about flawless delivery; it's about belief. If the audience senses the speaker doesn't "own" the words, the message falls flat. Mini-Summary: Borrowed scripts strip away authenticity. Leaders must make the material their own to connect with audiences. What happens when the script becomes a straightjacket? One executive rehearsed using a teleprompter positioned to one side of the stage. The result? Half the room was excluded. Worse, he struggled to squeeze himself into a text written by others. It felt stiff, unnatural, and ineffective. The breakthrough came when he abandoned the teleprompter, created his own talking points, and delivered them in his own voice. Suddenly, the same leader became engaging, credible, and powerful. In Japan's business environment, where leadership presence is scrutinised, this was transformative. Mini-Summary: Leaders who abandon rigid scripts and speak from their own knowledge project confidence and authority. Can imperfect English still be effective on the international stage? A senior executive from Japan's automotive sector had to speak overseas in English, though his skills were limited. The PR team wrote flawless notes, but memorising them was impossible. Instead, he distilled each slide into a single sentence, then into one kanji "trigger" word. He spoke freely to those words, sometimes in broken English. The audience didn't mind. They cared about his conviction. Just as mime and silent film thrived without words, authenticity can transcend grammar. Cross-cultural research shows audiences reward sincerity over perfect structure. Mini-Summary: Audiences value authenticity over perfect English. Heartfelt communication beats flawless but soulless delivery. How can slides undermine communication? Slides packed with pre-written notes tempt executives to bury their heads, reading aloud like narrators. If that's all a speech requires, a video could replace the speaker. Instead, slides should act as prompts, not scripts. By distilling meaning into a single guiding word, slides become springboards for authentic storytelling. Leaders then speak to the audience rather than at their slides, which is critical in global communication. Mini-Summary: Use slides as prompts, not crutches. A single keyword can unlock genuine, impactful delivery. What's the real risk of outsourcing your presence? When others dictate your words, you gamble with your personal brand. The stakes are high: reputation, authority, and influence all hinge on how you appear as a speaker. If you fail to own the material, you risk being forgettable, or worse, irrelevant. The solution is simple: either involve an expert coach or adapt the material yourself until it sounds like you. In Japan's corporate context, where trust and reputation define long-term success, outsourcing your voice can undermine years of effort. Mini-Summary: Outsourcing presentation content risks your credibility. Leaders must personalise material to safeguard their brand. What is the ultimate lesson for leaders? In Japan, events are choreographed to perfection. But communication isn't choreography; it's human connection. Perfect grammar or stagecraft matters far less than belief. When leaders own their material — even if imperfect — they give the audience authenticity. That authenticity is what cuts through the noise of videos, slides, and panic-driven rehearsals. In the end, leaders must choose: become a mouthpiece for someone else, or speak like the leader the audience came to hear. Mini-Summary: True leadership communication is authentic, not flawless. Own your material and the message will resonate. Conclusion The danger of delivering material created by others is universal, but in Japan's high-pressure, error-averse environment, the risks are magnified. Leaders who reclaim ownership — by simplifying slides, abandoning rigid scripts, and speaking authentically — gain far more than fluency. They gain the trust of their audience. And that, ultimately, is the point of every speech.

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What does it mean for a leader to be the "mood maker"? A mood maker is someone who sets the emotional tone of the team. When leaders stay isolated in plush executive offices, they risk losing contact with their people. Research and experience show that a leader's visibility directly affects engagement, loyalty, and performance. Leaders who project energy and conviction, day after day, create the emotional climate that shapes culture. Mini-summary: Leaders set the emotional temperature—visibility and energy are non-negotiable.

Why does visibility matter so much? Japanese business leader Yasuyuki Nambu of Pasona insisted his executives work in open-plan spaces. Employees saw him move through the office daily, reinforcing approachability and connection. Management thinker Tom Peters called this MBWA—Management by Wandering Around. Leaders who are visible influence more effectively than those hidden behind doors. Mini-summary: Visibility breaks down barriers and makes leadership influence real.

How do rituals reinforce leadership mood? The Ritz-Carlton perfected daily rituals to unite staff worldwide. Every shift, in every location, employees review the same service principles. Even CEOs attend and sometimes junior staff lead. This proves that culture is driven by daily repetition, not occasional slogans. Leaders who commit to rituals demonstrate that mood-making is everyone's responsibility. Mini-summary: Daily rituals anchor culture and sustain a leader's influence.

What can Japanese leaders learn from this? In Japan, the chorei morning huddle serves the same purpose. At Shinsei Retail Bank, leaders ran daily principle reviews at every branch. At Dale Carnegie Training Japan, the "Daily Dale" ritual uses 30 human relations and 30 stress management principles. These routines turn abstract values into lived behaviours, shaping mood across teams. Mini-summary: Daily huddles transform values into lived culture.

Isn't it exhausting for leaders to always project positivity? Yes—but that's the job. Leadership isn't about how you feel in the moment; it's about what the team needs. Even on bad days, leaders must rise above personal moods and radiate passion, commitment, and belief in the "why." Energy is contagious. Without it, teams drift into disengagement. Mini-summary: Leaders must project energy even when they don't feel it.

What is the ultimate impact of leaders as mood makers? When leaders step forward and embody visibility, energy, and conviction, they inspire trust and engagement. They don't just manage—they infect their teams with purpose. In contrast, leaders who retreat into offices create distance and apathy. The leader's mood becomes the team's culture. Mini-summary: Leadership mood directly becomes organisational culture.

Great leaders are always mood makers. By staying visible, leading rituals, and projecting energy, they set the culture in motion and inspire teams to perform at their best.

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Why don’t clients in Japan return sales calls? Because the gatekeepers are trained to block access. In Japan, the lowest ranked staff often answer the phones, but without proper training. Their mission is to protect managers from outside callers—especially salespeople. Instead of being helpful, they come across as cold, suspicious, even hostile. This is your client’s first impression of your business. If you test it by calling your own company, you’ll likely hear the same problem. Mini-summary: Gatekeepers in Japan are defensive, not welcoming. This blocks callbacks from the very beginning.

How do cultural habits make it worse? Risk aversion dominates Japanese business. Staff avoid giving their names when answering phones to eliminate accountability. For a salesperson, that means you’re dealing with an anonymous voice, reluctant to help. Courtesy in the West often means offering to take a message. In Japan, you usually just hear “they’re not at their desk.” The expectation is you’ll go away quietly. Mini-summary: In Japan, anonymity and risk aversion fuel resistance to helping salespeople.

Why don’t messages ever get returned? Clients are swamped. The Age of Distraction means their days are full of meetings, emails, and digital overload. Even if a message does get written down, it often ends up buried under papers or lost in an overcrowded inbox. By the time they notice, it’s too late—or it looks like clutter. Sales feels personal, but the silence is rarely about you. Mini-summary: Messages don’t get returned because clients are distracted, not because they dislike you.

What should salespeople do instead of waiting? Persistence. Leave messages every time. Follow up with email. Send physical mail. Try visiting, if you can get through building security. The salesperson’s job is to keep making contact, not to give up. When you finally reach them, never complain about how hard they were to contact. Courtesy has changed, and callbacks are no longer part of the business culture. Mini-summary: Keep contacting, without complaint. Courtesy norms have changed—adapt or fail.

What if clients complain about too many calls? Stay calm. Never get defensive. Apologise lightly: “You’re right, I have been calling a lot, haven’t I?” Then pivot: “The reason is what we have is so valuable, I would be failing my duty not to share it.” This shows professionalism and positions you as a value creator, not a nuisance. Mini-summary: Deflect complaints with humour and reframe persistence as professionalism.

How can persistence win respect? Remind clients that they expect their own salespeople to show persistence. They know follow-up builds results. Deep down, they respect salespeople who push through obstacles, even if they never admit it aloud. In Japan, patience and professionalism eventually break through. The wall will crack if you stay consistent. Mini-summary: Persistence earns respect, even when unspoken.

✅ Final Takeaway: Silence from clients is not rejection. It is an invitation to stay persistent, professional, and patient until the door opens.

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Why New Salespeople Struggle

New hires, whether they are brand-new to sales or just new to the company, almost always take time before they start delivering results. Yet leaders in Japan often expect immediate miracles. The reality is that ramp-up takes time, especially in a culture where relationships drive business. Even experienced people entering a new organisation need months to learn internal systems, client expectations, and industry nuances. When unrealistic expectations are placed on them from day one, they start their career already on the back foot.

Mini Summary: Unrealistic day-one expectations ignore how sales in Japan actually work — relationships and systems take time to build.

What Makes Recruitment So Expensive? Recruiting salespeople in Japan is costly, partly because talent is scarce. Agencies often charge fees of around 35–40% of the first year’s base salary. Add to that the salary itself — especially for English-speaking salespeople, who can command 20–30% higher compensation — and the initial outflow of money is massive. The problem is that while expenses flood out from day one, revenue from the new hire trickles in slowly. This creates enormous pressure on sales leaders, who then expect results too quickly. It becomes a vicious cycle: high cost, unrealistic demands, early disappointment.

Mini Summary: With recruiting fees and salaries high, companies demand too much, too soon, from new sales hires.

Why Superficial Training Fails Many firms assume salespeople “already know how to sell” and restrict onboarding to product knowledge. The new hire is shown the catalogue, given a few manager-accompanied visits, and then sent off to perform. But very few Japanese salespeople have ever received professional sales training. Most only get a thin slice of OJT — On the Job Training — and are left to figure the rest out. Without proper skills, they default to pitching randomly, relying on brochures and luck. Professional training, by contrast, teaches how to ask powerful questions, design solutions that match real needs, handle objections, and close the sale. A new hire with these skills instantly outperforms the average local salesperson who never learned them.

Mini Summary: Superficial onboarding wastes money. Proper sales training equips new hires with skills that immediately lift performance.

What’s Wrong with Sales Targets? Target-setting in Japan is often based more on fantasy than fact. Leaders pluck numbers from thin air, with no real data behind them, and then demand the newcomer hits them. For someone in their first year, these inflated targets crush confidence rather than inspire effort. In our firm, we took a different approach. We built a spreadsheet tracking each salesperson’s revenue quarter by quarter from their day one. By analysing averages, we could see what was truly realistic for year one, year two, and beyond. This gives a scientific base for setting expectations, avoiding the destructive guesswork that drives people away.

Mini Summary: Data-driven targets build confidence and realism; fantasy numbers only drive frustration and turnover.

Why Retention is the Real Battle Recruiting a salesperson is only half the job. Keeping them is the other half, and arguably the harder one. When we pile too much pressure on in the first year, many hires simply give up. The tragedy is that by then, they already have valuable product knowledge, client relationships, and maybe even professional training. Losing them means losing an investment of money, time, and credibility with clients. Worse still, some join competitors. I experienced this personally when a trained and client-connected hire quit and reappeared as our rival. That kind of loss stings and reminds us that retention must be protected at all costs.

Mini Summary: Overpressure kills retention. Losing trained, connected hires means losing your investment — sometimes to competitors.

So, What’s the Answer? The solution is not revolutionary, but it is often ignored. Start with science in target-setting. Support it with real, professional sales training. Layer encouragement on top so new hires believe they can succeed. The combination builds confidence, reduces turnover, and protects your investment. It also creates a reputation for stability and fairness in the marketplace. Clients notice when your team is consistent and reliable. New hires notice when they are supported rather than crushed. Everyone benefits. The methods are obvious, but the discipline to execute them consistently is what separates sustainable sales teams from revolving-door disasters.

Mini Summary: Add science, add training, add encouragement — and you keep talent, protect investment, and win client trust.

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Why Japanese Corporate Scandals Keep Happening — And What Leaders Must Do To Prevent Them

Why do corporate scandals keep repeating in Japan?

Japan has been hit again and again by revelations of non-compliance — from Nissan’s faulty vehicle inspections in 2017 to Kobe Steel’s falsified data and beyond. In some cases, these practices stretched on for decades before discovery.

On the surface, companies chase the mantra: “reduce costs, increase revenue.” The Board applauds, shareholders smile, and quarterly reports look sharp. But behind the curtain, corners are cut, compliance steps skipped, and procedures quietly subverted. Eventually, everything bursts onto the front page. Newspapers, evening newscasters, and magazines feast on the scandal for months.

👉 Answer Card: Compliance shortcuts always unravel — and in Japan the media monetises the fallout relentlessly.

Why doesn’t leadership stop these failures?

Executives often assume systems are working. They hope rules are followed. But hope is not a system.

As Australians say after doing something incredibly foolish, often after a few drinks: “it seemed like a good idea at the time.” That sums up many Japanese compliance lapses. After the damage is done, leaders promise reforms, but the cycle repeats.

👉 Answer Card: Leaders who rely on assumptions, not verification, set themselves up for failure.

Why is Japan a particularly tough environment for leaders?

In Japan, the fear of failure is severe. Mistakes invite shame, career damage, even social ostracism. So employees hide them. They withhold information, they keep bosses in the dark, they become “corporate ninjas” skilled at concealment.

The Nissan case made this visible. President Hiroto Saikawa asked why the misconduct wasn’t reported sooner. The answer? Workers believed that even if they spoke up, “the issue would not be resolved.”

👉 Answer Card: Cultural fear of failure in Japan fuels concealment, blinding leaders to reality.

Can leaders ever really know what is happening?

No leader can see everything. Once an organisation scales, personal control is lost. You cannot monitor every sales pitch or back-office process. By the time you know about a major failure, it is usually too late.

But this does not mean surrender. It means shifting from blind trust to active verification. True leadership is not only about giving direction; it is about constantly checking what is really happening.

👉 Answer Card: Leaders must balance delegation with vigilance.

What practical steps should leaders take?

To prevent scandal, leaders need to act before the fire starts. Some proven steps:

• Talk to customers directly. Ask them about service, follow-up, and delivery quality.
• Talk to suppliers. They often know about problems before you do.
• Check the systems yourself. Do not rely on assumptions — test them.
• Audit workflows and quality processes. Do not stop at the financials. One client discovered they were paying $1,500 for a single social media post because no one verified the process.

👉 Answer Card: Regular audits and direct conversations uncover hidden risks before they become crises.

Isn’t this too much work for executives already stretched thin?

Yes, it takes more time. But prevention is cheaper than rescue.

Executives of companies caught in compliance scandals are now overwhelmed with firefighting — holding press conferences, issuing apologies, and trying to salvage brand value. Imagine if half that time had been spent on prevention.

👉 Answer Card: Prevention consumes less time, money, and reputation than crisis management.

Who is really in charge?

On paper, it is the boss. In practice, culture, systems, and hidden behaviours often dictate outcomes. Leaders cannot control every lever — but they can insist on transparency, demand verification, and build prevention into the corporate DNA.

👉 Answer Card: Leaders are only in charge when they choose prevention over assumption.

Next Steps for Leaders

If you want to stay in charge:

1. Stop assuming. Start verifying.
2. Talk widely — with customers, suppliers, staff.
3. Audit not just numbers but workflows and service quality.
4. Treat prevention as leadership’s highest-value activity.

Because in Japan, or anywhere, the truth is the same: hope is not a system. Prevention is.

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Let’s talk about sales, and why the new year always feels like a repeat performance.

Greek myths rarely have happy endings. They are mostly cautionary tales, reminders of how the Gods treated humans like toys. One myth, in particular, perfectly captures the life of a salesperson: the story of Sisyphus. He was condemned to push a massive rock up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again, forever. That is exactly what we face in sales.

We push that giant rock—the annual budget—up the hill every year. We grind, we hustle, we celebrate the results at year’s end, and then what happens? The rock rolls back to zero. Every January, or whenever your company decides the fiscal year begins, you stand at the bottom of the hill again, staring at the same heavy stone. And your sales manager will always say: “Don’t tell me about your last deal, tell me about your next deal.” That has been the universal sales manager mantra since the role was invented.

The tension, pressure, uncertainty, and foreboding in sales never let up. Maybe you had a great year last year. You made President’s Club, you stood on stage at the convention, you pocketed a fat bonus. Congratulations—but so what? That was then. This year is a brand-new race. Or maybe last year was a disaster. You barely scraped by, you nearly got fired, and you made little money. Tough luck—but again, so what? That was then. This year, the rock is waiting, regardless.

So, here is the real question: how are you going to roll that stone this year?

Deals are always out there. The business exists. The only question is: will it come to you? If your strategy is to sit by the phone, hoping for an email enquiry to arrive or for marketing to deliver a steady stream of leads, then you are fooling yourself. That is not sales. That is passivity. And to be blunt, that is what the losers do. Winners know they must take action, not wait for lightning to strike.

This is where Grant Cardone’s idea of the 10X Rule comes in. Grant is a sales trainer in the US, and his book has had a big influence on how we think. In our office, we even put a huge signboard on the wall: 10X Your Thoughts and Actions.Why? Because the truth is, most of us fall into the rhythm of rock rolling. We get used to small, incremental gains—classic kaizen thinking. Kaizen has its place, but let’s be honest: small steps will not vault us ahead of our rivals. They are also improving incrementally. If we want to leapfrog them, we must think exponentially.

That is the essence of 10X thinking. The mindset that got you last year’s results will not take you much further. If we want to reach a higher level, we must break out of that cycle and think ten times bigger. And then, crucially, we must act ten times bigger. Genius ideas sitting in your head, unexecuted, are worthless.

Of course, it sounds easy. For the first thirty seconds, it is easy. But then the discipline required to sustain it kicks in. And that is where most of us fall short. Sales managers have a critical role here: they need to drive this thinking every single day. That means looking at every angle of the rock-rolling exercise.

Ask yourself: who bought from us recently? What similar companies have the same needs but do not yet know us? Why are we not calling them? Are we avoiding it because we are afraid of rejection? Do we think the low success rate makes the effort not worth it? If so, we are making excuses, not sales.

Let’s flip the thinking. Imagine we had the cure for cancer. If your family or friends were suffering, would you be shy about picking up the phone to tell them? Of course not. You would feel an obligation to reach out. Well, our firms may not cure personal cancer, but they do cure corporate cancers—the inefficiencies, the gaps, the problems that drag companies down. If we do not believe that, then we should not even be in business. But if we do believe it, then there is no reason to hesitate in contacting companies who have not yet heard of us. We owe it to them to let them know we have the solution.

This is how we overcome the fear of rejection. We remember that we are not intruding; we are helping. We are bringing the cure. And if we approach sales with that conviction, the fear evaporates.

So, how do we put 10X into practice? Start with mindset, but do not stop there. Take massive action. Ten times the calls. Ten times the meetings. Ten times the follow-ups. Activity drives opportunity, and opportunity drives results. The more buyers we see, the more business we win. That is the math of sales.

Yes, the rock rolled last year. It is rolling again this year. But we do not have to repeat the same tired rhythm. Let’s ask ourselves: how can we 10X every stage of this process? From the first call, to the first meeting, to the proposal, to the close. That is how we roll the stone not just up the hill, but higher than ever before.

So, let’s do it. Let’s roll the rock 10X harder, 10X faster, and 10X higher this year.

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At some stage in every career, the moment arrives: you’re asked to give a presentation. Early on, it may be a straightforward project update delivered to colleagues or a report shared with your manager. But as you advance, the scope expands. Suddenly you’re addressing a whole-company kickoff, an executive offsite, or even speaking on behalf of your firm or industry at a public event.

That leap — from small team updates to high-stakes presentations — is steep. And so are the nerves that come with it.

Why Presentations Trigger Nerves

In front of colleagues, we often feel confident. But standing before the Board, or a large public audience, the pressure intensifies dramatically. Under the spotlight, it can feel less like support and more like interrogation. Your heart pounds, your palms sweat, your throat goes dry, and your stomach turns.

These symptoms are the fight-or-flight response in action. Adrenaline surges through the body, shunting blood to large muscle groups and away from the stomach, leaving it unsettled. Your pulse races as your system prepares for action — even though you’re not about to sprint offstage or wrestle with the Board.

And this nervousness isn’t unique to beginners. Frank Sinatra famously admitted he was always nervous before stepping on stage. Nerves, in other words, are normal.

How to Calm the Body

While you can’t prevent adrenaline entirely, you can manage it. Two simple techniques help:

• Deep breathing slows the heart rate and steadies your voice.
• Purposeful movement — pacing, stretching, walking privately — burns off nervous energy.

These physical resets won’t eliminate the reaction, but they make it manageable.

Why Preparation Matters More Than Slides

The second, and often overlooked, antidote to nervousness is solid preparation. Yet many presenters make the same mistake: they obsess over perfecting the slide deck and neglect rehearsals. This imbalance undermines confidence and delivery.

True preparation rests on three cornerstones:

1. Know your audience. What do they want, and why are they there? A senior executive once gave a polished talk on personal branding, but the audience was almost entirely small-business staff. The mismatch meant her message fell flat.
2. Define one clear message. Every strong presentation can be distilled into a single sentence. That sentence becomes your anchor, guiding the structure, supporting points, and conclusion.
3. Plan your opening and closing. A compelling opening draws people in. A strong conclusion ensures your message sticks, even after the Q&A.

You Are the Boss, Not the Slides

Slides should support you, not control you. Too often, presenters become servants to their decks, filling them with text and losing the audience’s attention.

I coached a senior Japanese auto executive preparing for an international car show. His PR team had created a detailed English script for each slide. It looked professional — but it was impossible for him to memorise and still deliver naturally.

The solution was simple: we reduced each slide to one word. Each word acted as a trigger. He could then speak authentically, in his own voice, without being trapped by a memorised script. The difference was dramatic.

From Fear to Focus

The encouraging truth is that once you start speaking, adrenaline begins to subside. The spotlight feels less harsh, and your focus shifts away from your nerves and onto the audience. You begin to notice whether they’re engaged, nodding, or leaning in.

With rehearsal and repetition, this transition happens faster. Over time, presentations lose their fear factor. They become opportunities to persuade, inspire, and lead.

Key Takeaways

How can you deliver your first major presentation with confidence?

• Accept that nerves are normal and manageable.
• Use breathing and movement to calm the body.
• Prepare with audience needs in mind.
• Build your talk around one clear message.
• Take control of your slides — don’t let them control you.
• Rehearse until delivery feels natural.

By following these steps, presentations stop being ordeals to survive and become moments to make a genuine impact.

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Negotiating in Japan is never just about numbers on a contract. It is about trust, credibility, and ensuring that the relationship remains intact long after the ink is dry. Unlike in Western business settings, where aggressive tactics or rapid deals are often admired, in Japan negotiations unfold slowly, with harmony and continuity as the guiding principles. The key is to combine negotiation frameworks such as BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) with cultural sensitivity. By doing so, foreign executives and domestic leaders alike can win deals without damaging vital long-term partnerships.

Q1: Why is preparation the secret weapon in Japanese business negotiations?

Preparation is the sharpest tool in the negotiation kit. Before talks begin, we must clearly define what is negotiable, what is off-limits, and what represents both our ideal and realistic outcomes. Most importantly, we must set our fallback position — the minimum acceptable deal before we consider walking away.

In Japan, this process must also include anticipating the other side’s goals. What would they see as their ideal outcome? What is their fallback or “exit strategy”? By mapping both sides in advance, we avoid being blindsided during discussions. Unlike the United States, where executives may improvise and pivot quickly in meetings, Japanese negotiators value deep preparation and expect the same from us.

Mini-summary: Success in Japan starts with preparation — knowing both sides’ fallback positions makes us credible and ready.

Q2: What is BATNA and why is it critical in Japanese negotiations?

BATNA — Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement — defines the point where we walk away. It is our exit strategy, our fallback, our protection against endless concessions. Without BATNA, we risk chasing the deal at any cost, eroding trust and weakening future negotiations.

In Japan, patience is prized. If the buyer senses desperation, they may push harder. By quietly knowing our walk-away line, we project confidence. This is not about issuing ultimatums; it is about ensuring we never undermine our long-term credibility in the market. Companies in industries such as pharmaceuticals, finance, and manufacturing use BATNA as a discipline to negotiate firmly while still respecting relationships.

Mini-summary: A clear BATNA prevents over-conceding and signals quiet strength to Japanese counterparts.

Q3: Why does silence carry so much power in Japanese business culture?

Silence is a natural rhythm in Japanese communication, but it is often unnerving for Western negotiators. In the U.S. or Europe, gaps in conversation create anxiety, prompting businesspeople to rush in with concessions, discounts, or extra details. In Japan, however, silence conveys thoughtfulness, patience, and respect.

By sitting calmly in the silence, we allow the other side to feel the weight of the pause. They may reveal information, shift position, or even concede. Silence, when embraced as a tactic, is a strategic advantage. This is not empty stillness — it is strategic patience, and it is one of the most overlooked tools in Japanese business negotiations.

Mini-summary: Silence in Japan is not a void — it is a negotiation tool that rewards patience and composure.

Q4: How does decision-making authority work inside Japanese companies?

In Western firms, the person across the table often has authority to close the deal. In Japan, authority is distributed. Decisions require ringi-sho consensus documents, hanko seals, and alignment across departments. The person negotiating may not have final authority but instead acts as a bridge inside their organisation.

We can mirror this by using the “higher authority” tactic ourselves. Saying, “I need to check with senior management,” is not seen as weak here. It reflects the reality of collective approval. This delay can buy time, cool heated discussions, and adapt to the slower, deliberate pace of Japanese corporate decision-making.

Mini-summary: Authority in Japan is collective — deferring upwards is normal and effective in negotiations.

Q5: What negotiation tactics are most common in Japan?

Japanese negotiations often feature specific tactics that foreign executives must anticipate:

• Ultimatums — final deal-or-no-deal conditions that must be defused with alternatives.
• Persuasion through value-adds — sweeteners, incentives, or extras that cost us little but feel significant to the client.
• Time pressure — deadlines that push for faster decisions.
• Delays or inactivity — slowing responses to build pressure on us.
• Add-ons at the end — last-minute requests after the main “yes” is agreed, which are often easier to accept than renegotiate.

Recognising these tactics helps us avoid being cornered. More importantly, by preparing our own “value-add concessions” and “low-cost, high-value incentives,” we can shape the flow of the negotiation rather than react to it.

Mini-summary: Expect tactics such as ultimatums, sweeteners, time pressure, delays, and add-ons — and prepare responses in advance.

Q6: How do we win the deal in Japan without losing the relationship?

In Japan, closing one deal is not the finish line. It is the starting point of a relationship. Winning here means balancing firmness with respect. If we prepare carefully, set a clear BATNA, embrace silence, understand authority dynamics, and anticipate common tactics, we can achieve sustainable agreements.

Unlike in Western markets, where aggressive wins are celebrated, in Japan a hollow victory damages reputation and future prospects. The real win is when both parties feel respected and motivated to continue working together.

Mini-summary: The ultimate victory in Japan is not just a signed contract — it is a relationship that generates future business.

Conclusion

According to cross-cultural negotiation research, Japan remains one of the most relationship-driven business environments in the world. Frameworks like BATNA give us structure, but cultural fluency gives us access. By blending discipline with empathy, foreign executives and Japanese leaders alike can negotiate firmly while preserving harmony.

This is how to win the deal in Japan — without ever losing the relationship.

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Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model. This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value. Think about your own business? How many business partners do you have where this would apply? For the vast majority of cases we are not after a single sale. We are thinking about LTV – the life time value of the customer. We are focused on the proportion of our time spent hunting for new business as opposed to farming the existing business. Where do you think the trust barometer would be located, if we started “outwitting” our clients in our negotiations? Especially in Japan, where trust is such a crucial element and everyone is focused on long term relationships. So success in negotiating in Japan will be very different and it will definitely be a win-win approach.

Fine, but do you have a consistent process to apply to your negotiations? Often we do it the hard way without a roadmap or we forget parts of the process. We are all rank amateurs anyway, because the amount of negotiating we do is limited and the size of the deals are usually modest. Have we got the basics covered? Here are four steps we need to cover:

1. Analysis

We begin by clarifying our own position. What is it we want to achieve and then we identify alternatives we can live with, if we can’t achieve all that we wish. We also look for ways to add value in areas other than price. Price is only one lever in a negotiation although most people get stuck on the idea it is the only lever. We want to understand the client’s positions and interests and the background reasons driving their approach. This is especially useful when looking for alternative solutions, as we might have something that is valuable to them, but not a great impost to us. We also should look to reframe the conversation to avoid confrontation. There are trigger words which can rapidly inject emotion into a logical discussion and we need to know what those words are for the opposite party. We can then phrase things in ways which is not incendiary.

Presentation

When we do public speaking we know that if we rehearse what we are going to say, it will go much better. When the American political leaders have their famous televised debates, they practice taking difficult questions so that they will appear unruffled and credible in their answers. Doing the same thing before a negotiation makes sense doesn’t it. Have well prepared what you are going to say and how you will say it. Have a colleague hit you with “toughies” – questions you would rather not have to face thank you very much. “More sweat in rehearsal, less blood in negotiating” should be the mantra. Like lawyers do when getting ready to go to court, we should also prepare the opposite sides case, the client’s case, as though it were our own. This gives us an insight into the likely approach they will take and we are then much better prepared to deal with it. Price isn’t the only thing so we should be ready to present added value alternatives to simple numbers. Because we have rehearsed their position, we can more effectively link our solution to the client’s positions and interests.

1. Bargaining

At some point there will be a gap between offer and acceptance and this is when we start trading things we want, for things they want. Bargaining down at the bazaar, in the souk, at the local flea market and in the B2B business world are entirely different. Our object is a sale with a nice regular, perpetual re-order attached to it, rather than “a one and done” outcome. So at the start we decide our ideal, realistic and fallback positions. We do this through the prism of our current demand, local and global business conditions, future business trends, price point profitability and our cash burn through rate. Negotiating tactics will be applied to us but the key is to respond logically rather than react emotionally. Easier said than done! However if we did our preparation well then we should be rock solid. We should be looking for win-win so we are trying to make it easy to agree with us and hard to disagree.

1. Agreement

Japan isn't much for legal contracts compared to the West. Most of our business is done without any contracts, as we agree verbally and then carry out our word and they carry out theirs. If we are talking about huge amounts of money however, then absolutely contacts will be needed. So even if a formal contract is not involved, we need some specification of all points of agreement. Put every key item in writing, be it the form of a quotation, invoice or just an email capturing the joint understanding of what is going to happen going forward and how much money is involved.

To make it very clear, create a checklist and schedule for fulfillment.

These four steps are not rocket science, but remember we are mostly amateurs in the field of negotiating and are you using this simple methodology or just winging it? Probably the latter, so these four things are there to work on, before your next negotiation, to become a more professional business person.

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Presenting isn’t always adoration, adulation, regard and agreement. Sometimes, we have to go into hostile territory with a message that is not welcomed, appreciated or believed. Think meetings with the Board, the unions, shareholders, angry consumers and when you have sharp elbowed rivals in the room. It is rare to be ambushed at a presentation in Japan and suddenly find yourself confronting a hostile version of the Mexican wave, as the assembled unwashed and disgruntled take turns to lay into you. Usually, we know in advance this is going to get hot and uncomfortable.

We still have our message to get across but we have to make some adjustments to head off trouble. The essence of the issue is disbelief. The audience, for whatever reasons, simply don’t believe what you are telling them or they just don’t trust you, regardless of what you tell them. The first casualty of this type of speaking engagement has to be big, bold statements. In less tense situations we might be throwing these types of statement around with gay abandon and not face much resistance from the audience. If what we have said gets brought up in the Q&A, we bat it away without breaking into a sweat. No problem, we have this one!

In more fraught circumstances, those big statements will get us hammered, maybe even as soon as they are issued, with no regard for waiting for the Q&A, as the interrogation gets underway immediately. By the way, if there is an intervention by someone in the audience, we should redirect them to ask that question in the Q&A, which is where we will handle all questions. This stops your flow being interrupted and the proceedings being hijacked.

We need to be more circumspect about the claims we make. We need to introduce ideas surrounded and buffered by evidence. Instead of saying, “this is how it is”, we need to say, “according to the research, this is how it is” or “according to the experts, this is how it is”. We swiftly and subtly slip off to the side of the attack and let the third-party reference take it between the eyes, rather than ourselves.

We need to wrap up our statements in cotton wool and preface them with comments like, “as far as we know…”, “according to the latest information…”, “to the best of our knowledge…”. In this way, we are not holding ourselves up as the oracle, the all-knowing, all seeing sage, unburdened by limitations of self-awareness. We are making ourselves a small target, harder to attack and providing many escape loopholes to leap though, should we need to.

We need to lead with context and background. Making statements and drawing conclusions, before we get to the evidence part, is ritualistic suicide as a speaker facing a hostile crowd. We need to take a note from the pages of the Japanese language grammatical structure. Unlike English and most European languages, in Japanese the verb comes at the very end of the sentence. This is a great metaphor for doling out the evidence first before we get to the punchline.

In Japanese, we don’t know if the sentence is past, present or future oriented, if it is negative or positive, until we get to the end of the sentence. That means we have to sit there and absorb all of the context, background and evidence before we can make a judgment about whether we agree with what is being said or not. This is what we should do with a hostile audience – load them up on the details, the data, the evidence, the testimonials, the expert statements, before we venture forth with what we believe to be true.

We deliver this deluge of facts piecemeal, so that the audience is taking in the information, processing it in their own minds and jumping to conclusions about what they have just heard. Our object is that the conclusion they have jumped to is the very same one that we have reached, based on the same information. It is almost impossible to disagree with our context. They may not agree with our conclusions from our understanding of the context, but the context itself is usually inviolable.

Before we go into Q&A we must publicly announce the amount of time available for questions. It is going to get heated and we don’t want to appear like a cowardly scoundrel beating a hasty retreat, because we can’t take the rigour of investigation of what we are saying. By having stated the time available at the start, we can simply refer to it later and say, “we have now reached the end of the fifteen minutes for question time” and go into wrapping up the evening with our final close.

Hostilities may commence immediately we begin to speak, so we have to be mentally ready for that. We also need to switch our presenting tactics to account for the pushback which will come. By making ourselves as small a target as possible, it becomes much harder for any enemies in the audience to successfully attack us. If they are going after you, they are definitely not your friend, so keep that in mind when you are preparing.

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So many sad cases of people dying here in Japan from what is called karoshi and the media constantly talks about death through overwork. This is nonsense and the media are doing us all a disservice. This is fake news. The cases of physical work killing you are almost exclusively limited to situations where physical strain has induced a cardiac arrest or a cerebral incident resulting in a stroke. In Japan, that cause of death from overwork rarely happens. The vast majority of cases of karoshi death are related to suicide by the employee. This is a reaction to mental and physical exhaustion and the associated stress that piles up, until it totally overwhelming. So the real source of death from karaoshi is stress, not physically working too hard. Just where is that stress coming from?

It is coming from two sources: the individual’s inability to deal with the stress of long hours, long commutes, and no time for recovery, driving them to depression and ending their own precious lives. The other source is management incompetence, to allow that amount of stress to be experienced by their staff in the first place. It is compounded by power harassment of those who struggle to keep up with the output requirements.

In my view, management irresponsibility is the prime killer. If there were no cases of exceptional stress buildup, then the staff wouldn’t need remedial actions at all. The long hours worked, long hours of public transport commutation and high amounts of pressure from bosses are the real problems. The hundreds of extra hours of overtime worked are being logged for no justifiable reason.

In many previous cases, such as Dentsu, the company tried to hide the extent of the hours being worked. Management was party to the process, all the while knowing it was wrong. They were also aware of previous cases where people cracked under the strain of too little sleep and permanent tiredness and took their own life. They knew this was a possibility, but did nothing to alter the work flows.

This is criminal and that is what the courts found. Dentsu was fined 500,000 yen by the judicial system. However, was justice served? The young woman involved was 24 years old when she jumped off the roof of the Dentsu dormitory, to kill herself and end her stress and depression. Many would consider a fine of 500,000 yen insignificant.

The management didn’t control the work flow. If there was so much work on, why didn’t they bring in either more full time staff or part-time or contract workers to help? This is what bosses are paid to do – get through the work and apply the required resources to do that. The system didn’t see it that way. Presumably, they expected the staff to put in the ridiculous hours to save the company the money needed for salaries for new or additional staff.

We can talk about there being a culture of long hours in Japan and it is true. Dentsu was picked out in the 1970s by Time Magazine as a company of fearless samurai salarymen, toiling ridiculous hours for their bosses, so this is not a new development. They were held up as a model to contrast with their flabby Western counterparts. These long hours weren’t needed then and are not needed now.

It is being driven by a pathetic white collar culture of low productivity. The work expands to fit the time in Japan as per Parkinson’s Law and so working hours elongate to suit. If bosses were capable, they would be seeking improvements in productivity to get through the work in less time. Is Japan not capable of being highly productive?

The kaizen and kamban production systems in manufacturing are well known in the West as methods of achieving maximum efficiency by blue collar workers. The irony is that one hundred meters away, staff in corporate offices are working at super low levels of efficiency for the same company – the contrast is large. How can the same senior managers entertain these two contradictory ideas in their minds, at the same time?

No problem for them because they have compartmentalised the situations. “This is how we do it around here and so we will keep it going just as it is. The factory system is different to an office, so there is no relevancy”. That is simply lazy thinking. Efficiency in process, in workload distribution, in systems sequencing, in checking methods, in approvals are all areas that can be applied to office work as well.

What is being kept alive by mediocre company leaders in the way of standard Japanese corporate practices? Here is a list of leadership crimes for which no one is ever reprimanded. No clear daily prioritised individual goals, poor time management, meetings too numerous and too long. Painfully slow decision-making required to get everyone on board. Disengaged staff turning up to get paid and not motivated to be bothered to innovate. Poor communication, no real coaching, demotivating performance evaluations, mistaken mistake handling methods and zero effectiveness delegation skills on the part of undereducated leaders, promoted on the basis of longevity and age hierarchy, rather than their ability.

There are no excuses for this legacy system to continue in the 21st century and we have to change it from the inside out. Government estimates are that roughly 20% of the working population is suffering from depression. It is time to change things in Japan. We should see no more cases of karoshi here – there are simply no justifications for continued company mismanagement of their staff. We need to better educate the leaders on how to lead, to teach the managers how to manage and to encourage the staff to push back on illegal requests from senior management to work crazy hours.

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Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan. Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not ever be present in the meeting. Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buying decision. In the case of Western companies, the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after everyone has had their say. In Japan there is a lot of groundwork needed so that the final decision is a rubber stamp exercise, because the actual decision has already been taken.

Nevertheless, we turn up for the meeting and the buyer side has a number of representatives sitting in the room. Often it will be me facing across the table to five to ten buyers. Where do we start? Well the meishi or business card exchange is a critical step. Those hip, modern folk who have dispensed with the humble paper business card are at a massive disadvantage. From the meishi we can immediately understand exactly who is in the room. We can determine their function and rank instantly and this is very, very helpful. Before we know how to present to their team, we have to analyse the people in their team. A buyer team will often comprise multiple layers. We might have some functional interests represented such as:

1. Executive Buyer
2. Financial Buyer
3. User Buyer
4. Technical Buyer
5. Our Champion

Each one has different drivers for making buying decisions. We can mentally list them in order from those with a long range vision to those with shorter range views. In the case of the Executive Buyers they are thinking about their strategic vision, the future opportunity and growth potential.

For the Financial Buyers their attention will be turned to items such as cost, terms, flexibility and preserving cash flow.

User Buyers will be interested in the detailed features, ease of use and reliability.

Technical Buyers are looking at efficiency, practicality and capacity.

Our Champion, the person driving the decision on the buyer side, will be concerned about relationships, influence and recognition.

This sounds daunting enough, but just to spice things up a bit, there are also the buyer personality styles. The Amiables take their time, don’t rush into things and are concerned about the impact on the people from the decision.

The Drivers (often the CEO) are the “time is money” types who are always in a hurry, can make an immediate decision and solely focus on the outcomes.

The Analtyicals (often the CFO or the Technical Buyer) are comfortable with numbers to three decimal places, are keen on the micro detail and want tons of data to support their decision.

The Expressives (often the Head of Sales and Marketing) want the big picture, do not want to get immersed in the weeds and want to have a big party to celebrate the success, at the end.

So their role within the company and their individual personality styles will be key factors to fully understand when we present. Just when you thought we were getting a handle on the complexity of the task, there are also going to be attitudinal differences. It will vary according to the individual and even their mood on that day at that time. Different people will be hostile, resistant, discontent, ambivalent, favourable, supportive, enthusiastic. We are not finished yet with the layers of complexity. There will also be different levels of expertise in a team. Different experiences, education, biases, problems, goals, expertise and culture.

Before we present, we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say. We need to work on our Champion beforehand where possible and yet we may not know this breakdown completely beforehand. We will have to start placing people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room.

Have I talked you out of presenting to buyer teams yet? It is a bit overwhelming isn’t it when you break it all down into its component parts, but harden up baby, you have to move forward anyway.

Your Champion will have fed you the problems they are facing, you will have analysed them and this meeting is to present the solution phase of the sale. We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room. We need an opening to grab their attention. They will various things buzzing around in their brains competing with your message, so you need to blast way in to get everyone to listen to you. A startling piece of news or data is always good to grab attention.

Next we need a statement of need for change. You can list up the enterprises which have gone to the wall because they couldn’t make the changes needed to adjust to the demands of the market. Suggesting this is a fate awaiting many more is a good step to get people thinking about their own longevity. Very few firms are invulnerable and everyone is always worried about what comes next, in particular things they may not be properly prepared for. Japanese buyers are always very interested in what their competitors are doing and so if possible, give an example from their industry, where there was a similar business with a similar need for change.

Next suggest three possible solutions. You will be very balanced, going through the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three solutions. You will present their pros and cons, including practical and emotional reasons, why they are excellent alternatives. Finally you suggest the best solution for them with evidence as to why it is the best choice. Now you go into your first close, where you repeat the final recommendation and ask for any questions. Following the questions from the buying team, you repeat your close again so that this is the last thing ringing in their ears as the meeting ends.

Buying teams are formidable and that means we have to cast a broad net to capture each person’s interest and need for our solution. There is no shortcut for this process and the key is in the design at the start. So take into account all the complexities I have listed and design an approach for that level of diversity.

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How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter? Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan. Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance. Always up your formality level in dress terms in Japan, compared to how formal you think will be enough. This was a big shock for this Aussie boy from Brisbane, who spent a good chunk of his life wearing shorts and T-shirts or blue jeans and T-shirts. Tokyo is not Silicon Valley, where dress down is de rigueur and where suits have gone the way of the Dodo. This is a very well dressed, sophisticated capital city where serious money is spent on quality clothing.

Business suits are a given when presenting. Not even coat and slacks in the Italian style, but business suits. The colour should be on the dark spectrum to fit in with the solemnity of your “aura and presence” as an expert, about to pontificate on your subject. A serious speaker in a light coloured suit is an oxymoron in Japan. Go dark. The suits don’t have to be the deepest black in colour, because darker greys and navies will work. Now the odd thing is this applies in summer too. The summer speech outfit will be a little lighter in colour than the winter suit, but not as light as the very light colours in summer suits. It doesn’t matter if they are three piece, double-breasted, or have one, two or three buttons.

Needless to say the suit should fit well. I have a very old and dear friend who has, like me, been in constant battle with his weight. We take it off and then we put it all and more, back on again. Very frustrating of course, but a painful reality. The sight one day, of him giving a major speech, while only able to close the bottom suit button, rather than the top, was very sad. It said to the audience, “I am fat, in denial and have not bothered to adjust my suits to match this reality”. We all have our “fat suits” of course, for those occasions when we are losing the struggle against our expanding waistband, so that would be a good selection if you are carrying a few too many kilos. However, if even the reliable “fat suit” is now too tight, then go to the tailor and get it adjusted. Better to be paying a small amount of money for that, then telling the world you are a loser in the battle of the bulge.

The shoes will be formal, brogues are good, shined within an inch of their lives and never “down at heel”. It would be rare to wear any other colour than black, because the suits are going to be dark. The belt obviously must match the colour of the shoes and be in good condition, not looking like you have worn it to death. I don’t even know why I mention this, except that I often see some Japanese gentlemen messing it up, getting the colour coordination wrong and displaying a belt clearly on its last legs.

The socks should match with the colour of the slacks and when presenting, avoid fascinating contrast colours that herald your rebellious and exciting individuality. Save that funky revolution for the weekend. They should be over the calf rather than ankle length. When seated on stage, for say a panel discussion, there is nothing more alarming than the sight of a very hairy shin protruding from underneath the suit trousers.

The shirt should be white, never coloured. I know this seems very limiting and lacking in imagination, but there is a biological reason for it. When we are on stage we can become nervous or the lighting on stage can really heat us up. The consequence is we begin to perspire, and the neck area is one location where this happens very quickly. That gorgeous Egyptian Giza 45 cotton shirt, in light blue, becomes a two-tone job, as soon as the sweat envelopes your collar and makes it turn dark blue. Now the audience is losing touch with what you are saying and are fascinated by your unfolding two-tone colour gradation of your shirt.

For the same reason, NEVER take off your suit jacket. I am soaked under my jacket, by the end of a 40-minute talk, because I am pumping out so much energy and heat. If I had my jacket off, there would be a much darker colour running down the side of my body. By the way, there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing someone in a shirt, sporting a saturated armpit, raise their arm so the waterfall armpit becomes visible to the audience.

Your tie collection may have some daring beauties but leave them at home. At one stage, I was sporting some very ferocious Versace ties, with very vibrant colour combinations and adventurous patterns. I never wore them for speeches though, because they were competing with my face, for the attention of the audience. Also, forget the power colours. You don’t need them, because your speech delivery should have power and authority to command the obedience of the assembled masses.

The same daring do logic applies to pocket squares. Especially fluffy, elaborate and exuberant little darlings grab the gaze of the crowd and they take their eyes off your face. We don’t want that. The plastic name badges you are given by the organisers are another trap. Don’t wear them when you get up to speak. They reflect the lights and your body movement can set them off on a navy shipboard signal lamp training session. We don’t want anything competing with us when we are speaking.

I am highly reticent to speak about ladies’ fashion, because I have so little knowledge of this subject. My wife tries to encourage me to become more expert, but there has been no great progress to date. My only advice would be basically adopt the same ideas – dark suits, white blouses, black shoes, no scarves, modest earrings and broaches and basic hair and makeup approaches. This is not a runway fashion extravaganza, but a chance to drive home your message. By the way, if it is a panel discussion, where you would be seated on stage, then a trouser suit may be easier.

Always make your face the centrepiece, so the audience is firmly focused there. Our faces can transmit so much power through emotion to drive our messages, so we can’t let anything compete with this awesome weapon

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We don’t run perfect organisations stocked with perfect people, led by perfect bosses. There are always going to be failings, inadequacies, mistakes, shortcomings and downright stupidity in play. If we manage to keep all of these within the castle walls, then that is one level of complexity. It is when we share these challenges with clients that we raise the temperature quite a few notches. How do you handle cases where your people have really upset a client? The service or product was delivered, but the client’s representative is really unhappy with one of your team.

Often, being the boss, you are the last to find out what is going on. Japan, in particular, is excellent at hiding bad news from bosses. “The less the boss knows about the source of the trouble the better” is the mantra here. Japan is a zero mistake tolerance culture and so everyone has learnt to be circumspect about sharing the bad news around.

The irony though is the boss is the one person with the capacity of power and money to fix a lot of issues. It gets easier to fix issues when you know about them early, rather than trying to sort things out later when the proportion of the problem has grown larger.

I found this when I was working in retail banking here. Compliance violations occur and have to be dealt with. Usually, they are not fatal errors and the person committing them can recover, learn from the mistake and keep going.

The bias toward hiding mistakes though creates problems in the work environment. That minor compliance violation has to be hidden, the perpetrator believes and this is when the problems really begin to kick in. The hiding part is the bigger issue.

The problem is like a balloon that keeps inflating and inflating. You stick it away in your desk draw hoping no one will notice. Discouragingly, the problem gets bigger and bigger until it breaks out of the bounds of secrecy. It now looms large across the landscape at an immense threatening size. The genie once out of the bottle can’t be stuffed back in again.

At the bank, people were getting fired for what were minor compliance violations because they tried to hide them. This was unnecessary, but that didn't change the effort to keep problems away from the boss. Why is that?

The usual boss reaction to the trouble in Japan is yelling abuse. This somewhat hampers the effort to have more transparency. HR recording a black mark in their secret book of employee misdemeanors and crimes doesn’t help much either. So we are pretty much guaranteeing that when things go bad, the boss will only hear about it at the worst possible moment. This is usually when the window for a helpful intervention has been slammed air tight shut.

There are always going to be two sides to the story and the boss’s job is to find out both. Sometimes the client’s representative can take a personal dislike to our guy or gal, or they can become emotional because they are under stress within their own organization. In Japan, they can be fervent about doing a perfect job. If perfection is your standard, then there are bound be shortfalls in delivery at some point.

How do we sort this mess out without destroying the relationship with the client and killing the motivation of our own team member. Our team member can genuinely be trying to help the client, but may not have enough capability to do that to their satisfaction. These gaps are what test the loyalty of the team. If the boss hammers their staff member for causing the problem, the rest of the team carefully watches and works out that telling the boss bad news is a losing proposition. They will become experts at hiding trouble until it is too big to hide anymore. This is not an ideal outcome. So we have to back our people, apologise to the client, sort out monies involved with a partial or full refund if they are genuinely not satisfied.

The boss’s job is to switch the brunt of client anger away from their subordinate to themselves, as the senior representative of the organisation, and also become the one to find a solution which satisfies the buyer. In Japan, that means bringing expensive gifts for the client, lots of deep, deep bowing in apology and listening sincerely to endless and unremitting tirades from grumpy clients. In Japan, they really labour the point.

If there is going to be any on-going business, it can also mean switching that team member out of that project and bringing in a new person to be the contact point. The air needs to be cleaned up and that means reassigning those previously assigned to the project.

This has to be communicated in a way so that the staff member understands we support them and we trust them. We are now in the modern business era in Japan of desperate recruiting and even more desperate retaining. Hanging on to people, even when there have been issues, becomes a much more delicate calculation than in the past.

We have to be comfortable with much more complexity than earlier. Simply firing people if the client complains, berating people publicly for mistakes, ranting to the whole team about not making mistakes, are tools that have seen their “use by” date well and truly pass by. We need to be more sophisticated, intelligent and nuanced than that today.

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We see Japan as a modern, high tech country very advanced in so many sectors. Sales is not one of them. Consultative selling is very passé in the West, yet it has hardly swum ashore here as yet. There are some cultural traits in Japan that work against sales success, such as not initiating a conversation with strangers. This makes networking a bit tricky to say the least. We train salespeople here in Japan and the following list is made up of the most common complaints companies have about their salespeople’s failings and why they are sending them to us for professional training.

1. Only talk to existing customers because you are scared of finding new buyers

Japanese people are risk averse and everyone here prefers the devil they know to the angel they don’t know. Staying in the comfort zone of the known customer is preferred to trying to create a new relationship with a buyer they don’t know. Measurements systems and incentive schemes definitely need to include the number of new clients achieved as well as the overall revenues, if you want to grow the business.

1. Pitch your product range, without having any idea about what the buyer needs

Diving straight into the company brochure or the product catalogue, the nitty gritty details is a big favourite here. The trouble is they want blue, we don’t know that because we haven’t asked what they want and we keep showing them yellow.

1. Don’t seek permission to ask questions

Why don’t Japanese salespeople ask the buyer questions, to find out what they need, like the rest of the universe? It is considered rude by the buyer, also known as GOD. That is a cultural aspect that can be overcome if permission to ask questions is asked for first. Why don't they do that? Because they are trained by their seniors who never asked questions and who just went straight into the detail of the spec. The salespeople need training to learn how to craft the permission request.

1. Let the buyer control the sales conversation

In Japan the buyer is not a lowly King but as I mentioned, an almighty GOD, whose penchant is to destroy pesky salespeople’s presentations. Salespeople here don’t know how to control the sales conversation, because they don’t know how to get permission to ask questions and control the direction of the conversation.

1. Don’t uncover the buyer need at all

It is almost impossible to hit a target you cannot ascertain. If the questions to ask need are not there, it is impossible to work out whether you have what the client needs or not.

1. Only talk about the spec and maybe the benefits of the spec, but never talk about how to apply the benefit, show evidence where this has worked before and then go for a trial close.

When salespeople dive into the detail, they get stuck there. We don’t buy the spec. We buy the things the spec does for us. We need to draw out what are the benefits the spec delivers but much more than that. Few Japanese salespeople even get to the benefit explanations stage. We need to show how the benefit when applied in their business will improve their business and we back that up with evidence of where this has worked before.

1. Don’t have any clue how to properly handle objections

Japanese salespeople suffer the same objections as everyone else, “your price is too high” etc., but they have no way of dealing with them. On the job training as an instructional methodology taps out pretty quickly when we get down to the finer points of sales ability. The simple answer is professional training because this is the difference between the pro and the mug.

1. Always drop the price to gain the sale

It is shocking to think how much money is being left on the table by salespeople when they get price objections. Just dropping the price by 20% is common and it doesn’t have to be like this. If you know how to handle these types of pushback, then you can do a deal and either defend your value or reduce the amount of discounting.

1. Don’t ever ask for the order

So many meetings end with a big fat nothing. The salesperson left the client “buy or won’t buy” bit quite vague and not clarified. Always ask for the order. The worst that can happen is you are told “no” or “we will think about it” but always ask. Don’t make the client do all the hard work, ask for the business.

Sales is not complex. It is a serious of basics that need to be performed professionally. Take a good look at what your Japanese colleagues are doing and see how many of these nine you can uncover.

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Storytelling is one of those things that we all know about, but where we could do a much better job of utilising this facility in business. It allows us to engage the audience in a way that makes our message more accessible. In any presentation there may be some key information or messages we wish to relay and yet we rarely wrap this information up in a story. As an audience we are more open to stories than bold statements or dry facts. The presenter’s opinion is always going to trigger some debate or doubt in the minds of the audience. The same detail enmeshed in a story though and the point goes straight into the minds of the crowd and is more likely to be bought as is.

When we are planning our talk, we think about what is the key message? We should get this into one sentence, able to written on a grain of rice. Okay, you are not likely to be able to achieve that any time soon, but the keys are brevity, clarity, focus, conciseness, and paring the message down to its most powerful essence. We build the argument to support our key message, broken up into chapters throughout the talk. We design our two closes, one for before Q&A and one to wrap up the whole talk at the very end. We design our blockbuster opening to pry the phones out of the hands of the audience, to get them to listen to what we are saying and going to say.

We can inject micro stories, by which I simply mean short stories, into every part of this design. The opening could be a short story which grabs the attention of the listeners and primes the room for our dissertation. It might be focused on an incident which relates to the key message of the talk or about an episode from a famous historical figure or about someone in the firm or a client that drives home the message.

Each of the chapters of the talk can rely on micro stories to back up the evidence being presented to justify the conclusion we have come to and the point we are making. These stories bring flesh and blood to the dry facts and details. They can enliven the point we are driving hard on, by making it something the audience can relate to. These facts don’t just appear. They are there because of a reason and there are bound to be stories aplenty attached to them.

Both of the closes can be separate stories that enhance the final messages we are delivering to the room. We keep them short, bountiful, memorable and attractive, such that they linger long in the minds of the audience members. We want our story attached to the inside of the brains of the listeners, so that they remember it long after the event has passed by.

A thirty minute talk would probably have five chapters, an opening and two closes, so at least room there for eight stories. These stories can be our own, garnered from our experiences or they could be folkloric stories from the firm’s rich history or we could be borrowing other people’s stories to make our point.

We all have products and solutions. Where did these come from? How were they created and who created them? What about the firm’s founders’ stories? Why does this company exist and how has it manage to stay in business for so long? Taking the key chapter content, we can inject some life into the data points by looking for creation stories or application tales of high deeds and gloried achievements. Other client’s stories can be some our stories too, as we relate how our solution changed their world. These stories lend themselves for inclusion in the “about us” component of the firm’s website and for placement in the corporate brochure.

The point is we have so many stories to choose from, we have a surfeit of content lapping all around us. All we have to do is collect it. So from now on build a library of stories about the firm, the personalities, the products, the client successes etc. When you are reading about other companies look for their stories that you can borrow to make a point about your own business. Add them to the library so that you don’t have to go scrambling about trying to think of stories. You have them there, ready to go whenever you need them.

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We are often good talkers, but poor listeners. We have many things we want to say, share, expound and elaborate on. For this we need someone to be talking it all in. We like it when people do that for us. It soothes our ego, heightens our sense of self-worth and importance. We are sometimes not so generous ourselves though when listening to others. Here are six nightmare listeners you might run into. By the way, do any of these stereotypes sound a bit too familiar to you?

The “preoccupieds” are those breathless types, racing around, multi-tasking on steroids, permanently distracted. They don’t make much eye contact because their eyes are constantly scanning for things other than you in front of them. When we meet this reaction we need to grab their brain. We can say, “Is this a good time to talk?” or “I need your undivided attention for just a moment”. Once we do get their attention, we have to get to the point, because their attention span is fleeting.

The “out-to-lunchers” have the lights on (their eyes are open) but no one is at home. They are thinking about everything else but what you are saying to them. It is a good practice to check in with them to make sure they have absorbed the key points you are sharing. You can ask them a very pointed question about one element to determine if they actually heard you. Closed questions are good because an answer has to be yes or no, they can’t fudge it or fake it easily.

The “interrupters” are ending your sentences for you, jumping in all over you while you are speaking, they are fixated with their important contribution and not much interested in yours. You cannot stop them, so don’t resist. Let them blurt out whatever it is they cannot contain and then interject, “Thanks for that. As I was saying…” And pick up where you were, as if they had not spoken at all.

The “whatevers” are giving off that jaded, bored impression that what you are saying is of little interest or consequence. To grab their attention you have to lift your energy and spice up the content, make it more dramatic. Also, ask them specific questions that will draw them into the topic. Use open questions where they have to use actual sentences rather than monosyllabic responses.

The “combatives” are people with a strong sense of their rights and they are very interested in demanding they be heard and defending those rights. They are quick to call out perceived affronts to their dignity and will readily argue every point. Look for points of agreement and concentrate talking about those or ask to agree to disagree.

The “analysts” are logical thinking, very detailed orientated and are always in fix-it mode. They love handing out advice regardless of whether it was requested or not. You can go around idea generation from them by saying “I just need to bring you up to speed, so you know what is happening. I’m not looking for advice”

By contrast what would a good listener look like? The “engagers” are empathetic listeners who really concentrate on what you are saying. They employ eyes, ears, hearts and minds to absorb your messages. They understand that they already know what they know and can learn a lot more from finding out what you know as well. They let you talk. They make you feel good, because they are obviously following along with you and taking an interest.

When they are your boss, they let you talk and give you the opportunity to self-discover solutions and ideas. “We own the world we help to create” and bosses who listen and give their people the opportunity to speak, to suggest, to innovate are going to have a highly engaged team. That is the team that is going to win against the vast majority of teams who just show up to get paid. So the ROI (Return On Investment) from listening can be huge. Were you listening?

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Selling to companies in Japan usually means sitting in a meeting room with a single buyer or perhaps two people. There are occasions though where we may need to present to a larger number of buyers in a more formal setting. It may be a pitch to secure the business, or it may be a means of getting the buying team more easily coordinated on their side.

Before we know how to present to a team, we have to analyse the people in the team. That means we need to know ahead of time, who will be in the room from their side. A team comprises multiple layers of responsibility. We might have some functional interests represented such as the Executive Buyer, Financial Buyer, User Buyer, Technical Buyer and Our Champion. Each one has a different driver for making buying decisions.

The Executive Buyer will have a strategic vision for the organization so they are interested in opportunities and growth. We need to include the big picture here of what our solution will do to position the company into the future, as well as today.

The Financial Buyer is always interested in cash flow, no matter the size of the organisation. They focus on the cost, the terms of the transaction and how much flexibility it can provide for them.

The User Buyer wants to know about the features, how easy is the solution to use, how reliable will it be?

The Technical Buyer is concerned about efficiency, practicality and capacity. Usually we are in that room because of our Champion. They are concerned about their relationships within the company, with having influence over the buying situation and gaining recognition for their efforts.

Just to make it more complicated, there are also the buyer personality styles to contend with.

The Amiable who is focused on relationships and is never in a hurry to make a decision.

The Driver is the exact opposite. They are dynamic, fast movers who just want the facts so they can make a decision and move on.

The Analtyicals want data and lots of it. Three decimal places is fine for them.

The Expressives are bored with the nitty gritty detail, preferring the big picture.

It is possible to focus on just one group but not very wise. The presentation should have a little something for everyone.

There are also going to be attitudinal differences. Some will Hostile, Resistant, Discontent, Ambivalent, Favourable, Supportive and Enthusiastic. We need to get our body language meter on full throttle to read the audience and we need our Champion to give us the who’s who of who is in the room, so we can anticipate where we might hit trouble.

There are different levels of expertise in a team. There will be varying levels of Experiences, Education, Biases, Problem/Positive issues, Goals, Expertise and Culture. Before we present we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say.

We may not know this completely beforehand but we will certainly start locating people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room.

We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room. We need an opening to grab attention, a statement of need for change, an example of the need for change and to suggest three possible solutions.

For solution one, we outline the advantages and disadvantages. We repeat this balanced formula for solutions two and three. We then suggest the best solution of the three, with evidence as to why it is best. In our closing remarks we repeat the final recommendation.

Selling to a buying group is fraught with difficulty, because of the massive variations in the room, as to perspectives, needs and interest. Nevertheless we can use this structure to cover off as many of the needs in the room as possible.

We rely on our champion to brief us on who is in the room beforehand and to go around drumming up support following our presentation. We win or lose though the quality of our preparation and our structure.

If they are both in good working order, then the chances of winning the business go up dramatically. We won’t get so many chances to present to a buying group but we need to be well prepared when we do.

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We often hear about the need for bosses to do more to engage with their teams. The boss looks at their schedule and then just checks out of that idea right then and there because it seems impossible. The employees for their part, want to get more praise and recognition from the boss, to feel valuable and valued. Bosses are often Driver type personalities who are extremely outcome and task orientated. People are there to produce, to get the numbers, to complete projects and to do it with a minimum of boss maintenance needed to be invested.

The snag in all of this though is employees don’t want that. They want the boss to be more interested in them, their career and their family. The feeling of being valued by the boss has been found to be an important trigger to create strong engagement in staff. Driver bosses rarely pull that trigger. They believe you need to “harden up baby”, do it yourself “like I did”. They wonder why we need to mollycoddle this lot.

In fact they don’t know how to snuggle up to staff and get to know them, because they never experienced that from their own bosses, and they are not built that way. They grew up independent and self-reliant. They are driven to achieve and have a take no prisoners approach to business. They are survival of the fittest advocates. Consequently, they are not much for small talk. They are permanently time pressed, so everything has to be driving toward an outcome, or it is a waste of their valuable time.

How do you snuggle up to employees anyway? Bosses need to engage with their staff by using the “innerview” to deepen their understanding of who the person is who works for them, what are their motivations and interests. The sceptics may be thinking “brilliant”. Now they can interrogate their staff, find and start pressing their hot buttons, to get more production out of them having found some keys to staff motivation. This is not what we are talking about. Staff can spot this very quickly. They won’t be interested in being manipulated by their bosses for higher productivity gains.

The effort is to get to know the team better, so that as the boss you can help them to succeed in their work by aligning their goals, interests and motivations with those of the organization. The classic win/win.

Getting to know staff starts with asking basic factual questions. Where did they grow up, where did they go to school, what did they major in. Where have they worked in the past, what are their hobbies, how many in their family etc.

To go deeper we need to ask causative questions. The “why” of their choices. Why did they pick that field of study, why that school, why this company, why that hobby, etc.

Then we get to values-based questions. Getting to know how they tick. If you had your life over again would you do things differently and if so , what would you do? What were some turning points in your life? What have been some of the work and non-work related things you have done that have made you feel proud? If you were giving advice to a person entering the workforce what would that be?

These questions have to be asked in a relaxed manner, not spewed out like machine gun fire. This is getting to know someone better in order to better be able to appreciate them as a person. It is not a drill in shaking them down for private information, which can be used later to exploit them.

Conversations like this, done correctly, invite massive mutual understanding. The end result is better communication and shared values. A uniting of mutual interests toward achieving goals together. So all of you driver bosses out there, this is how to get cuddly with the team.

First sort out your objective and make sure it is reflecting the real interests of the staff. Drop that manipulation thing. Then make the time available to have a deep one on one conversation with another human being who also exists on this planet just like you. Believe me, good things will flow from this.

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Today is a good time to start reviewing and reflecting upon the presentations you have over the past few years. What have you learnt not to do and what have you learnt to keep doing? Those who don’t study their own presentations history are bound to repeat the errors of the past. Sounds reasonable doesn’t it. We are all mentally geared up for improvements over time. The only issue is that these improvements are not ordained and we have to create our own futures.

Do you have a good record keeping system? When I got back to Japan in 1992 I was the Australian Consul and Trade Commissioner in Nagoya. As far as the locals were concerned, I was the Australian Ambassador to the Chubu Region. I am sure the parade of the various Ambassadors in the Tokyo Embassy never saw it that way, but that is how the locals viewed my vice-regal presence. One consequence was you were regularly asked to give long speeches. I say long because a one hour speech would be a dawdle, compared to the two hour monstrosities you were expected to fill.

I started writing down the speech number, the title, who it was for, what language was I speaking and how long was the speech. I did this because Japan loves the devil they know and you would be asked back to speak again and it is embarrassing if you don’t recall the first talk. I am now over 560 speeches on my list. Without knowing it I was compiling a body of work as a speaker. The list noted the topics I covered, which was a useful reservoir of things I could speak about if asked to venture forth a topic for the nominated speaking spot.

I would often use visuals. When I started we were back in the dark ages and were using overhead projectors (OHPs) and breakthrough innovations like colour OHPs instead of just black and white images. For photographs, we used a slide carousel and a slide projector. At some point we moved to powerpoint and life got a whole lot easier, when it came to preparing presentations. Somewhere I probably still have those OHP presentations stored away somewhere, except today you would struggle to find an overhead projector to show them with. We can much more easily store our presentation materials today, so there is no excuse about not doing that.

I keep my presentations in digital files stored by the year in which they were delivered. This is very handy because you can go back and see what you covered when you gave that talk. Some of the images may be plundered for a current presentation, if they are relevant, so it is a nice resource to draw on. You can also see how much you have grown in sophistication as a presenter, by looking at the quality of what you have been presenting. This is a step we shouldn’t miss because we are often so caught up in our everyday, we lose sense of the time progression in our presenter lives.

A more difficult task is to grab the points that are additional to the slides. These may be kept as notes on the print out of the slide deck or in a notes format for the talk. If I have notes, which these days is pretty rare, then they will be very brief. They are flags for me to expand upon when I am delivering my talk. More frequently I will print out two or four slides per page and then write on those pages. I will note some key points I want to make when we get to that slide. If I am not using slides then the notes format plays the same prompt role.

Things occur to me during a talk, which were not planned. Maybe I got a light bulb type of idea or a question exposed an answer and brought some additional information to the forefront. One thing I strongly recommend is immediately after the speech, carve out thirty minutes for quiet reflection on the talk and think about what things you would change in order to make it better next time. The tendency is to rush back to work, which usually means either meetings or catching up on email. They can wait. Don’t schedule back to back activities after the talk – give yourself a little time to think.

What I find hard to do is to store the notes hand written on the pages and the notes on the ideas which occurred to me after the talk. Paper tends to get lost and you throw it out in a bug of spring cleaning and lose it. Either take photos of the notes on your phone or scan the pages and then file them together with the electronic slide deck in the file for that year of talks. This way you never lose the inspiration and record of your thinking about this topic.

Time will pass. You will deliver talks, will get ideas both before and after. Capture them and learn from what went well and how you can improve on it for next time. You need a system and if you don’t have one today, then now is a good time to think about creating one.

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Here is an important mantra: We don’t want a sale, we want the re-orders.

That task however is getting harder and harder. Customers today are more educated, better prepared and have more alternatives than ever before. Satisfying a customer is not enough – we have to exceed their expectations and provide exceptional customer service. Customer service has only one truth – how the customer perceives the quality of the service. Forget what we think is good customer service. We have to be really clear about what is the customer’s perception of good customer service. This is a totally subjective idea on the part of the customer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have influence on that perception.

Here is a quick audit on your understanding of the customer. How well do you know the customer’s perception of high quality customer service? When was the last time you asked about how well you were doing with serving that customer? Are you assuming that because there are no claims, that the customer is fully satisfied? Do you have a clear idea of the level of service your competitor is providing in terms of customer service?

The building of a strong fan base amongst your clients is a key step to becoming more successful. We all know the acquisition cost of finding a new customer is many times more expensive than deepening the scope of the relationship with an existing customer. That is fine but we need to also expand our numbers of customers. We always need more good customers, but how can we create new fans? How do we do that when there are so many rivals? Here are four approaches to consider.

1. Have broad product knowledge

Whenever we ask a salesperson a question and they cannot answer it immediately, we doubt their value to us. Often however, we salespeople can become concentrated on just a few products and lose touch with the broader perspective. We need to keep studying our total product line-up, so that we have broad knowledge to show we are professionals in our business. Prove that we can be trusted to serve the customer. So ask yourself, how well do you know your own product line-up?

1. Have an extreme desire to help

So many times, as customers, we are told “no” by salespeople. Are we ever happy about that response? Buyers are looking for salespeople who they feel are really motivated to serve. The way to prove that is to show your strong desire to serve at every customer face to face meeting, on every phone call and in every response. Great in theory but are you really doing that now?

1. Have a sincere interest in the customer’s situation

We have targets to achieve, pressure to perform and so often we can become totally focused on our own situation. By the way, here is a newsflash - the client only cares about their own situation and how dedicated you are to helping them. Are you really sincere about helping the customer or are you focused on yourself, your numbers, your deadlines? Don’t be in any doubt - customers can feel the difference.

1. Understand the customer’s expectations

Customer expectations change, but often salespeople are not changing with them. Business moves and what was enough some months ago, may not be suitable enough now. We have to really monitor the customer’s situation to see what has changed. That means we have to keep asking them about their expectations of service from us. Are we serving them in the way they want to be served. Most salespeople never want to ask this type of question because they are scared of the answer. We have to be brave and ask and if we do, we will be delivering exactly the type of service the customer wants and expects. When we do that, we differentiate ourselves from our competitors

So what percentage of your customers would you count as your loyal fans? What are you currently doing to drive that percentage score much higher? Customers will become someone’s loyal fan. We have to make sure that is us and not our competitor. Assume that the customer’s expectations and perceptions of what they consider outstanding service will keep changing. We have to keep up with the change but are we doing it?

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The New Year’s resolutions concept is ridiculous, but only because we are weak, lazy, inconsistent and lacking in discipline. Apart from those small barriers to execution of desires, the concept works a treat. The idea of a new start is not bad in itself and we can use the Gregorian calendar fantasy, to mark a change in the year where new things are possible. We learn as we go along and we add experience from year to year to hopefully make life easier. So as a presenter what would be possible?

There are around 4.4 million podcasts around the world. Blogs are in the billions now, video content is going crazy, live streaming is rampant. Every single which way, we are under assault from competitor content marketing on steroids. In addition, there is all of the advertising content coming at us through every medium. Will it diminish? No. What does it mean for us in business?

Personal reputation will be built through our efforts to cut through all of the clatter competing with us. People are consuming information on small screens and are deluged with competing content. The experience is transitory, because the next deluge is coming down the pike. How do we linger long in people’s memories? Well we don’t. Even the few who see our content soon move on. In offices, people sitting next to each other send emails rather than talk. Phone calls put a dread fear into those younger colleagues entering the workplace. The anonymity of the texting facility is preferred to human contact. We are becoming increasingly impersonal, as we are fixated with our internet connected devices.

In business though we need the human touch. We want to do business with people we can judge are a safe option as a business partner. We can check out their social media to get a sense of what they are about. We can watch their videos to get a better idea of who they are and what they know. This is all still rather remote and at arms length. We don’t do business that way. We want to look them in the eye, to read their body language, to gauge their voice tone, to judge their intelligence through their mastery of the spoken word. AI can write your posts for you, but when presenting on stage it is just you baby and you had better have the goods. We want to see what we are getting.

To get cut through, we need to be standing in front of as many audiences as possible. Yes, we can attend networking events as a participant and we should, but we should be striving to do better than that. We should be hogging the limelight, a titan astride the stage, commanding attention and delivering powerful messages. That means seeking every opportunity to speak we can possibly manufacture, being proactive in promoting ourselves, unabashed about pushing our personal brand.

Yes, there will be haters. Two of my staff attended an American Chamber function recently and some helpful fellow attendee started laying into me about my social media profile and prolific posting behaviour. They being very loyal staff were really upset about this, told me about it and were obviously frustrated regarding what to do about it. I asked them a couple of clarifying questions. Was the individual or their company a client? No. Were they ever likely to become a client? No. Did they have a personal brand of their own? No.

I didn’t bother asking who it was, because they are obviously a know nothing, do nothing, become nothing nobody. If you want to promote yourself you have to pop your head above the parapet. Expect there will be someone who will want to kick it. That doesn't mean we should self-censor ourselves, because some nobody is jealous about what we are doing. Grasp on to the bigger picture here, have courage and go for it. Those who get it will respect you, haters will hate you, no matter what you do.

Public speaking is the last bastion for those who want to take their personal presence to the top. We are being flooded by information around us, so we need to look for chances to break free from the crowd and establish ourselves as the expert in our field. It means putting ourselves out there to be judged, but we are going to be judged anyway, so let’s control our own destiny. In 2025, resolve to do as much speaking as you possibly can and create as many opportunities as possible to promote your personal brand.

Of course, AI can create a vast number of talks for competitors and can drown the market in content. What makes the difference though is our the sharing of our experiences and the personal stories we can tell. The AI cannot match this personal authentic factor and we can escape the velocity of the vanilla content which AI produces so effortlessly. This is how we can stand out and be memorable.

When we read text, we can tell this was authored by AI. Audiences will soon start to recognise speech content created by AI and they will immediately discount it and the person delivering it. In a way, it is a golden chance to standout amongst the AI Lilliputians. Don’t wait for people to clamour on your door to give talks. Get out there and seek those opportunities for yourself and keep polishing your abilities

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351 My Boss Isn't Listening

f you reading this title and thinking “this has nothing to do with my leadership”, you might want to think again. We hear this comment a lot from the participants in our training. They complain that the boss doesn’t talk to them enough because they are too busy, don’t have much interest in their ideas or do not seek their suggestions. In this modern life, none of these issues from staff should be surprising. There have been two major tectonic plate shifts in organisations over the last twenty years. One has been the compression of many organisational layers into a few. The other has been the democratization of information access. Bosses have been struggling to keep up.

When we had more layers in our company structures, leaders matured like a fine wine. They rose up the ladder in small increments, over an extended period of time and were groomed for responsibility. There were assistants aplenty to do mundane, time consuming tasks. The striping out of the layers, for the sake of cost cutting and “efficiencies”, has thrown this world off its axis.

The fewer layers means the jumps are larger, the responsibilities greater and no assistants. Boss busyness has resulted in less subordinate coaching and delegation getting done. Explanations have been replaced with directives – “do this, do that”. Bosses don’t delegate much anymore, because they are time poor. They don’t have the bandwidth to explain, so they say to themselves, “it will be quicker if I do it myself”. Does this scenario sound familiar at all?

The internet has made information instantly available and free. Boss monopolisation of information is not as easy or replicable as in the past. The amount of information emerging everyday has become a massive flood tide against which resistance is useless. Bosses cannot be in command of its entirety, so they have to rely on others much more than before. They need their subordinate’s help, but the sting in the tail is that they are not doing enough about accessing that help.

Subordinates have good information, get ideas, are closer to the market, collect the most up to date experience and produce insights. Harassed time poor bosses have no time to seek out these ideas and bring these insights out into the open. They don’t create the time required to coach. They do delegation, but in a way guaranteed to fail, because they won’t invest the time to sell the delegation.

The consequence is that subordinates hesitate to engage with their boss, because they see how distracted and frantic they are already. When they do talk to the boss, it is all formulistic around reporting on progress on the various projects being worked on. Bosses don’t bother to enquire about the other key things going on in their subordinates lives. They fail to seek ideas and innovations because they are already preoccupied with their own work. They hover between distracted and selective listening. On a slow day, they might stray into the zone of attentive listening, but that would be a rarity in a year long period.

In fact, bosses tend to excel at pretending to be listening, because they are brilliant at multi-tasking. They are mentally fixated on something else, while they are talking to their subordinates on a completely different topic. Does this ring a bell? They are listening for key items which will be of interest to them and they are tossing out everything else. The subordinate doesn’t feel they are actually being listened to at all. They don’t feel it is attentive listening, let alone empathetic listening. They draw the conclusion that their actual perceived worth and value to the boss is pretty low. They get discouraged and soon just stop inputting ideas into the system.

If you have not been hit up with an idea from one of your subordinates in the last month, take a moment and reflect on exactly when was the last time that happened? The chances are it has been a long time between drinks. The reason is probably that you are not really engaging with the team and making sure they feel they are being listened to. They need to know that their ideas have value, that you are recognising their contribution. They want to see their ideas being put into application. Are you doing this? Are you really listening?

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350 The Rule Of Three

Our financial year ended in August and we were up over 20% on the previous year’s revenue results. I should have been ebullient, chipper, sanguine, fired up for the new year, but I wasn’t. Was it because we were back to zero again, as we all faced the prospect of the new financial year? That sinking feeling of , “last year was hard and here we go again, but this time with an even higher target”. Maybe that was it, but it was hard to tell. There were three other things which were gnawing away at me, regarding incidents which happened the previous week. Sales is an emotional roller coaster, we all know that. Well knowing that and being able to deal with the emotional downers is another thing altogether. I am a positive, upbeat person, for whom the glass is always half full. My glass got severely drained and it is still bugging me.

I had a pitch for a client’s business to help their sale’s effort. Actually they said they wanted a “transformation programme”. I had met the CEO previously and had understood what he was after. I came back to him with a comprehensive proposal. In the interim, a new HR person was recruited and I was informed were now going to have a five entrant beauty parade.

They had various needs. They wanted transformation for their senior leaders, middle level sales managers and also wanted an internal trainer-the-trainer functionality, because the size of their sale force. That cost would preclude an externally delivered vendor solution.

I gave them that transformation formula. I even brought all of the training materials to the pitch, so they could see the professionalism we offer. I went through in detail what each group would need if they wanted to transform the business. That week the HR guy wrote to me and said we didn’t get the business.

I had no idea why, but I did know I wouldn’t find out the real reason by talking to the HR guy. All I would get would be vagary. I needed to seek out the CEO directly and get some feedback. We rarely ever lose pitches, so I was a bit perplexed. To be honest, my ego was bruised, hurting and I found this news depressing. The point here is that although I know intellectually, that sales is an emotional rollercoaster, it doesn’t make much difference in the moment when you don’t get the deal.

The second piece of bad news was a delay in commencing a project. I had done a similar project for their company and they asked me to come back and do another one. That last project was a real nightmare. I was dealing with a young staff member who proved to be very demanding and sucked up a lot more of my time than was expected. Frequent changes were de rigueur and often without much actual requirement, except for whim.

Frankly, I was a bit gun shy to go again. However, it was a different member of staff this time, again quite young, but I agreed. Deja vu. Very demanding, very picky, but despite recurring nightmares about last time, I decided I wouldn’t throw in the towel and would tough it out. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger type of thing.

Then I got the email telling me to put the project on hold. I am guessing they were shopping the project around and were putting me on ice. I was wondering what was the issue? Was this a generational thing? Both individuals were quite young in business. You have to have some degree of experience, to have perspective and to know how to judge what you are looking at. Is this why there is a gap between what we were both looking at?

Another deeper thought occurred to me. Am I secretly blowing it up, because I actually I don’t want to do it? I know how much time it required last time and it looked like we were going down the exact same path again? I was wondering, what was my psychology here? Was I trying to get out of doing it? Or was I too old and inflexible to deal with these demanding young whippersnapper pups? That was a depressing prospect.

The third one was a case of sports negotiating. This is an ego trip for buyers, who like to see who is the sheik of the souk, the biggest wheeler and dealer, the cleverest negotiator, the bargain hunter extraordinaire. They like to play a little game of “beat down the supplier” to show how tough they are. Okay, you do run into that from time to time, but on this occasion it came from an unexpected source.

You meet people in business who are attractive, charismatic, your type of person. This buyer was like that. We have a lot in common and I like the cut of his jib. He asked for some training previously and I sent him my proposal. He came back with a counter offer that was at a steep discount. I like the guy and reluctantly agreed, because it was the first business with his company. I thought , “well once he experiences our quality, he will pay the right price”. My big mistake right there.

So I delivered the training and then found out that the next round will be done by someone I knew who used to work with us as a contract trainer. This guy has a full time job in HR and does some training on the side. That was another red flag. There is no comparison in the quality of what is being delivered here, but I started to see where the client’s negotiation pricing benchmark was coming from.

So he subsequently asked me for some one-on-one coaching for presentations. I sent him my proposal and he came back with what he thought the price should be. The language he used in the email was the same as the last email and so another red flag appeared. I asked myself, why is this guy nickel and diming me? The quality of the training he got from me last time was at the top of the tree. So I felt his haggling was insulting and saying our quality wasn’t appreciated. I also thought we had a better relationship that that. This time, I stood my ground, defended my quality, our brand. I answered him that if he wanted the best, then this is the number. As far as I am concerned, this time, there will be no discounting of even one yen. Subsequent silence on his part.

So what do we take away from all of this.

Despite the many years we have all been in sales we need to prepare for cyclical depression. I should have known that there is going to be an inevitable downer associated with the start of the new year. I have to remind myself that my team will be feeling the same way, so I needed to work on boosting all of our emotions to move to positive ground. Just kicking off “as usual” in the new financial year won’t cut it. I needed to make an intervention.

I told my team, “no” isn’t “no”. It is just “no” to this offer in this format, in this budget cycle, in this economic situation. I needed to tell myself that too. I need to separate my ego from the non-acceptance of our offers. There may be a number of reasons why the pitches failed and I needed to find out what was the mismatch between what I thought they needed and what they actually chose.

I discovered my new found buddy was actually no buddy. Where possible, I like to make my clients my friends. I thought he would be in that category. By the way, in his industry, his firm’s fees are very stiff and they don’t discount them at all. What I realised was his value system substantially differed from mine. He wants to “win” the negotiation. I am focused on building partnerships that concentrate on the re-order, not the one off discounted deal. We have a strong brand to defend and the way to do that is to draw a line in the sand on what you believe your value is worth. So he was moved into the acquaintance basket. Not long after, he up and quit as President and suddenly moved to Saudi Arabia, so he eventually disappeared altogether. I still feel unhappy, but I do feel better about standing my ground.

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I was invited to an English Speech contest for Middle School students. The students must have home grown skills and are not eligible to compete if they have spent more than six months abroad, in an English speaking environment. This was pretty grand affair. The organisation running it is run by students at university, who took part in the contest themselves when they were in Middle School. Many of the graduates become business patrons and supporters as they work their way up in their business careers. It a perfect Japanese storm. Japan loves uniforms and the organising body had that covered and Japan loves formality and there was plenty of that on display too. There were some significant lessons on offer for presenters as well.

One of the sponsoring countries had their Ambassador there to present a prize and give a speech. Extolling the virtues of his country and its educational opportunities for these keen students of English is a natural fit. What wasn’t so natural was that he had to read his speech. I have been a diplomat, yet I see this time and time again - Ambassadors who are poor public speakers. Anyone in that position, for that type of occasion who has to read his speech, qualifies as a poor pubic speaker in my book.

By contrast Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado gave a splendid speech, alternating between English and Japanese. She wasn’t reading it, the content was relevant and interesting. When you are a member of the Imperial family there is tremendous expectation on you and she could have chosen the safe route and have read her speech. Yet, she gave her remarks without notes and spoke freely. It was so much more powerful and connected with her audience. The toast was given by a senior Government official, who did so in excellent English and without any notes either. The only one who couldn’t give his speech without reading it, was the one native speaker involved. Rather ironic I thought.

Then we had the three finalists give their talks. Of course they had memorised their speeches. As Middle School students living in Japan it would be unlikely they would be able to do anything less. A five minute speech is a long time to memorise a speech, but they all did it brilliantly. If the Japanese education system does one thing well, it is rote memorisation. The final speech was given by the winner and it was very surprising. Also surprisingly, the three finalists were all boys, where normally this is an area of education where girls usually do better.

The English pronunciation of the finalist was certainly not as good as the second and third place winners. You would think that would disqualify him for winning but it didn’t for a number of very important reasons. When he started speaking I was thinking that his pronunciation wasn’t so good, so how did he manage to win? What followed was a winning combination of factors. We can learn a lot from a fifteen year old Middle School student from the backblocks of Wakayama Prefecture.

His theme was about him trying to improve his poor pronunciation which was congruent with who he was. In other words he was being authentic and appropriate in the eyes of his audience and so he could connect with them. The other boys told stories too but this boy included dialogue with his grandmother in his recounting of his story and this added that additional element of drawing us into the action. When he spoke he did something more than the other contestants.

He spoke with his whole being. The other two finalists with better English pronunciation used their voices, some small gestures and some facial expressions in their talks. The winner however was speaking with his whole body language lined up behind his words. He was moving in a relaxed way that was congruent with his message. He sounded more natural, even though it was a totally canned speech. He wasn’t the best English speaker in the contest, but he was the best communicator in English. That difference is huge. I found the same thing with my Japanese. I started by worrying about linguistic perfection but discovered it didn't matter. Even if my vocabulary was limited, my pronunciation unreliable and my grammar garbled, the audience came with me into my story, when I delivered it the right way.

As adults, in business, we can decide to avoid reading our speeches at all costs. Thinking about our audience when we craft our talk is critical. In the delivery, we should be authentic. That means we don’t worry about occasionally mispronouncing words or stumbling over phrases. We are focused in our delivery on bringing our total body language, our passion, to the subject. We don’t get hung up on perfection, because we are focused on communication. If we do that, then we will be successful in getting our messages across.

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The supervisor has super vision. The leader knows more. The captain makes the calls. The best and the brightest know best. The cream rises to the top. We accept that there will be leaders either our “superiors” or “the first among equals”. We put leaders up on a pedestal, we expect more from them than we expect from ourselves. We judge them, appraise them, measure them, discuss them.

When you become a leader what do you find? There are rival aspirant leaders aplenty waiting in the wings to take over. They have the elbows out to shove the current leader aside and replace them. Organisations seem to be stacked with politicians who are excellent at ingratiating themselves with the higher ups and climbing over the bodies of their rivals to get to the top. Their political nous seems to be in inverse proportion to their lack of real leadership ability.

Given we have much flatter organisations today and the correspondent pressure to do more faster and better with less, the pressure on leaders is at an all time high. The super leader is bullet proof, never makes a mistake and sums up the situation perfectly. They are also a pain to work for. Followers don’t deal well with perfection. This is mainly because it is fake, because no one is perfect. It is a leader charade, a marketing effort, a clever attempt to maintain their position power.

We never feel close to people like that, because there is no way in for us to be close to them. They are always separated from us by their self important self-image. We cannot identify with them because while they project they are perfect, we are only too aware of our own failings. We don’t like perfect people because they make us feel inadequate and uncomfortable. They seem nothing like us, so there is felt to be very little in common.

The irony is that as leaders, the less perfect we try to project ourselves, the more effective we will be in winning over followers. Yes, absolutely, we have to be competent, but we don’t have to be perfect. We have the have the goods but we don’t have to be a pain. By admitting our foibles and failings, we provide a way in for our followers to identify with us. When your basic premise is “I am perfect”, then you have to invest a lot of energy in backing that claim up and maintaining the perfectly assembled facade.

On the other hand, you can say I am imperfect, but I still bring plenty of value to my followers and the organisation. You are confident enough to say you are not Mr. or Ms. Perfect. People lacking in confidence often try to appear something they are not, because they are not confident to show others their weaknesses. I was exactly like that for a very long time.

When I was younger, I thought I had to be the best, brightest, smartest, toughest, quickest and the hardest worker. I thought all of this was necessary, because I didn’t know how to be vulnerable. I was raised in a typical Aussie macho environment in Brisbane, where men had a clearly defined role and weakness wasn’t any part of it. How about your case?

As you move through your career you meet leaders who don’t make any claims about how great they are and their teams love them. They don’t strut around trying to prove they are the best and they just get on with helping others succeed. They are comfortable within their own skin and having nothing to prove to anyone. They get the job done like a duck on water. Above the surface it looks like they are just gliding along, without any effort being made, while the legs are working away under the waterline.

The previous Mayor of Yokohama Fumiko Hayashi was relating a story about her time as a manager in BMW. She was unafraid to appear less than perfect, to encourage the men working for her to help her achieve the firm’s goals. She later became president of BMW, Tokyo Nissan Auto sales and the Daiei supermarket chain - all bastions of male management.

She was able to project her vulnerability and yet succeed in a male dominated Japan business world. I don’t think this had anything to do with the fact she was a woman. I can think of another example right now of another extremely successful Japanese woman, who just projects ice in the veins, vicious, steely, killer toughness. The out-machoing the men in the room way to the top. This domination approach is one way of doing it and I have worked for plenty of men like that. I never liked them, respected them or was motivated by them. I thought they were jerks. Hayashi san however was able to be vulnerable and get others to help her and this is the lesson we can all learn.

By being able to be vulnerable, we establish a relationship with our team where they feel comfortable. They still respect our ability, experience, dedication, hard work and our focus on helping them to succeed. None of that goes away just because we don’t go around projecting we are superman or superwoman.

So let’s be confident and vulnerable at the same time. If we do that, gathering followers will become easier and leading will become more enjoyable and successful.

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Poor customer service really irritates us. When we bump into it, we feel betrayed by the firm. We have paid our money over and we expect excellent customer service to come with the good or service attached to it. We don’t see the processes as separate. In this Age of Distraction, people’s time has become compressed. They are on the internet through their hand held devices pretty much permanently. We all seem to have less time than before, so we become cross if things from the internet don’t load or load too slowly. If we have to wait we don’t like it, regardless of what the circumstance. We are perpetually impatient. Here is a deadly breeding ground for customer dissatisfaction There are five elements usually driving customer unhappiness with us. 1. Process We need processes to run our organisations on a daily basis. This includes how we communicate and align the features and value of the offering with the customer’s expectations. In constant drives for great efficiencies, we tend to mould the processes to suit the organisation’s needs, in preference to the customers needs. Japan is a classic in having staff run the business based on what is in the manual. If a decision requires any flexibility, this is usually dismissed because the staff only do what the manual says. As the customer, we often want things at the odds with the manual or we want something that diverges from what the manual says. Take a look at your own procedures. Are there areas where you can allow the staff to exercise their own judgment? Can you empower them to solve the customer’s problem, regardless of what is in the manual. Our processes often become covered in barnacles over the years and from time to time we need to scrape them off and re-examine why we insist things can only be done in this way. 2. Roles Who does what in the organisation. This includes agreement on tasks and responsibilities and holding people accountable to these. Japanese staff, in my experience, want their accountabilities very precisely specified and preferably to be made as tiny as possible. They are scared of making a mistake and being held accountable if things go wrong. They have learnt that the best way of doing that is to become as small a target as possible. The usual role split works well, but what happens when people leave, are off sick or away on holiday? This is when things go awry. Covering absent colleagues requires flexibility and this is not a well developed muscle in Japan. What usually happens is everything is held in abeyance until the responsible person turns up again. Customers don’t respect those timelines and they imagine that everyone working for the firm is responsible for the service rather than only the absent colleague. We need a strong culture of we pick up the fallen sword and go to battle to help our customer, if we are the only person around. This is particularly the case with temp staff. They are often answering phone calls or dealing with drop in visitors and they need to be trained on being flexible and fixing the customer issue. 3. Interpersonal Issues How customer service personnel get along with each other and other departments is key. This includes such things as attitude, teamwork and loyalty. Sales overselling and over promising customers drives the back office team crazy. They have to fulfil the order and it is usually in a time frame that puts tons of pressure on the team. This is how we get the break down of trust and animosity reigning inside the machine. This leads to a lack of communication and delivery sequences can get derailed. When colleagues are angry, they tend not to answer the customer’s phone call as sweetly as we might hope. We need to be careful to balance out these contradictions and have protocols in place where we can minimise the damage. What are your protocols and does everyone know and adhere to them. Now would be a good time to check up on that situation. 4. Direction How the organisation defines and communicates the overall and departmental vision, mission and values is key. This is the glue. We need this when things are not going according to plan. When we grant people the freedom to uphold all of these highfalutin words in the vision statement with their independent actions, then we introduce the needed flexibility to satisfy clients. Are your people able to take these guiding statements issued from on high and then turn them into solutions for clients? 5. External Pressures The resources available to the customer service departments such as time and money become critical to solving customer issues. How much control do we give to the people on the front line to solve problems for our customers? Often we weight them down with rules, regulations and procedures, which make them inflexible. Check how much freedom you have granted to your team to fix a problem for a client? You may find that during the last recession you wound that whole process in very tight and forgot to loosen it off, after times got better. We need to get under the waterline and check for a build up of barnacles impeding our customer service provision. Scrape them off wherever you find them and have a steady routine to always take a look and see what has built up over time. Invariably you will find something that can be removed or streamlined, that the customer will appreciate. Remember, if you can do this and your rivals can’t or don’t, that is a big advantage in the customer satisfaction stakes.

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Athletes and coaches spend a lot of time watching their team’s performance. Strengths and weaknesses are sought in order to amplify the former and eliminate the latter. Close scrutiny is applied to key moments, crucial transitions and pivotal points. Presenting should be no different. Cast your mind back though, to the last twenty presentations you have attended and ask yourself how many speakers were recording themselves for later analysis? I would assert that the answer would be either zero or very close to zero. Why would that be? High performance athletes are constantly using video to check on what they are doing. Why don’t high performance leaders, experts, executives, industry influencers, and assorted gurus do the same thing?

These days the technology is very good. A simple video camera and tripod investment is a minor affair. The camera microphone itself at a certain distance is fine or you can add a shotgun microphone if needed. You just set it up turn it on and forget about it until the end. You may have to be careful with the arrangements such that no one in the audience will be in the shot and you need to tell everyone that is the case in order to remove privacy concerns. Well if it is all this easy why aren’t more speakers doing this?

The smarter ones are. I often coach speakers before major presentations and we always use video. I can tell them what they are doing that needs improvement, but there is nothing more powerful than having that information pointed out to you and seeing it at the same time. If it is just you shooting the video yourself and there is no coach review possibility, there is still enough material on the video for you to make improvements in your presentation.

How do you review the presentation? Look at four possibilities for the next time. What can you delete, add, reduce or amplify? There may be habits you have that detract from the persuasion power of the message. Perhaps you are mumbling or umming and ahing. Confidence sells and to sound confident you must be clear and consistent in your delivery. Look for tell taLe body language tics that have a negative connotation. You might be swaying around in a distracting way that competes with what you are saying. Or you maybe be fidgeting, or striding around the stage showing off to everyone how nervous you are. All of these habits weaken your message with your audience.

Are you engaging the audience with your eye contact? My Japanese history professor at university would deliver every lecture staring at the very top of the back wall and never engage in any eye contact with the students. Don’t be like that. Use every second of the presentation to lock eyes with members of your audience for about six seconds, one at a time and in random order. Are you using congruent gestures during you explanation or no gestures or too many gestures or permanent gestures? Gestures are there to be points of emphasis, so hold for a maximum of fifteen seconds and then turn them off.

Video is also excellent for considering what you might have done, looking for things you could have added to the presentation. Maybe there was a chance to use a prop or introduce a slide to support a point or call for more audience participation by getting them to raise their hands in response to a question. I was giving a talk recently on “AI in the Workplace” and I showed two paintings labelled A and B and asked the audience which one was painted by AI. They had to raise their hands to vote. This was more interesting than just showing them a slide with a painting done by AI. Roughly half of the audience went for either A or B. In fact they were both done by A1 so it was a bit of ruse, but very effective to drive home the point I was making.

If you cannot organise a video or if the hosts are not cooperative, then have someone you trust give you feedback. Don’t ask them a broad question such as “how was it?’. We need to be more specific. “Did my opening grab the attention of the audience?”, “Were my main points clear and supported with credible evidence”, “Was I engaging my audience with good quality eye contact throughout?”, etc. Give them a checklist before you start so you can guide them in what to look for. Unless they are a public speaking expert themselves, they won’t know how to help you best.

In a year, most people don’t get that much opportunity to speak in public, so it very hard to get the right frequency to enable improvement. If you could do the same presentation five times in a row, by the last one you would be on fire, but that hardly ever happens. This is why the video or expert feedback becomes so useful. You can review the presentation at your leisure and improve on your professional public speaking capabilities for the next outing

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Leadership is a swamp. Do leaders have to be perfect? It sounds ridiculous to expect that, because none of us are perfect. However, leaders often act like they are perfect. They assume the mantle of position power and shoot out orders and commands to those below them in the hierarchy. They derive the direction forward, make the tough calls and determine how things are to be done. There are always a number of alternative ways of doing things, but the leader says, “my way is correct, so get behind it”. Leaders start small with this idea and over the course of their career they keep adding more and more certainty to what they say is important, correct, valuable and needed to produce the best return on investment.

With a constant army of sycophants in the workforce, the leader can begin to believe their own press. There is also the generational imperative of “this is correct because this was my experience”, even when the world has well and truly moved on beyond that experience. If you came back from World War Two as an officer, you saw a certain type of leadership being employed and the chances are that was why there were so many “command and control” leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. The Woodstock generation questioned what had been accepted logic and wanted a different boss-employee relationship, where those below had more input into the direction of the company. Technology breakthroughs and the internet made hard skill warriors the gurus of leadership. Steve Jobs abusing and belittling his engineers was accepted, because he was so prescient and smart.

Technology has however also democratized the workplace. Thanks to search engines and now AI, the boss is no longer the only one with access to key information. Being really smart and even mildly abusive isn’t acceptable anymore. The boss-employee relationship has changed. It is going to keep changing too, especially here in Japan where there are 1.3 jobs for every person working.

Recruiting and retaining people becomes a key boss skill. The degree of engagement of the team makes a big difference in maintaining existing customer loyalty and the needed brand building to attract new customers. Social media will kill any organisation providing sub-standard service, because the damage travels far, fast and wide. The role of the boss has changed, but have the bosses been able to keep up?

Recent Dale Carnegie research on leaders found four blind spots, which were hindering leaders from fully engaging their teams. None of these were hard skill deficiencies. All four focused on people skills.

1. Leaders must give their employees sincere praise and appreciation

We just aren’t doing it enough. With the stripping out of layers in organisations, leaders are doing much bigger jobs with fewer resources. Time is short and coaching has been replaced by barking out commands. Work must get done fast because there is so much more coming behind it. We are all hurtling along at a rapid clip. The boss can forget that the team are people, emotional beings, not consistent

revenue producing machines. Interestingly, 76% of the research respondents said they would work harder if they received praise and appreciation from their boss. Take a reality check on yourself. How often to do you recognise your people and give them sincere praise?

1. Leaders do well to admit when they are wrong

The scramble up the greasy pole requires enormous self-belief and image building. Mistakes hinder rapid career climbs and have to be avoided. Often this is done by shifting the blame down to underlings. The credit for work well done, of course, flows up to the genius boss who hogs all the limelight. The team are not stupid. They see the selfishness and respond by being only partially engaged in their work. In 81% of the cases, the research found that bosses who can admit they made mistakes are more inspirational to their team members.

1. Effective leaders truly listen, respect and value their employees’ opinions

Who knows the most? Often the boss assumes that is them, because they have been anointed “boss”. They have more experience, better insights and a greater awareness of where the big picture is taking the firm. So why listen to subordinate’s mediocre and half baked ideas? Well, engaging people means helping them feel they are being listened to by their boss. Sadly, 51% of the survey respondents said their boss doesn’t really listen to them. Ask yourself, am I really focusing 100% of my attention on what my team are telling me or am I mentally multi-tasking and thinking about other things at the same time, especially what I am goi g to say?

1. Employees want leaders they can trust to be honest with themselves and others

There are two elements to this – external and internal reliability.

External reliability is the boss does what the boss says they will do. They “walk the talk”. In the survey, 70% said their boss couldn’t be depended upon to be honest and trustworthy when dealing with others. That is a pretty shocking and damning result. The internal reliability focused on being consistent with your own core beliefs. Again, 70% said their boss fails in this regard – another total shocker!

Obviously, bosses are not employing their full self-awareness about how they are being perceived. You get back the 360 degree survey and there is your blood everywhere and we can argue people have it wrong, but perception is reality. We need to pay more attention to each of these leadership blind spots if we want to engage our team members. Only engaged team members can deliver the highest levels of service to clients and that must be our aim. To achieve that, we have to take a cold hard look at ourselves and lift our game, no matter how painful that might prove.

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Bad service is a brand killer. This is a controversial piece today, because I am singling out one race, one group in isolation. It is also a total generalisation and there will be exceptions where what I am saying is absolute rubbish. There will be other races and groups, who are equally guilty as well, who I am not singling out or covering, so I am demonstrating a blatant and singular bias. I know all that, but let the hellfire rain down on my head, I am just sick of some of this lousy service here in Tokyo.

It is a mystery to me how the service in some Chinese restaurants here can be so oblivious to Japanese standards of omotenashi. Omotenashi is that sublime combination of anticipating and exceeding client’s expectations, that has made Japanese service so famous. I love Chinese cuisine and I enjoy the high quality standard of Chinese food in Japan. They have the best, most expensive quality, very safe ingredients and really great Chinese chefs here. When I go to places in Tokyo like Akasaka Shisen Hanten in Hirakawacho the service is very, very good. My observation is that is probably the case because the serving staff are Japanese or Chinese who have grown up here.

Whenever I go to some “all Chinese” affairs, with only Chinese staff, I find the service is disappointing. I had this experience again recently in the Azabu Juban. It was a first and last time to go to this particular restaurant. The food taste wasn’t the issue, in fact some dishes were delicious. It was the total disinterest on the part of the serving staff and their manager. You don’t feel any particular need to go back there, when there are a hundred other restaurants within a two-minute walk.

This makes no sense to me, because when I am Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan, the restaurant service is usually very good. Obviously, the more expensive the restaurant, the better the service of course. So, there is nothing inherently missing in the service mentality and capability, that couldn’t be applied in Japan. Why then is it so lacking in omotenashi?

I remember reading a purported Chinese saying that, “A man who cannot smile, should not open a shop”. Obviously, some of the Chinese staff working in these establishments I am complaining about, have never heard of that piece of ancient Chinese wisdom. Smiling, making you feel welcome, treating you well are a big fat zero in my experience. The way of serving is very perfunctory, even rough, in some cases. Japanese style restaurant table service is generally very much more refined. What is driving this difference and what does it mean for the rest of us in the service business?

Perhaps some of the Chinese staff we are seeing serving in Japan are students. According to the media reports, many are actually working almost full time. They are not professionally trained service staff, in the sense that this is their career. Coming from certain parts of China and from different socio-economic backgrounds, they may have had no exposure to what good levels of service looks like.

I went to China for the first time in January 1976 and have been back a number of times over the years. I studied Chinese language, history and politics at Griffith University’s Modern Asian studies faculty. I like many aspects of Chinese culture and studied Tai Qi Quan for about ten years with my excellent teacher, Cordia Chu in Brisbane, before I moved back to Japan. I haven’t been back to China for a while, but I don’t recall the service being particularly bad when I was there last. Perhaps some of these local serving staff living here in Japan only ever eat Chinese food, so they are never exposed to how Japanese restaurants serve their clients. I find that hard to believe though.

The thing that puzzles me most is that despite the fact these Chinese staff are working in Japan and are floating in a deep ocean of omotenashi, some don’t seem to picking up any ideas on how to treat their clients. Why would that be? The managers are also Chinese, so they are responsible for leading their staff in the restaurants. Are they oblivious to the service market in Japan and how it functions? Are they just poor managers, who cannot place their operation in a broader context of local service standards. Are they inflexible and incapable of understanding the lifetime value of a repeater client?

This is a very competitive restaurant scene here, has more Michelin starred restaurants than Paris, so you would expect that everyone, including some of these Chinese run establishments, would be doing everything they can to build a loyal, repeater client base.

This challenges me to consider what we are doing in our own case, with our customer facing service. If I am going to bag some of the Chinese restaurant’s service here in Tokyo, then I had better consider our own standards at the same time.

We are a gaishikei or foreign run establishment here. I am not Japanese, but I am the boss. Am I operating the company service provision in terms of what I am used to in Australia, my home country? Am I doing an Australian version of what some of these Chinese restaurants are doing here in Tokyo in their service business? Are we in fact, providing enough omotenashi service to our own clients? Could we do better in this regard?

I find a lot of Japanese service very polite, but also rather impersonal and almost robotic sometimes. Compared to the poorer versions of some of these Chinese restaurant service offerings however, I will take the Japanese polite, impersonal, robotic option every time. How can we see our service businesses in a different light? How can we make sure we are not only providing omotenashi levels of service, but are going beyond that, to offer a more personalised experience? Maybe we need to audit what we are doing, to see if we are missing some vital areas for improvement.

I really like Elios Locanda Italian restaurant in Hanzomon, because I am treated like one of the family. This is the feeling transmitted through their Japanese staff. Elio himself, is not always there, all the time, but that authentic Italian family style service is there. He is setting the service standard and the Japanese staff are following it. I see this example and I think to myself, “it is possible to have a more personal level of service here, transmitted through your Japanese staff”. My family and I have been regulars at Elios since we returned to Tokyo from Osaka in 2001. Talk about the repeater, life time value of the customer. They have seen my son grow from a baby, to a young man in that time. We are part of the family and this is the key - we were made to feel like that from Day One.

How about your service provision standards? Are you making your clients feel like part of the family? What is your repeater rate? How many people continue to buy from you, year after year? Are you tracking this? Do you know what the average buying continuity rate is with your customers? When we see bad service, it is always a good reminder to make sure that what we are doing ourselves is at the required omotenashi level.

If you are not sure what I am talking about with this omotenashi thing, here is my recommendation. Go to a very upscale Japanese kaiseki restaurant preferably in Kyoto or a Toraiya traditional sweets shop and remind yourself what excellent service looks like. Then reflect on what you are offering in service terms. Break down your every touch point with your customers and clients and see if there isn't a lot more omotenashi that can be introduced in each case. We can always learn from our own mistakes and from the mistakes of others when it comes to providing better service. The point is to observe carefully, change quickly and commit to massive improvement.

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Public speaking takes no prisoners. I was attending a Convention in Phuket and the finale was the closing inspirational speech for the week of events. I had to deliver the same speech myself at the Ho Chi Minh Convention a few years ago. This is a daunting task. Actually, when your audience is chock full of presentation’s training experts from Dale Carnegie, it is simply terrifying. The length of the speech is usually around ten minutes, which though it seems shortish, can feel quite long and challenging to design. Being an inspirational speech, it adds that extra degree of difficulty. It comes up though. The organisers ask you to deliver the closing, rousing call to action to fire the troops up for another year. Are you ready to meet the challenge?

There are some key components we must assemble. There must be one clear and compelling message. In a speech like this, we can’t rattle off the twenty things everyone should be doing. They can never remember them all and the whole effort becomes too diffused. It is a single call to action, so what is the action or idea we want to propose. We might use slides or we may not, it will really depend on what we want to say. Often in these cases, we can use images very effectively without any words and we supply the narrative during our comments. Photos and images are powerful for capturing attention and people’s emotions.

A call to action is an emotional commitment that goes beyond logic. We need to hit the bullseye of what grabs people’s hearts. This is delivered through stories. We take people on a journey of our construction. We plan it such that it leads them to feel what we want them to feel and to think what we want them to think. This planning creates a funnel effect where we keep pulling people back to our central message.

Storytelling technique is a terrific vehicle for the speaker to lead people’s hearts and minds. We populate the story with people who are familiar to the audience. Ideally, they can see these people in their mind’s eye. They might be people they have actually met or have heard of. They may be historical events, legendary figures, VIPS, celebrities or people of note who are familiar to our audience.

In Ho Chi Minh for my closing speech at Convention, the timing was such that we had previously suffered from the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and triple nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan. I spoke with emotion about that event. About having a nuclear cloud pass over your head polluting all the drinking water. Of having massive aftershocks every day for weeks, of the relentless black churning oily water engulfing coastal communities, of the chaos and destruction. I brought that experience alive to drive home my central point.

We flesh out the surroundings of the story to make it real. We are all used to watching visual storytelling on television or in movies, so we are easily transported to a scene of the author’s creation, if the words create pictures. We describe the room or location in some detail in order to transfer minds to that place.

We place the event into a time sequence with a peg for the audience to grab hold of, to make the story come alive. We might do this by nominating the date or we might specify the season or the time of day or night. This type of context is important because it takes the listener down more layers of the story to make it more relevant. They can draw on their memory of similar occasions to approximate this story.

The delivery is where all of this comes together. It is a call to action so the speaker needs to get into high gear to make that happen. There will be an element of theatrics involved for effect. This is not some dubious, dodgy trick or variant on a parlour game to distract the punters. No, it is taking the key message and driving it hard through controlled exaggeration. Our speaker in Phuket, toward the end of his talk, dropped down to the push up position and pumped out twenty rapid fire pushups on his fingertips. I don’t know if you have ever tried this fingertip version, but it was pretty impressive for a man of his age group and was totally congruent with his key point about stress equals strength. It was dramatic, it was daring, but it also added that X factor to his talk.

There must be vocal modulation too, from conspiratorial whispers to hitting key words or phrases with tremendous intensity. Gestures will be larger than normal and more dramatic. The speaker will be eyeing the audience with great intensity, with a fire burning in their pupils of complete certainty of the veracity of the key message. There will be a level of super engagement with the audience, to the point they are cheering and responding throughout the talk rather than consolidated clapping only at the end.

Crafting a key message, a powerful call to action for an end worth pursuing and then wrapping it up in storytelling, delivered with energy and flair, is the formula for success when delivering the closing inspirational speech at your conference. Make it memorable and don’t hesitate about going BIG.

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Being the leader is no fun anymore. In most Western countries we are raised from an early age to become self-sufficient and independent. When we are young, we enjoy a lot of self-belief and drive hard along the road of individualism. School and university, for the most part, are individual, competitive environments with very little academic teamwork involved. This is changing slowly in some Universities as the importance of teamwork has been re-discovered. However, for the most part, it is still a zero-sum game, of someone is the top scholar and some are in the upper echelons of marks received and others are not. This extends into the world of work where the bell curve is used to decide who are the star players, who are in the middle and who at the bottom are going to be fired.

The modern world of work though demands different things from what we have had in the past. The sheer volume of information available is mind boggling. When I was at University, your world of knowledge was what was on the shelves of the stacks in the University library or other libraries in town. There was a physical card index system to help you find information, although browsing book spines was the fastest method of locating relevant tomes. Today, we have the entire holding of libraries digitized and available for discovery through advanced search tools. We have search engines like Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and YouTube and now AI platforms to help us find what we need to know.

There are powerful publishing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok which floodlight information to us, using crowd sourcing of knowledge. We have email connecting us globally 24/7, we have video recordings, live streaming of events, podcasts, etc., all drowning us in information. My 23 year old son’s generation have had to learn how to swim in the floodtide of data, how to analyse, synthesise, select only what is relevant, reliable and credible. Voice commands have replaced keyboards and AI is speeding up the process of access.

Even the single, most powerful savant cannot withstand this data flood, cannot keep up with the publishing platforms, cannot do it all alone. Teamwork, the distribution of labour based on finite specialties, crowd sourcing of information and ideas is now a must. Most leaders were not raised in this maelstrom of confusion and over-reaching and struggle just to keep up. We were more or less able to have a superior grasp of subjects, better information than our followers, expert authority and greater specialisation to justify us being the boss. Today, we cannot know it all or do it all by ourselves.

In any boss/follower situation, as you climb the ranks you get further and further away from the coalface and have to live the market reality absorbed by osmosis from your people. The flood of information makes that imperative even more pressing. The problem is are you and the other leaders in your organisation any good at coalescing the team’s total power? Are those at the top able to develop people further to make them highly valuable experts supporting the growth of the enterprise?

In Japan, the middle management echelon has been crushed by technology, too much data and the democratisation of data challenging their position power. Further, the speed of modern business is being propelled forward in asteroid catching slingshot mode, by instant communications and the widespread flattening of layers in organisations. In Japan, the gradual rise through the ranks, where you were coached by your bosses up the corporate rungs, until you got into a leadership position has been collapsed into only a few rungs today. Your erstwhile bosses had the time to develop their people. Today, be you expat or local, you as the boss in Japan, don’t have any time to do that.

You keep adding spinning plates to be kept in motion, as you flit from meeting to meeting, interspersed by deluge email, relentless social media and phone calls on your mobile at any hour of the day. Your “coaching time” has been compressed into barking orders and giving direction to the team. You have no time for doing much brainstorming, because you just have no time. Anyway, the brainstorming method you are using is almost 100% ineffective anyway, so it probably makes no difference. You may as well do a few more emails instead.

Actually, it does make a difference though, compared to what needs to be done. The bosses can’t do it all by themselves anymore. They don’t have all the key data and insights. They are perilously time poor, distracted, stressed and busy, busy, busy. They need to have the support of the team to get all the work done and they need the team to be engaged to care about getting it all done.

People quality is an issue and only going to get worse as Japan’s demographic decline means anyone with a pulse will be hired. People who just turn up to work in Japan, waiting for their turn to rise up through the ranks, based on when they entered the company, who are scared of their own shadow and can’t take risks are pretty much useless. These people by the way, are the majority of the workforce.

So the boss needs to be able to engage the team. This means being a great communicator, who flags the WHY all the time and makes the smallest task or simplest job seem relevant in the big scheme of things. Leaders have to be able to motivate the team through involving them in decision-making, through getting their ideas out using effective brainstorming methods, through excellent coaching of talent to help them rise.

Delegation is a powerful coaching tool hardly used for that purpose in Japan. It is corrupted by “seagull management” - the “fire orders, dump and flee” technique of the harassed boss in Japan. Because of this, it always underdelivers and underperforms. Excellent time management is a must, if bosses are to have the margin to develop their people. That activity requires good people skills and needs time. It can’t be short circuited or compressed. We have to know what is the motivator for each of our people, so we know how to align the talks and the work to be a best fit to help them advance in their careers

The days of the singular, independent, warrior hero boss are dead in Japan. The new boss is sitting atop the amalgam of the talents of the team, orchestrating the teamwork, supporting the innovations, and inspiring greatness through the actual words being spoken into the ear of each single team member. Be honest, tell me, is this what you and the other leaders are doing down at your shop? If not, then what are they doing and what should they be doing? Time to take a cold hard look at your leader cohort and if there are gaps, then get them help to fix those deficiencies.

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Sales is a nightmare. It is usually a solitary life. You head off to meet customers all day. Your occasional return to the office is to restock materials or complete some processes you can’t do on-line. Japan is a bit different. Here it is very common to see two salespeople going off to meet the client. If you are selling to a buyer, it is also common to face more than one person. This is a country of on-the-job training and consensus decision making, so the numbers involved automatically inflate.

Even in Western style operations, there is more of a tendency to send more than one person to the sales meeting. Often, there is a need for a technical person or someone with highly specialised knowledge to attend the buyers’ meeting. This can present some issues if there is no plan for the meeting. I was coaching a salesperson recently who related a horror story to me. The person in question is relatively new to sales, so still finding their way. A more experienced salesperson from a different division was joining the meeting. The intention was to provide more than one solution for the buyer. Without any prior discussion, the accompanying salesperson offered 70% off the pricing in exchange for a volume purchase, in order to grow the relationship.

Hearing this from him I was so shocked. I nearly blew my coffee out through my nose. There are so many things wrong with this vignette. These are both salespeople on a base and commission arrangement. One salesperson is hacking into the commission of the other, for a product line-up they don’t represent. This is outrageous behaviour.

If you are in that sales meeting and your partner blurts out a combustible like that, you cannot reel it back in or reduce its toxic lethality. It is stated, out on the wild now and you have to live with that statement having been uttered by your side. This was first meeting too, so the damage is even worse. Now the client automatically discounts any rack rate or stated pricing by 70%, because that is what you have trained them to do.

When you are in a first meeting in Japan, it would be reasonably rare to even get into pricing. The first meeting has some fixed requirements. The first is to build the trust with the buyer. They don’t know you, so they are suspicious. They are not sitting across from you thinking, “oh goody, here is someone who can help our business to grow”. They are not sure if your word can be trusted, whether you are smart enough to deal with them or if they like you. These outcomes take a good chunk of time to achieve and doing so in one meeting is being overly confident.

You also have to understand if there is any point in talking at all. Do you have what they need? In order to make that judgement, you must be asking them highly intelligent questions. What are they doing now? Where would they like to be? If they know that, then why aren’t they there already? What will it mean for them personally if this goes well?

We have to be running a scanner over them to understand their needs and then match it up with our catalogue of solutions. All of this takes time. We usually only get an hour with the buyer in Japan, so we need to grab as much information and insight as we possibly can before we have to high tail it out of there. Before we do so though, we must set the date and time for the follow-up meeting to present the solution. Don’t wait - do it right there and then or we may never get back into their busy, busy diary.

Back at the lab we brew up the perfect solution and craft it into a killer proposal. Now we go back and present the solution. They may want us to email it to them, but with every fibre in our body we resist that option. We never ever want to be sending a naked, unprotected proposal to the buyer. It needs us right there alongside it, to underline the value attached to the pricing and deal with any questions or misunderstandings which may emerge. We want to read their body language very carefully when they react to what we have suggested.

We only talk price in the second meeting and we never start with a discount. We offer the set price and this is the anchor that sets the terms of the discussion. We may drop the price in exchange for a volume purchase, but by 70%? That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a while in sales. As it turns out, I know the guilty party in this case, so it is even more shocking. They should have had more common sense.

The problem is they state it and there is nothing you can do. Common sense is not common. The horse has bolted for our hero in this story, but the rest of us should all take careful note.

So don’t expect that the people accompanying you to have common sense. Now this is especially the case if they are selling a different line of product from you and they have no skin in the game concerning a heavily discounted sale of your offering.

Before the meeting, set the ground rules, just in case. Pricing creates tension and some people cannot bear it. There will ensue a very uncomfortable silence but we want this. Our comrade however will feel they must say something to release the tension in the room because they cannot hack it.

Absolutely do not allow this to happen, because that tension is our bosom friend. Say this up front: “when we get to my line-up explanation, I will be the one making the offer and that includes pricing. When I state the price, absolutely do not speak. The number will generate some considerable tension in the room. Under no circumstances release that tension by adding a comment or a justification or anything else. I need that tension to make the sale. Sit there and be silent as the tomb. If you cannot do that, then don’t come with me”.

Fix the way you will both handle the components of the meeting before you get anywhere near a client. Be very direct with what you want. This is your livelihood derived from your commission we are talking about here. Don’t let an uninterested party or some useful idiot helping the buyer’s side, destroy your pricing arrangements. Once they shoot their mouth off it is too late. You have to get to them beforehand and nobble them. If you do it this way you will sell more and do it more easily.

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Japan doesn’t love crazy. In our High Impact Presentations Course we have exercises where we ask the participants to really let go of all their inhibitions and let it all hang out – and “go crazy, go over the top”. This is challenging in Japan. Normally, we are all usually very constrained when we speak in society. Our voices are very moderate, our body language is quite muted and our gestures are rather restrained.

Unfortunately, this often carries over into our public presentations. Without realising it, we find ourselves speaking in this dreadful monotone, putting everyone to sleep. Our body language is minimal and our gestures rather weak, even perfunctory.

The radical exercises we put everyone through are there to expand their range of possibilities as presenters. To do this, we really exaggerate the energy levels and scope. Of course, in its raw, uncontrolled form, it is way too much for a professional presentation.

As a specific training tool it is fine. I am often asked though, how much is too much, when it comes to being more powerful as a presenter? How much “over the top” is appropriate?

I definitely think there is a place for going “over the top” in a business presentation. The degree to which you push the envelope though is dependent on the subject, your message and the audience. There is no simple scale where the excessive bits are neatly marked in red warning lines for our calibration.

If you are giving your talk and you outraged by something, then expressing your outrage during your talk will be entirely congruent. You may do that with a higher level of voice volume, hitting certain key words harder, combined with strong body language, a matching facial expression and bigger gestures backing up the message.

You can’t keep going at that “over the top” level though, because you will wear out your audience and its real impact begins to unwind pretty quickly. Clinical, well planned bursts are more effective, because of the contrast between the storm and calm. It is a bit like classical music with its crescendos and lulls.

When presenting, our body language is very powerful and very expressive. It can really jumpstart an idea. We are firm devotees of this concept. For example, in our morning meetings or chorei, we have a couple of set pieces. Each day a different person leads the group. We go through the Vision, Mission, Values, one of Dale Carnegie’s principles, motivational quote, etc. In our Mission Statement component we say, “By providing customised business solutions, based on the Dale Carnegie Principles, we exceed our client’s expectations”. When the chorei leader says the word “exceed” everyone does their version of thrusting a pointed finger as high as possible, upward toward the sky.

At another point in the chorei we talk about our mantra, which is to “10 X our thoughts and our actions”. We used to do this by thrusting our arms across our chests, opening up the fingers of both hands, so that we are expressing the symbol of an X shape and the number ten. One of the team had the genius idea of going more over the top. So now we stand with our feet well apart and push both our arms out and upward at 45 degrees, so that the effect is to create a cross symbol, in the same shape as the letter “X”. It is a very dynamic movement and very powerful in communicating the idea behind it.

What has this got to do with presenting in public? The difficult part is to free ourselves from the limitations and constraints of normal daily conversation. Usually we are highly restrained by societal conditioning and so we need to let some pizzazz come into our presenting persona. Our daily chorei gets us used to going over the top.

How can we change what we have been doing for so many years? Let’s start small. When speaking in public, just hitting a key word very loudly or elongating its pronunciation is very dynamic. This pattern break will grab your audience’s attention. It helps us to break through all of the mental clutter and minutiae that is dominating their thoughts and preventing them from giving us their full attention. Always assume that when they enter the venue, their brains are already completely full and we have to create some space for our ideas and main points.

When we combine a key word with a very big gesture, then the amplification of that message becomes very powerful. I noticed this when I was presenting to an audience of five thousand people. The venue was large, the seats at the back were far, far away. To the top tier guests, in the very back rows, I was as big as a peanut from that distance. In this case, you have to use the whole stage, center, left and right sides and the stage apron. You have to employ very exaggerated gestures to overcome the tyranny of distance from your audience seated in the cheap seats at the back.

Props are another area where some showmanship can work well. In a speech in Japanese in Nagoya, I was making the point that Australia was very much focused on the Asian region. I decided to reverse an 18th century Meiji era slogan for effect. In the original, Japan was being encouraged to leave Asia and follow Europe. It was always written “Datsu A Nyu O”. I reversed it to “Datsu O Nyu A, meaning for Australia to stop following Europe and to follow Asia instead.

By itself, reversing the well known slogan was a powerful idea. It was a new construct for a Japanese audience to have such famous a Meiji era call to action, which they all studied at High School, reoriented to a completely new meaning. The ”over the top” contribution was to have it hand written in Japanese kanji brushstrokes, pasted on to a traditional roll such as you will often see with Japanese paintings. I attached small weights to the bottom of the roll, so that when it was unfurled, it dropped like a stone and made a slight snapping sound when fully extended. It was a very dramatic unfurling of a surprising usage of the Japanese language and culture by a foreigner. It was “over the top” but congruent. The audience reaction was immediate and strong. I had achieved my aim to reorient their thinking about Australia, through the context of my talk using some showmanship.

We can take the chance to stand out at different times. We need to pick our moments and decide how far we will push things. None of us need another vanilla presentation from some entirely forgettable speaker, but we don’t need pyrotechnics every time either. Find some spots for hitting a word hard, or using a big gesture. Use a powerful facial expression of wonder, disgust, surprise, puzzlement, joy or anger, where it is congruent with what you are saying.

“Less is more” though is a good rule and leave the amateur theatrics to the aspirant thespians. But where it works, do go “over the top” and engage your audience.

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Team building is fraught. Actually, when do we create teams? Usually we inherit teams from other people, stocked with their selections and built around their preferences, aspirations and prejudices, not ours. In rare cases, we might get to start something new and we get to choose who joins. Does that mean that “team building” only applies when we start a new team? If that were the case, then most of us would never experience building a team in our careers. This concept is too narrow. In reality, we are building our teams every day, regardless of whether we suddenly became their leader or whether we brought new members onboard or we started from scratch.

Teams are fluid. People come and go, so there is never an end point to team building. “Yeah, it’s built” would be fatal last words for a leader. Before you have even drained the champagne flute in celebration, your best performer is planning to head off to bigger and better things with your competitor.

So we are constantly adding people to the team, even if we kicked it off ourselves. New individuals arrive with their own work culture, cobbled together like a coat of many colours from their previous employment. The team has to coalesce again and again and we are the orchestra conductor. Our job is to get all the specialists to “play nice” together and in harmony. It helps to analyse what we are doing and remind ourselves that there are four stages of team building.

1. Uncertainty

If we have newly been parachuted into a team as the boss or whenever new members are injected into the existing team, we are in stage one of team building. In Japan, this is a tricky stage. If we are new, the team is uncertain of us. They have been moulded by our predecessor and have worked each other out. Here we turn up, all shiny and new with our “whacky” ideas , idiosyncrasies, foibles, penchants and talents. If we later bring in someone new, now the whole team has to regroup again. What will this person be like, are they going to be cooperative, nice, trustworthy? What will happen to my role – is it safe, will it change?

1. Anxiety

If we know in advance that there is this uncertainty stage then we can prepare for it. Often though, the “new broom” boss arrives, puffed up with their own massive self-belief, hubris, ambition and zeal. They scare the team because they blow up everyone’s comfort zone. Things start to change rapidly. Few in Japan are up for the roller coaster ride about to commence.

People’s roles start to change as the new boss reorganizes things. Performance standards are invariably raised, because the new leader is here to demonstrate their metal to their boss. Life becomes more fragile for some and they look for ways to protect themselves. In foreign multi-nationals, if things become too intense or too dire in Japan, then the real trouble starts. Senior executives at headquarters start to receive anonymous communication, telling them what a jerk this new boss is and pointing out in florid detail how they are destroying the Japan business.

In smaller Japan operations, there is a possibility some people are going to be moved out. “Am I next?”, is a permanent question in the minds of the survivors. New people are being absorbed into the team, but this takes time. Change creates a sense of instability in the team. Are these new folk going to be “teacher’s pet” because the new boss hired them or are they going to become part of the existing team? The key question for everyone is are they with “us” or “them”?

1. Clarity

The card carrying “boss watchers” in the team, that is to say, the whole team, start to work the new boss out. Their intelligence, skill set, experience, capability, emotional quotient, etc., are very carefully calibrated. The navigation required for dealing with the new boss is gradually discovered. People adjust to the new style or they just leave if they don’t like it. As we know, people don’t leave companies – they leave bosses.

The new mid-career hire arrivals get a similar ruler run over them, to measure how well they will fit in. If they don’t fit in, then the herd groups together and tries to isolate them out. So, if they stay, then they have been successfully acclimatised to the dominant culture of the work group. This is often the opposite of what the new boss desired to happen. They expected the new people would be sprinkling their pixy dust on the “old” team members and creating the internal changes needed.

1. Consistency

Presuming the new boss doesn’t blow the whole thing up and go down in flames, then things start to settle down. People get used to the new work requirements, their new colleagues, new boss, new targets and get back to focusing on their work. The team might even improve their performance and enjoy the recognition which comes with success. If the boss is any good, then the team now have a greater sense of shared responsibility toward achieving the targets and to supporting each other.

Just when all this harmony and light comes together, the boss gets sent somewhere else to a new role and a new shiny boss arrives. “Here we go again”, is the common refrain. The team has been here before, so they know the clock is ticking on the new arrival. Many have worked out how to slow down change and ride the wave of instability. Building the team is complex anywhere, but short stay bosses in Japan really have their work cut out for them. These four stages will help to provide a framework for context and agility to make the decisions required to be effective here as a team leader.

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Salespeople often miss the point. They are brilliant on telling the client the detail of the product or service. When you think about how we train salespeople, that is a very natural outcome. Product knowledge is drummed into the heads of salespeople when they first join the company. The product or service lines are expanded or updated at some point, so again the product knowledge component of the training reigns supreme. No wonder they default to waxing lyrical about the spec. These discussions, however, tend to be technical, dry, unemotional and rather boring. This is ridiculous, because we know we buy on emotion and justify with logic. If we know that, then why are we spending so much time on the logic bits?

Finding relevant stories to wrap the product or service up inside is the answer to getting clients emotionally involved. For example, I could say, “Dale Carnegie has an excellent sales programme that is very complete and comprehensive”. All true but very dry in the telling. Or I could say, “In 1939 Dale Carnegie decided to revolutionise sales training. In those days, if your company provided sales training you were trained, but if they didn’t, you had to work it all out for yourself. Dale Carnegie introduced the first public training classes for salespeople. He created the material with Percy Whiting, one of the top securities salesmen in America at that time”.

The second telling is through a story and more engaging and memorable. It adds impressive elements about Dale Carnegie’s thought leadership about sales training, his partnership with an expert salesman to create the programme and the longevity of the training methodology. These are all USPs or unique selling propositions wrapped together in a story. In this way they are more easily absorbed by the listener. We think in pictures, so we need word pictures to be employed in our storytelling.

When we read books, we tend to best remember the stories being told. We all grow up listening to stories, so our brains are hard wired to remember them with just one exposure. A famous American sales trainer Charlie Cullen in the 1950s was one of the first to record his sales training on vinyl LPs. His recommendations on what salespeople should do, were all backed up by examples conveyed through stories.

In more modern times, Zig Ziglar’s whole approach to sales training was telling a series of parables for sales. Growing up in America’s Bible Belt, perhaps lessons communicated through parables came natural to him because of the culture of bible study in those regions. Brian Tracy, another great sales trainer is constantly mixing science and psychology with storytelling to get his point across. Gary Vaynerchuk, the modern marketing guru and entrepreneur is a master storyteller. They are almost exclusively about himself, but that is his style – supremely confident, self-opinionated, self-absorbed and constantly drawing on his own experience. He has a huge following of fans, including me. What he teaches is easy to follow because of the way he employs stories to get his key messages across.

So look into your line-up of products or services and pick out the stories that go with each item. It may come from the history. Or it may be the technology. It may be client stories about users and we relate what happened to them. We need to look for an angle that will make the story interesting for the buyer. It should bolster the USPs of the offering and project pots of value.

We don’t necessarily need a Hollywood production here in the storytelling. It doesn't have to be War and Peace either. Let’s keep them brief and to the point. If we can engage the listener’s emotions and bring them into the story, then we are succeeding. Can the buyer visualise what we are describing in their mind’s eye? This takes some work and some creativity. This is why it is often a good practice to involve everyone in the sales team to work together to curate some great stories and case studies of satisfied customers.

There is no doubt stories work. When I record my own sales talk, I realise how many stories I am employing. When I listen to the gurus of sales training, their whole underpinning platform is built on stories. Stories work, so let’s start creating them and using them with our buyers. We have tons of them, in fact. All we have to do is collect them and arrange them to match the industry or industry segment of the buyer. Buyers want proof and stories are a way of delivering that proof. Don’t forget that stories need data and data needs stories.

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Q&A can destroy your personal brand. Creating and delivering the presentation sees you in 100% total control. You have designed it, you have been given the floor to talk about it, all is good. However, the moment the time comes for questions, we are now in a street fight. Why a street fight? Because in a street fight there are no rules and the Q&A following a presentation is the same – no rules. “Oh, that’s not right” you might be thinking. “What about social norms, propriety, manners, decorum – surely all of these things are a filter on bareknuckle duking it out in public?”. That is correct but it is not a guarantee.

When doing public speaking, there are different personality types assembled in the room. In Japan, often the English language presentation occasions are like mini-United Nations’ assemblies, in terms of national representation. Different social norms apply in countries apart from your own. My French friends tell me the French educational system promotes critique of statements and ideas and that is seen as an illustration of superior intellect. My fellow Australians are often sceptical, doubting and don’t hesitate to mention it, in a direct assault on what has just been said. There are also different personality types in the room. Some people are naturally aggressive and want to argue the point, if the speaker has the temerity to say something they disagree with.

What is considered rude, aggressive or inappropriate behaviour is a relative judgment depending on where you grew up, how you were educated and how you individually see the world. Even in Japanese society, there are occasions where there is heated arguement and a lot of the typical Japanese restraint is out the window.

As the speaker, we are pumped full of chemicals when we get up to present. If we are nervous, then the flight or fight adrenaline chemicals are released by the Amygdala inside our brain. We cannot stop this, but we can control it. It is interesting that if this state is held for a long period of time, we lose the feeling of strength and have a sense of weakness. A forty minute speech is a long time to be in a heightened state and by the time we get to the Q&A, we may be feeling denuded of strength. Just at the moment when we come under full force street fighting attack.

The face of the speaker is a critical indicator during the Q&A. I caught myself shaking my head to indicate disagreement with what was coming my way in the form of a question during the Q&A. Without initially realising it, I was sending out a physical sign that I wasn’t accepting the questioner’s bead of disagreement to what I had been pontificating. From an audience point of view, this looks like you are inflexible, closed to other opinions and just dismissive of anyone with an opinion that differs from your own.

Even if you are not a rabid head shaker like I was, the expression on your face may be speaking volumes to your audience. You might be displaying a sceptical visage of doubt and rejection of what is being said before you have heard the whole argument out. You might even be pumping blood into your face so that it goes red in colour. There is a female businesswoman I know here, whose skin goes bright red when she is in the public eye and begins to look like one of those warning beacons. There is probably nothing she can do about that, but it is definitely not a good look. Or maybe your general demeanour is one of disdain for the questioner and you look arrogant and disrespectful of alternative opinions.

Given the chemical surge leading to denuding of strength I mentioned earlier, we may look like we are defeated by the questioner. This impacts our credibility. We need to be showing we are true believers in what we said and are fully committed to that line of argument. We don’t want to appear like we have collapsed in the face of pushback during the Q&A. Maintain a brave front, even if it is all front. The audience won’t know the difference.

Nodding during the questioning is also a big mistake. We do this in normal conversation, to show the speaker we are paying attention to them. Unfortunately, this bleeds over into public speaking events as well. I learnt this when I did media training. The television media love it when you are nodding, because they can take that bit in the editing and transpose it to sync with the voice of the person disagreeing with you and it appears you are accepting their argument. Very sneaky isn’t it. When you pop up on the TV replay agreeing with your questioner attacking all that you have said, it is too late. Even if there is no TV there, don’t look like you are agreeing with the questioner and control that nodding right from the start.

So during Q&A maintain a totally neutral expression on your face and don’t allow you head to nod. If you feel anxiety from the question, take some secret slow deep breaths to slow down your heart rate and breathing. Keep supremely calm and remember that really aggressive questioners look like dills or grandstanders to the rest of the audience. They usually place their sympathy with the person under attack. We do have that Colosseum thing in us however, where we like watching blood sports and Q&A can come under that category.

So we have to appear above the fray, in control, calm, reasonable and assured of what we are saying. Control your temper, don’t cut them off mid-question, leave a pregnant pause after they have finished, to allow some of the tension to dissipate, then lob in a cushion or neutral statement to give you thinking time and then answer their question.

Here is a killer technique for obstreperous questioners. When you start to answer their question, give them 100% eye contact for six seconds to show you won’t be intimidated. Next switch your six second eye contact to various other members of the audience and never look at the questioner again. By publicly and completely ignoring them, you take all the air out of their puffed up ego and you decimate them through denial of attention.

Q&A must be an extension of the triumph of your presentation. In the same way we plan for our triumph, plan for the Q&A too. Don’t leave this to chance. Twenty minutes under direct attack during the Q&A can seem like a lifetime. We have to be ready to weather the storm and emerge victorious

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Staff can be a nightmare. Teams are composed of the most difficult material ever created - people. That requires many capabilities, but two in particular from leaders: communication and people skills. Ironically, leaders are often seriously deficient in one or both. One type of personality who gets to become the leader are the hard driving, take no prisoners, climb over the rival’s bodies to grasp the brass ring crowd. Other types are the functional stars: category experts; best salesperson, long serving staff members; older “grey hairs” or the last man standing at the end of the recession. Usually, communication skills and people skills were not prominent in their rise to this position of trust.

How do we handle such a contradiction? What does it take to be successful as a team leader? Here are nine different adhesives to help glue the team together.

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain

When we criticize people for mistakes or poor performance, they stop listening to us and use all of their brainpower to marshal their defense or assemble their excuses, about why it isn’t their fault. We have created a barrier with them and they are in denial. The scolding, harsh direct approach may make us feel better but it leads nowhere useful, so don’t bother.

1. Give honest and sincere appreciation

Snowing staff with false praise or fake appreciation doesn’t work. People have well-tuned gauges for flattery. When they detect it, they do two things simultaneously: they ignore it and they don’t ever fully trust the perpetrator. They are saying to themselves, “Do you really think I am that dumb?”.

Instead, we need to become “good finders”. Look for what people are doing well and recognise it. When we give appreciation, be very specific about what they did well, this makes it real and believable,. Look for strengths to develop, rather than trying to pull people down because they are not perfect.

1. Arouse in the other person an eager want

As leaders we want a lot of things to happen. Our targets, accountabilities and directives from above drive us. It can very quickly become all about “me” and what “I” want. Others are not that excited about what we want compared to what they want for themselves. If we can coalesce what we want with what others want we will do a lot better in terms of getting cooperation and achieving our desired outcomes. This is a communication skill we absolutely need to master.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people

We are all firmly attached to ourselves. We are the center of our universe and we want all things that are good to flow to us. As the leader though, you have to flip that self-absorption and get focused on your people. You can work 100 plus hours a week, but your team of 10, only working a 40 hour week can out work you with four times the input of hours. So working 100 hours yourself is dumb and getting your team fired up and working at peak performance is smart. Why would they do that? Because they feel there is something attractive in it for them.

They feel that way because the leader has been an excellent communicator to explain the connection between hitting their own goals and hitting the firm’s goals. They are committed because they trust the leader.

When Dale Carnegie did it’s global study on the emotional drivers of engagement, they found that “feeling valued” by the immediate supervisor was the trigger to having people become highly engaged. You have to know what your team values, in order to help them understand they are highly valued. Your personal values are only interesting to you. Their values, for them, are the key. Once you are really genuinely interested in your team, you will naturally understand what they value. Then you can arrange for good things to happen for them, based on what they want, not what you want.

1. Smile

We think we smile, but we do it more rarely than we imagine. We are swimming through a flood tide of emails, meetings and reporting every week. We are under pressure to produce the goods. Our internal rivals are nipping at our heals, our external competitors are making life hell. It becomes hard to smile in the face of difficulties. What our team sees is a serious face, maybe an explosive face, when the pressure gets too much. Our mood every day is the barometer of how the team feels. If we are stressed out, we transfer that stress to everyone and we take their mood straight down. We have to be up, regardless of the pressure, the irritations, the stress. Remember to smile and pass this on to your team, to keep their mood positive.

1. Remember names

Presumably you can remember your team’s names. However, in a big organisation that may not be that easy. In Japan, in larger operations, it is interesting that often colleagues can’t remember their workmate’s personal name, only their family name. You need to send an email and you ask, “what is so and so’s personal name?”. The answer is often, “I don’t know”.

Do you know the names of those staff in the teams of your direct reports? In a small team, do you know the name of their spouse, partner, kids, pooch, pussy, etc.? Being able to recall the family member’s names is a big plus, because it shows a level of attention and interest and people appreciate that. When you meet someone at a networking event and they greet you by name and you have no clue who they are, that is always a moment for reflection on your ability to recall names.

1. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves

We want to be heard, to have our input appreciated, absorbed, valued. We want recognition for our ideas and contribution. A big part of making us feel this way, is the way the other person interacts with us. If they are really leaning in and listening carefully to what we are saying we feel valued. If they are doing fake listening, we can sense it. If they are just listening so they can butt in and make their point, we feel that is insulting. So, the leader needs to stop whatever they are doing, look the person in the eye and really open the ears up and listen. Don’t second guess what they are going to say, don’t finish their sentences for them, don’t jump in over the top and interject your thoughts. Get them talking.

We know what we know, but when we let the other person speak we know what we know and we will come to learn what they know as well. People love to talk about themselves, their accomplishments, their hobbies, their troubles, their family. Let them. They will feel valued because most people couldn’t be bothered listening, because they want to do all the talking themselves, about themselves!

1. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests

We feel close and comfortable with people who are like us. So, when speaking with the team, get into furious agreement by creating context around their interests, so they are aligned with the organisation’s interests. Look for the win-win in everything, articulate it and keep reinforcing it.

1. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely

This sounds easy, except that we are often tied up in what makes us feel important. Fake praise is spotted quickly and both we and the fake praise are instantly disregarded. Always be looking to find ways to tie the team member’s contribution into the big picture. The rat on the treadmill can feel that what they are doing is rather low value, unappreciated and perhaps even pointless. This is where the leader comes in. They need to connect the dots and explain that this person’s role is important, that they are appreciated and that what they do matters.

Are doing these nine things easy? Absolutely not. Does it take effort to make these our regular modus operandi and create new habits? Yes. Would adopting these make a big difference to the way we lead. Yes. The best time to incorporate these nine ideas into our leadership skills set was yesterday and the second best time is now.

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Enterprise killers can include Customer Service. We know that all interfaces with the customer are designed by people. It can be on-line conversations with AI robots or in-store interactions, but the driving force behind all of these activities are the people in our employ. The way people think and act is a product of the culture of the organisation. That culture is the accountability of senior management. The common success point of organisations is to have the right culture in place, that best serves the customer. The success of senior management in making all of that work is a combination of their leadership, people and communication skills.

This sounds infinitely reasonable in theory, but the reality is often so different. Senior leaders, ambitious, ever upward individuals, who themselves are not particularly people focused, expect their customer interaction designers and in store staff to be the epitomy of customer focused. They don't walk the talk themselves and what is worse, they don't see the contradiction.

They haven't worked out yet that good customer service begins with good employee service. Love your staff and they will love your customers. Richard Branson is widely referenced with his philosophy of employees first, customers second. His idea is to produce the right mental framework for employees to then put the customer first. Our emotions lead our behaviors, which determine our performance.

Fine, love all of that, but how do we get it right? Leadership has to be clearly understood by the leaders. It is not a function of education, rank or longevity in the organisation. Instead, it is a function of the degree of cooperation we can get from our team. We might believe things are rolling out beautifully, in a pre-ordained way, in relation to how we treat the customer. Sadly, the front-line customer experience with our service could be entirely different from how the leaders planned it and how they want it.

As the leader, to get that employee cooperation to buy into what we believe is the correct way forward, we need to have well developed people and communication skills. We also need to make sure that our middle managers also have those same skills. We could be doing things really well up in the clouds, at the top of the organisation, but our middle managers may be sabotaging the culture we want to build and we just do not see it.

If we want sincerity to be a function of our customer service, then, as an organisation, we have be sincere. If we want customers to feel appreciated, we have to appreciate our staff and do it in a sincere way. People can spot fake from a mile away. If we spend all of our time finding errors and faults, we may miss the things that are being done well, which we can communicate that we appreciate. Are you a “good work finder” or the opposite?

We might want many things in business such as personal success, greater revenues, reduced costs etc. We can only achieve these things through others: either our own staff or our customers. They may however want different things. We have to find the means to appeal to our staff and customers such that they want what we want. This is not manipulation. This is well developed people and communication skills. In this way, the trust is created and we lead others, to also want what we want. As Zig Ziglar famously noted, we can get whatever we want in this life, if we help enough other people get what they want.

To create that trust we have to be genuinely interested in others. This starts with our staff because we want them to be genuinely interested in our customer. When they do this, they build the trust with the buyer and a bond that is very difficult to break. If we don't demonstrate this genuine interest in our staff, we are not building the culture where they will naturally pass this feeling on to the customer.

There is an old Chinese saying that, “a man who cannot smile should not open a shop”. Yet in modern business, we have plenty of people floating around who don't smile. It could be the very top executives who are too hard driving, bottom line focused and serious to smile at their staff. They set up a culture that is dry and remote, but expect that at the interface with the customer, there will be an emotional connection with the brand. They just don't see the double standards, miscalculation and self-delusion involved here. Are you self-aware enough?

Bosses are often great order givers but poor listeners, who imagine that their front line staff are all doing an excellent job of listening to the customer. What if that is not the case? If the bosses want to create a culture of good listening habits, then starting with themselves is a reasonable idea. When we listen, we learn more than we already know. This is so important when dealing with the customer. We need to make sure we have a culture of good questioning skills to trigger the opportunity for the customer to talk to us. In these conversations we can better come to understand what would be best for the customer and how to properly service them.

One of the frustrating things about training salespeople is the difficulty of getting them to stop focusing solely on what they want (bonuses, promotions, commissions) and concentrate on what the client wants (solve my problem). When they are talking to the client, the conversation is all about what the sales person is hoping for. We have to learn to change that dialogue and talk in terms of the key interests of the buyer. What is your sales team focused on?

I was giving a keynote speech at an event hosted by one of our major clients, for their most important customers. Another speaker spent the entire time just talking about his own company! I really wondered what was the take away for the audience? Actually, I don't wonder, I know. It was a big fat zero. We can get caught up in ourselves and forget that everything we talk about with the buyer, has to be firmly focused on the client’s interests. The way we do that is by listening carefully to their answers to the brilliant questions we have designed for that purpose.

When a customer encounters everyone of our touch points, we want them to like and trust us. Doing this on-line is a challenge but good navigation, intuitive processes and clear explanations all assist in this regard. In the face-to-face world, we need to start in a friendly way. The culture of this basic idea however springs from within the company and is guided by the outlook of the leaders.

If the top management are a dour bunch, always serious, rarely smiling, stiff, cold and “businesslike” rather than friendly with their teams, then we have to wonder why the front line staff would not be influenced by this outlook? If we want our people to smile and begin in a friendly way with customers, then the leadership group needs to demonstrate that attitude themselves and show this in their own staff interactions. Are you doing this?

Another challenge for bosses is to shut up. Often, because they are older, more experienced and time poor, they get into the “everything abbreviated” habit of firing out orders. They do all the talking. The same problem with salespeople, they talk too much. The key to satisfying both staff and customers is to let them do the bulk of the talking. This requires strategy and considerable discipline, but it is worth it because it creates a differentiated culture in the organisation and this flows out to the customer interactions.

It is an obvious thing in sales to get customers to have a sense of ownership. We might describe the product or service and the situation after they have bought it. We regale them with the problem solutions we are bringing and the success platform we are going to create. We have a goal in mind – find the best solution for the client and get them to have ownership of this idea. We want them arriving at our preferred solution. With this in mind, we design the questions we will ask. It is our idea, but they reach the same idea on their own and in the process come to have ownership of that idea.

The same thing is needed with our staff. We can tell them how to do their jobs in great detail, but it would be better if we could have them come up with them own conclusions. Preferably one that matches what we have decided is in the best interests of the company. Again, question design here is crucial and if we do this correctly, the staff arrive at their own conclusions and it fits in with the direction we are aiming for. This way there is no sense of harrassment or badgering of the staff. They got there by themselves and so their sense of ownership is very high

We cannot be persuasive unless we can honestly see things from the point of view of the buyer. The aim in persuasion is to join the conversation going on in the head of the customer. This gets us on the same wavelength and our conversation will be in sync, because we are speaking about the things that are of greatest interest to them.

Trying to stop seeing everything from only our own viewpoint and to see if from the client’s viewpoint, sounds tremendously simple, but it requires a strong effort. We need to do this logically as well as emotionally. We have to be understanding at the empathetic level, which means really understanding the driving ideas and desires of the buyer. Nevertheless we need to enable this discipline to apply if we want to be successful in convincing others of what we think will serve them best.

If we want our staff to appreciate the business we can receive from the buyer, we need to build that attitude internally of praising staff and giving them honest appreciation. This is often missed in firms, where everything is rather cut and dried, black or white. Buying is an emotional activity which we justify with logic. We want our designers of the interface with the customer to have a sense of appreciation for the buyer. We want staff who are facing customers to do the same. If we are not giving our own staff praise and appreciation, we are not building a floor to ceiling culture that will work best when interacting with customers. It has to run on automatic, because we cannot be everywhere at the same time. We have to trust our people to deliver great customer service.

The ability to ask questions instead of making statements is an important skill. It is easier to drive this skill throughout the organization, if this is part of the culture. Time poor bosses shooting out orders is a “tell” culture. If they automatically asked questions instead of giving orders, they would be building the right mentality for customer service. Our objective is to find out what the customer wants. To do that we need to be asking them questions. This is a mental frame around which the customer interaction needs to be built.

When we ask questions, we can come up with solutions that the customer themselves realise are the best outcomes for them. If we are more concentrated on what is best for us, then the customer can feel that too. So we want to understand their needs, suggest solutions that we know will make them happy to follow our lead.

Inside the organisation this is how the team should be managed. They should be doing what they are supposed to be doing and doing it happily. Their bosses have communicated in a way that the staff member comes naturally to the same conclusion, as being the best way forward. When we achieve this common level of understanding then everything moves forward very smoothly. Customer service becomes a differentiated enterprise builder, expander and business success driver. That is what we want isn’t it?

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Don’t let your speaker introduction be a disaster. Usually when we are speaking we are introduced twice. Once at the very start by the MC when they kick off proceedings and then later just before our segment of the talk. The MC’s role is quite simple. It is to set the stage for the speaker, to bring something of their history, their achievements and various details that make them a credible presenter for this audience. This can often be a problem though, depending on a few key factors.

How big a risk taker are you? Are you relying on the MC to do the necessary research on you? Are you sure they can properly encapsulate your achievements and highlight why you should have the right to stand up here in front of everyone and pontificate on your subject? Most people in the MC role are not expert or trained speakers. Usually, they are clueless about this MC gig and just happen to have control over you for this brief interlude. They are probably too busy to do better than a perfunctory job of preparing your intro and often they won’t appreciate what particular points need grander highlighting than others.

Be warned. It is always best to prepare your own excellent introduction. Keep control of what is being said about you and the areas you wish to showcase. You can decide for each occasion which elements of your history or current focus are going to be most impactful for this particular audience and topic. Don’t make it too long though, because we are in the Age of Distraction, where audience concentration spans are frankly pathetically brief.

I was recently organising a speaker for an event and his self-introduction was very long, a potpourri of his entire life. He obviously couldn’t discriminate between very, very high points, very high points and high points, so he cobbled the whole thing together as a single lengthy unit. I wasn’t the MC that evening, but the actual MC simply ignored the whole thing altogether, deposed their own role and just said, “you have seen his biography in the meeting event notice, so I won’t go through it now”. Well, yes, we may have glanced at it, but we were not remembering it in detail. Thanks to this lazy and incompetent MC, the chance to reconnect with what was in the flyer was no longer there for the speaker.

As you can imagine, the person in the MC role can be difficult to handle for the speaker. They can choose to ignore everything you wrote and then give their own ad hoc version. Usually this is laced full of distortions, errors, exaggerations, serious gaps and miscommunication. Some MCs have pretty big egos too. They think they are the star of the show and that they can do a better job than any offerings from you as the speaker. What actually comes out of their mouth is usually an amazement to you, because you know what they were supposed to say. It is seriously late by then though and no repairs are possible.

For this reason, my advice is to only feed the MC the key points. Completely deny them the option to seize hold of your reputation and background and pervert it into something totally unrecognisable or unsatisfactory. You only need them to set the stage and give you a chance to connect with your audience. When it is your turn to speak you can go freely into the details you want to highlight about your glorious career thus far.

I would also not rush into your background immediately following on from the MC. We need a break and the biography is not the best way to start your speech anyway. The start of the talk has only one purpose. That is to stay the hand of every single person in that audience from secretly reaching for their phone, to escape from you, to the irresistible charms and siren calls of the internet.

Take the first few seconds of your talk very, very seriously. Design a blockbuster opening that will grab the attention of the audience. Only after that introduce yourself, rather than the other way around. Starting with your history is too passe, too expected. It doesn’t get any excitement going. When you get to your self-introduction, rather than reading your resume, look for opportunities to tell a brief story that brings some highlights to the attention of the listeners. This is a more subtle way of telling everyone how fantastic you are. This also limits the amount of content you can share with the audience, ensuring it doesn’t get too long and too detailed.

We will remember your story more than any other part of your introduction, so choose something that is highly memorable about you. Make it positive rather than negative. In other words, set yourself up for success. You can tell plenty of stories in your talk about how you suffered and eventually learnt through failure, but for the introduction, choose those incidents which portray you in a good light. This is what you want people to associate you with – success, ability, innovation, bravery, learning.

Don’t allow your introduction by the MC just unfold like a train wreck, with you standing there as a horrified, innocent bystander. Grab hold of the key content and feed certain parts to the MC to allow them to do a proper job. Don’t miss this – tell the MC to stick to the script. Be insistent, because these are your personal and professional brands we are talking about here. Keep the really juicy parts of your intro for yourself, and so set the scene for your speech to be a great success. Prime your audience for what is to come. We don’t get that many opportunities in business to speak, so let’s go for the best outcome we can manufacture and not let anyone get in our way of achieving that. Be nice about it, but be bolshie about your protecting your intro.

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Suddenly you hear your name being called upon and you are being requested to make a few remarks. Uh oh. No preparation, no warning and no escape. What do you do? Extemporaneous speaking is one of the most difficult tasks for a presenter. It could be during an internal meeting, a session with the big bosses in attendance or at a public venue. One moment you are nice and comfy, sitting there in your chair, taking a mild interest in the proceedings going on around you and next you are the main event.

Usually the time between your name being called and you actually being handed the microphone can be counted in milliseconds. By the time you have heaved yourself out of your chair, your brain has well and truly started to panic. A mental whiteout is probably fully underway and your face is going red, because of all the blood pressure of the moment.

Here are a couple of things we can do in this situation. Firstly, take a realistic look at the task at hand. The length of your talk will not be expected to be long. If you are a seasoned speaker, you could get up and wax lyrical for an hour without a problem. For everyone else, we are talking two to three minutes. Now two to three minutes seems rather short, except when you are suddenly thrust in front of a sea of expectant eyes of an audience.

Once upon a time, I completely forgot my next sentence and discovered the pain of prolonged time. I was asked to give a brief talk and chose to speak in Mandarin to a crowd of around a thousand people, when I was Consul General in Osaka. It was a special event for the departing Chinese Consul General Li, who was heading to New York. Actually, I was going okay but I paused to allow some applause to die down – this turned out to be a major error on my part.

I found when you suddenly go blank, a single microphone stand doesn’t provide much cover, up on a very big stage, with all the lights on you and everyone staring at you. That 30 seconds or so of silence, where I was totally lost and unable to recall what came next, seemed like a lifetime. So I know that two to three minutes can appear really daunting when suddenly called upon to speak.

Begin by thanking whoever unceremoniously dragged you up the podium for the chance to say a few words. Try and smile at them, through gritted teeth if you have to. You have to say something, so take the occasion and put your comments into some form of context.

You can use the concept of time as your ally. For example, this is where we were, this is where we are today and this is where we are going in the future. This past, present, future construct will work for just about any occasion and any subject. That is the type of ready to go format you need to be able to call upon when you don’t have much preparation time up your sleeve.

Another good construct is macro and micro. Talk about the big picture issues related to the occasion, then talk about some of the micro issues. This is useful for putting the event into a frame you can speak about easily. There is always a big and small picture related to any topic. Again, this construct travels easily across occasions and events.

We can use the weather, the location, the season or the time of the day as a theme. We can put this event into any of those contexts rather easily. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a long presentation.

We can talk about people that everyone would know, who are related to the event. They might be present or absent. We can make a few positive remarks about our host. Then we can thank everyone for their attention, wish them our best and get off the stage.

Let me give you a real life example. I was at an event for Ikebana International, sitting there calmly minding my own business, when I heard the speaker suddenly call me up to the stage to say a few words. I had the time from standing up to walk to the podium to compose myself about what on earth I would say. At the extreme outside that time gap was probably 10 seconds. I was going to need to speak in Japanese, so that just added another level of excitement to the challenge. It had been raining that day, so I miraculously dreamed up a water related analogy.

I began by thanking the host for allowing me to say a few words, although I secretly I wasn’t so happy about being put on the spot. I mentioned that the stems of the Australian cut flowers that were being exhibited that day, contained water and soil from Australia, as they had just arrived that morning by air. I said that as a result here in Japan we had a little bit of Australia present and each of these flowers were like a floral ambassador linking the two countries together. I then wished everyone all the best for the event and got out of the firing line pronto. Probably not an award winning talk, but good enough for that occasion, with that amount of notice. And that is the point. You need to be able to say something reasonable rather than remarkable to complete your sudden duties.

So always have a couple of simple constructs up your sleeve if you are suddenly asked to speak without warning. Don’t just turn up thinking you can be an audience member and can switch off or these days start immersing yourself in your phone screen. Imagine you were suddenly singled out for action and have your construct ready to go just in case.

You may not be called upon, but everyone around you will be impressed that you could get up there and speak without warning. The degree of difficulty here is triple back flip with pike sort of dimension and everyone knows it. They are all thinking what a nightmare it would have been, had it been them up there in the firing line. You will be surprised how much a difference that little bit of preparation will make to coming across as professional, rather than uming and ahing your way through a total shambles of a talk. Your personal brand will become golden for the sake of a bit of forward planning. Now that would be worth it don’t you think.

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Change is hard to create anywhere in the world. Getting things to change in Japan also has its own set of challenges. The typical expat leader, sent to Japan, notices some things that need changing. Usually the Japan part of the organisation is not really part of the organisation. It is sitting off to the side, like a distant moon orbiting the HQ back home.

There are major differences around what is viewed as professional work. The things that are valued in Japan, like working loyally (i.e. long hours) even with low productivity, keeping quiet, not upsetting the applecart, not contributing in meetings, getting deep into the factional constructs of the organisation, are not seen as positive.

Inefficiencies seem to beg for correction. Innovation seems to be a foreign concept in both senses of the word. Doing what we have always done, in the same way as we have always done it, has eliminated most of the opportunities for making mistakes, so why change anything? Doing things in a new way is inherently risky, because there is no reliable road map. We are going to have come out of our comfort zone to do that and we might make a mistake – not appealing whatsoever to the Japanese staff.

Meritocracy is a given to the new expat leader and so personnel changes are a prime interest. People are where they are for many reasons and merit is not always the reason. Longevity, who entered the company first, who is your patron, always have a big determinant on whose who in the zoo in Japan.

Talented people are supposed to keep in line and do what they are told. Showing too many smarts seems they are getting uppity before their betters and the hocho, that is the razor sharp Japanese knives, rapidly come out. The “nail” sticking out is about the get a good whack from everyone who can hit it hard.

Nevertheless, ignorance is bliss, so our expat hero or heroine plunges in and starts shaking things up. Entrenched interests, who have created this current system to suit themselves, now feel threatened. They are not stoics. They make a very keen calculation. Can we outlast this clown, who is so rude, so ignorant about how to properly lead in Japan, so annoying and so dangerous to our vested interests. If the answer is “yes”, then a guerrilla war commences, where those most threatened band together to slow down progress, obfuscate the vital issues, hide key information, isolate out the new leaders pets to weaken them and look for petards on which to hoist the expat.

If the answer is “no”, then it is a bare knuckle street fight. There are no rules. Classic weapons are looking for points of failure with new innovations to blow them up on purpose. Anyone close to the boss becomes a target internally and all sorts of societal pressure is brought to bear, to “turn them” into a spy for the “good guys” against this lunatic from outside. They are reminded that our hero won’t be here forever and the rest of us will be. “We will get you. You are going to be toast when the boss heads to the airport for departure to the next foreign assignment. You aren’t going anywhere sunshine, remember that”.

Out of nowhere and nothing, headquarters starts to get anonymous communication about various crimes and misdemeanors that are pure fiction. Sexual harassment is a favourite, because they know Western companies are really sensitive to these types of allegations. Power harassment which was a preferred, traditional boss leadership technique, has now made it into the upper ranks of crimes, as this has become something flagged in Japanese society.

Unsuitability for leadership in Japan. Ignorance of the market, clients, business practices, damage to the reputation of the firm locally are all trotted out to paint a dismal picture. The staff engagement survey for Japan is always the lowest score in the world and this shows what a miserable job our expat hero is doing. It is always the lowest in the world, but HQ isn’t usually that smart or well informed enough to know that.

HQ is demanding Japan’s results improve, but are not happy to see any pushback when changes are introduced. The expat boss has to keep everything as it is, the exact same structure but produce greater results and they have to keep everyone happy about achieving that. The boss is on a hiding to nothing here. Welcome to Japan!

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Last week we talked about when presenting, you need to transfer your energy to the audience. However don’t have your energy levels at the maximum volume all the time. That just wears an audience out and wears you out too. Instead, you need to have some variation. Very strong and then sometimes very soft. And I mean drop it right down. Remember to have that in the voice range. Sometimes say your point in an audible whisper.

I remember when I gave a presentation in Kobe. It was at a university summer school for students who had graduated and were going back to their home countries. I was giving this uplifting talk about how they could use the experience they had in Japan back in their home country. It was powerful, a very powerful presentation. It was an urging my comrades to “man the barricades” type of speech. The speaker after me was a Korean professor. Maybe because of the way I presented, I don’t know, but he spoke very quietly. He spoke in a very soft voice throughout the whole presentation. It really forced you to lean in and listen to him, because you had to work a little bit harder to listen to him. So he got peoples’ attention by having a softer voice. At the time, I thought, “wow look at that”. That was very effective and I realized, ah, just operating at one power level all the time is not going to work. I need to have variety in my voice, so I should have times when I am very powerful and other times when I am very soft. So just watch yourself that you are not getting into too much soft or too much strong mode. Variety is the key.

I said before gestures are very important. Be careful about getting your hands tied up with things. If you are saying one thing is important, hold up one finger. If it is the second thing, hold up two fingers. This is important. When you hold up your fingers like that, hold them up around head height. Don’t hold gestures around waist height. It is too low and people struggle to see it. Get your gestures up high in a band from chest height up to around head height. That zone is the key height you want for showing gestures.

When you want to show a big point, open your hands right out. Don’t be afraid of big gestures. Use gestures that are congruent. Be careful about waving your fist at your audience though. It looks aggressive. It looks unfriendly and combative. Use the open hand rather than a closed fist. And don’t hit your hands together, slap them together or slap them on your thigh. That activity creating noise becomes distracting. Just use the gestures by themselves. As I said before, 15 seconds is probably at the maximum you want. You can walk around on the stage, but be careful about walking around too much, especially pacing up and down. That makes you look nervous and either lacking in confidence about your message or lacking control over what you are doing. Try and hold the main center point of the stage and move because you have got a good reason to move.

Using the names of people in your audience is a great thing to do. If you get there early, meet some of your audience. Have a conversation with someone. It is a nice connector with the audience to refer to that person and say, “I was just chatting with Jim Jones over there before and he made a very interesting point about current consumer trends. In fact, Mary Smith made an addition to that point, when she said “blah, blah, blah…” Suddenly you have both people very much proud of being recognized and involved in your talk. They have been recognized by the speaker and they like it. The audience now feels that you have a stronger connection with those listening. Refer to people by name. It is very, very effective. Don’t leave it to chance, try and look for those opportunities to engage with your audience.

Let’s concentrate on the basics. What is the point of your presentation? Who is your audience? What is the point? Be conversational and customize the delivery to your listeners. Have exhibits or have demonstrations or whatever that are custom-made to match that audience or match the point that you are making. Don’t just bring out a set off the shelf points you recycle for every presentation.

You might have an existing basis for a presentation, but think about who are you talking to? What is the key point and then take it and re-work it, re-package it up, customize it. I have given 530 presentations in the last 20 years here in Japan. I have never given the same presentation twice, ever. Even with the slides, I will always have some small variation. Certainly the way I present it will be different every time. This keeps it fresh for me, as a speaker. And it also keeps it fresh for an audience.

If I feel stimulated and interested in what I am talking about, then the chances are that is how the audience will feel about it too. They will feel stimulated and interested as well. Be wary of receiving the presentation pack. You often see the CEO had some munchkins out the back preparing the presentation for him or her. Often, it will be the first time that they have even seen the presentation. Sadly, it is obvious that it is the first time they have seen the presentation. They don’t know what’s coming next and they struggle through it. This is really killing the brand. It is killing the brand and the organization. It is killing the presenter’s personal brand. You don’t want that. Get it, customize it, make it yours, then present it.

So there we have some ideas on how to present your visuals when you are giving your presentations which are based on our training called High Impact Presentations, where we teach people over two days how to become a high impact presenter and how to learn a number of different structures. It’s really the Rolls-Royce of the presentation skills. This is where Dale Carnegie started in 1912,teaching people how to be persuasive. If ever you have a chance, after listening to this, to do that particular course if you haven’t done it before, grab that opportunity because it is a powerhouse course. It’s a game changer of a training course. I have taken it myself and I strongly recommend it.

So best of luck and remember, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Do not be consumed by the construction of the materials. They are secondary to you. But when you do construct your materials use these ideas, these hints and you will give a much, much better presentation.

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This is a tricky part of designing and delivering our presentations. Think back to the last few presentations you have attended and can you remember anything from the close of their speech? Can you remember much about the speaker? This close should be the highlight of their talk, the piece that brings it all together, their rallying cry for the main message. If you can’t recall it, or them, then what was the point of their giving the talk in the first place? People give talks to make an impression, to promulgate their views, to win fans and converts, to impact the audience, etc. All weighty and worthy endeavours, but all seemingly to no effect, in most cases. What can we do to stand above this crowd of nobodies, who are running around giving unmemorable and unimpressive talks?

The keys to any successful talk revolve around very basic principles. Vince Lombardi, famed American Green Bay Packers football coach would always emphasise that the road to success in his game was blocking and tackling – the basics and so it is with public speaking. Design must not start with the assembly of the slide deck. Yet this is how 99% of people do it.

Instead start with designing the final closing message. In other words start with how you will finish. This forces clarity on you, drives you to sum up the key takeaways in one sentence and gets to the heart of what it is you want to say. It is also excruciatingly difficult, which is why we all head for the slide deck formation instead.

Once we have sieved the gold nugget from the dross, grasped the key point of the talk, then we are ready to work on the rest of the speech. The main body of the talk will flow naturally from the close, as we assemble data, facts, examples, stories, testimonials and statistics to support our main point. We then array this vast army of persuasion ready for deploy at our summation. It must flow in a logical progression, easy to follow for the audience and all pointing back to support our main contention.

The opening and close can have some connection or not. The role of the opening is very clear – grab the attention of the assembled masses to hear what it is we want to say. We can state our conclusion directly at the start and then spend the rest of the time justifying that position. Or we can provide some general navigation about what we are going to talk about today. Or we can hit the audience with some nitro statement or information, to wake them up to get them to listen to us.

At the end there will be two closes, one before the Q&A and one after. The majority of speakers allow the final question to control the proceedings rather than themselves. If that last question is a hummer, a real beauty, right on the topic and allowing you to add extra value to your talk, then brilliant. How many times have you seen that though? Usually the last questions are a mess. All the better, intelligent questions have been taken, the best insights have been plumbed and now we have some dubious punter who wants a bit of your limelight. Their questions can often be off topic, rambling, unclear or just plain stupid. Is this how you want your talk remembered?

The final two closes can reflect each other and be an extension of what you have already said or you can split them up and give each its specific task to make your point. The close before the Q&A can be a summation to remind your audience of what you spoke about and prime them for questions. Obviously recency, the last thing people will hear, will have the most powerful impact, so the second close must be very carefully designed.

Be careful of the event hosts wanting to take over immediately after the last question and not allowing you the chance to make your final close. You might have gone overtime or they need to vacate the venue or face a bigger bill or whatever. They can be thanking the audience for coming and wrapping things up with their news of their next event, before you can blink an eye. You need to word them up at the start that you want to make a final close after the Q&A and then you will give them the floor.

The other component of the close is the delivery. So many speakers allow their voices to trail off and allow their speaking volume to descend at the peroration. You want to be remembered as someone passionate about your subject, excited to be there to share it with this audience and a true believer of your message. That means you need to drive the volume up, hit the last words with a lot of passion and belief. Make it a rousing call to action, to storm the barricades and to change the world. That is how you want people to remember your message AND you as a speaker as they shuffle out of the venue and go back to work or home.

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As the leader we have to work on the presumption that people know what they are doing. It is impossible to micro manage every single person, every moment of the day. By the way, who would want to do that anyway? The issues arise when things deviate from the track we think they are on or expect that they are on. We find that a process has been finessed, but we don’t like the change. We find that some elements have been dropped completely, but we only find this out by accident or substantially after the fact. We are not happy in either case.

Why does this happen? Training can cover the basics, but there is always a wide margin of discretion in carrying out jobs. We need to allow this or the team become asphyxiated by the confines of the narrowly defined tasks we have set for them. We all own the world we help to create, so we need to allow people to be creative, if we want them to take ownership of their jobs. It is when things start to stray that we run into trouble. There is a margin allowed for doing things differently, but when the red line gets crossed, we get cross.

Another seed of discomfort is when systems are changed, but you don’t know that. There might be a really great reason or a very bad reason for this to happen, but the scary part is not knowing the change has been made in the first place. Do we have to know about every single thing our staff are changing? Obviously no, so where is the line in the sand to be drawn here?

This is tricky and there are no genius answers really. We need to remind our team that they are free to innovate, to be creative, to look for every kaizenopportunity. We also need to have them tell us if they make a significant change. Okay, so how do we define “significant”? This is a very grey area and this still won’t capture everything we need to know about, but it is better than having no clue at all as to what is going on.

Our workplace is usually divided into specialty functions like sales, marketing, operations etc. Cross functional innovation is good, if both groups know about it and contribute. Problems start to arise when the changes are made in isolation and in secret. Not secret in the sense that anyone is trying to fool others, but secret in the sense that affected groups are not told what is going to happen. It just happens and you find out later – usually at the worst possible time.

The changes can also reflect an uninformed view of how things work in reality. Not having in depth detail on the sales function, for example, can result in the operations team making some decisions which negatively impact the sale effort. IT may make changes that are completely rational from a geeky IT point of view, but which create results for other parts of the business which are not helpful. Undoing things always takes time and money and results in lost productivity.

What can we do about these challenges? Having functional heads keep an eye for any negative changes, is a delegation task that must be done. The leader cannot get across that degree of detail. Educating the whole team about how the whole fits together is a good practice. We assume everyone gets it, but that is wishfull thinking. In team meetings, it is important that all sections report changes that will impact other parts of the business. Formalise this into the meeting agenda so that it never gets missed.

When things do go off the rails, educate those involved about the big picture, so that it won’t happen again. No one is trying to destroy the business, so intentions are honourable, but the communication piece can be missing. Encourage staff to think about the ramifications of changes they may want to make and have them inform those likely to be affected before the changes are made. Surprisingly, even in small offices, this simple activity fails to happen because everyone is so time harassed doing multiple tasks at light speed.

Japan has it horenso ( 報連相) mantra to fall back on when in doubt. Ho for hokoku or report, ren for renraku or contact and so for sodan or consult. This is a useful construct to reduce problems before they occur, especially for junior staff – report/contact/consult.

Finally, don’t blow your top! Being the last to know about bad news is the lot of the boss. That is bad enough, but finding out randomly about bad news, that only you understand is bad news, is really, really irritating. The instant boss reaction to this type of thing is usually explosive.

We have to remember the importance of encouraging everyone to innovate. The corresponding increase in risk of failure goes hand in glove with that effort. We have to remember to be using our communication and people skills, so that we don’t kill team motivation. Bite your tongue when things are revealed and start thinking of a positive way of encouraging everyone involved, as you correct the situation. If we can do this, we will be building the culture of creativity we want and over time we will diminish the outbursts of common sense collapse.

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Life is busy, busy today. Communications has sped up business to an extent unthinkable even ten years ago. Every company is a publisher now, due to social media’s pervasiveness. Content marketing is driving original content creation and release. LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook are favouring live video, so we have to become television talents. Voice is the next big thing, so podcasting requires us to be radio personalities. If you are in business, your personal information is out there, easily searchable and found. We check out the buyers and they check out the sellers, before we meet.

When you turned up at a client meeting eighty years ago, you came with some good jokes, some market information, some competitor intelligence, etc. You did this to break the ice with the buyer. Even if they were an established client, you needed to break the ice for that day. Buyers then and buyers now have a lot going on inside their heads when we turn up and almost none of it has anything to do with us and what we want.

In Japan, meeting room space is always at a premium, so getting time with buyers has some automatic limitations placed upon it with certain companies. After thirty minutes you are given the bum’s rush, because that space has been booked for the next meeting and they are loitering with intent outside the glass wall waiting to get in for their meeting.

That doesn't give us much time to carve out some mind space with the buyer, get into questioning mode, talk about the solution, deal with any objections and seal the deal. If the first part of the meeting isn’t well planned then there won’t be any result. We cannot let the first few interactions be random events. We need to plan in detail how we are going to establish some rapport with this buyer or reestablish some rapport if they are an existing buyer.

We will have checked some of the media aggregation sites to see if there has been anything released in to the public arena about the client company, which we can then refer to. If it is a first meeting then checking the annual report is a must. There will be a glossy coverage of the CEO’s vision and strategy for the enterprise, with photographs in a swish corporate setting. We are looking for things we can ask about in this meeting.

Our objective is to get the client talking as soon as possible. Most salespeople still cling to the idea that they have to dominate the airwaves, so they just keep talking, talking, talking. We don’t want that. We only have a limited amount of time, so we want the client talking as much as possible. When we do that, the client will have stopped thinking about all of the other things going on in their work and private lives. We will be concentrated on the business at hand and that is exactly what we need.

We hopefully will be able to check whether some insight we have found is relevant to what they are doing. We deal with that industry vertical so we are picking up ideas across companies on what is working and not working. We share these ideas as a means of demonstrating we provide value to their enterprise. They may not go for it, but they will go for our intention to assist them to make their business more successful.

A discussion with a drill manufacture company I called upon, prompted a suggestion by me that they copy Blendtec’s “will it blend” phenomenon, but for drills not blenders. Blendtec’s CEO Tom Dickson video’s the blending of iPads, golf balls, whatever and post it on YouTube and they get massive views. My idea was to copy this for Japan and create some buzz around the product line up. They didn’t go for it in the end, but I have no doubt that I have a closer relationship with the President today, because of my effort to think out of the box for them. I had his attention for our discussion.

Getting the full attention of the buyer is no longer a given. They are permanently distracted today and we are competing with so much noise, more than ever before. We need to have a strategy to get their attention. We cannot leave it to chance or expect that, “of course they will be paying attention – we have an appointment”. That concept is way too indulgent.

Ask well thought through questions to get them talking, bring insights and valuable market intelligence. Today, we have to do this every time, even if they are an established buyer. Just because we have a relationship with them, doesn’t mean we have automatically broken through all the completion for their attention. Start fresh every time as if it were the very first meeting. In this modern age this is the new normal.

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Having an audience interested enough in your topic to ask questions is a heartening occurrence. Japan can be a bit tricky though because people are shy to ask questions. Culturally the thinking is different to the West. In most western countries we ask questions because we want to know more. We don’t think that we are being disrespectful by implying that the speaker wasn’t clear enough, so that is why we need to ask our question. We also never imagine we must be dumb and have to ask a question because we weren’t smart enough to get the speaker’s meaning the first time around. We also rarely worry about being judged on the quality of our question. We don’t fret that if we ask a stupid question, we have now publically announced to everyone we are an idiot.

Some speakers encourage questions on the way through their talks. They are comfortable to be taken down deeper on an aspect of their topic. They don’t mind being moved along to an off topic point by the questioner. The advantage of this method is that the audience don’t have to wait until the end of the talk to ask their question. They can get clarification immediately on what is being explained. There might be some further information which they want to know about so they can go a bit broader on the topic.

This also presents an image of the speaker as very confident in their topic and flexible to deal with whatever comes up. They also must be good time managers when speaking, to get through their information, take the questions on the way through and still finish on time. In today’s Age Of Distraction, being open to questions at any time serves those in the audience with short concentration spans or little patience. Not everyone in the audience can keep a thought aflame right through to the end, so having forgotten what it was they were going to ask, they just sit there in silence when it gets to Q&A. Their lost question may have provoked an interesting discussion by the speaker on an important point. Having one person brave enough to ask a question certainly encourages everyone else to ask their question. The social pressure of being first has been lifted and group permission now allows for asking the speaker about some points in their talk.

The advantage of waiting until the end is that you remain in control of the order of the talk. You may deal with all of the potential questions by the end of the talk and the Q&A allows for additional things that have come up in the minds of the audience. It also makes it easier to work through the slide deck in order. The slide deck is alike an autopilot for guiding us through the talk, as we don’t have to remember the order, we just follow the slides. Of course if we allow questions throughout, we can always ask our questioner to wait, because we will be covering that point a little later in the talk. Nevertheless the questions at the end formula gives the speaker more control over the flow of their talk with no distractions or departures from the theme.

Time control becomes much easier. We can rehearse our talk and get it down to the exact time, before we open up for questions during the time allotted for Q&A. If we have to face hostile questions, this is when they will emerge. Prior to that, we have at least gotten through what we wanted to say. We had full control of the proceedings. If we get into a torrid time with a questioner, early in the piece, it may throw our equilibrium off balance or cause some consternation or embarrassment to the audience, detracting from what we want to say. The atmosphere can turn unpleasant very quickly which pollutes everyone’s recollection of you as the speaker. Also, if we don’t know how to handle hostile questions, our credibility can crumble. A crumbling credibility in a public forum is not a good look.

So my recommendation is for the seasoned pro speakers to take questions whenever you feel like it. For those who don’t present so frequently, err on the side of caution and take the questions at the end.

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Teams are fluid. People move or leave and new people join. Targets go up every year. The compliance and regulatory requirements become more stringent, the market pivots and bites you, currency fluctuations take you from hero to zero in short order. Head office is always annoying. There are so many aspects of business which line up against having a strong sense of team. We can’t be complacent if we have built a strong team and we have to get to work, if we are in the process of team building.

Sports teams are always high profile and successful sports coaches are lauded for their ability to produce results, especially when they are always dealing with tremendous fluctuations in the make up of the team. Vince Lombardi is one of those much heralded coaches and he noted: “Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity”.

Sterling stuff, but how do you do that? Vince had access to some of the most highly paid and motivated team members on the planet, but what about the rest of us? We often haven’t chosen the team. We have inherited someone else’s criteria and selection model. People come to us from different companies or different sections and so how do we address the issue of establishing a common purpose?

We need to make sure each individual has a clear sense of the reason the team exists, their individual role and the importance of their role to the team effort. If you suddenly asked your team members about the reason the team exists, you might be dumbfounded to receive so many disparate answers. We assume everyone knows and that we all in sync, but we should check. And we should do it regularly, as the team composition changes over time and new people may not know.

Establishing an agreed set of team values is an important glue to hold the whole team together. Whenever we do this exercise for ourselves or for clients, we always get a huge range of values being nominated. This is helpful but not particularly helpful. We need to do it in two parts, starting with our personal values and then do the team values. Ideally, each individual’s values will also be part of the team values so that the ownership factor is sky high.

A team vision is the next stage and this is where many people start to weep. They are heartily sick of the word vision. So many vision consultants, articles, videos and podcasts covering this one little word. It bogs down and eventually all the fluff associated with the word, collapses under its one weight. Regardless, you still need a team vision, so get over it.

Jack Welch pointed out, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion”.

A vision is a future picture of what could be and what should be, regardless of what is today. The vision is stated in the present tense, as if we were already at the final state of development and success that we are aiming for. The visualisation is positive and optimistic and the words both powerful and specific. We need a vision to define where we want to be, in order to work out how we will get there.

Our mission is the other building block. It describes what we do and by definition, what we don’t do. Clarity around objectives and goals means counting out some shiny objects that are not core requirements for the team. The vision tends to last long, as do the core values, whereas we have to keep revisiting the mission. This is because things change and we may need to change tack and go in a different direction. In which case our mission has also flexed and we need to restate it. We do this so that everyone in the team has clarity around what we are doing and how we are doing it.

Successful teams have achieved great clarity throughout the entire organization about what the team is trying to do. This is not an accident, but the product of good leadership work to establish a base and then good ongoing work, to keep the ideas alive and relevant.

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The hero’s journey is for the very, very few. I did it my way, I slaved away in a garret and got to the top, I realised the American dream – all good stuff, but an illusion for most. The reality is there are more of us who need the cooperation of others, than those who can succeed despite others. The age of the “one” has been taken over by the age of the “many”. Hero teams are more powerful than individual heroes.

The problem is although we may need the cooperation of others, we are not that good at getting it. We limit our scope through two key areas – how we communicate and how we react. We like what we like and we find affinity with those who like similar things. We like to speak in a certain way and we click with others who speak the same way. It might be a shared accent, denoting a similar background, and we are all pretty good at spotting the subtleties of dialect. That is okay, but it still doesn’t help us to go far enough. You might share a common accent, but that doesn't mean you get on with everyone from back home\

Reflecting the preferences of others is a much more effective way of building trust and cooperation. Does this mean being two faced and manipulative? No, it means being flexible and other focused rather than me, me, me focused.

When we are speaking with others we notice the way they prefer to communicate. It will vary from very low energy to high output - softly spoken to plain loud. Neither side likes the other much. The loud person can’t hear the softly spoken person and feels annoyed, because they have to struggle to hear what they are saying. The softly spoken person is quietly upset, because they don’t like people who are loud and aggressive.

The key here is to adjust ourselves to suit the situation and the other person, if we want to gain their cooperation. If you say, “well I am me, I have my rights and they should adjust themselves to how I like it”, then let me know how that is working out for you?

We will need to increase our energy and volume when we speak with high output people. We may feel like we are screaming, but on their scale all we are doing is communicating normally. The opposite applies, when we have to drop the volume and the strength. We may feel like we are whispering and it is killing us, but the counterparty feels very comfortable chatting with you.

Some individuals are really detail oriented, they are constantly seeking data, proof, evidence about what they are being told. When we interact with this group, we notice the micro focus immediately and so we need to start adding a lot more detail to our explanations or recommendations. We may feel this is too nitty gritty and frankly, massive overkill, but that is not how they see it. For them this is absolutely normal and unremarkable.

The opposite preference is for big picture discussions. Don’t worry about the details, the practicality, the roll out - we will get to that later. They want to plot the future direction in broad brush terms. For detail orientated people this is painful, because everything seems fluffy and unrealistic. Don’t fight it – encourage them to go big and go with them. Put up some crazy ideas (judged crazy from your evidence based thinking point of view) of your own and don’t feel guilty. They will welcome all crazy ideas, including yours.

When we hear something we don’t like, we often react first and think later. Bad approach! Instead, bite your tongue and hear them out – don’t jump in over the top of them with your counter idea, critique or cutting comment. Try ear, brain, mouth rather than ear, mouth, brain as an order of approach. Use a “cushion”, a sentence that is neither for nor against what they are saying. It is a neutral statement, used to simply break our usual pattern of too rapid intervention. It gives us crucial time to think about what we want to say and how we are going to say it.

Before we comment or attempt to criticise them, we instead ask them why they think that or why they say that. While they are providing some background and context around their position, we are able to bypass our immediate chemical reaction and reach deeper down to our calmer second or even third, considered response. When we do speak we may even accept their position because the context made sense or be able to suggest a counter position. We can do this in a calm way, that doesn’t lead to an argument and bad feelings.

These two actions on our part will build the trust and establish the lines of communication required to convince other to help us on our own hero team journey. Speak in a reflective manner and don’t react immediately to what you are hearing. You may think this is killing you, because it is so different to how you normally operate, but if you want to be effective with all types of people, this is the secret – adjust yourself first.

Newtonian physics says for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Fine, but we don’t want that – we want a different and improved reaction, so let’s change our own angle of approach with others, so that we get a much better response.

Action Steps

1. Be flexible and be focused on those with whom you are communicating:

2. If they are micro, you go micro

3. If they are macro, you go macro
4. If they are fast paced, then speed up

5. If they are moderate in pace, then slow down

6. When you hear something you don’t like use ear, brain, mouth

7. Before you reply, use a cushion to give yourself time to craft your response

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Normally, as the seller, we are getting told “no” in sales, rather than the other way around. When salespeople become desperate to hit their numbers, they start to do crazy things. They start telling lies to the buyer, they exaggerate the scope of the solution, they savagely discount the price, they overpromise on the follow-up, they agree to horrendous delivery dates, they become visibly agitated during the sales call. All bad.

When we meet the client, our brain has to get into a specific gear. That means we are focused on how can we contribute to build the client’s business? What can we do that will grow the buyer’s revenues, cut costs or expand market share? That mental gear is entirely different to questions such as “how will I make my monthly sales quota?”, “how will I stop being fired?”, etc. The latter are solely focused on you and not the buyer and this impacts what comes out of your mouth.

If we are doing a proper job of prospecting we will always have alternatives. When the pipeline is too thin, desperation sets in. The existing clients get worked over, to try and squeeze blood from a stone, because there are no other options. It is easy to talk to an existing client than go and find a new one, which is so why salespeople hate prospecting – it is hard and tough work. Nevertheless, prospecting and building pipeline are the keys to positioning ourselves as sellers.

When we have a strong pipeline, we are not dependent on any one sale. When we are doing the questioning phase of the sale’s call we start to understand what the client needs. We may realise that what we have isn’t really a fit. When we don’t have pipeline, we start to think how we can make it fit anyway. This is desperate thinking and ultimately very damaging to our trust, brand and reorder possibilities. We are thinking single order, rather than the start of many orders.

We may know that to take on this project is going to put a lot of pressure on the back office or the supply chain within our organisation. We have to keep in mind the opportunity cost that this deal represents, not just the income it will generate. We are impinging on other better quality work to do this deal. If the pricing for doing it was at a premium, it might be justifiable but that is usually quite rare. Or if the scale of the work is considerable and sustained over a long period of time, it might be viable. In fact, usually, a bad deal more often than not comes with other ugly lumpy bits attached to it that are not very attractive.

We are better to say “no”. When deals come that are outside of our usual scope and therefore require a lot of work, the price needs to be high, to warrant doing it. If it is not, then get back to being busy building pipeline and let that deal flow to a competitor, who is either better suited to handle it or more stupid than we are. It hurts to give business away to a competitor, but that is the better choice than damaging your own operation.

A deal came to me though LinkedIn and the buyer was a substantial company in Singapore, with a strong brand name. The details of what they wanted to do in Japan though, had potential grief written all over it for me. It was somewhat related to what we do, but just that bit off to the side, where we would have to do a lot of work to make the project work. The money mentioned was so, so and really didn’t cover the extra work that would be needed. I introduced the deal to a “frenemy” rival company and asked if they were interested. They said yes and so I connected them with the seller.

I heard later, that they got hammered on the pricing, when they came to deal with the lower level operations people inside the company. A typical Singaporean business play where they are very tough on pricing, often known as the “squeeze all the juice out of the deal for the buyer” play. The “frenemy” took the pricing offered, rather than saying no or demanding more money and got smashed. It turned out to be a huge amount of work, sucked up a lot of their time and burned some of their contacts. This is exactly what I thought it would do to me too. I was glad I missed that bullet. Saying “no” was a very, very good choice on my part. It was also a one off deal, so there was no hope of repeat business. This made it less attractive, because I couldn’t see any return on the investment of time and effort.

I didn't take it because I had pipeline, alternatives, other potential business. Say “no” to a bad or marginal deal and keep working on building pipeline to find better deals. You will spend the same amount of time, but the rewards are vastly different.

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Gaining credibility as a speaker is obviously important. We often do this by telling our own experiences. However, having too much focus on us and away from the interests of the audience is a fine line we must tread carefully. When we get this wrong, a lot of valuable speaking time gets taken up and we face the danger of losing our audience. They are like lightening when it comes to escaping to the internet, to go find things they feel are more relevant.

We must always keep in the front of our mind that whenever we face an audience, we are facing a room packed with critics and skeptics. We definitely have to establish our credibility or they will simply disregard what we are saying. The usual way to gain credibility is to draw on our experiences. A great way to do this is telling our war stories. The focus is usually on things that are important to us, so we certainly enjoy reliving the past. In fact, we can enjoy it a bit too much. We begin telling our life story because we are such an interesting person. We are certain everyone will want to hear it, won’t they.

Actually, their own life story is much more fascinating for them. So, we should be trying to relate what we are talking about to their own experiences and their realities. When we want to tell our stories, we have to be committed to keeping them short and to the point. As soon as an audience gets the sense the speaker is rambling down memory lane, they get distracted, bored and mentally depart from the proceedings. I was listening to a senior company leader giving a talk and he went on and on about how he started in sales and all his adventures. He was obviously enjoying it, but what did something that happened forty years ago in America have to do with the rest of us here in Tokyo?

A good way to keep the audience engaged and focused on themselves is by asking rhetorical questions. These are questions for which we don’t require an actual answer, but the audience don’t know that. This creates a bit of tension and they have to focus on the issue we have raised. The focus is now on the same points the speaker wants to emphasise. Because of the question, they have to mentally go there themselves. It is much more effective than having the speaker try and drag them there.

Rather than just telling war stories, we can ask them to compare the story we are going to tell with their own experiences. In this case, the speaker’s example is just a prompt for them to identify with the situation being unveiled. This is better because they are relating the issue to their own reality. They can take the speaker’s example and either agree with it or disagree with it. Even if they disagree with it, their different stance will be based on their own facts rather than opinion. We might say, “I am going to relate an incident which happened to me in a client meeting. Have any of you had this experience and if so what did you do? Listen to what I did and see if you think I made the best choice or not”. We have now set up the comparison with their own world. This gets their attention in a natural way, rather than me banging on about what a legend I was in the meeting with the client.

Talking about ourselves is fun but it is dangerous. How should we incorporate it? As we plan our talk, we have to work out the cadence of the delivery to includE our war stories. If we are talking too much about ourselves the audience may lose interest and mentally escape from us. If we have designed in content which will involve them, we can keep them with us all the way to the end. This doesn’t happen by itself. We have to carefully implant it when designing the talk. It is also very important to test this design during the rehearsal. Better to discover any issues in rehearsal rather than testing the content on a live audience. Sounds simple enough, but remarkably, 99% of speakers do no rehearsal at all. Doubt that statistic? How many speakers have you heard where you got the sense they had carefully rehearsed their talk? Case closed!

In developing our attention grabbing cadence during the talk, rather than waiting to Q&A to deal with any pushback on our opinions, we can go early. We can anticipate what those objections might be and handle them during the main body of our speech. We pose them as rhetorical questions. Some people in the audience when they hear these objections will be thinking “yeah, that’s right”. We then use our evidence drawn from our experiences, our war stories, to demolish that potential objection and ensure we maintain control of the issue. This technique also engages the audience more deeply in our presentation, as they start to add perspectives they may not have thought of before. There is also a strong feeling of comprehensiveness about our talk too. It shows we are aware of different views, are not afraid of them and have an answer to remove them as a consideration.

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We are on the cusp of a change amongst youth in Japan. Those already entered into the workforce have memories of the Lehman Shock and the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear core meltdown and the impact this had on the job market. They are looking for security of employ and family life, because of the fragility of both were exposed to them in September 2008 and again in March 2011. They saw the dire straights of those who slipped into the part-time employee hell of low wages, no prospects and everything tough, tough, tough.

In 2016, only 6.9% of those in the 25-34 age group switched jobs. The September 2016 survey by the Japan Institute For Labor Policy and Training also found nearly 90% supported lifetime employment. This figure was only 65% in 2004. Of those in their 20s, 55% wanted to work for the same company right through. That same number was only 34% in 2004.

There is a generation coming behind them though who will be different again. They were born around the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, have little recollection of the Lehman debacle in 2008 and except for those with close links to the Tohoku region, vaguely recall the ordeal of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear core meltdowns.

They are going to graduate after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They are going to see the part-time jobs market filled with Asian, mainly Chinese, students working their allowed 38 hours a week (more hours than the work week in France). They are going to see driverless electric cars, Artificial Intelligence breakthroughs, the ubiquity of voice commands, bumptious robots and the Internet of Things controlling their lives. Their demographic curve is in rapid decline, their numbers are dropping every year and will be half today’s figures by 2060. They are going to be in big demand. The current unemployment rate of 2.8% will sink even further. They will be free agents looking at multiple job offers and openings available to them.

They will be the last juku or cram school generation. University entrance requirements will collapse. Except for the absolute elite institutions, a pulse and cash will be the only entry requirements. Tokyo is going to cap the numbers of students on campus, but the rest of the country will have no limits. Many universities will be hungry for fees and desperate to attract students. The Millennial’s successor generation, who some are calling Generation Z and for Japan, I am calling the “Olympics’ Generation”, will have an entirely different perspective on education. “Exam hell” will mainly disappear as a cultural construct for the 90%-95% who don’t aim for the elite universities.

Mid-career hires are still an anathema for many local Japanese firms, but that is going to have to change. They simply will not be able to find staff. What to do with women is confusing for them, as their structures are built on the old post-war model of husband works and the wife raises the kids. That will have to disappear quite soon.

This whole concept will have to change and they are going to have to learn to be more flexible about hours worked and leave. When the kids get sick, the husband is still unlikely to be dropping tools and heading off to the school to pick up junior. The working wife will need to do that and woe be tide to any firm who doesn’t cooperate, because others will and she will move on.

Today, some domestic firms still look askance at employees having a profile on LinkedIn. This site started as a pseudo-job board, but it has become another source of useful information available for free. This will all add up to assisting greater job mobility.

Recruiters will be poaching people right, left and center to satisfy firms desperate to find young workers. The wooing to move will be constant. We have seen an aberration of Economics 101 where labour supply shortages have not yet resulted in wages growth. That cannot last much longer. Certainly this Olympics’ Generation will enjoy the financial benefits of powerful labour demand.

The key word for this Olympics’ Generation will be “mendokusai” （めんどくさい）or “bothersome” and anything duly defined will be resisted. Companies are going to struggle with leading this generation. The current Millennials may become their immediate bosses, but the cultural divide between them will be vast.

Middle managers in Japan will be faced with the greatest challenges of any generation of Japanese leaders. Unless they are properly trained for this onslaught, it is going to be a nightmare. Their situation will simply outstrip the leadership answers usually tapped from OJT (On The Job Training). There is no roadmap for this eventuality, because this is all a brave new world of leadership.

Is anyone in Japan thinking about this? I would say based on my discussions so far, the answer is “no”.

You heard it hear first folks: “Winter is coming”.

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What are the chances of getting a “no” to your offer in sales? Probably around 70% of the time, this is what we will get. Given that type of frequency and hit rate, you would think that salespeople would be masters of dealing with this type of response. You would be wrong. The chemicals kick in and sales people lose all reason.

I was reminded of this recently when we were conducting sales training. It is hard to create a new habit for salespeople. They have egos and they are easily entrenched in less productive ways of doing things, because that is how they have always done it. Stupid, is what I would call that, unless you are really shooting the lights out with your results.

The issue is when we see the body language signaling a negative response the fight response starts and then we hear the words and we go into overdrive. Our brain is on fire concerning the thousand good reasons that no should be a yes. We are delving deep into why the client is wrong and we are right. WE are rapidly processing our line of attack to counter the argument they have proffered. What a complete waste of time.

Instead we need to get smart. Stop the chemical reaction from getting out of control. Throw the Breaker Switch, like we have with the electricity in our houses, if the power load gets too dangerous. Shooting your mouth off in sales is even more dangerous. That intervention comes in the form of a cushion. No, we don’t put a cushion over our mouth, so that no words come out. We put it over our brain instead. We offer a very neutral response to the buyer, that neither agrees with nor inflames the situation.

The point of this neutral statement is to give us critical thinking time. Are we using this critical thinking time to dream up a killer response that will shut the buyer down in their tracks and turn that “no” into a “yes”? Nope. We use it to stop the chemical rush and regroup. We need to go into question mode.

When we hear a “no” it is a headline, like we have in newspapers. A short form of reply that gives the key details and no more. We want to know what is in the article accompanying that headline. Why is it “no”? So we sweetly and gently ask, “May I ask you why you said “no”; or “your price is too high”; or “we are happy with our current supplier”; or “we have no budget for this”; or the thousand other dubious reasons buyers give us for declining our genius offer. Give me the article accompanying the headline, so I can understand how I am supposed to answer this rejection.

Now we have to be patient. We hear the reason and again we are sorely tempted to go into counter attack. We know can tear that shabby reasoning apart and want to bombard the buyer with a million reasons why they should buy. Hold your horses there pardner. What if this isn’t the killer objection? What if a more vicious version is lurking in the long grass, ready to bite us at the first opportunity? We need to keep digging.

After we hear that reason, we sweetly and gently ask, “Apart from that are there any other concerns for you?”. They will usually have another one. Again we don’t go into rambunctious reply mode. We ask why that is a problem for them, just like we did the first time. They tell us and again we must be patient. We must keep our power dry, hold the line, keep our nerve. Again, we venture forth on our seeker journey and sweetly and gently ask, “Are A and B your only concerns or do you have another? If they do, we still don’t rush in where angles fear to tread and blurt out our killer retort.

We sweetly and gently ask, “You have mentioned A, B and C. Of these which one is the most pressing concern for you?”, and then we shut up and don’t even breath, let alone speak. They make a choice and now we open up both barrels and answer that concern and ignore the other two. Usually, if we successfully deal with the main concern, the lesser concerns fade away like the dew on a spring day.

When we were doing some role play practice in the training, it was interesting that the person playing the buyer gave a reason for not buying and the seller was starting to jump in. We tied them up and physically restrained them so they couldn’t answer right then and there. Okay, that is an exaggeration. Actually, we just asked them to keep digging, to follow this procedure and not answer yet, until they know what to answer. Sure enough of the A, B and C reasons given, it turned out that it was C that was the concern of most import. “A” was price by the way and “C” was quality in this case.

We don’t know what to answer until we know what to rebuff. Hold off on answering the pushback, until you know what is their key concern. Don’t be fooled by smokescreens, wild goose chases and other buyer subterfuges. If we do this we will be a lot more successful closing the sale and building a strong relationship with the buyer.

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It is a bad sign when a presentation makes me sleepy, especially if it is at lunch time. It is very common to have speakers address a topic over a lunch to a group of attendees. After lunch, you might explain away a bit of the drowsiness, but during the lunch is a warning sign. The speaker had good voice strength, so nobody was struggling to hear him. He was knowledgeable on his subject having worked in this area for a number of years. He was speaking about what his firm does everyday, so he is living the topic. So what went wrong?

Thinking back to the talk, I wondered whether his structure was the issue? When a speech doesn’t flow well, the audience has to work hard. Actually, they choose not to work hard and instead just drop out and escape from you. This was one of those cases.

If we think about giving a speech, we have to plan it well. In his case, he had prepared slides, but the style of the lunch and the venue meant it was a no slide deck presentation. He had some side notes written down on his laptop screen to follow. That is fine for the speaker, because it aids navigation through the topics. The problem was that the points were not ordered or structured well. This made it hard to follow, as it tended to jump around, rather than flow.

We design our talks from the idea spark. In one sentence, we need to isolate out what is the key point we want to make to our audience. This is not easy, but the act of refining the topic gives us clarity. We create the opening last, because its role is to break into the brains of the audience and capture their full attention for what is coming.

The middle bits between opening and closing is where the design part comes in. Think of the sections like chapters in a book. The chapters need to be in a logical order that is easy to follow. They need to link to each other so that the whole thing flows. To create the chapters we take our central conclusion and ask why is that true? The answers will come from the points of evidence or our experiences. We need to get these down and then get them in order.

It might be a simple structure like “ this is what happened in the past, this is where we are today and this is where we are going in the future”. We could use a macro-micro split. This is the big picture and here are the details of the components. It could be advantage-disadvantage. We investigate the plusses and minuses of what we are proposing. It could be taking the key points of evidence and breaking them down to make each a chapter in its own right.

The key is in the sequencing. What is the logical flow here to move from one chapter to the next? We need a bridge between chapters to set up what is coming next and to tell our audience we are changing the focus. We need to constantly loop each chapter back to what is the central point. We can’t just put out evidence and leave it there, expecting the listener to work it out themselves. We have to tell them why this is important, what it means for them and how they can use it.

Visuals on screen do assist in this process. It does make it easier to follow because we are hitting more points of stimulus with our audience. When we don’t have slides, we need to use word pictures to draw the audience into our topic. I am struggling to recall any stories he told about the topic, which is the best place to create those word pictures.

So break the talk up before you go anywhere near the slide construction. What is the point you want to make? What are the reasons for that and turn them into chapter headings. Check that the flow of the chapters is logical and easy to follow. Then create a blockbuster opening to grab attention. If our speaker had spent more time on the design then the talk would have been more accessible to the audience. Get that wrong in this Age Of Distraction and you have lost them immediately.

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All interfaces with the customer are designed by people. It can be on-line conversations with robots or in store interactions, but the driving force behind all of these activities are the people in our employ. The way people think and act is a product of the culture of the organisation. That culture is the accountability of senior management. The common success point of organisations is to have the right culture in place, that best serves the customer. The success of senior management in making all of that work is a combination of their leadership, people and communication skills.

This sounds infinitely reasonable in theory, but the reality is often so different. Senior leaders, who themselves are not particularly people focused, expect their customer interaction designers and in store staff to be customer focused. They don't walk the talk themselves and what is worse, they don't see the contradiction.

They haven't worked out yet that good customer service begins with good employee service. Love your staff and they will love your customers. Richard Branson is widely referenced with his philosophy of employees first, customers second. His idea is to produce the right mental framework for employees to then put the customer first. Our emotions lead our behaviors, which determines our performance.

Fine, love all of that, but how do we get it right? Leadership has to be clearly understood by the leaders. It is not a function of rank or longevity in the organisation. Instead, it is a function of the degree of cooperation we can get from our team. We might believe things are rolling out beautifully, in a pre-ordained way, in relation to how we treat the customer. Sadly, the front-line customer experience with our service could be entirely different from how the leaders planned it and how they want it.

To get that employee cooperation to buy into what we believe is the correct way forward, we need to have well developed people and communication skills. We also need to make sure that our middle managers also have those same skills. We could be doing things really well up at the top of the organisation, but our middle managers may be sabotaging the culture we want to build and we just do not see it.

If we want sincerity to be a function of our customer service, then, as an organisation, we have be sincere. If we want customers to feel appreciated, we have to appreciate our staff and do it in a sincere way. People can spot fake from a mile away. If we spend all of our time finding errors and faults, we may miss the things that are being done well, which we can communicate that we appreciate.

We might want many things in business such as personal success, greater revenues, reduced costs etc. We can only achieve these things through others: either our own staff or our customers. They may however want different things. We have to find the means to appeal to our staff and customers such that they want what we want. This is not manipulation. This is well developed people and communication skills. The trust is created and we lead others, to also want what we want. As Zig Ziglar famously noted, we can get whatever we want in this life, if we help enough other people get what they want.

To create that trust we have to be genuinely interested in others. This starts with our staff because we want them to be genuinely interested in our customer. When they do this, they build the trust with the buyer and a bond that is very difficult to break. If we don't demonstrate this genuine interest in our staff, we are not building the culture where they will naturally pass this feeling on to the customer.

There is an old Chinese saying that, “a man who cannot smile should not open a shop”. Yet in modern business, we have plenty of people floating around who don't smile. It could be the very top executives who are too serious to smile at their staff. They set up a culture that is dry and remote, but expect that at the interface with the customer, there will be an emotional connection with the brand. They just don't see the miscalculation and self-delusion involved here.

Bosses are often poor listeners, who imagine that their front line staff are all doing an excellent job of listening to the customer. What if that is not the case? If the bosses want to create a culture of good listening habits, then starting with themselves is a reasonable idea. When we listen, we learn more than we already know. This is so important when dealing with the customer. We need to make sure we have a culture of good questioning skills to trigger the opportunity for the customer to talk to us. In these conversations we can better come to understand what would be best for the customer and how to properly service them.

One of the frustrating things about training salespeople is the difficulty of getting them to stop focusing solely on what they want (bonuses, promotions, commissions) and concentrate on what the client wants (solve my problem). When they are talking to the client, the conversation is all about what the salesperson is hoping for. We have to learn to change that dialogue and talk in terms of the key interests of the buyer.

I was giving a keynote speech at an event hosted by one of our major clients, for their most important customers. Another speaker before me spent the entire time just talking about his own company! I really wondered what was the take away for the audience? Actually, I don't wonder, I know. It was a big fat zero. We can get caught up in ourselves and forget that everything we talk about with the buyer, has to be firmly focused on the client’s interests. The way we do that is by listening to their answers, to the brilliant questions we have designed for that purpose.

When a customer encounters one of our touch points, we want them to like and trust us. Doing this on-line is a challenge but good navigation, intuitive processes and clear explanations all assist in this regard. In the face-to-face world, we need to start in a friendly way. The culture of this basic idea however springs from within the company and is guided by the outlook of the leaders.

If the top management are a dour bunch, always serious, rarely smiling, stiff and “businesslike” rather than friendly with their teams, then we have to wonder why the front line staff would not be influenced by this outlook? If we want our people to smile and begin in a friendly way with customers, then the leadership group needs to demonstrate that attitude themselves and show this in their own staff interactions.

Another challenge for bosses is to shut up. Often, because they are older, more experienced and time poor, they get into the “everything abbreviated” habit of firing out orders. They do all the talking. The same problem with salespeople, they talk too much. The key to satisfying both staff and customers is to let them do the bulk of the talking. This requires a strategy and considerable discipline, but it is worth it because it creates a different type of culture in the organisation and this flows out to the customer interactions.

It is an obvious thing in sales to get customers to have a sense of ownership. We might describe the product or service and the situation after they have bought it. We regale them with the problem solutions we are bringing and the success platform we are going to create. We have a goal in mind – find the best solution for the client and get them to have ownership of this idea. We want them coming up with our preferred solution. We design the questions we will ask, with this in mind. It is our idea, but they reach the same idea on their own and in the process come to have ownership of that idea.

The same thing is needed with our staff. We can tell them how to do their jobs in great detail, but it would be better if we could have them come up with them own conclusion. Preferably one that matches what we have decided is in the best interests of the company. Again, question design here is crucial and if we do this correctly, the client arrives at their own conclusion and it matches the one we had previously reached. This way there is no sense of hard push sales or badgering of the buyer. They got there by themselves and so their sense of ownership is very high

We cannot be persuasive unless we can honestly see things from the point of view of the buyer. The aim in persuasion is to join the conversation going on in the head of the customer. This gets us on the same wavelength and our conversation will be in sync, because we are speaking about the things that are of greatest interest to them.

Trying to stop seeing everything from only our own viewpoint and to see if from the client’s viewpoint, sounds tremendously simple, but it requires a strong effort. We need to do this logically as well as emotionally. We have to be understanding at the empathetic level, which means really understanding the driving ideas and desires of the buyer. Nevertheless we need to enable this discipline to apply if we want to be successful in convincing others of what we think will serve them best.

If we want our staff to appreciate the business we can receive from the buyer, we need to build that attitude internally of praising staff and giving them honest appreciation. This is often missed in firms, where everything is rather cut and dried. Buying is an emotional activity which we justify with logic. We want our designers of the interface with the customer to have a sense of appreciation for the buyer. We want staff who are facing customers to do the same. If we are not giving our own staff praise and appreciation, we are not building a floor to ceiling culture that will work best when interacting with customers. It has to run on automatic, because we cannot be everywhere at the same time. We have to trust our people to deliver great customer service.

The ability to ask questions instead of making statements is an important skill. It is easier to drive this skill throughout the organization, if this is part of the culture. Bosses shooting out orders is a “tell” culture. If they automatically asked questions instead of giving orders, they would be building the right mentality for customer service. Our objective is to find out what the customer wants. To do that we need to be asking them questions. This is a mental frame around which the customer interaction needs to be built.

When we ask questions, we can come up with solutions that the customer themselves realise are the best outcomes for them. If we are more concentrated on what is best for us, then the customer can feel that too. So we want to understand their needs, suggest solutions that we know will make them happy to follow our lead.

Inside the organisation this is how the team should be managed. They should be doing what they are supposed to be doing, happily. Their bosses have communicated in a way that the staff member comes naturally to the same conclusion, as being the best way forward. When we achieve this common level of understanding then everything moves forward very smoothly.

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The object of a sale is to exchange a good or a service for money. The degree to which that money can exceed the variable and fixed costs associated with delivering it, determines the success and longevity of the company. We all know that nothing happens in business without a sale. If that is the case then salespeople have a critical role to produce as much revenue as possible for the firm. There are prices set for goods and services. Goods are tangible items and plotting the costs and the margin of profit are relatively straight forward. Buy low and sell high is an old business maxim. Services are more difficult to price because they are intangibles. In both cases, the value proposition of the price against what is being delivered, is the communication piece that salespeople have to master in order to be successful.

Imagine my surprise, as an expert in sales training, when I meet salespeople who have not spent even one second trying to master the bridging of the gap between value and cost. Sitting in the audience at a speaker event, next to a thirtyish Japanese sale’s guy, I was astounded by a few things he said as we discussed selling over lunch. I was interested in hearing what his sales process was. He didn’t really understand my question because he had no defined process. He had been selling for this firm for seven years so he was an experienced salesperson.

He contacts a lead, gets an appointment, shows up and explains the service and submits a quote, he told me. Really? On the blank side of meal menu, I mapped out the elements of the sales process for him. Prepare for the meeting and focus your intention on one thing – getting the re-order, not just the solitary sale. Build trust through establishing rapport. Create interest by asking extremely well designed questions to understand the client’s needs. Now tell the client whether we can help them or not and if we can, explain the how of our solution. There may be points of insufficient clarity, concerns, hesitations or downright objections to what we are proposing. We need to deal with those before we proceed to ask for the order, and then we do the follow up to deliver the service or good.

He was impressed by this structural approach to the sales call, as he should have been, because he was certainly doing it the hard way. Having a roadmap makes the whole process much easier for both buyer and seller. I then asked him what does he do when the buyer says, “too expensive”. With a cherubic mien, he told me he offered to “drop the price”. Incredulous, I asked “by how much do you usually drop it?”. He quoted 20% as the number. There were four other sales people in his team and if that is how they roll over there, then that is an expensive first response to client pushback on pricing.

He was an experienced guy, but that was the best he could come up with. Why would that be? He didn’t have any other knowledge about how to deal with that type of situation. Do you think price comes up fairly regularly in sales conversations with buyers? Of course it does, so how could this continue like this, as if it were acceptable.

He should have said, “why do you say that” when told it was too expensive? Was the price objection genuine, a ruse, sport negotiation, time bound, or irrelevant because they haven’t seen enough value yet to understand the price point? There will be one highest priority element in the too expensive objection. It might be the actual volume of cash involved, budget allocation timings, internal competing project competition concerns, etc. Which one is it – we need to know.

I have been told “too expensive”, which I recognise is a short form summary of a host of reasons for not proceeding. When I questioned the why, it was a “budget issue”. Now as sale’s professionals we have to dig deeper, “why is it a budget issue?”. “Because that number will exceed our budget allocation for that quarter”.

That means it is not too expensive after all. It is just too expensive if paid in one quarter, but fully capable of purchase if the payments are split across quarters. Except you would never know that, if your response was to drop your price by 20%. Would you be willing to help the client out and split the payments across quarters? I would guess you would prefer that to having to drop your price.

The moral of this story is to take a very detailed look at what your salespeople are doing. Don’t confuse seven years of sales experience with one year of experience seven times. Also, don’t imagine that they have a process, that they know how to explain the value or to deal with objections. Based on what we see in our sales training classes and talking with clients, in Japan, the chances of that being the case are very low.

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Questions in general are powerful tools for speakers. They bring focus to key points we want to get across. They are particularly useful in getting our audience engaged. They also have danger within them. Knowing when to use questions and what types of questions to use are things which must be worked out in the planning of the presentation and shouldn’t be done on the fly. If you want to get yourself into trouble then ask the wrong question, at the wrong time, in the wrong way and brace yourself for the reaction.

There is a cadence to any talk or presentation and in the planning phase we can break the delivery down to five minute blocks. It doesn’t have to be five, it could be four or six, but five minutes is a long enough time to go deep with a thought, idea or imparting some information without losing the concentration of the audience.

Actually, audience concentration spans are a nightmare today. They have become so short and everyone has become addicted to multitasking. Even if they are enjoying the presentation, they are scrolling through their screens right in front of you anyway, without any hint of shame. This is the new normal folks. We will face this problem forever and we are never going back to the good old days of people politely listening to us right through our presentations.

This is why we need to be switching up the presentation every five minutes or so, to keep the audience intrigued with what we are presenting. This is where great information or insights really help. The audience access to something new or valuable will pry them away from their phone screens for a few minutes longer. We will need to be using the full range of our vocal delivery skills to keep them with us. Any hint of a monotone delivery and the hand held screens will light up and be blazing throughout the room.

Questions are an additional assist to break through the competing focus for audience attention. By simply asking a well constructed question we can grab audience attention. Even a simple question can work. If I suddenly asked you, “What month were you born in?”, you will return your attention to me from wherever you were straying. In our talk, we may have been waffling along taking about some pressing issue or downloading some precious data, losing our listeners in the process. However, when we lob in a question, we magically get all eyes back on us. We have now gotten the audience thinking about the point we have raised.

The downside with asking questions though is people in the audience want to answer them. They see the question as a great opportunity for them to intervene in the proceedings. They may have a counterview and enjoy the chance to debate with us. They may have their own personal agenda and this break in the traffic is perfect for them to weigh in with what they think. They may even get into debates amongst themselves and exclude us entirely. Within no time at all, the proceedings have been hijacked and we are no longer in control of the agenda.

This is where rhetorical questions are so handy. They give us the ability to capture the mental attention of our audience on the topic we are discussing, get them engaged, but we maintain control. A rhetorical question and a real question are identical. The audience cannot distinguish one from the other. This is good, because we can keep them guessing. What we want them thinking about is whether this is a question they have to answer and are they ready to do that or is this a rhetorical question and all they have to do is listen? The difference between the two is the timing of the break before our next contribution. If we stop there and invite answers then they know it is time to speak up. If we leave a pregnant pause, but then answer the question or add to it, then they know they are not being required to contribute.

The key point here is to design the questions into the talk at the start. In those five minute blocks we need to have little attractions to keep interest. They might be powerful visuals, great storytelling, vocal range for effect or rhetorical questions. The key is to have variety planned from the start. In a 40 minute speech, apart from the opening and the closings, there are going to be 5-6 chances to grab strong attention. At the start we can use vocal range and visuals but as we get to the middle and toward the end, we need to bring in the bigger guns as people’s concentration begins to fade out.

We can’t flog the audience with a series of rhetorical questions and wear them down. We can maybe get in two or maximum three in a forty minute presentation. Any activity we repeat with our audience gets boring very fast. Anything that smacks of manipulation absolutely gets the wrong response.

There is a fine line to be walked here. We do want to control the agenda, the debate, the timing, the attention of the listeners, without appearing controlling. Sprinkling a couple of well constructed rhetorical questions into our presentation will help us to maintain interest. We need to defeat our screen based, social media and internet addictive attention rivals. Get used to this, because this is the future for all of us as presenters and we have to lift our game to make sure we are in a position to have a powerful influence with our audiences. The alternative is speaker oblivion.

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We love acronyms! Our workplaces are thriving with them such that we can hold extended conversations composed entirely of seemingly impenetrable codes. They are handy though and this one R.E.AL. is short and serviceable to describe best practice leadership attributes. It always good to have evidence around pontification. This summary of the great and the good tendencies amongst leaders is based on research we did in the USA, on what respondents thought leaders needed to do to be more successful. REAL is composed of these key elements – Reliable, Empathetic, Aspirational and Learner.

“Reliable” is an obvious choice and though much upheld in principle, tends to break down in practice. “Managing upwards” is a buzzword for describing how to deal with one’s boss. It used to be called “sucking up to the boss” to get ahead. Climbing the greasy pole meant taking all the glory for yourself, Teflon-like blaming others for mistakes and stepping on the bodies of your staff, to elevate your own brilliant career.

Reliable however is an attribute that leads to trust only when the staff observe that what is said is actually done, that promises are kept and that their own personal development is being given a high priority. “What is in it for me” is a common human frailty. Bosses who keep this in mind when making sure the organisation and individual goals of their staff are aligned, get more loyalty and more accomplished. Misunderstandings arise, usually traced back to poor communication. More work need by bosses!

“Empathetic” is closely linked to listening skills. Taking the viewpoint of the other person is difficult if we don’t know what that viewpoint is. The Japanese expression kuki wo yomu or summing up the real situation, is a great phrase to explain emphathy. What is being said is important but more often, what isn’t being said is where all the insight is buried.

Busy bosses though don’t have much time to get below the surface calm of the workplace. Some don’t care – just get me the numbers – or else! Using our position power works up to a point but we miss out on a lot of creative potential as the opportunity cost. If we want to know what is really going on and what people are really thinking, we have to spend time and work at it. Expressing we actually do care is also another orphan amongst communication skills. Successful bosses have good awareness and confidence to communicate they really do care about their people.

“Aspirational” reflects ideas about grasping the bigger picture. Hovering above the melee of the everyday to see the vision to be realised on the far horizon. It means communicating beyond this quarter’s goals and placing each individual’s role in terms of their contribution to the bigger goal. The framed glass protects the vision statement, ceremoniously hung on the wall. While it may not fade in the sunlight, it fades in the collective memory. No one can recite it, let along live it, so it is as meaningful as the flower arrangement on the reception desk. Pleasant enough idea but ephemeral. The leader has to inject the ideas and concepts involved into terms that resonate with each person individually. This takes time, which is why so few organisations get any return on their investment in their vision statement.

“Learning” gets nods of approval but many executives have had one year of experience thirty times rather than thirty years of experience. Their views are still locked away in a mental vault, for which they have lost the key. Too busy to learn. Busy, busy working in their business, rather than on their business. They are up to date on Facebook but way behind where the industry is headed and where their company needs to go. Well informed yet ignorant, because they lack perspective and acuity. If we aren’t prepared to permanently kill our darlings, our favoured ideas and concepts, we must be prepared to risk falling behind, trampled by our competitors.

REAL, another acronym heaven dweller, is easy to remember and that at least is a start to actually realising its power. We know all of these things – we just forget or get too busy to do them. Let’s change that.

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Projects are too common. Because of this we take them for granted, seeing them as part of everyday work, but we don’t approach them properly. We usually gather the team together and then dive straight into the details of the project, without really applying a professional approach. We certainly don’t apply as much planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade straight into the mechanics of the execution. Why is that? Poor leadership and lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as the team launches forth rocking and rolling with no strategy and little expertise.

Often, there is no existing documented planning process in place. This can be rather ironic because often the projects are repeated or very similar projects are undertaken. Templates and structure are missing so everyone just wings it, making it up as they go along, re-inventing the wheel.

The goals of the project are often vague. This is a lack of direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the work. The project leader has to push back and manage upwards, seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project and then make sure everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.

Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project, denying it success. The project begins with vague boundaries around what is to be done. In quick order, either external parties or the team themselves, become like Emus and are attracted by bright shiny objects. Very quickly the additional tasks multiply but the time frame and the resources committed to the project do not change. This never ends well.

The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines and follow-up is weak or non-existent. Well, when you are having fun and winging it, you are super busy getting on with the actual work, so no strategy needed. Later things go wrong because timelines were not clear nor properly planned. The resources do not turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover or resolve.

You quickly find that people, rather than logistics, are the trickiest part of project leadership. All the coolest project management software and sophisticated systems in the world won’t save you from people problems. You may not have been able to match the project team resource with the skill sets required and you have to make do with what you have. There may be incompatible working styles in the team and you are now also chief psychologist, in addition to team project leader, spending a lot of time and energy dealing with staff or division conflicts.

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Zen study is a way to strip out all of the non-essentials in life. The noise, the distraction, the things that are not so important. People sit around concentrating on their breath cycle or one word or any number of other methods to quiet the mind. They are seeking to get more clarity about themselves and what are their real priorities. As presenters, this is a good metaphor for when we are in front of people speaking.

You would think with all those thousands of years of Zen in Japan, in art, in design, in temples, gardens, in history etc., that the Japanese people would be legends of simplicity and clarity when presenting. Not true! Presenting as an idea only came to Japan around 160 years ago. Fukuzawa Yukichi who founded Keio University and who graces the 10,000 yen bank note, launched public speaking in Japan in the Meiji period. There is still an enzetsukan or speech hall preserved on the grounds of Keio University, where presumably the first public speeches were given.

Western society plumbs the wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome, parliaments allowing debate and Hollywood for models on speech giving. Japan has no traditional home grown role model. If the authorities needed you to know anything in old japan, a notice board would have it written there for you. No shogunal oratory from the castle walls to the assembled masses. No Mel Gibson Braveheart style speeches before vanquishing the foe in battle. Japan bypassed all of that until Fukuzawa Yukichi decided this was another area of modernization that needed implementation in Japan, like wearing ties, boots, hats and petticoats.

Of course there were no slide decks in those days, but Japan certainly was an early adopter of the technology for giving presentations – the overhead projector, the slide projector, the modern light weight projector, large screen monitors, electronic pointers, etc. Any venue you go to in Japan will be bristling with cool tech gear.

Interestingly, the content on the speaker’s screen will also be bristling. There will be 10 graphs on the one page, lurid diagrams employing 6 or more vivid colours, numerous lines of text so small you could use it for an optometrist’s eyesight test chart. Where has the zen gone?

To be an effective presenter, we don’t need any tech or screens or props or gizmos. We can just speak to the audience and enjoy being the full focus of their attention. As a result of this visual conflagration, many speakers are competing for attention with what is being displayed on the screen. Company representatives love to play the video of their firm or product or service. They can be quite slick, the joy of the marketing department. They are the pit into which a chunk of money was thrown for the production company, directors, designers, film and sound crew, talents and innumerable others who all got a slice of the pie.

The question to ask though is does this video actually assist the speaker to make the key point under consideration. Often they are like eye candy, but are not on point to the main argument. Unless it strongly reinforces your message dump it. It will only be competition for you the speaker and it will suck up valuable time which could be spent better with you as the main focus.

I saw Ken Done, a well known Australian artist, give a talk in Japan many years ago. He has a very unique visual painting style. He moved around from behind the lectern, stood next to it and just spoke about his art to the audience. It was very engaging because it was so intimate. The Japanese audience loved it. There was only one source of stimulation for the audience and that was Ken Done. This is what we want – to be the center of our audience’s world for the next thirty or forty minutes.

Don’t use a slide deck unless there is something in that content and presentation on screen which really helps bring home your argument. If it is for information purposes, then that will work well. If you are there to persuade, then you will be so much more powerful if all the attention is concentrated on one point and that point needs to be you.

In this case we have stripped away all the visual noise, so we have to fill the void with word pictures. We need to transport the audience to a place where they can see what we are talking about, in their mind’s eye. If you have ever read the novel after seeing the movie, you find yourself transported visually to the scenes from the movie, as you read the novel’s pages. This is the same idea. We have to usher the audience to a place, time and situation that we are describing in words, in such a way that visually they can imagine it.

We don’t always have to have slides or visuals. We are the message, so let’s manufacture the situation so that we are the center piece of the proceedings and all eyes and ears are on us, totally focused on every word we say. We need to Zen our way to speaking and presenting success!

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Projects have been around for a long time of course and in the modern era we have accumulated a vast amount of best practice on how to manage them. It isn’t usually that we don’t know what to do, it is that we don’t actually do it. We get into trouble when we just leap in and dig straight into the logistical entrails, without giving enough thought to a macro 360 degree view of what is involved. We see this tendency all the time. Any group of people given a project task go straight into the gruesome detail. In project planning, a pinch of planning goes an extremely long way. Having a common and clear set of rules helps to ensure we are all approaching the project in the same vein.

Here are ten rules for ensuring that what needs to get done is completed on time and to expectations.

1. Mind our business. Keep our eye on the ball, especially defining what is inside and outside the project scope. This often changes mid-steam so we need to be nimble and adjust accordingly.
2. Know the customer’s requirements. Double check you have properly understood the detail, document it and keep checking against that documented record, especially if there are changes needed.
3. Plan well. The plan will cover the scope, schedule, cost, approach etc. Involve task owners to gain buy-in and apply a strong reality check to what you have created. Strangely, the planning value comes from the creation process and not just the project outcome. It forces some hard thinking, tough prioritisations, player commitments, clear controls, smooth coordination and cooperation. Basically, the things at which most companies are usually rubbish.
4. Build a great team with strong ownership. Motivation of the team is critical, so we need total clarity around the WHY, trust, communication, sufficient resources and mutually agreed deadlines.
5. Track progress. Frequent reviews, wide visibility, broad communication and clear goals are needed. There are hard and soft aspects to most projects, so ensure we don’t overlook the soft skills needed to succeed.
6. Use baseline controls. These are the fundamental building blocks against which we steer the project forward and against which we alter course when needed.
7. Write it, share it, save it. Here is the Holy Grail of project management – write it down - if it isn’t written down it doesn’t exist. Document procedures, plans, evolving designs. Baseline controls are compared against the preserved records. Repeatable projects especially need this record, to which are added the fresh set of insights and learnings of the current project.
8. Test it. Jumping into new territories with both feet can be high risk. Better to develop test cases early to help with understanding and verification of what is required to succeed. Resources and time are the most often underestimated elements, so an early testing helps to flush out the gaps.
9. Ensure customer satisfaction. Make the customer’s real needs the prism through which everything is viewed. Undetected changes in customer requirements or not focusing on the customer’s business needs can in fact blow up in our face.
10. Be pro-active. Be proactive in applying these principles and in identifying and solving problems as they arise. Review and search for problems, knowing there are people dedicated to hiding issues. Vigilance is a virtue we all need to practice when working on projects, especially anticipating trouble before it arises or becomes too explosive.
11. Stop the same old, same old and take a fresh look at your methodology for approaching projects. It seems so simple, but it can simply go wrong so easily. You might be surprised at how loose and inefficient your current methodology is. We can always do better and these ten rules will help us on that journey.

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Great service is so fleeting and illusive. You encounter it and then like the morning mist, the next minute it is gone. One company representative is so spectacularly helpful and then next one is seemingly possessed by evil spirits and demonic. As companies how do we get the angels inside our staff to engage with the clients, rather than having reputation destroying devils intrude. Good service, consistently delivered, is no accident and so it has to be made to occur. How can we do that?

Jan Carlzon many years ago published a tremendous guide to customer service. He had the job of turning around SAS airlines and captured that experience in his book “Moments Of Truth”. Carlson’s insights flooded back to me when I checked into a hotel in Singapore.

By the way, the drive in from Changi Airport is a credit to the Singaporean Government, who spend millions every year to develop and maintain their landscaped, leafy, green, tropical thoroughfares. This is smart. You are already in a pleasant mood just getting into town. While going through the check-in process at the hotel, a waiter from the adjoining restaurant approached me bearing an ice-cold glass of freshly squeezed juice. Singapore is very humid and trust me, after a long flight, that ice cold beverage went down very well. I thought this is really well thought through customer service by this Hotel.

One of Carlzon’s observations about customer service however was the importance of consistency of delivery. For example, visualise the telephone receptionist answering your call in a pleasant, helpful manner and you are uplifted by your exposure to the brand. The next staff member receiving the transferred call however, is grumpy, disinterested and unfriendly. Instantly, your mood and positive impression plummet. You are suddenly irritated by this company, who have just damaged their brand by their lack of an ability to sustain good service across only two consecutive touch points with the customer. How do you feel when you are given the run around from department to department?

So back to my story. As I get to my room, in good spirits after unexpectedly receiving my ice-cold juice, I find out the television isn’t working. After a forensic search for the cause, including a few harsh words with the television controller, I discover the power is not on. There is a card slot next to the door that initiates the power supply to the room. Actually, I discovered the same system in the elevator, when I unsuccessfully tried to select my floor. Yes, I worked it all out eventually, but the thought occurred to me that the pleasant, busy young woman checking me into the hotel, failed to mention these two salient facts to me. Sustainability of good service has to be the goal if you want to protect or grow your brand.

Let me mention a customer service breakdown I particularly dislike here in Japan. When you call just about any organization here, you get a very flat voice answering the phone saying in Japanese ,“XYZ company here”. You ask to speak with that very excellent and impressive member of staff, Ms. Suzuki whom you met recently. The flat uninterested voice tells you that she “is not at her desk right now” and then you are abandoned to stone cold motherless silence.

The “may I take down your name and phone number so that she can call you back” bit is rarely offered. Instead, you are left hanging on the phone. The inference of the silence is that if Ms. Suzuki is not around, that is your problem buddy and you should call back later, rather than expect a return call. Again, to Carlzon’s point, these inconsistencies of customer service directly damage the brand. In this example, when I had previously met Ms. Suzuki, I was impressed by her and consequently I had a good impression of the whole organisation. I was projecting that positive vibe to the entire company. The person taking the call has just put that positive image of the brand to the sword.

When you are the leader of your company, you presume that everyone “gets it” about representing the brand and that the whole team delivers consistent levels of service. You expect that your whole team is supporting the marketing department’s efforts to create an excellent image of the organization. After all, you have been spending truckloads of money on that marketing effort, haven’t you?

But are all the staff supporting the effort to build the brand? Perhaps they have forgotten what you have said about consistent customer service in the past or they are a new hire or a part-timer who didn’t get properly briefed.

I heard one of my recent hires in the sales team answering the phone with an unhelpful tone in his voice. He actually sounded like he was angry. He was in his fifties, so no boy, but obviously that had been his standard, ugly phone manner throughout his entire working life. A perpetual brand killer, client alienating, reputation destroyer right there. We have an open plan office, so I could hear this. If you are encased in the dark wood paneled corner executive crib with a tremendous view, then maybe you will never know what is going on in the engine room and therefore be unable to do anything about it.

Leaders, we should all sit down and draw the spider’s web of how customers interact with us and who they interact with. We should expect that nobody on our team gets it about the preservation of the brand and determine that we have to tell them all again, again and again.

So how about this for a starter for educating our staff to do a better job protecting and enhancing the brand:

1. Answer the phone with a pleasant, happy voice. Be helpful and offer your name first, so the customer won’t be embarrassed that they didn’t recognise your voice. It also gives the caller confidence that a real person is going to take care of their needs.
2. If you take the call and the person they are calling isn’t there, proactively offer to ensure they get a call back as soon as possible and guarantee you will get their message through to them.
3. End with thanking them for their call and again leave your name, in case there is anything further the caller may need.

First impressions count, but so do all the follow-up impressions, if we want to build a sustainable, consistent positive image with our customers. Consistency of good experiences doesn’t happen automatically. We have to look again at all of our touch points with our customers and ensure that everyone in the team understands their place in maintaining the excellent brand we have built up.

Action Steps

1. Draw your spiders web of client touch points and identify who needs training, including non-regular staff.
2. Design the experience you want the client to have and train everyone around the content.
3. Look at your systems for moving or transitioning the client through the organization, to make sure the client experience is consistently good.
4. Always check to see what you think is happening is actually the case.

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I have often thought there are so many lessons from the martial arts for our businesses. Here are my musings after 50 plus years of training in traditional Shitoryu Karate.

Stepping on to the floor

The dojo is the ultimate equalizer. Whether you arrived by chauffeur driven Roller or took Shanks’s mare, once you step on to that dojo floor only your ability and character separates you from everyone else. You have had all of your wealth, privileges, educational background, society status, connections stripped away and you are left alone to rise or fall based on your own abilities.

In business, we forget this primary lesson and allow people to accrue titles, status and power unattributed to their abilities. We need to see beyond the spin and politics and ensure that people’s real abilities are recognized and rewarded.

Starting

The class begins with a short meditation interval. This is designed to focus the mind and separate the day from what is to come. Next everyone is bowing toward the front. The front of the class represents all who came before us. We are not here today based solely on what we have done. Others were here before us building the art and the organization. By bowing we acknowledge the continuum and our responsibility to keep it going. Now we bow to the teachers, respecting their knowledge and their devotion. Finally, we bow to each other expressing our solidarity as fellow travelers on a journey of self-discovery.

How do we start the work day? Is there a chorei or morning gathering of the work group, to get everyone aligned and focused on the WHY we are there. In our office we review one of the Dale Carnegie Principles each day. We then share our scheduled meetings, our highest goals for the day, end with a motivational quote and a final rousing call to all do our best (ganbarimashoo!).

Stretching

We warm-up our minds and our bodies by going through a set routine to stretch our muscles to be able to operate at the highest possible levels of performance.

If you are a sales team, are you beginning your day with role play practice and coaching or are you just practicising on the client?

Basics

We repeat the same drills over and over, every class, every year, forever. We are seeking purity of form and perfection of execution. We are aiming for absolute efficiency and economy of movement. We are preparing ourselves for a Zen state where we can react without pre-thought.

A large amount of our work is routine, but can we improve the systems, the execution to bring in greater efficiencies and achieve higher productivity?

Sparring

There are two formats. Prearranged sparring dictates what is coming and the order in which it comes. Free sparring is one hundred percent spontaneous, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of ploy and counter ploy. At a high level, this is like playing a full chess match in under one minute, but using our physical techniques with total body commitment.

When we compete in the marketplace are we a speedboat or an oil tanker? Are we nimble, adaptive, on purpose and aware of market changes? Are we thinking steps ahead of the opposition, anticipating their moves and constantly outflanking them, applying our brains and speed over their brawn?

Kata

These are full power set pieces, representing a battle against multiple opponents. The forms are fixed and the aim is perfection. The form is set and so we can release the mind into a Zen state enabling us to go beyond the form.

Are we able to keep reproducing execution pieces of our work that are perfected? Can we refine our actions for the maximum effectiveness? Can we eliminate mistakes, defects and rework entirely at all levels in the organisation?

Strengthening and warming down

Strength training is there to build the physical power and our mental perseverance. We do a final stretch to reduce stiffness and muscle pain by reducing lactic acid build up in the muscles.

Are our training methodologies making us stronger than our rivals in the marketplace? Are we allocating sufficient time to grow our people? Are we seeing outcomes from the training time invested.

Finish

We repeat the bowing and this time we add our Values. We voice carefully chosen words which represent the value system of our dojo, (Effort, Patience, Moderation, Respect). These are the last things setting into our minds, before we go back to our normal routines.

How do we end the workday? Do we set up for the next day by reviewing what we did today, what we achieved and what we need to work on tomorrow? Do we reflect on the quality of our performance and think about ways to do better?

The system of the martial arts hasn’t changed all that much over the many centuries and for a very simple reason. It works. How about your company? Are you perfecting your systems for the ages?

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Japan is merciless with salespeople. When you call the client’s company everyone is doing their absolute best to make sure you don’t get to talk to the boss. They won’t tell you their name, they don’t offer to take a message for you, the whole vibe is “get lost”. If you don’t know the precise name of the person you want to speak with, then the wall of steel descends very quickly. They will question you as to why you want to speak to the person in charge, tell you that the person will call you back. They never will.

No one wants to take any responsibility in the Japanese system, so that is why they won’t share their name. They don’t want to get scolded by the boss, so that is why they won’t put you through. The boss is a salaried employee and they won’t take calls from people they have never heard of. They don’t think, “this might be a business opportunity that will help my company”. They think, “I don’t want to have to deal with people I don’t know, especially foreigners, because it is risky”. Risk aversion is a big thing here and the easiest way of never taking a risk is never doing anything new or different. It has worked for thousands of years here.

So how do we break through the steel barrier. Many companies have meetings on Monday mornings, so invariably no one is around to take the call, even presuming you know their name. The last day of the month is also a very busy day for many companies, so that is another hard one. Days with a five in the date called gotoobi (5th, 10th,15th, 25th) are also busy days in Japan because they are cut off dates for invoice submissions, monthly invoice payments, salary payments, Government department submission dates, etc.

If we want to call a company and we don’t know the person’s name, then we should try and do it before the gate keepers arrive for work or after they have left for lunch or for after they have departed at the end of the day. This is not fool proof, but the chances of talking with someone with a bit more authority goes up.

Those tasked with taking general calls to the company or section, are usually female, young and at the very, very bottom of the hierarchy with no authority, except to make your life a misery. Companies don’t understand that these staff are the bearers of the brand to the outside world, so invariably they are not properly trained. They think their job is to screen out all salespeople and all unknowns.

I called the new President of a major Italian brand here in Tokyo to say hello and thank him for his business, as we had been commissioned by his headquarters to provide training for them. I didn’t know his name because he had just arrived and that information was not public at that point. I could never get past the gatekeeper. She would always tell me he wasn’t available and that he would call me back. That never happened. I am the President of the company delivering training for his company, to develop his business, to help hit his targets. You would expect he would want to talk with me. No such luck. In the end, I got so frustrated, I just gave up trying to talk to him and left the training delivery logistics to my staff. I never did meet him in fact and he was posted to a new country.

Here are some ideas. Even if you don’t know the name of the person send a package to their title within the company. This package might contain your company brochure or a small gift, but whatever it is, preferably make it slightly bulky to excite curiosity. Then, when you call asking for them, mention to the gatekeeper that you want to follow up on the package you recently have sent to them.

That package, by the way, once received by the target will probably go straight into the waste paper bin sitting next to their desk, unread, possibly unopened, because they don’t know who you are. This “send the package then call” technique will slightly increase your chances of getting put through.

Try to make the call before 9.00am, after lunch at around 1.10pm and again after 6.00pm. The junior people will usually arrive around 9.00am or 9.30am. They will have to man the phones from 12.00pm while all the important people go to lunch. This means you have a slightly better chance of talking to the boss when they are back from lunch and the junior person is not there. Companies are more concerned these days about junior, non-manager staff working overtime, so the junior people will be gone after 5.00pm or 5.30pm. The managers however are still there. Obviously the same considerations apply if you know the person’s name. Your chances of connecting will go up.

If you have met them before, you can say that you are calling to follow on with them on that recent conversation you had. Or you are calling to follow up on that email that you have sent them. Or that you are calling to get an answer to your question in the email you sent to them. More senior staff will generally recognize you have a business connection established and are more likely to put you through.

Why don’t they ever call you back? They recognize you are trying to sell them something and that means making a change in the supply arrangements. Change triggers a lot of requirement for internal harmonisation of a new supplier choice. They have to get the hanko seals stamped on the submission they will have to circulate to all those effected by the new decision. It will also probably require individual meetings with certain key people to secure agreement. It is a lot less work, trouble, time loss and risk to just ignore you in the first place.

Yes, you can get through but it is not easy. You need to try some tactics to make it possible. Have these issues in mind before you reach for the phone. This will save you a lot of frustration and lost time.

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I am sitting there with a crowd of people attending a presentation on blockchain technology. Some are very technical people active in the crypto currency area, some run their own tech businesses. Our presenter has amazing experience in this area, having worked for some very big names in the industry. He also has his own company to promote as well as himself as a leader in this field. He has some recommendations for us based on where he sees the industry moving over the next couple of years.

The coverage of his subject was logical and easy to follow. It was clear he really knew what he was talking about. The slides by the way, overall, were excellent. Very professionally done by a designer and they reinforced the credibility of his company. Very clear, for the most part, with not too much information on each slide and plenty of white space. Some fonts were a bit smallish and if you were seated at a distance, probably rather impenetrable. Apart from that quibble though, they were well done.

I was astounded though, by the way he presented his material. I calculated that during the entire presentation, including both the Q&A as well as the main body of the talk, he had eye contact with his audience for about 1% of the time. Where was he looking? He interspersed his eye contact between looking at the floor and behind him at the monitor he was using to show the slides. In fact, it was almost like some extremely primitive tribe living in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, encountering a high spec, large form TV monitor, showing amazing scenes for the first time. They would be amazed by what they were seeing and their eyes would be glued to the screen. This describes our modern, urban, high tech presenter to a tee. He seemed hypnotised by the screen and just kept looking at it the whole time.

Mercifully, he wasn’t reading the content to us, line by line, like some other dim presenters I have had the misfortune to encounter. He was transfixed though on the screen and just totally ignored his audience. Occasionally he would break free from the siren call of the monitor and amble around the front of the room, wandering to and fro, staring down at the carpet tiles.

He did have good energy, was obviously expert in this area and had some passion for his subject. Unfortunately, he preferred to speak in a monotone, where every single word gets the exact some strength treatment and there was no vocal variety. I liked his gestures, although they tended to be held a bit low. It would have been better to get his hands up higher around shoulder height, so they would be more visible.

He didn’t seem to be lacking in confidence. I spoke with him briefly before we started when I exchanged business cards. He didn’t come across as some nerdy, painfully shy techie, who wants to avoid contact with human kind as much as possible. What was going on here?

I put this dismal display down to a lack of knowledge. He knows a lot about the tech but knows close to zero about how to explain it to an audience. He didn’t seem to understand that in order to convince an audience of your point of view, you need to engage them. Like a lot of technical people, he must have believed that by just putting the data and information up on the screen, the goodness and sanctity of the content would carry the day. He must have imagined that his personal part in the process was not relevant. Even during the Q&A, he completely ignored the source of the questions – the rows of people seated in front of him. He just continued to stare at the screen. By the way, the words up on the screen at that point were “Thank You”, so not a lot to look at.

The basic rule of presenting is to use all the tools at your disposal. Eye contact with your audience is so powerful as a persuader. We wrap that up with our vocal variety, pauses, gestures and body language.

Hold the gaze of one individual in your audience for six seconds. Longer than that it becomes too intrusive. Speak to one person, on a point while holding their gaze, then switch your gaze to another person. Don’t do it in any predictable order, because people will anticipate what you are doing and switch off , because they know their turn is not coming yet.

Rather divide the room up into six sections. Front to the left, middle and right and the same for the rear half of the room. Then at random move your gaze around picking up people, making eye contact with them and converting them to your point of view on the subject.

Our presenter missed a big opportunity to persuade his audience to use his firm. He failed to sway us with his point of view, because he under powered the persuasion bit. The quality of your content may be the best on the planet, but that does not remove your role in explaining it. Back up what you are saying with knowledge of presenting as well and unlike our speaker, become the total package.

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Focus is under constant attack. The speed of business makes longer term planning a dubious endeavor. Projecting 5 years forward sounds reasonable. That is until you go back 5 years and look at all the changes that have taken place through technology, societal attitudinal changes, business realities and logistics. The leader is supposed to be defining the way forward for the team. The vision of the future is the guiding light on the hill toward which the troops are pointed. The relevancy of that vision is constantly being challenged by the market and by clients.

The leader can no longer easily keep up with all of the demands on their time. Social media has become a major source of information and we are all drinking from the firehouse. Meetings are numerous and suck up time at a prodigious rate. Email comes gushing forth in relentless fashion and inboxes become archives. "I will get to that email" is a plaintive cry from the oppressed masses. If we are traveling across time zones, then sleep patterns are shattered and we enter a zombie like twilight zone but still have to function anyway. When we get finally back home we are still trying to assimilate with our usual everyday challenges, but in a jet lag induced vegetative state.

We are not delegating enough. We know we should do more of it but we don't. We are holding on to too much control and this is ramping up our workload. In tougher times we had to jump in and keep things afloat. After the refloat though, we haven't eased off on the controls and are still doing too much ourselves. Where is the time to work on those things that only we can do?

Projects are bright shiny objects that fascinate our minds. We already have a big bag of them to carry around, but we keep stuffing more into the same bag. Our intellect and our imagination make us constantly hungry to do more and more interesting things and we do. The hours of the day don't grow to match our hunger, so things start well and then drift. We pull back the edge of the carpet and there they all are - projects started but never finished. Stacked up there out of sight and out of mind because they have been replaced by a newer sexier beau.

We never get to any perfect harmony with our team. The ones we want to keep, move on to greener fields, the ones we want to move on, we wind up keeping by default. The turnover means time and expertise is lost and we are in a state of constant starting again. This kills progress. The current candidate friendly market in Japan means that we are in a permanent recruit and retain mode. We have to put a higher value on continuity, than in the past, because the lag between losing people and hiring new staff gets longer. Hiring gets harder and more expensive.

None of this looks like it is going to improve any time soon. The ability to deal with this level of complexity becomes more important. The agile yet focused will win in this game. A good leverage point is heightened self-awareness. Knowing what is important and then giving that time is a differentiator. We need to have a “true north” in mind, against which to align ourselves, or we will find ourselves adrift in a sea of confusion.

The fog of busyness needs a clear counterpoint. We need to reestablish who we are, what we want and where we are going. This sounds simple. But if I ask you right now, can you pull out your written down game plan for your future? Can you articulate the steps needed to keep moving forward? Have you clearly nominated what success actually looks like.

“I want 10 million dollars”, is too vague. What do you want it for, how are you going to use it, how does this translate into your personal happiness or satisfaction?

The manic pace of the everyday can distract us and we forget about working on our personal alignment. Ironically, we need to slow down in order to speed up and get more done. We need to re-establish the point of what we are doing. We need to re-set the starting point and to fix a clear image of the finish line in our minds. We can then swim hard against the pull of busyness with a firm plan in place. The alternative is often being drawn along in the froth and fury of the storm tide.

So stop what we are doing. Intervene in our busyness. Re-connect with who we really are. Reaffirm our direction. Define true north. Make a new plan and follow it.

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Because the vast majority of people in sales have no idea what they are doing, they are making it up as they go along. Wouldn’t it be better to have a roadmap to progress the making of a sale? This roadmap will keep us on track and not allow the buyer to take us off on a tangent that leads to nowhere. Foundering around with no central direction wastes a lot of key buyer facing time and we don’t want to do that. We can’t expect unlimited access because of their busy schedules, so once we are in front of them we have to get all of the discovery process done in usually around an hour.

The sale call roadmap starts even before the call. These days with so much information readily available, especially with the advent of AI tools, we can’t turn up and ask basic questions about the company. We need to have done some research beforehand on media reports, their website, annual report, social media and using LinkedIn where possible, to check on the individuals we will meet, before we meet them.

Having done all of that, we are well armed to get the conversation off to a great start. We may have friends or contacts in common; or shared a similar working experience in the same company; or lived in the same town; or went to the same university or studied the same subjects. When we have done our research we will have an opportunity to try and find these little connectors. I was working with an American guy when I was at the Shinsei Bank. He was an absolute master at this. He had just joined the bank and I was supposed to brief him on the work my division was doing. We spent the whole time with him making connections between people we both knew. He did this to break the ice and establish rapport. I never did get to brief him on my division!

This rapport building is important with clients. We know if we don’t get a good relationship going at the start of the conversation, then it is unlikely they will buy from us. Even if we don’t have much in common, we can use other techniques like bring some interesting industry data or intelligence to them. We might have seen something work somewhere else and we can introduce this idea to them. In this initial meeting process, we need to make a very important intervention.

We need to get permission from the buyer to ask questions. When they are happy to meet us and having established some rapport, they are more likely to say “yes” to our request to ask questions about the inner details of what the company is doing and all the problems they are encountering. In other words, all the firm’s dirty laundry. If there was no rapport or trust created would you be keen to share that detail with strangers? Now in a western business environment, asking questions is no big deal, but with Japanese buyers it is crucial we do this. They are used to being hit with sales pitches, so the concept of them being questioned by the seller is not something they are used to.

Having gotten that permission we should ask very intelligent questions, so that we can fully understand their needs. Now buyers sometimes don’t want to tell us their precise situation. We have to ask our questions in a way that gets around that reluctance. We are searching for an entry point where we might become useful to them, to solve a problem they have. If they don’t have a big enough problem or if they think they can fix it themselves, then we will have a lot of difficulty making the sale. We have to show why this issue is best addressed now, rather than after. And why they should leave it to us to fix, rather than trying to do it themselves. Left to their own devices and a hundred year time frame, businesses can solve their own problems and they don’t need us, which is why we have to emphasise speed and the urgency of time to get them moving. If we don’t deal with these issues up front, then no sale. Once we understand their needs, we move along the roadmap to the part when we present the solution. Now in Japan, this will usually take place at the second meeting. There will be a discussion about the technical pieces of what we will do, talking about how this solution will fit their company. We can’t leave it there though, because that is still too abstract. We need to talk about how they can project and apply these benefits inside their company, in order to get better results. This is where word pictures are very powerful. In most cases, we are selling a future that they can’t fully appreciate. So we need to explain how we can add to their business through increasing revenues, reducing costs or grabbing greater market share.

If we have been able to uncover what the success of this project will mean for them personally, then we wrap that bit around the benefit too. The client naturally doubts what sales people are telling them, so we need to show evidence for them that this has worked for other companies. Once we have done that, then we can test the waters to see if what we have suggested is the right solution for them. We do this by asking a simple trial closing question like, “How does that sound”. We want to flush out any resistance to place an order. If they don’t have any problems, then we just ask for the order, “Shall we go ahead?”.

If they have issues with what we are suggesting, then we need to confirm what these are? They may have problems with our pricing, payment terms, quality, delivery or schedule. It doesn’t matter what they mention, we shouldn’t answer it immediately. I know the emotional temptation is strong to jump in and correct their misunderstanding or their resistance but wait.

Remember, we are only getting the headline, at this point and we need more information before we are in a position to answer their objection. Once we have heard the details of what they are thinking, we still wait, we don’t answer it. We keep digging. There may be other even more pressing concerns they haven’t mentioned yet and there is no point in answering a minor concern, if the big one is left unattended. Once we have gotten out their key concerns, we ask them about which one is the highest priority for them. And then we proceed to answer that item. Often once we have answered that one, the other concerns fade away.

Finally we ask for the order. They may say they have to think about it and because of the consensus decision making system in Japan, they actually have to get the rest of the organisation behind this yes.

That is fine but make an appointment right then and there for a follow up meeting to put a firm schedule behind getting that consensus. If you don’t, then it could drag on forever. You are better to push for a finite yes or no. Thinking you have something in your pipeline, when you don’t is false comfort. A clear no is better because then you have a better picture of deal flow and revenue projections. You can devote your full energy on another buyer who can say yes and go ahead. If we get a yes, next we do the follow up and deliver on what we promised.

This roadmap is how we run the sales meeting with the client as opposed to Japan where, typically, the buyer hijacks the process and usually runs the meeting. We need to keep control and bring the buyer back to the roadmap to move along the rails or we will never get a sale. Winging it may be more exciting and appealing to your free spirit, but you won’t make as many sales. The path to the sale is clear and you have to keep it moving along that path, going through all the stages, to get to a yes.

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At the start of our class on High Impact Presentations, we ask the participants to think about what type of impression they would like to have linger with their audience, after their presentation has been completed. How about you? When people are filing out of the venue, what things would you like to hear about your presentation, if you were able to eavesdrop on their conversation? Being clear is always a favourite and another high ranking popular desire is to be more inspiring.

Now “inspiring” can be defined in many ways, but for the purposes of giving presentations, we can think of it as lifting people up, getting them to take action, to challenge new things, to push themselves harder than before. Actually that is a pretty tall order in a forty minute talk. Unless we are a professional motivational speaker, the majority of our talks will probably be focused on dispensing information and offering advice on how to solve business problems.

What would a business audience find inspiring? It could be a tale of daring do, where great adversity had been overcome through the human will. Conquering dangerous elements of nature, one’s circumstances or fellow man, often come up in this regard. The problem is business people’s activities usually are far removed from conquering the poles, vertiginous mountain ascents or vast ocean crossing exploits. These are very specialist pursuits, which are out of our purview.

The arc of the story of rags to riches is a popular trope. This works in business, because we are looking for hope in the face of tough odds. When we hear that others made it despite all the trials and tribulations, we take it that maybe we can do it too. It can be a personal story or it can the saga of a firm or a division and its imminent elimination, coming from back from the cusp of destruction to rise again and prosper. We are magnets to lessons on survival. We prefer to learn through the near death experience and ultimate triumph of others, than try it on ourselves.

You might be thinking your life is rather dull, your industry absolutely dull and your firm perpetually dull. How could you liven up a talk with stories than were inspiring to others? Maybe you can’t. Perhaps you have to draw lessons from other industries or personalities and weave these into the point you are making in your talk.

I like to read biographies and autobiographies for this reason. I enjoy interviews with outstanding people, telling how they climbed the greasy pole and got to the top. Strangely, obituaries are also a good source for this type of information. They are usually brief summaries of a person’s life. They often contain snippets of great hardship or success and frequently both. Don’t just skim over these heroic tales, instead collect these rich stories. These can be your go to files for greatness, when you want to introduce an idea that needs some evidence.

There may be legendary figures in your industry or your firm. These are stories you can retell for effect, to drive home the insights you want illuminate. Okay it wasn’t you, but the audience doesn’t care that much. They like to learn and they love hearing about disasters, so the train wreck doesn’t have to be your personal catastrophe.

Usually the founders of your firm went through tough times. There are bound to be tales in there you can use. Or you can draw on recent recessions, the Lehman Shock, the 2011 triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant meltdown, the pandemic, to find episodes where all looked grim, but a legendary team battled on and survived, while many businesses around them disappeared.

You may have some personal experiences that are also relevant. This can be quite hard, because you are sharing something quite personal with the world. As an introvert, it took me a long time before I was comfortable to talk about my own experiences. When I did though, the impact on the audience was immediate. I could sense the feeling of closeness with strangers, as they listened to my tales of error, overreach, miscalculation etc. I still have trouble with this, so I do prefer the woes of others to my own, but definitely my own stories are always so much more powerful. I just need the temerity to tell more of them.

So pepper your talk with uplifting examples from others or from your own experiences, that justify the action you want them to take or boost the feeling of confidence you want to instill in your audience. The raw material is all around you. Just start looking for it and begin compiling it. When you hear something, you can use, capture it immediately for later employ. Dig into the vaults of your own experiences and draw out examples that will make you magnetic for your audience. Telling these types of stories is how speakers have inspired audiences down through the ages. The reason we still do it today is because it works a charm.

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For decades I drove myself hard, based on a fundamental fallacy. Fear of a future of living in a cardboard box haunted me. I pushed hard so that cardboard box and I would never become well acquainted. You see homeless people in Japan and other countries living that way and it is a reality for them, that they never chose. It happened to them anyway.

The odd part was that this was a deep seated fear within me, that I wasn't really all that conscious of. It was sort of sitting there in the background, in the inner sanctums of my mind. My father had been a big smoker (died of lung cancer at 51), big drinker (every night) and a big gambler (every Saturday at the track). If you grew up in a gambler's household, then you know what never having any money is all about. The weekly pay packet received on Friday evening is taken down to the racetrack and blown on Saturday morning. I never gamble, I never smoke and I drink very, very moderately. Hanmen Kyoshi (反面教師) it is called in Japanese – my Dad was my teacher by negative example.

So as a gambler's son, you start below the waterline and have to work hard to break the surface and make something of yourself and eventually you do. The strange part is that the fear of poverty, the fear of failing never leaves you. Somewhere in the back of your mind is the idea that success is not allowed for you. So you drive yourself hard, constantly dissatisfied with your progress. It is never big enough, never good enough, never fast enough, never safe enough. I could never answer the question of how much was enough, so I just tried to maximize it every time, in every way, in every situation. This put enormous stress and pressure on myself.

Then one day, something happens or someone says something, that makes you rock back on your heels and think hard about it. That is what happened to me. I was describing my fears of the cardboard box and my listener questioned that thesis. He said, "Greg, you have a Ph.D., you have a big job with lot's of responsibility, you have money, you have assets and investments, you have drive and energy, so why are you operating on a false premise of failure. Why can't you drive forward based on a different idea? What about the concept that you can live out of your potential, rather than your fear of failure?".

Wow. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I was stopped in my tracks by that comment. That thought of living out of my potential had never occupied my mind, not for even one nanosecond. Getting good information and doing something about it are not the same thing. I was gripped by what he said and started to ask myself whether that was actually feasible. After so many decades of living out of fear of failure, could I just switch gears completely?

Well it turns out that I could. From that moment in 2000, I forgot about a cardboard box bound future. I made the switch by starting to concentrate on what I had going for me and looked for ways to make more of that. Find out more when we come back from the break

I made a list of all the things I thought were my strengths and I added that list to my goal setting routine, for daily review. I concentrated on the positive, not the negative. It sounds simple to say that, but this is not simple, when your whole lifetime narrative has been one of probable failed future prospects.

I changed my perspective about myself. I started by questioning my basic assumption - why I thought I would eventually fail? What was the evidence for that assumption? Was I still caught up in my father’s paradigm of self perpetuating poverty, as part of the gambler’s curse. He was a hard worker. He started work at 13 out in the bush on a sheep station in the west of Queensland. He tried many things, but he could never get ahead because of the gambling. When I analysed it, what had any of his life challenges to do with me?

I said to myself, “Hey, I don’t gamble – ever”. My real narrative should be different to my Dad’s and it should be about who I am, not who my father was. When I put it like this it sounds so obvious but it took me a long time to work that out. I was trapped in a mindset of possible total failure looming in the future.

For other fellow "fear of failure" travellers out there, hear me now - we can change gears. We can live everyday with drive and hard work based on a new premise. There is such a thing as working toward our potential, rather than trying to escape from our fear of failure. We can change our view of who we are and where we are going. We can objectively analyse our current and future prospects. We can prepare for the future without worrying about it. We can take steps to head off any possible calamities and take action now, rather than just spinning around in worry circles.

Don't be like me though and spend lost decades working this out. Don't rely on getting lucky through the most random chance of a single comment. Hear me now and hit the reset button. Decide you want to say goodbye to your cardboard box premonition or whatever fear is driving you and move to a better future based on the reality of your current strengths, experience and accomplishments.

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Knowledge of the specifications, functionality, inner workings are all fine and dandy but not enough anymore. Increasingly technically specialised people are being asked to deal with people other than their normal counterparts. Once upon a time, the engineers spoke with other engineers on the buyer side and that was about it. A nerdy lovefest on the specs, so to speak. Today there are broader spectrum buying teams. These “civilians” are often the key decision-makers and are not technical in the traditional sense. This means the technical person has to be able to communicate and present to them in a way which they can understand.

Communication skills have always been low on the totem pole for technical people. At High School they hated English and thrived on Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry etc. At University, the key focus and preference was on technical subjects. In fact, after the second world war, these technically oriented people were creating problems in the workforce to such an extent, that Universities had to create a new programme for them. This was the basis for the origination of the Masters in Business Administration. The aim was to teach technical folks the non-technical sides of running a company.

I was reminded of the big gap in fundamental presentation skills recently at a presentation I attended. It was a big crowd and the speaker had a star studded resume. He had a Ph.D. in his technical field and was a Corporate Officer in his very, very large, global firm. He was a big wheel in that world and someone often called upon to give technical presentations, representing the firm.

When he started his presentation proper, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that someone in his position, with his experience, in that role, with that amount of responsibility for the brand, would be making such a basic, fundamental mistake. The first slide went up and it was densely packed with text. I thought it was the typical compliance required disclaimer statement that usually goes up first. No, no, no. This was his first slide of the actual presentation.

To make it really exciting, he had made the text in ten point sized font, so it was almost impossible to read. To add insult to injury the bottom quarter of the page was blank, unused white space. There was no concept of balance on the slide and it was ugly. He then proceeded to basically read the slide to us. The next slide was even worse. Same ten point font, but this time the bottom half of the slide was tantalising white space. After that ordeal by tiny text, we got on to a series of line graphs. This was a relief, except that a lot of the graph text descriptors were impossible to read too.

I was sitting there thinking WOW. In the 21st century, how could this be possible? A High School student would do a better job than this gentlemen of presenting the information on screen. The snapper is that he is in a role where he would be giving a lot of these types of presentations. He is highly technically trained and often graces the boardrooms of major companies, who are clients of his firm, giving this and similar presentations. He has been doing this a long time. He is one of the most well recognized public faces of the company, after the President and Chairman, because his role is to promote the technical expertise of the company to grow the stock price.

After the initial slide deck shock, I started zooming in on how he was delivering the presentation. There were a lot of numbers involved, so it was a rather dense talk. Pointedly, there were no stories to bring the ramifications of the numbers to life. These were just dry, dull data points that were not thought to need any elaboration. The audience however were a mixed industry bunch, so there were varying levels of technical expertise in the room. Pulling out experiences with similar numbers in the past, would have been great pointers to what we might expect in the future. Dry numbers can come to life when wrapped up in an interesting example. Also, we are much better at remembering stories, than concentrations of data points.

As a public speaker, he did look toward his audience, but somehow managed not to look at any of the people in his audience. You have seen this one before too, I am sure. He moved his face from left to right and back again, sort of rapidly scanning the room, but not actually making any eye contact with anyone in particular. This precluded his ability to make a stronger connection and engage with the people in the room. In the time he had allotted, he could have connected with each one of us individually and directly, if he had tried. We know that around 6 seconds of eye contact works very well. It is not too intrusive, yet allows us to really engage with individuals one at a time.

His voice was soft and even throughout. It hung perilously close to a monotone. This habit is deadly for a presenter, because it robs us of some key tools to add luster, shine and strength to our argument. When we give each word an equal emphasis in a sentence, then we miss the CHANCE to highlight particular key words for our audience. In that last sentence, I hit the word CHANCE harder than the other words, so this gives it strength and prominence over the other words.

I could also have made chance much softer than the words around it, almost like a conspiratorial whisper, to make it stand out. Both are voice modulation variations which are at our disposal and we should be making good use of them. A monotone delivery will kill the audience and put everyone to sleep. He could have also added to the variety, by speeding sentences up for effect or the opposite, s-l-o-w-i-n-g them down. Both allow us to grab the attention of the audience.

People today are deep in the age of disruption, from a technology point of view, but they are also deep in the Age of Distraction, thanks to that very same technology. For presenters, the challenge has never been greater in the history of our species and we must rise to the occasion. Boring presenters immediately lose their audiences to competition from mobile phones. These are surreptitiously being held under tables, as people hit the internet and mentally flee the room, the speaker and their message

What is the advantage of being an expert, with tremendous reserve powers of technical expertise, if no one is listening,. Who are you actually talking to? Yourself? This is what happens when you have lost your audience. Mastery of the slide deck presentation professional protocols are an absolute basic requirement. I don’t even know why I have to mention this.

Engaging the audience and telling memory captivating stories is another basic skill. Stories enlarge the impact of the numbers and stay with us, long after the data and the date of the talk has been forgotten. Making eye contact to personalize the delivery is so powerful. When combined with voice emphasis, by either adding or subtracting strength and speed, this becomes the mark of the true professional presenter.

Technical people can no longer hide from reality. They can’t find refuge in their clubby expertise area. They are required to convey their knowledge to others who are not part of their shared technical heaven. Get the skills and most importantly of all, rehearse before you give your presentations. The difference is infinite.

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Sales is a tough enough job without having additional complications. Clients can be very demanding, often we depend on logistics departments and production divisions, to get the purchase to the buyer. We can’t control the quality, but we have total responsibility, as far as the client is concerned. There is the constant pressure of producing revenue results, with bosses always pushing hard on the numbers.

If we are successful and we are doing well, you would think that life would be good. Fat chance of that. We know the emotional roller coaster that is the sales life and you are only ever as good as your last deal. Perhaps with a little bit of success should come some respite from the turmoil of hitting the numbers. I hate to break this to you, but no such luck!

Our sales colleagues, by definition, cannot all be equally successful. The Pareto Principle says that the top 20% of salespeople will account for 80% of the revenue numbers and commissions. So that means the other 80% of the team are scrambling around for the remaining 20% of the sales. People come into sales from different backgrounds, with different levels of experience, with degrees of motivation and they join at different points in the annual results cycle. This means that some will be in the top group, a chunk will be in the middle and the rest are at the bottom.

In the West, the usual way sales teams are managed is based on the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest. Those who can’t cut it are cut loose. Those who can continue to produce get to stay. If they can survive a couple of recessions, they may even be moved up into management positions. This means that those at the bottom are basically on their own. This should spur them on to greater efforts to move up the sales ranks and to strike for the top position in the sales results table. Yet often this doesn’t happen.

In Japan, most salespeople are on a salary and bonus structure, rather than salary and commission. Almost nobody is on 100% commission arrangements and nobody wants that type of sales structure. This means the financial ambition or necessity to get ahead in sales is not as strong as we see in the West. Often the base salaries are large by foreign standards and so people can live on the base.

In some cases, there can be pushback against the top salespeople, by those failing, because the successful are making everyone else look bad. Snide comments can be made, negative inferences drawn and a host of other petty signals that says “we don’t like you”. This is driven by spite, jealousy and envy. This is their “the way to build the tallest building in town is to tear down all the taller buildings” approach to greatness.

In a small sales team this can be very uncomfortable. There is a degree of mutual cooperation involved in sales teams and this is usually where the disputes arise. Who owns the client, who owns the deal, and how is the revenue commission going to be split up?

If the sales politicians in the firm get going, they can really do damage to the morale of the organisation. These people are usually excellent at whining, gathering whiners together and hosting whine parties. They use their energy to pull down those who are successful, instead of trying to become a success themselves.

When you are the top performer or if you are in the top ranks, you can feel you have become a target. Instead of just worrying about getting sales done, you now have to waste precious energy walking around on egg shells, to avoid criticism from your colleagues. This is all kept below the radar, so the boss is often unaware of what is really going on. However, in many cases they don’t care anyway. They are looking for numbers and they don’t want to have to deal with personalities and sales soap operas in the office.

If the bosses are any good, they would be sorting out the toxic few, but often they don’t. The top salespeople are razor focused on serving clients and doing all the hard yards needed to get the sale, so they are not politically minded. The whole mess gets made worse because in a declining demographic, many organisations are looking at their salesperson retain strategies. They do this because they know they cannot easily recruit enough salespeople replacements. This means the internal war goes on for much longer that it should. We lose sight of the external competition and fight amongst ourselves.

Bosses, hear me, sack the toxic! If you don’t, you will find the whole organisation will start failing as the wrong culture takes command. If you are one of the top salespeople, insulate and isolate yourself from the whiners. They don’t work as hard or as long, so there is plenty of opportunity to get to the work, without having to engage with them much. Winners start early and concentrate on their Golden Time between 9.00am-5.00pm on speaking with clients, not idiots in the office.

This Golden Time is reserved for client meetings and to create more business. All of the administrivia needs to be fitted in around those hours. Writing proposals, holding sales meetings, collecting data, putting together sales information, recording activities in the CRM, etc., are what happens outside of Golden Time. These days, thanks to technology, this can be done remotely.

Keep the time in the office with losers to an absolute minimum and protect yourself from their influence. Remember, you are superman or superwoman and they are kryptonite.

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Everyone hates to be rejected, but not many people have this as a fundamental aspect of their work. We ask colleagues for help and they assist, we ask our bosses for advice and they provide it. Buyers though are a different case. They can easily find a million reasons not to buy and unashamedly tell us “no”. The rejection itself is not so much the problem, as is how we respond, how we deal with the rejection.

In Japan, the two areas our clients flag with us for special attention in sales training for their team are around understanding the client’s needs and asking for the order or closing, as it is commonly referred to in sales parlance.

The poor questioning skills are a result of salespeople wanting to tell the buyer a lot of stuff about the features, but not bothering to ask some well designed questions to uncover what their clients need. This in itself will explain a lot about why buyers say “no”. If we don’t properly understand what they need, then how do we suggest solutions that make sense and motivate the buyer to action?

The two problems are closely linked. Even assuming that the questions are well thought through and that the solution selected is professionally conveyed to the buyer, they may still say no. This is because the buyer’s hesitations have not been properly addressed. There was something unclear or unsatisfactory in what they just heard from the salesperson and they are not convinced this is the right solution to their problem.

This is why a “no” will certainly be forthcoming, especially from Japanese buyers. Risk aversion is a fundamental part of the fabric of Japan and buyers more than most, observe this in distinct detail. They would rather give up on something better, if they thought there was a possibility their decision might bring some stain on their record.

Failure is hard to recover from in Japan. There are no second chances here. People have learnt the best way to avoid failing is to take as few decisions as possible. Especially any decisions which can be traced back to you. Best to have a group decision, so the blame can be spread around and no one loses their job. Actually that works like a charm here, so no one wants to buck the system

Having given the sales presentation, many salespeople in Japan simply don’t ask for the order. They get to the end of their spiel and they just leave it there. The buyer is not asked for a decision, it is left vague on purpose, so that if it is a “no” then that will not have to be dealt with directly. The Japanese language is genius for having circles within circles of subtle obfuscation.

The end result is a “no” but nobody ever has to say it or hear it. To get a sale happening, the buyer has to do all the work here in Japan, because the salespeople don’t want commit, to take the plunge and ask for the order. If they get a “no”, their feelings of self worth are impacted, they feel depressed, that they are failing. Not doing fully competent work or being highly productive, yet keeping you job is a pretty safe bet in most Japanese companies. The level of productivity amongst white collar workers is dismally low. Collective responsibility helps because it lessens the impact of personal inability to reach targets or make deadlines.

Sales though is totally crystal clear about success and failure. It is very hard to argue with numbers – you either made the target or you didn’t. Sales is also a numbers game. You are not going to hit a homerun every time, so the number of times becomes important.

You will have certain ratios of success that apply right through the sales value chain and the only way to increase your sales, is to improve these ratios. You have to up the ante, regarding the volume of activity. This sounds easy, but it isn’t when you are feeling depressed, insecure and plummeting in confidence.

The key is to see sales in a different way. The increased volume of activity will even out the rejections. The way you think about rejection has to change. Rejection isn’t about you personally. Buyers don’t care that much about salespeople as people. They are rejecting your offer. As it is made today. In this part of the budget process. At this point in the economic cycle. In this current construction. At this price, with these terms. We haven’t shown enough value yet, to get a “yes’.

As these aspects change, the answer can go from a “yes” to a “no” and from a “no” to a “yes”. That decision is irrelevant of the salesperson and how the buyer feels about them. These are macro and micro factors which can impact the decision one way or another. The answer is to see more people. In that way you can have a better chance of meeting a buyer for whom all the stars align and they can say “yes”.

At the same time, you need to keep working on getting better, at showing more value. You need to harden up and become tougher. Whatever you are selling, you always need to remember your AFTOS mantra: “ask for the order stupid”. Never say no for the buyer and understand that “no” is never “no” or forever.

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When you see someone do a very good presentation, your faith in public speaking humanity is restored. There are so many poor examples of people killing their personal and professional brands with poor public speaking skills, it is refreshing to see talks done well. It is not that hard really, if you know what you are doing and if you rehearse and practice. This is where the majority of lousy, boring and uninspiring speakers trip up. They don’t rehearse or practice. Instead, they just unload on their poor unsuspecting audience. Here is a pro hint. Never practice on your audience! The global CEO of a major pharma company jetted into town recently and spoke at a chamber of commerce event. The presentation was well structured and flowed in a way that was easy to follow. The slides were professional and clear. He spoke fluently, wasn’t reading from any script and instead was talking about the key points up on screen. When we got to Q&A, he repeated the question, so that everyone could hear it and then answered it. He did that while addressing the entire audience, rather than just speaking to the inquirer. When he did not have the information referred to in a question, he admitted it straight up, without trying to fudge it. This is not an admission of weakness, rather it builds trust and credibility. I doubt he did any rehearsal for that audience, because it was a stump speech he has given so many times he was entirely comfortable with the content. Could he have done better? Yes, he could have added more stories into the presentation. A few vignettes from the exciting world of white lab coats, where they were developing new medicines to save humanity, would have been good. He could have delivered it with a bit more passion. It was professional, but it came across as a stump speech. He was supremely comfortable delivering it and that is one issue we have to be alert to. When we are too comfortable, we can sometimes slip ourselves into cruise control mode. We should keep upping the ante each occasion, to try and see how much further we can push ourselves as presenters. Another function I attended was an industry awards event and the main VIP guest made some remarks before announcing the winners. Humour is very, very hard to get right. For every professional comedian we see on television, there are thousands waiting tables and trying to break into the industry. When you see humour done well by a public speaker, you are impressed. You need to have material that is funny for a start. Then you have to be able to deliver it so that people laugh. This sounds easy, but as professional comedians know, the timing of the delivery is key. So are the pauses and the weighting of certain key words. It has to be delivered fluently, so no ums and ahs, no hesitations, no mangling of words. Getting the facial expressions to match what is being said is also tricky. Our humorous VIP was delivering some lines that he had used a number of times before, so he knew his material worked. It is always good when big shots are self depreciating. We can more easily identify with them, when they don’t come across as taking themselves too seriously. “I am good and I know it”, doesn't work so well with the rest of us. How do you become humorous as a speaker? Where do we acquire our humorous material? We steal it. Our speaker had probably heard those jokes somewhere else and just topped and tailed them for this event. Very cleverly, he made them sound personal, as if these incidents had really happened to him. This is important in order to build a connection with the punters in the audience. So when you attend an event and you hear someone make a good joke or tell a humorous story, don't just laugh and reach for another Chardonnay, quickly write it down and later start using it yourself.

The secret though is to practice that humorous telling on small audiences to test you have the delivery just right. The cadence is important and that takes practice. I would guess our speaker had told those jokes many times before. It is fresh for us, but for him, it was well within his range of capability. This is what comedians do. They introduce new material in small venues, filter out what doesn't work, and then they bring it to the big audience on the big stage with the best gags. We should do the same. Another place where we can find humor is in what we say that makes an audience laugh. When I was returning to Japan in nineteen ninety two as a diplomat and as a trade commissioner, I was called upon to do a lot of public speaking in Japanese. I began with constructing jokes in Japanese that I thought were humorous. This was a pretty bold step, because I had no track record in being funny in English, let alone in Japanese. These jokes of my own crafting all bombed completely. However, I would say something not meaning to be funny and the Japanese audience would laugh. I took note of that reaction and I realized that was a joke. I would incorporate that into my other talks. Over a long period of time and a lot of speeches, I built up a stock of these humorous sprinklings of pixie dust that worked with Japanese audiences. It was refreshing to see two competent speakers in action recently and it is certainly a skill that all of us can improve in. There are some simple basics of speaking we need to concentrate on - prepare, rehearse, learn, repeat. If we don't, we could be damaging our personal reputation.

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We don’t get the chance to do so many public presentations in business, so it becomes a hard skill set to build or maintain. The internal presentations we give at work tend to be very mundane. Often we are just reporting on the numbers and why they aren’t where they are supposed to be or where we to date are with the project. These are normally rather informal affairs and we are not in highly persuade mode when we give them. We should be clear and concise, but we probably don’t really get out of first gear as a presenter.

Obviously, giving public talks is a lot more pressure than the internal weekly team meeting report. We need to be operating at a much higher level and the complexity index is much, much higher. This translates into pressure and often comes with a big dose of self-doubt. This is called the imposter syndrome. Should I be the one talking on this subject? What if they have questions I can’t answer? What if they don’t like it or me? What if I underperform as a presenter? What if I white out and forget what I want to say? The scenes of potential disasters are played out in our minds, as we talk ourselves into a panic.

How do we stop that negative self-talk and get a more positive view on our potential to do a really first class, impressive, professional job? It is not a level playing field. We need to realize that the world of business presenters is full of people who are quite hopeless and boring, so the audience has been trained to expect very, very little. We don’t have to be a super star, we just need to be competent and we will automatically stand out from the crowd of losers murdering their presentations out there everyday.

What does competent look like? It means we are well prepared. This doesn’t mean we have fifty slides in the slide deck ready to rumble. It means we have thought about our talk in the context of who will be in the audience and what level of expert knowledge they have of the subject, so that we know at what level to pitch our talk.

It means we have designed it by starting from the key punch line we will deliver in the initial close and then we have worked backwards to select the “chapters” that will bring home that point we have selected. We have seized upon an opening that will grab the attention of our increasingly attention deficit audience They are all armed with their mobile phones, ready to escape from the speaker at any hint of unprofessionalism or potential boredom.

It means we will have rehearsed the talk at least three times, to make sure it flows well and fits the time slot we have been allocated. We will make sure the slides are supporting us, not hogging all the attention and upstaging us. They will be so clear that our audience can deduce the key point of each slide in two seconds, because of how we are presenting the information. The slides provide us with the navigation of the speech, so we don’t have to worry about what comes next. We also have our talking points in front of us, if we need to refer to them as a backup, reducing our stress levels.

It means we are not head down the whole time, reading from the printout or the laptop screen. We are eyes up and looking at some of the members of our audience. We are looking precisely at those who are either nodding approvingly or at least have a neutral expression on their face. This builds our confidence on the way through the speech. We are avoiding anyone who looks obstreperous, negative, hostile or angry. We do this to keep our mental equilibrium under control and positive throughout the talk. We keep all of our doubts, fears, insecurities and worries to ourselves as a secret. We definitely don’t show any of these to our audience. We are fully committed to the idea that the “show must go on”, no matter what unexpected things may occur during our speaking time.

Those whom we have chosen to look at, are getting about six seconds of total eye contact concentration each time, as we make our points. We then move on to the next person and keep repeating this as we build a one-to-one feeling with members of our audience. They feel we are speaking directly to them and this is powerful. We are backing up our eye contact with our gestures, voice modulation and pauses. This helps to drive home the key points we want to make. We are purposely asking rhetorical questions to keep everyone engaged. In terms of pure volume, we are speaking about 40% louder than normal. This projects our voice for clarity and at the same time our confidence. Audiences buy speaker confidence and we are keeping ourselves busy selling it to them.

We are using our first close we developed as we go into Q & A and we are confidently prepared for their questions. We are confident because we have built up reserve power through our study of the subject. We have kicked off Q & A, by publicly stating how many minutes we have for questions. We do this to give ourselves a dignified retreat, a smooth way of departing the talk if we need to, in case things get out of control and a bit too hot.

We know how to cushion any salvos, thinly disguised as questions, that might come our way. A cushion is a general statement that doesn’t agree with or disagree with, what has been mentioned in the question. This cushion buys us crucial thinking time before we have to respond. We end the talk with our final close, to make sure our key message is resonating with the audience. This is purposely designed to be the last thing they hear, as they walk out the door.

“We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan” is an old saw and still true. The key to success in building self-belief as a speaker is to be really well prepared and thoroughly rehearsed. When you make the time to fully prepare before the talk, to become ready, you head off all potential disasters and meltdowns that might otherwise occur. This is how to build self-belief – hard work, detailed preparation and lots of practice before you give the talk.

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TikTok, Reels, Shorts, etc., are video snippets training everyone to micro absorb information and stimuli. If it doesn’t grab our attention in three seconds, we are off that screen and scrolling forward to find something more interesting. The modern instrument of torture for the presenter is the mobile phone. It whips our audience away from our message and us, to the siren calls of the internet. Presenters must understand that how they start the presentation is that same three second space which will determine whether the audience pays any further attention to us or starts reaching for their phone.

When we are called up to start speaking, the uber judgmental audience assesses us for reasons to flee. The worst mistake we can make is to dive straight into the laptop screen and get bogged down in the logistics of getting our slides up on screen. Either have your slides up ready to go or get the event hosts to remove their holding slide and replace it with your slide deck and your first slide. Do not become the mechanic and have your head down under the hood. Your body language is screaming “I am ignoring my audience”, while you tap away on the keyboard, looking totally absorbed by the screen.

Instead, walk to the center of the stage facing your audience, command the room and add in a dramatic pause of ten seconds before you start speaking. You need guts to pull this off, because ten seconds of silence is long. Silence creates a vacuum, which confuses audiences used to feasting on constant stimulation. It creates a postive tension in the room which stops people chit chatting and being absorbed with each other.

It forces everyone’s attention to the stage and they mentally begin asking “what is going on?”. This is good, because they are focused on us now and we can use our body language to project, “I am so confident, I can hold all of you in silence, before I choose to start”. This confidence is convincing and sets the right platform for us to launch forth from.

There are physical and mental barriers separating the speaker from the audience. We must shatter that barrier. We do that with our stage positioning, body language, eye contact, gestures and how we direct our voice. Depending on the venue, the stage could be at a distance far from the audience or we could be able to walk inside the audience area.

If we are far away, we need to work on projecting our ki – our intrinsic energy - to reach the farthest members of the crowd. We should be pushing our ki all the way to the back wall and sending our energy to the audience members in the cheap seats at the rear. We can also move to the apron of the stage and stand as close as possible to the audience, towering over them to bring more physical presence to our talk. People talk about having “Executive Presence” and this technique is that “Presence” on steroids. We can choose to move to the wings of the stage and standing on the apron, work on those members seated to the sides as well, to bring them into our web.

When we are far away from the audience, we need to make the most of our gestures to bring energy to the point we are making. You cannot get this effect if you have your hands behind your back, in your pockets, arms folded across your chest or hands coyly protecting your groin from the audience. Open body language must communicate, “I am not afraid of you. I welcome you close to me to receive my message of hope. Come to me, come to me”.

The gestures add to this openness by using inclusiveness through open hands and the wide spreading of the arms. Many speakers in our training are afraid to use big gestures, yet once they use them and review them on video, they realise it doesn’t look too much as they feared. In fact, they can see it makes for much better communication of the points of their message.

We add to the power of the gestures by locking our eyes with each member of the audience, one by one, to drive in the message. The objective is the eye contact is so intense that they feel we are speaking exclusively to them and there are only the two of us in the whole room. An important point is to lock on to just one eye of the person you are looking at and not split the power of your gaze.

By moving from one audience member to the next every six seconds, we use the power of our eye contact to fill the entire space in the venue. In one minute, we can make direct, intense eye contact with ten people and in ten minutes we have covered off one hundred audience members. If the talk is forty minutes long, we get to repeat this engagement intensity four times for each individual. We will fill the entire room with our presence when we do this.

If we are at floor level amongst the crowd, we can use our physical proximity to connect with the people seated, by standing over them at close range, to drive home a key point. We can’t stay there though, because the pressure is too strong. We must retreat to a more neutral location to reduce the intensity. We don’t just do this once - we go back in again and again and take a series of bites like a shark in a feeding frenzy. It is like a blast of unassailable energy, which we choose to release whenever we want to make a strong point and drive home our message.

Body language, in combination with our full delivery onslaught, makes for a differentiated, powerful, memorable brand building presentation and that is what we want, isn’t it?

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We can speak to a group. Then there is another level, where we try to totally captivate our audience. What makes the difference? The content could even be the same, but in the hands of one person it is dry and delivered in a boring manner. Someone else can take the same basic materials and really bring it to life. We see this with music. The same lyrics, but with a different arrangement and something magical happens. This new version becomes a smash hit. Speeches are similar. A boring rendition is given a delivery make over and suddenly has the audience sitting on the edge of their seats fully enthralled. I am sure we would all vote for the enthralling version, so how to do we do that?

The quality of the argument we are going to present is important. We definitely need to design two powerful closes, one for the end of the speech and an extra one for after the Q&A. It sounds counterintuitive, but we should start from the close when designing the talk. We work hard to clearly define what is the most compelling message we want to leave with our audience. Only then do we start to work backwards, structuring the rest of the speech from that point.

Once we know what will really resonate with the audience, we begin gathering evidence to back that assertion up. We have to remember that broad statements are too easy to make. This is the Era of Cynicism, “fake news”, so the listener will need a lot of convincing.

We now do a rough sketch of the key points and attach the supporting evidence. In a thirty minute speech, there won’t be so much time, so we might get through three or four of these key points and that is it. We must make sure that the evidence is super, super strong. We need really compelling proof, in order to build solid credibility for our argument.

The next stage is vital, especially in this Age of Distraction. We have to wrangle a dynamite blockbuster opening. We have to compete with all the things running through the minds of our audience. The things they were doing before they got to the venue and all the things they have to do after this speech. The hand held device is a modern day siren call. It so silkily diverts their attention away from us, as they check email and social media.

We have to smash through all that obstruction. We sweep all before us and clear a path so that the audience will actually hear our message. The first words out of our mouth had better be super compelling. If not, we will lose the battle for people’s modern miniscule attention spans. We need to carefully design what that will be, because it won’t happen by itself.

We want our visuals on screen to be clear and instantly comprehendible within two seconds. It used to be ten seconds, but now we are down to just two, so really take a cold hard look at what you are putting up on screen. If it is taking the viewer longer than two seconds, then the slides are too dense.

Let’s keep the colours to an absolute maximum of three. Photos are great with maybe just one word of text added or just kept as they are. This intrigues our audience to learn more. We can then talk to the point we want to make. If we use graphs, we should have only one per screen wherever possible. If we are going to use video, it had better be short and really, really hot. The transition from slide deck to video, back to slide deck must be seamless, so none of that tech fail we often see on display.

Every five minutes we need to be switching the energy levels right up, to keep our audience going with us. This is key because they flag. Classical music has its lulls and crescendos and so should we. Naturally, we have tonal variety right throughout the talk, but we need to be hitting some key messages very hard, around that five minute interval. This should be synchronised with some powerful visuals on screen, to further drive home the point. This is not a result of chance, good fortune or fortuitous accident. We need to plan for this massive impact on the audience. We structure the presentation so that this brings all the vocal and visual elements together, in a powerful, distinct, one in a million way.

We are meticulously sprinkling stories throughout the speech to highlight the evidence for our key points. Data by itself is fundamentally dull, but stories fleshing out the data, should be scintillating. These will be full of visual stimulation, using word pictures to conjure mental pictures in the minds of our audience. We bring physical locations to life, describe vivid colours, talk about the season, mix in people they may know and importantly, explain the why of the story. In this way we take our listeners on a magical journey, where they see the scene playing out in their own mind’s eye. It is a bit like reading a novel, after having seen the movie. As you read it, you can mentally imagine the scenes you saw previously on screen. This is exactly the powerful effect we are going for.

Our final close, after the Q&A, has to go off with a real bang and not a whimper. We want a powerful strong call to action. The final few words must finish on an intense, uplifting upswing. Many speakers let that very last sentence just sputter and peter out. Remember, we want to muster the audience to our cause. We want them to leave dyed in the wool supporters. We want them getting a florid forehead tattoo with our name on it. Okay, I was getting a bit carried away there. That is probably too much, but you get the idea.

We need great structure, unassailable evidence, clear visuals, gripping stories, pacing, energy, passion and 100% belief in the value of our presentation. The delivery is going to rock because we make it rock through rehearsal after rehearsal. We keep going until we have refined the whole thing into a symphonic triumph. We need to be thinking to create raving fans in our audience, right from the start, when we construct our talk. Begin with captivation in mind.

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We have many images of negotiation thanks to the media. It could be movie scenes of tough negotiators or reports on political negotiations with lunatic led rogue states. Most of these representations however have very little relevance in the real world of business. A lot of the work done on negotiations focuses on “tactics”. This is completely understandable for any transactional based negotiations. Those are usually one off deals, where there is no great likelihood of any on-going relationship continuing between buyer and seller. This is false flag.

The aim of sales is not a sale. The aim is repeat orders. If you want to be permanently in 100% prospecting mode, then transactional selling is fine. That gets tiring and is tough, as you have to spend all of your time hunting because you can’t farm. Now there will be some cases with buyers, where that is how it rolls and there is not much you can do about it. The majority of salespeople though are trying to strike up a lifetime relationship with the buyer, so that the orders keep coming rain, hail or shine.

The style of negotiations for this business play are completely different to the one-off, transactional occasion. In this world “tactics” are only partially relevant. Going one up on the buyer, getting the better of them, isn’t sustainable in a continuing relationship. They remember what you did to them and they definitely don’t like it. They either dump you completely as the supplier or they even it up down the road. They don’t forget and they don’t forgive.

Technique has a role, in the sense that there are certain best practices in negotiating, which we should observe. The philosophical starting point though is key. What are we trying to do here, what is our purpose? Are we trying to build an on-going business relationship where we become the favoured supplier or are we after a one–off smash and grab deal? If you highly evaluate the lifetime value of the customer and this is your main consideration, then you will have a lot of commitment to win-win outcomes.

The consideration of the communication style of the buyer is another important negotiating consideration. How we communicate with the buyer will vary, that is, if we know what we are doing. Clueless salespeople will have one default mode – the way they personally like to communicate and that is all they have in their tool box.

Professionals understand that if the buyer is micro focused, we go with them on facts, detail, evidence, testimonials, proof etc. If they are the opposite, then we talk big picture and don’t get bogged down in the smaller details. We describe what future success looks like. If they are conservative, self-contained and skeptical, we drop the energy level to match theirs. We don’t force the pace, we spend time having a cup of tea to build the trust in the relationship. We mirror what they like. If the buyer is a “time is money” hard driving, take no prisoners type, then we don’t beat around the bush. We get straight down to business. In rapid fire, we lay out the three key reasons they should buy, we get their order and then get out of their office pronto.

With this analysis in mind, we prepare for the negotiation by analyzing the buyer’s perspective. We use what we know about them and their situation to build up a picture of what they will need from the deal we are negotiating. We match that with what we can provide and we amplify the value we bring to the equation. We now set out our BATNA – our “best alternative to a negotiated agreement”. This is our walk away position.

We have analysed the potential of this client, by looking at their lifetime value as a buyer. This can have a big impact on how we see the pricing. When negotiating with a big multi-national buyer, I had to take a painful hit on my pricing. I only agreed to this though, because the volume in the first year was very substantial and the understanding was that this would be repeated annually. Now, it may not become annual, who knows, but if it does, then this is a major feast of guaranteed farming that allows a better balance to all the other hunting required.

In another case, I “fired” the buyer because their pricing requirement was too low. There was no prospect of any on-going business and the volume was not attractive. When you believe you bring value, you enjoy inner confidence in your pricing. We all have our positioning in the market. If we want to maintain that, then we have to be prepared to reject low ball offers that damage our position and our brand. Hopefully you don’t have to do this too often, because you can convince other buyers to pay the full tariff.

In most cases, sales negotiating requires a holistic approach, rather than a “mechanical” tactics driven approach. Decide what type of relationship you want with the buyer. If it is win-win, then we are looking at trade offs for pricing against volume and repeat business. Leave all that tricky dicky negotiating palaver to the fantasy world of Hollywood movie scripts. Let’s negotiate in the real world.

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Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets. In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in tune with the client’s best interests. We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer’s needs. We know that by asking well designed questions, we can possibly come up with an insight that triggers a “we hadn’t thought of that” or “we haven’t planned for that” reaction at best. At worst, at least they know whether we have a solution for them or not. Under pressure though, salespeople can temporarily become deaf toward the buyer.

Even assuming they are smart enough to ask questions in the first place, they may fall over when it comes to carefully listening to the buyer’s answers. They can hear some buyer white noise in the background while they are thinking about their own interests. They are self absorbed and are not plumbing the depths of what the client is trying to achieve. In fact, they are ignoring the hints and nuances in the sales conversation. Well then, what are they doing? They are fixated on their own needs, their own target achievement, their own big bonus and their job security.

The client may have outlined what they had in mind at this stage, but that won’t scratch because the salesperson needs a bigger sale to make target. They need to expand what the client wants, regardless of whether the client needs that solution or not. Upselling and cross selling are legitimate aspects of sales, but the purpose has to be very clear. It is not about making the salesperson more money. It is serving the client in a deeper way.

The client may not have the full view of what is possible, because they will never know the seller’s lineup of solutions as well as the salesperson. They will also not have had deep conversations with their competitors. They won’t have been allowed behind the velvet curtain, to see what their competitors are doing and how they are doing it. They will not have had a broad exposure to what other firms and industries are doing in terms of best practice.

This is the value of the salesperson, because they are constantly doing all of these things. They are like butterflies, skipping from one sweetly fragranced flower to the next. They are collectors of stories, problems, breakthroughs, successes and can connect many, many dots together. In this sense, they can see possibilities the client may not know exists or may not have thought of. This is where the cross-sell and the up-sell add value, because the salesperson can expand the client’s world and help them to become more successful. That is a long way from ramping up the number value of the sale, to make target.

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It is rare to see a presentation completed well, be it inside the organization, to the client or to a larger audience. The energy often quickly drops away, the voice just fades right out and there is no clear signal that this is the end. The audience is unsure whether to applaud or if there is more coming. Everyone is stuck in limbo wondering what to do next. The narrative arc seems to go missing in action at the final stage and the subsequent silence becomes strained. It sometimes reminds me of classical music performances, when I am not sure if this is the time to applaud or not.

First and last impressions are critical in business and in life, so why leave these to random chance? We need to strategise how we will end, how we will ensure our key messages linger in the minds of the listeners and how we will have the audience firmly enthralled, as our permanent fan base.

Endings are critical pieces of the presentation puzzle and usually that means two endings not just one. These days, it is rare that we don’t go straight into some form of Q&A session, once the main body of the talk has been completed. So we need an ending for the presentation just given and we need another ending after the Q&A. Why the second one, why not just let it end with the final question?

The pro never lets that happen. Even the most knee quivering, voice choking, collar perspiration drenched, meltdown of a speaker is in 100% control while they have the floor. The audience usually let’s them speak without denunciation or persistent interruption. Life changes though once we throw the floor open to take questions. At that point speaker control is out the window and the street fight begins. Now most Japanese audiences don’t go after the speaker, they are too reserved and polite. Western audiences are less docile and big bosses ask difficult and potentially embarrassing questions.

When we get to the Q&A, the members of the audience are able to ask rude, indignant questions, challenging everything you hold to be true. They can denounce you as a charlatan, scoundrel, dilettante and unabashed poseur. Sometimes, they even launch forth into their own mini-speech, usually unrelated to whatever it was you were talking about. Or they move the conversation off to a new place, which has nothing to do with your keynote content. Suddenly your message is lost.

The original topic of your talk is now a distant memory. That is why the pros ensure they bring it all back together with a final close to the proceedings. Let the masses wander hither and thither with their questions, the pro never worries. After the last question is done, the last word is now with the speaker, not some provocateur who happened to turn up to the event. Surprisingly, many speakers don’t claim this right and allow the last question from the audience member to set the tone for the whole proceedings. Don’t ever let that happen.

There are a number of ways of bringing the speech home. In the first close, before the Q&A, we might harken back to something we said in our opening, to neatly tie the beginning and end together. Or we might restate the key messages we wish to get across. Another alternative is a summary of the key points to refresh everyone’s recollection of what we were saying. We might end with a memorable story that will linger in the minds of the audience, that encapsulates all that we wanted to say. Storytelling is such a powerful medium for increasing the memory of what has been said, you would expect more speakers would use it.

When we do this wrap-up, we should be picking out key words to emphasise, either by ramping our vocal power up or taking it down in strength to differentiate from the rest of what we are saying. Speaking with the same vocal power throughout just equates the messages together. The messaging is not clear enough and makes it hard for the audience to buy what we are selling, Bland doesn’t sell.

At the end of the final sentence we need to hit the power button and finish with a rising crescendo to really put the passion behind our position. Don’t fade away. Many speakers allow their voice to become weedy and just trail off into oblivion, sounding quieter and quieter at the end. They appear exhausted and energy drained, rather than on fire with belief. Instead of fading out, we need to bring energy to our final words. We then add a small pause to let our words sink in with the audience and then smoothly move into inviting audience Q&A. We have set the markers for what we want the audience to remember and we will return to those markers as second final time.

Don’t miss this key point: always specify the time available for Q&A at the very start when you call for Q&A – never, ever leave it open ended. Why not? If you are facing a rabid gathering of foes, critics and opponents and you just suddenly end proceedings, it looks cowardly and weak, as if you can’t take it when things get hot. Slinking off the stage with your tail firmly between your legs is not how you want to construct the final audience impression of you.

By mentioning the amount of time available for Q&A at the first close and then referring back to it again at the end, allows you to depart with your dignity intact. You said 15 minutes and here we are, at time. No shirking going on here, just magnificent time management. Just suddenly ending, packing up and departing can make you to look like an wimp, scurrying out the door, because you can’t take it. Not a great final impression.

Also, if you are trained on how to handle a hostile audience, you will sail out of there looking like an absolute legend. Few people have any clue on what to do when under pointed attack. The rest of the audience will look at you in awe and admiration, because they know if it had been them up there on the stage, they would have been mince meat. If you have been in a room and the speaker got hit with a hot missile of a question, you were probably sitting there thinking, “I am glad that is not me up there on stage”. By the way, we teach how to handle hot missile questions. If you are curious to know what to do when the gloves come off and all hell breaks loose, let us know!

Now, back to our topic. The second or final close can be very similar to what we discussed earlier for the first close. Tie it all together or re-state key points or a summary. In addition, this is also the point to use a pertinent quotation or a gripping story to leave a rousing call to action in the minds of your audience. Again, the voice rises in strength at the end of the final sentence. Don’t let it fade away. Once you end, end. Don’t keep adding to it.

When you get the ending right, you can then thank your audience so they are clear this is now over and you can relax and bask in their warm applause. This is a good feeling and one that every speaker can enjoy, if they know what they are doing.

Action Steps

1. Carefully strategise the ending rather than leave it to random chance

2. Loop back to the beginning, hit the key message again or summarise some key points

3. Always nominate a time limit when you call for Q&A

4. Prepare two closes – one each for before and after Q&A

5. Finish strong

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Japan is a big small place. It is about the same size as the UK, but is covered in mountains, the latter making up 70% of the land area. We have very few of those horizon stretching field vistas like they have in England. This mountainous aspect has led to quite strong sub-regional differences here, especially reflected in language, customs and cuisine. England has these too, but I think Japan is more pronounced in this regard. These differences pop up when you are selling here as well. The following are my experiences having sold in all of these cites and having lived in Kobe/Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo and having made sale’s calls in other provincial centers.

If we go from south to north and start in Kyushu in Fukuoka, there is a local dialect and basically everyone went to school there and graduated from the local colleges and universities. Foreigners are not calling on companies all that often down there, so there is still something of a rarity factor at play here. Back in the good old days, when companies had generous entertainment budgets, the local staff were really glad to meet you. This was a grand occasion to use you as the excuse to have a big night out on the town on the firm’s dime. My ego took a bruising when I finally worked out it wasn’t the Story charm, that was generating this great enthusiasm for a night out on the town. That big spending night out culture has gone by the wayside, but the rarity interest factor is still at play. Language is an issue though, because the English speaking capability is still underdeveloped in most of Japan. The local burghers are quite cautious and conservative too. It will take a lot of patience to do business here, but it can be done. It just normally requires a lot more time than your company’s leaders or shareholders are prepared to give you.

Kobe was opened as an international port on April 1st, 1868, so it is one of the most open minded towns in Japan regarding international business. They have had foreigners living in their midst for a very long time, so there is nothing special about us from a uniqueness point of view. Trade has meant dealing with the outside world and being flexible about it in the process. The denizens of Kobe often have a better level of English than other parts of Japan and they enjoy being seen as one of the most international cities in the country. I always found people there open to discussing business.

Osaka is an ancient merchant town with a merchant mentality. It was the center of the great commodity markets in Japan for salt, rice and soy beans. One of the great things I like about this city is they will give you a “yes” or a “no”. Often, the reluctance to tell you “no” in Japan, leaves the whole decision piece dangling, without any clear idea of where we are going with this. Not in Osaka. If they like it, they will explore if there is a deal to be done and some money to be made. They are proud of their local dialect and this is a big divider between insiders and outsiders. As a foreigner, we are so completely outside of all consideration, that in a way, we are probably better accepted than their despised rivals from Tokyo.

Kyoto I always found very closed. The aristocratic capital of Japan for centuries, it features a defined smallish city area hemmed in by mountains. The interconnectivity of the local people is pronounced. Their families have lived here for centuries, they know each other and they know who is a “blow in” and who isn’t. Even for other Japanese salespeople from out of town, Kyoto is a hard market. If you are from the outside, you are “out” for the most part.

The area around Nagoya has produced the three most famous warrior leaders in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa family Shoguns, closed the country off from the rest of the world. When I say “closed”, this was upon pain of death for entry or exit. This went on for hundreds of years. In my experience, Nagoya is still relatively back there in a time warp – still closed off. I didn’t find the local mentality particularly open to foreign business and there wasn’t much English going on around there either. I said that in Osaka you get a “yes” or a “no” and that this knowing where you stood was attractive. In Nagoya, they do the same thing and the answer is usually “no". The pride of businesspeople in Nagoya is to have an exceptionally humble looking headquarters, with lousy office furniture, stained, aging carpets and everything very much down at heel, but to also have a huge pile of cash sitting in the bank. I found they were extremely tight with their money too.

It is the only place I have seen, where when a new shop opens and they put those decorative flower arrangements out front on the street, that passersby will shamelessly take handfuls of the flowers away with them. They justify this on the basis that it is a waste to see them die and it is much better to have them home at their place. It is a rough and tough market. In a word to the wise, they have one little commercial idiosyncrasy that will kill you. You meet, negotiate, agree the price and sometime later the agreed goods turn up at the seaport or the airport. This is when they like to renegotiate the price with you!!

“Character building” is how I would describe doing business in Nagoya. The locals are very aware of who they are and don’t open up to “foreign” Japanese from distant places like Tokyo. So, in one sense, they are very fair and they are closed minded to everyone, not just foreigners from overseas.

Tokyo is a really a first class international city and so different to when I got here over forty years ago. The tallest structure here when I arrived was Tokyo Tower, which seems incredible today, when you take in the ever accumulating city skyline. English is widespread, people are sophisticated, very international and everything works well. Getting a decision though can be seriously painful. Because Tokyo is often the headquarters for companies, the scale of businesses being here is large. As a consequence, there are many, many people who have to be consulted. Getting them to agree can take an age.

Sendai and Sapporo are a bit like Fukuoka to me, in the sense that they are not often visited by foreigners, seeking to do international business. The capacity to speak English is sparse and the local businesspeople are rather conservative. Sapporo at least, is an international destination during the ski season, so there are pockets of more international business there. Expect to have to keep coming back many times to build the trust. Things will move slowly and in small test increments.

When I first lived here in Japan in the suburbs in Kunitachi, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I always imagined that the rest of Japan was like Tokyo. It was only when I travelled around Japan selling in the late 1980s and then later lived in Nagoya in 1992 and in Kobe in 1996, that I realised that Tokyo was not Japan. The regional differences are so important. Of course, we can do business anywhere in Japan, and ultimately I did have success in regional centers. The key success factor though is to know what is different locally and to have a defined, different strategy for each major center. Did I mention you need a lot of patience?

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In business, we are asked to present as a team. We may be pitching for new business and the presentation requires different specialist areas of expertise. This is quite different to doing something on your own, where you are the star and have full control over what is going on. One of the big mistakes with amateur presenters is they don’t rehearse. They just turn up and fluff it. They blow up their personal and organisational brands. When in a team environment, you absolutely cannot neglect the rehearsal component. There will be many sessions needed before you are ready to face an audience, so you have to plan for this. Do not leave this until the last moment after you have all been diligently assembling your slide decks.

The batting order is important. Don’t put the brainy nerd up front. They may be the legitimate expert, but unless they are the best presenter keep them in reserve. We want the best person to lead off, because this is how we create that all important first impression. They may come back for the close out or have another equally skillful person secure the positive final impression. The technical geeky people can be safely placed in the middle of proceedings.

As mentioned, don’t allow all the available team time to be sucked up by creating slides for the presentation. This is the mechanical part and we need the soft skills part to be really firing. That takes time and repetition. Set deadlines for deck completion, well in advance of the event, so that the chances to get everyone together are created.

Having worked out the order, do dry runs to see how the whole things flows. Practice little things like each presenter shaking the hand of the next presenter as a type of baton pass between the team. It shows you are a tight, united unit and connects the whole enterprise together.

Also, make sure each presentation can be given by everyone in the team. People get sick, planes get cancelled or delayed, all manner of circumstances can arise. At the appointed time, you are down some key members of the team. In this case the audience expects the show to go on and for you to cover the missing person’s part.

This cannot be the first time this idea has occurred to you,. You need to plan for this at the very start. As you all rehearse together you hear their section over and over, so jumping in and working through their part of the deck shouldn’t be an impossibility. The questioning part might be different, but the presenting part should not create too many difficulties, if you are organised.

Have a navigator for the questions determined at the start. When questions land you want that process to be handled seamlessly. I remember being on a panel for a dummy press conference, during media training. One ex-journo in the audience asked us a very curly question and being amateurs, we all just looked at each other, having no clue as to who would take that infrared missile. Our work colleagues in the audience just burst out laughing, because we looked such a shambles. Pretty embarrassing stuff, I can tell you.

Anticipate what likely questions will rise, nominate who will take care of which sections and if anything indeterminate hits the team, understand that the navigator will take care of it. The navigator, will also control the questions. If it is straightforward, then after thanking the questioner, they will just say, “Suzuki san will take care of this topic” and hand it over.

If it is a bit tricky, tough or complicated and is going to be hard to answer, the navigator must control things. They need to build in a bit of thinking time for the person who is going to have to take this one. They need to “cushion” the answer. By this I mean they will say something rather harmless, but which buys valuable thinking time for the person. This allows them to brace themselves for their reply.

It would sound like this, “Thank you for your question. Yes, it is important that the budget allocated helps to drive the business forward. I am going to ask Tanaka san to give us some insight into how to address this budget issue - Tanaka san”. That sentence takes around 12-15 seconds to say. Tanaka san already knows she will get this one, because it is within in her designated area of expertise to answer during the pitch. The navigator provides her with some extra time to compose her strategy for her answer.

Another technique, which you can only use sparingly, is to simply ask them to repeat the question. You actually got it the first time, but you may want to build in some extra thinking time to come up with the best answer. Do this too often and the games up!

Teamwork requires coordination and rehearsal if you want to appear professional and well organised. When you competitors turn up like a train wreck, you will be happy you put in the work. Just make sure you don’t turn up like a train wreck and make your rivals look good.

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The Question and Answer component of talks are a fixture that we don’t normally analyse for structure possibilities. Having an audience interested enough in your topic to ask questions is a heartening occurrence. When we are planning the talk though, we may just neglect to factor this Q&A element into our planning. We may have considered what some potential questions might be, so that we are prepared for them, but maybe that is the extent of the planning. We need to go a bit broader though in our thinking about the full extent of the talk we are going to give. Should we accept questions as they arise or do we tell the audience we will take their questions at the end? What are the main considerations for each structure?

Q&A in Japan can be a bit tricky though, because people are shy to ask questions. Culturally the thinking is different to the West. In most western countries we ask questions because we want to know more. We don’t think that we are being disrespectful by implying that the speaker wasn’t clear enough, so that is why we need to ask our question. We also never imagine we must be dumb and have to ask a question because we weren’t smart enough to get the speaker’s meaning the first time around. We also rarely worry about being judged on the quality of our question. We don’t fret that if we ask a stupid question, we have now publicly announced to everyone we are an idiot.

Some speakers encourage questions on the way through their talks. They are comfortable to be taken down deeper on an aspect of their topic. They don’t mind being moved along to an off-topic point by the questioner. The advantage of this method is that the audience don’t have to wait until the end of the talk to ask their question. They can get clarification immediately on what is being explained. There might be some further information which they want to know about so they can go a bit broader on the topic.

This also presents an image of the speaker as very confident in their topic and flexible to deal with whatever comes up. They also must be good time managers and facilitators when speaking, to get through their information, take the questions on the way through and still finish on time. In today’s Age Of Distraction, being open to questions at any time serves those in the audience with short concentration spans or little patience.

Not everyone in the audience can keep a thought aflame right through to the end, so having forgotten what it was they were going to ask, they just sit there in silence when it gets to Q&A. Their lost question may have provoked an interesting discussion by the speaker on an important point. Having one person brave enough to ask a question certainly encourages everyone else to ask their question. The social pressure of being first has been lifted and group permission now allows for asking the speaker about some points in their talk.

On the other hand, the advantage of waiting until the end is that you remain in control of the order of the talk. You may have done an excellent job in the preparation of your talk and have dealt with all of the potential questions by the end of the talk. The Q&A then allows for additional things that have come up in the minds of the audience.

It also makes it easier to work through the slide deck in order. The slide deck is alike an autopilot for guiding us through the talk, as we don’t have to remember the order, we just follow the slides. Of course, if we allow questions throughout, we can always ask our questioner to wait, because we will be covering that point a little later in the talk. Nevertheless, the questions at the end formula gives the speaker more control over the flow of their talk with no distractions or departures from the theme.

Time control becomes much easier. We can rehearse our talk and get it down to the exact time, before we open up for questions during the time allotted for Q&A. If we have to face hostile questions, this is when they will emerge. Prior to that, we have at least gotten through what we wanted to say. We had full control of the proceedings.

If we get into a torrid time with a questioner, early in the piece, it may throw our equilibrium off balance or cause some consternation or embarrassment to the audience, detracting from what we want to say. A public bun fight between the speaker and an audience member can be very harmful. The atmosphere can turn unpleasant very quickly, which pollutes everyone’s recollection of you as the speaker. Also, if we don’t know how to handle hostile questions well, our credibility can quickly crumble on the spot. A crumbling credibility in a public forum is not a good look for any speaker’s personal and professional brands.

So my recommendation is for the seasoned pro speakers to take questions whenever you feel like it. For those who don’t present so frequently, err on the side of caution and take the questions at the end.

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During the “bubble years” of surging economic growth, Japan could not keep up with the supply of workers for the 3K jobs – kitsui, kitanai, kiken or difficult, dirty, dangerous undertakings. The 1985 Plaza Accord released a genie out of the bottle in the form of a very strong yen, which made everything, everywhere seems dirt cheap. Japanese people traveled abroad as tourists in mass numbers for the first time. They often created havoc in international destinations, because they were so gauche – a bit like we have been experiencing with mass Chinese tourism. Companies bought up foreign companies and real estate at a rapid clip. French champagne and beluga caviar was being downed at an alarming pace.

Finding Japanese workers became difficult, so the Japanese government turned to immigration. We had a very special immigration however. Countries with oil like Iran were allowed to send their citizens to Japan without requiring visas and suddenly we had an influx of Iranians, a bit like we have had with Nigerians. Brazilians of Japanese decent were encouraged to come and work in Japan. They rarely spoke Japanese being third and fourth generation, but they did have Japanese blood coursing through their veins. Somehow Japanese bureaucrats decided that would compensate for the fact that culturally they were 100% South Americans.

With the collapse of the bubble economy many of these Brazilians went home as their jobs here in Japan dried up. We are again facing a shortage of workers in the 3K industries because of the declining population. We are scheduled to lose around 800,000 people every year. This has an impact on consumer spending because we have less people around to buy goods and services. Uncertainty over the future has played to Japanese risk aversion and native conservatism. People are not spending, preferring to leave their money in the bank at microscopic interest rates. In a deflationary economy at least you were not losing money, but that has changed now we have inflation. We are seeing Chinese and other foreigners working at convenience stores. Students can work up to 38 hours a week, which surpasses the work week in France.

The Japanese government is adding immigrant workers without openly calling it immigration. Is immigration really needed when we have such low white collar productivity and low wages? Do we need to bring in mass immigration to maintain or expand the population levels? Wage growth has not occurred yet, despite companies hoarding massive cash surpluses under their corporate futons. Also, somehow the laws of supply and demand have not kicked in yet. There is a shortage of staff for child care facilities, but wages are not attractive enough to staff them. Nurses are in short demand, but salaries are not moving up much yet. Delivery workers are in short supply and there needs to be a substantial wage increase to fill the vacancies more easily.

Japan is looking to robots to help cover the staff shortages. This plays to Japan’s love of robots and their technological might. What would be more impactful would be to free up the latent capacity of white collar workers. They have very low productivity because of the culture of work here. Spending long hours as a tatemae or superficial show of devotion and loyalty is not helping. The amount and quality of work being produced is more important.

There is a slow rhythm of work in Japan. In the big cities like Tokyo, people are tired in the morning because of the late nights and long commutes. Working long hours is tiring and as Parkinson noted “work expands to fit the time”. Just hanging around the office to show your devotion is nice, but not all that helpful. This is the exact opposite of a productive work culture focused on outcomes. Work from home has freed up people from commute torture, but from what I can see, there doesn’t seem to be any increase in productivity as yet. Staff lifestyles are better, but company results are not being positively impacted.

The other issue is very low engagement numbers. Every engagement survey seems to show Japan as the global outlier in terms of engagement. Yes there are cultural reasons around Japanese conservatism when it comes to answering these survey questions. However nobody seems to think that directionally, the low scores are wrong.

Low engagement affects work pace and also creativity. Tired people are rarely innovative. Finding better ways of working has a lot of potential but it needs desire. Doing new things isn’t rewarded in Japan because in the new there is risk. Failure isn’t tolerated and there are no second careers here for failures. You have to slink off into the sunset and disappear. Middle managers are experts at not rocking the boat and they don’t see any gain from being innovative and rallying their troops around that banner. Better to get ahead by doing the same old, same old.

Better leadership, delegation, time management, engagement, outcome orientation and more tolerance for failure in pursuit of innovation would go a long way to lifting Japan’s productivity. This would easily compensate for the declining supply of workers due to the demographic reality Japan is facing. Immigration is not necessary to be the first response when there is so much excess latent capacity not being maximised here.

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We believe in our product and we are very knowledgeable about the facts, details, specs, etc. We launch straight into our presentation of the details with the buyer. Next, they want to negotiate the price. Do we see the connection here, between our sales approach and the result, the entire catastrophe? The reality is often salespeople are slogging it out, lowering the price, hurting their positioning of the brand, lowering their own commission. Unfortunately, in Japan, once we have established a discounted price for the product or service, it is very difficult to move it up thereafter. What is missing?

The conversation isn’t hitting the high notes on value and instead is a boring pitch based on the details of the product. Do you think you are unique in the market with this type of solution? Japan isn’t the only place where this is an issue. Despite all of the resources available to American salespeople and the long history of consultative selling there, they are failing massively as well. According to a study by Accenture, called the “Death Of the Salesman”, buyers are not seeing the value of the proposition. In 77% of cases, the buyer found no value in the offer during the sales call. In a separate study by Forrester, they found that from the buyer’s judgment, 92% of salespeople didn’t understand their business.

These are pretty miserable figures, no matter which way you look at them. I haven’t seem any similar numbers for Japan, but based on my experience with salespeople here, I would guess they would only be worse. “Pitchpeople” is how we should properly term Japanese salespeople in my view. They are not asking the buyer questions and are zeroing in only on the details of the product.

As the Accenture and Forrester studies show we need to know our client’s business and we need to counter price objections by showing value. Excellent advice Greg and just how do we do that you might be thinking?

Knowing the client’s business these days is unbelievably more easy than in the past. AI can whip together an unbelievably fast summary of what is happening in the industry and may have details on the company you are talking too as well. Listed companies very nicely put up their annual reports on their websites. We can gain an understanding of the strategy and direction they are going and what are the major initiatives that are so attractive, we will part with our hard earned cash and buy their shares. Not that many Japanese are on LinkedIn, so this is a more difficult resource to use here, than in the West. There will be press coverage of companies, which we can search easily through Google and AI. Even if we can’t find specific information, we may have other clients in the same industry and can probably assume many of the issues will be the same.

Even if we can’t get much publicly available information, we can ask the client. Now in Japan, this is thought to be verboten, so Japanese pitchpeople don’t ask any questions of the buyer. The reason is the buyer is GOD in Japan and GOD won’t answer our questions, because we are impudent minks for having the temerity to ask anything. Well it is verboten if you play by God’s rules, so that is not a wise choice. Instead, we can give our Credibility Statement and get permission that way.

What is our Credibility Statement? Here is an example, if we take Dale Carnegie Tokyo, we could say “Dale Carnegie is a global corporate training company, which leads the field in soft skills training. An example of this would be XYZ company where we trained all their sales staff. They told me they got a 30% increase in sales as a result. Maybe we can do the same thing for you. In order for me to know if that is possible or not would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”.

Another approach might be, “Mr. Client, prior to this meeting I spent quite a bit of time researching your business, so that our talk today would be valuable and efficient. To my surprise it was very hard to find any publicly available information on your company. Before we go any further, would you mind helping me to better understand if I can actually help you or not,by asking a few questions about your business?”.

Once we know what their issues are, we can make a judgment on what is the best solution for them from our lineup. We may in fact conclude that we are not a match for them. If so, we should not waste anyone’s time and we should go find someone we can help.

If they are a match, then having identified the issue we explain our solution. When doing this, we need to go beyond just the product spec. We MUST explain how these facts and data transform into benefits for them. That is still not enough. A benefit applied is where they will understand the value to their business in their current circumstances. If we leave this step out, they may not be convinced we can help them.

They next need proof of where we have done this for another client. Salespeople talk a lot, so clients have learnt to be sceptical of salesperson blah blah blather. After providing evidence we now ask them “how does this sound?”, to draw out any residual concerns, issues, hesitations or related questions.

If we do this, we will be in the top 1% of successful salespeople in Japan without a doubt. We bring value to the client and we show we understand their business. As the surveys have shown, this is what buyers are looking for. Let’s give it to them.

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Gaining credibility as a speaker is obviously important. We often do this by sharing our own experiences. However, having too much focus on us and away from the interests of the audience is a fine line we must tread carefully. When we get this wrong, a lot of valuable speaking time gets taken up and we face the danger of losing the attention of our audience. They are like greased lightening when it comes to ignoring us and escaping to the internet, so that they can go find things they feel are more relevant.

We must always keep in the front of our mind that whenever we face an audience, we are facing a room packed with critics and sceptics. We definitely have to establish our credibility or they will simply disregard what we are saying. The usual way to gain credibility is to draw on our track record. A great way to do this is telling our war stories. The focus is usually on things that are important to us, so we certainly enjoy reliving the past. In fact, we can enjoy it a bit too much. We begin telling our life story because we are such an interesting person. We are certain everyone will want to hear it, won’t they.

Actually, their own life story is much more fascinating for them. So, we should be trying to relate what we are talking about to their own experiences and their realities. When we want to tell our stories, we have to be committed to keeping them short and to the point. As soon as an audience gets the sense the speaker is rambling down memory lane, they get distracted, bored and mentally depart from the proceedings.

I was listening to a senior company leader giving a talk and he went on and on about how he started in sales and all his exciting adventures. He was obviously enjoying it, but what did something which happened forty years ago in America have to do with the rest of us here in Tokyo? It came across as self-indulgent and self-serving rather than inspiring and adding to his credibility for the market we are in today.

A good way to keep the audience engaged and focused on themselves is by asking rhetorical questions. These are questions for which we don’t require an actual answer, but the audience don’t know that. This creates a bit of tension and they have to focus on the issue we have raised. The focus is now on the same points the speaker wants to emphasise. Because of the rhetorical question, they have to mentally go there themselves and think about the issue. It is much more effective than having the speaker try and drag them there against their will.

Rather than just telling war stories, we can ask them to compare the story we are going to tell with their own experiences. In this case, the speaker’s example is just a prompt for the audience to identify with the situation being unveiled. This is better because they are now relating the issue to their own reality. They can take the speaker’s example and either agree with it or disagree with it.

Even if they disagree with it, their different stance will be based on their own facts and their own track record rather than simple fluffy opinion. We might say, “I am going to relate an incident which happened to me in a client meeting. Have any of you had this experience and if so what did you do? Listen to what I did and see if you think I made the best choice or not”. We have now set up the comparison with their own world. This gets their attention in a natural way, rather than me banging on about what a legend I was in the meeting with the client and how I scored the big deal.

Talking about ourselves is fun and personally fulfilling, but it is dangerous. How should we incorporate it? As we plan our talk, we have to work out the cadence of the delivery to include our war stories. If we are talking too much about ourselves the audience may lose interest and mentally escape from us. If we have designed in content which will involve them, we can keep them with us all the way to the end.

This doesn’t happen by itself. We have to carefully insert it when designing the talk. It is also very important to test this design during the rehearsal. Better to discover any issues in rehearsal rather than testing the content on a live audience. Sounds simple enough, but remarkably, 99% of speakers do no rehearsal at all. Doubt that statistic? How many speakers have you heard where you got the sense they had carefully rehearsed their talk and finished perfectly and comfortably on time? Case closed!

In developing our attention grabbing cadence during the talk, rather than waiting to Q&A to deal with any pushback on our opinions, we can get ahead of the curve. We can anticipate what those objections might be and handle them during the main body of our speech. We pose them as rhetorical questions. Some people in the audience when they hear these objections will be thinking “yeah, that’s right”.

We then use our evidence drawn from our experiences, our war stories, to demolish that potential objection and ensure we maintain control of the issue. This technique also engages the audience more deeply in our presentation, as they start to add perspectives they may not have thought of before. There is also a strong feeling of comprehensiveness and balance about our talk too. It shows we are aware of different views, are not afraid of them and have an answer to remove them as a consideration.

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Japan seems to be going in opposing directions at the same time, when it comes to the supply of internationalised staff suitable for foreign companies. The statistics show a peak in 2004 of 83,000 Japanese students venturing off-shore. This dropped to a low of 57,500 in 2011 and since that point has climbed back above 60,000. Just to put that in context, Korea has over 117,000 students studying overseas but has half the population of Japan. Today, with many international companies looking to hire English speaking, internationalised Japanese staff, the supply situation is looking grim.

Some Japanese domestic companies are becoming strong competitors because they need more international Japanese as well. These firms are branching out overseas because they fear the decline in the Japanese consumer population will stunt their future growth. Once upon a time, this meant shipping Japanese expats off overseas to be forgotten for five years, before sending the next one. The shortage of staff in Japan makes this proposition harder these days, because they are needed here as the boomer generation retires. Also with the increasing integration of overseas enterprise purchases into the Japanese mother ship, the internationalisation of the local headquarters staff is also becoming more important.

So we have less Japanese youth going overseas and an increasing demand at home for those with good English and international experience. Previously the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) had been attempting to address this shortage. In 2013, the Japan Revitalization Strategy announced a government target of doubling the number of students studying abroad to 120,000 by 2020. There have been previous programmes introduced such as the “Reinventing Japan” project (2011), the “Tobitate!” (Leap for Tomorrow!) study abroad campaign (2013), and the TeamUp campaign (2015). Looking at the numbers though, none of these has had much impact to date.

The current Government target of increasing the overseas Japanese student varsity population to 150,000 by 2030 sounds like an education bureaucrat’s wild fantasy, but at least there is an effort being made to address the shortage. I won’t be holding my breath in anticipation that their programmes will be producing the numbers needed in the immediate future.

Why aren’t this generation heading overseas to study? A British Council study found four key reasons: 1. Don’t have the language skills 2. Too expensive, 3. Unsafe and 4. Courses abroad are too difficult.

There has been a lot of discussion also about the inward looking nature of this generation. The Lehman Shock put loyal staff out on the street and shook up their kid’s assumptions about following the same lifetime employment path of their fathers and mothers. Consequently, like Millennials elsewhere, they seem very focused on themselves. They don’t have much patience for things which are mendokusai or troublesome. That particularly includes studying English and dealing with pesky foreigners.

The 3/11 triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and triple nuclear reactor core meltdown refocused everyone on family, staying close (kizuna) and personal safety. Going overseas doesn’t really fit into that picture. Having said that though, the British Council study concluded that the interest in studying abroad is still strong. The interest may be there, but their actions are not matching the needs of business here.

The risk aversion of the Japanese mentality also operates against going overseas. Their perfectionist qualities also make the mastery of English seem like the impossible dream. Getting a job when you get back is an issue because of the inflexible nature of Japanese company hiring practices. Being older than your sempai (seniors) who entered the company before you, is confusing for the company hierarchical culture. Fitting in is also harder because now because they no longer think the same as everyone else. They have dared to be different and this is not a formula for career success in Japan. Fitting in and being just like everyone else is preferred

There are a couple of things we can do. Larger companies can look at providing scholarships, with golden handcuff clauses, to assist the motivated who want to study overseas, but may be financially restrained from doing so.

Related to that is the issue of keeping internationalised youth in the company after hiring them. This is where company culture becomes a winner, if you are smart about it. Conditions of employ can be a lot more flexible than in competitor Japanese companies. With a declining youth population, (the number of those aged zero to thirty-four, halves over the next 40 years) employers will have to become a lot more flexible anyway, if they want to retain staff.

These graduates often want to work in an international environment. However, they find themselves surrounded by local Japanese colleagues and they can’t get to use that English they worked so hard to improve. If you are running a multi-national company, why not create opportunities for them to use their English by making English the real language of the office. Monday and Wednesday can be designated Japanese day and Tuesday and Thursday English day. Friday is your free choice.

Getting middle managers properly trained to lead the young is going to be a key to retention and even more so with those international youth returned from study overseas. Coaching and communication skills are going to be at a premium, because in the coming free agent world of work, the young will walk out the door to the competitor without hesitation.

Recruiters will be ringing their cash registers hard as they pick up fees for luring your young away by painting a glowing picture of the greener grass at your rival’s firm. Your managers have to preclude that possibility by knowing how to provide the young a style of leadership they themselves never experienced. Tough love leading is definitely out. If your leaders pursue that route all that will be left will be tough times, as staff shortages hit companies hard. Our hiring Armageddon winter has well and truly arrived and hungry recruiters are the White Walkers taking our young English speakers away from us.

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Japan loves the Devil they know over the Angel they don’t know. Change here is hard to achieve in any field, because of the inbuilt fear of mistakes and failure. This country takes risk aversion to the highest heights in business. There are no rewards for salaried employees to take risk. There are massive career downsides though, if things go wrong, due to an initiative they introduced. Personal accountability is not very popular here.

The decision-making system here is also a nightmare in this regard. Who is the decision-maker? Probably no single person. The meeting we attend may have one to three people present in the room, but they are the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg we will never fully get to meet by the way. Behind the walls of the office, sit their other colleagues who will have to sign off and agree on the change.

The checks and balances of Japanese organisations guarantee a few things. One is it makes for good communication internally. No one faces an unpleasant surprise. I have found most Japanese, as individuals, are not good at dealing with the unexpected. The sudden emergence of something that had not been previously factored in, has these staff rushing for emergency exits in fear.

The other thing this system supplies is the opportunity for all the vested interests to have their say. Fast action is not viewed as a plus. Reaching a consensus is very important in Japan and people expect to have input into any new arrangements. The ringisho piece of paper suggesting the change physically moves around the section head’s desks and each one applies their hanko or stamp to the document, indicating they are okay with the change. Nothing will happen until all of those stamps are there.

Turning up as a salesperson and finding the buying team are already quite happy with their current supplier, means a lot of work has to be done internally by the people we are meeting, to make a change away from the known and established order. Who wants more work? No one in Japan, that is for sure. When you are dealing with small to middle size firms the supplier arrangements can be even trickier. They often have a strong CEO owner running the show – the famous One Man Shacho . They make a lot of the key decisions and then everyone else does the execution of the decision. You may not get to meet with the supreme dictator directly.

In many cases, the current supplier company was supplying their grandfather who started the business. Many a good time was had on the golf course, being entertained in the Ginza by geisha and visiting expensive cabaret clubs together in the good old days. Gifts flowed thick and fast as well, over decades, to cement the relationship. The current generation of the heads of the respective businesses may have been at school together, have marriage links between their two families or belong to special clubs as members. I see these connections at my very exclusive Rotary Club here in Tokyo. These are successful families who move in the same circles. The third generation of family business heads have deep links together built up over the last generations. Why would they change their trusted supplier to you, a stranger, a Johnny Come Lately?

Be it a big corporate or a smaller concern, there are a lot of barriers to change in supplier relationships in Japan. Frankly, we have few levers at our disposal as a result. The one thing that companies fear in common though is getting left behind by their competitors. The globalisation of business has meant these harmonious relationships between supplier and buyer are getting shaken up.

Just explaining the details, benefits, quality and pricing advantage of the solution you provide are not enough. We need to lob some dynamite into their current cozy little supplier arrangements, by bringing up their exposure to being blindsided by a competitor. We need to remind them that the best solution will win in the market or at least reduce their market share. We need to point out that in a competitive industry, no one cares about the depth of the existing relationships, because they are fully focused on their survival. Rivals will make key supplier changes and these will trigger changes across the industry, as everyone else has to adjust accordingly. By getting ahead of the curve, they can win time to adjust and win market share for themselves, vis-à-vis their rivals.

Price and quality differentials only become meaningful in this light in the current market. Just talking about price or quality in isolation won’t move the buyers to make any changes. Being 30% cheaper sounds good, except the dislocation required to change suppliers is counted as much more expensive than the savings to be gained. The effort to make new or change supplier arrangements needs a strong reason in Japan or else everyone just defaults to a “do nothing” stance.

This requires we come armed with examples of where a change in supplier arrangements wiped certain companies out. The best option is relating changes in their industry, but even if we don’t have that, we need to show evidence of how dangerous it can be to avoid change. The drivers of change are plain to see: globalisation changing supply options, Japan’s declining population driving companies to take desperate measures to stay afloat, technical advances challenging existing business relationships, currency movements impacting pricing, etc. As an example, the DoCoMo i-Mode was a world leading phone app until Steve Jobs turned up with the iPhone and the i-Mode is no more.

We say fear and greed drive behaviour. Well in Japan, the fear factor is certainly more pronounced than the greed factor, so lead with the downside of non-action rather than the upside of a new initiative. Paint a picture of how the advantages of your solution could become dangerous in the wrong hands, that is to say, their competitors. Advise them to not give an unfair advantage to their rivals by not making the change today. Express the importance of urgency, the time factor exigency to take action right now.

We need to do this to drive the imperative of all those characters sitting behind the wall of the office, to get their hanko out and stamp the recommendation, showing their support for it. The people we are meeting are not the final decision-makers, so we need to arm them with the required nuclear harpoon to break through all the inertia and resistance to change, that is the hallmark of business in Japan.

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Speech contests and debating contests are usually for younger people at school or university. It is not often you see the most senior people from major corporations going head-to-head in a public setting. I was at an event where there was a vote to take place for some prestigious seats on the board of a non-profit. If the number of applicants equals the number of seats, then it is a perfunctory competition where the winner’s names are just announced. In the case of more hopefuls than places, then things hot up.

Each person had two minutes to make their pitch. Now remember, these are very experienced and senior people, in some cases heading vast organisations. I was fascinated to see how they would fare. With one exception, English was not their native language. However, they have been in international business their whole lives and many have lived in numerous foreign countries running the local business for the multinational parent company. Language skill wasn’t even a factor.

As you might expect, some were better presenters than others. However, overall they were pretty underwhelming, given the types of big jobs they were holding. They knew for many weeks that this day would arrive, that they would have to speak and compete for places with each other and that they only had two minutes. They had the opportunity to prepare, to rehearse what they would say. This was not a spontaneous idea on the part of the organisers suddenly thrust upon a bunch of innocents. The first thing I noticed was how poorly they had all prepared. Talking about your resume and how big your big corporate is, is fine, but there was no thought given to what the audience wanted to hear. Everything was presented from their own point of view.

A few minutes spent planning and preparing would have come up with a fine list of audience expectations of this board. They would have identified which hot buttons they needed to push. This is not hard stuff folks. They will represent our interests on the Board and so what would our member interests be? Having divined that, we should then craft our message to present about how our experience, organisational muscle and personal attributes will deliver for the members.

We only have two minutes, so that means we have to prune hard to fix upon the most high impact points which will resonate with the audience. We then need to rehearse to make sure we can get this inside the strict two minute limit. We don’t want to be rushing it or confusing our audience with too many varied points. If we rush it, they have no hope of keeping track of what we are on about.

Now when we deliver our talk, we have to engage with our audience. We will be going one after another, so we have to break through and override the message of whoever preceded us and implant our message, such that our successor speaker cannot root it out. Sadly, none of this was happening and they were not engaging their audience at all. What are they like when addressing the troops back at the office I was wondering? Going by this effort not much chop!

The common thing I noticed that was missing from all the speakers was eye contact. They were not using their two minutes to physically engage with enough people. Using six seconds of one-on-one eye contact, we can directly engage with at least twenty people in the audience. Toward the rear, because of the distance, the people sitting around the target person also believe the speaker is talking directly to them as well, so we can increase that twenty number quite substantially.

Delivering your resume in a monotone means you are missing the opportunity to hit key words for greater effect. Now when I say hit, I mean that in the sense that you can choose whether to add voice strength or withdraw voice strength to gain variety in your delivery. Our gestures are another way to bring power to what we are saying. It creates energy and that is what we want to transmit to the audience – we are a person of energy who can get things done for the members. Some of the speakers chose to speak while holding their hands behind their backs, denying themselves the opportunity to use gestures. When we don’t show our hands, we are triggering a deep mistrust in the audience. This is because since we lived in caves, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands we cannot see.

It was all pretty bad actually. Corporate leaders need to be excellent communicators and that includes giving professional presentations to external groups. This is not something we are born with. We learn it and we further develop it, over the course of our careers. There was a lot of personal, professional and company brand damage done the other day, at the face off for the Board seats. When it is your turn to speak, be ready and blow your competitors out of the water. Prepare properly, rehearse thoroughly, work on the mechanics of audience engagement through your eye contact, gestures and highlighting key words.

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Business is more fast paced that ever before in human history. Technology boasting massive computing and communication power is held in our palm. It accompanies us on life’s journey, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, everywhere we go. We are working in the flattest organisations ever designed, often at home on our own a few days a week or in noisy, distracting open plan environments. We are also increasing thrust into matrix relationships with bosses, subordinates and colleagues residing in distant climes. We rarely meet them face to face, so communication becomes more strained and difficult.

Milestones, timelines, targets, revenues, KPIs are all screaming for blood. We are under the pressure of instant response and a growing culture of irritation and impatience. If our computer is slow to boot up, or if a file takes time to download, we are severely annoyed. Twenty years ago we were amazed you could instantly send a document file by email from one location to another. Oh, the revolution of rising expectations!

Imagine our forebears who when working internationally, had to wait for the mail from headquarters to arrive by boat and then would wait months for the reply to arrive there and then more months for the subsequent answer to come back. Super snail mail ping pong. Life was a wee bit more leisurely then and people had a lot more independence through necessity. Not today. We want it and we want it now and look out anyone who gets in our way. We have unconsciously designed a system guaranteed to produce more conflict in the workplace.

Technology speeds everything up and internal expectations also keep rising. Time is in permanent short supply and the stresses and strains of modern business are inescapable. Not everyone is keeping up and criticism is swift to follow. The pressure is on and that means that civil discourse can be truncated and communication becomes more direct. All of this can increase the frequency of conflict in the workplace. What can the leader do to deal with this upsurge in people problems between staff? Let’s analyse the issue in more depth.

We can break the conflict touch point issues into five categories for attention. Process Conflict – is this what we are dealing with? How much control do we have in this particular issue we are facing? We need to analyse the root cause of the problem and talk to the process owner. They may not be aware that their process driven actions are causing problems for others. We need to diplomatically raise it with them, get agreement it needs to be resolved and come up with a joint action plan to fix it.

Role Conflicts easily arise in flat organisations. What is our perception of our own role in relation to others involved in this issue? We can’t expect others to be making the effort to clarify our role, so we have to take the lead to do so. This is hard, but we have to be prepared to change our perception of what our actual role is. We should take the macro view and see where we need to be flexible around our perception of our own role, to make sure the organisation is moving forward. This may require some changes and we have to see change as an opportunity for growth and improvement (easily said!!!).

Interpersonal Conflicts are the tough ones. We are confronted by the actions, behaviors and word exchanges which have taken place and the reported versions from others around us. We need to take a step back and ask, “to what degree are my personal biases and prejudices affecting this relationship”. Are people telling me things to suit their own agenda and stirring me up for no good reason?

There are key things we can do to improve the situation and we usually know exactly what they are, but we don’t want to do them. However, we have to commit to making those changes, as difficult and painful as that may be. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the other person to change – take action yourself.

This may mean having a direct conversation with your counterpart on the issues. Before you do that though, forget about what you want for the moment and put yourself in their shoes. Reflect on how you would see the issue from their perspective. This will make it easier to have that one-on-one conversation.

Direction Conflicts arise when the path forward is unclear. Companies are not always excellent in informing everyone of what needs to happen or at the same time. Check that you are in fact clear yourself on the organisation’s current direction or vision. Bring up the discrepancy between you and the other party in respectful terms, in a neutral way. This is not about establishing blame (although we often like doing that!), but about getting joint clarity about what is the aim and how it should be delivered together.

External Conflicts are tough because by definition, you lack power or control. Ask yourself whether you have a dog in this fight or not? Choose your battles carefully and concentrate on what you can do to improve things, rather than wasting energy whining about what you cannot control. As a general rule, if you find yourself complaining about anything outside of your control stop and re-set your mind around how the situation can be improved. Ask yourself, “in what way can we continue to move the organisation forward?”. In the words of the hardest working man in show business Mr. James Brown, “get on the good foot”!

Leaders have responsibility for dealing with staff conflicts and there is no sweeping these under the carpet or ignoring them. We have to take accountability to fix the issue and get everyone pulling in the same direction with the same levels of commitment. Energy spent fighting each other internally means that energy isn’t being directed toward defeating the opposition. That is a total misalignment of outputs and we need to fix that problem and fix it immediately.

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The release of 5G or fifth generation mobile networks was launched in Japan in March 2020. Our old phones ran on a 4G standard and 5G faster is significantly faster than 4G. So what does that mean for salespeople across all industries?

The capacity to upload heavier files, to be sent at lightening speed, grabs your attention. What are some of the heaviest files at the moment? Video! YouTube is already the second largest search engine after Google. It is true too. I have noticed myself that I prefer going straight to YouTube to find out how to do something, rather than wading through all the links and ads on Google. The union of content marketing with blinding connection speeds, means the search function for YouTube will overtake Google in the next few years. AI will probably overtake everything for search in the future. Nevertheless, are you prepared to be found by buyers as the star of your own video?

Now this is not to say that the importance of audio is going away. Podcasts are also a key way of getting value by turning up in front of buyers. That is why I am releasing six ever week. People are multitasking these days like they have been possessed by demons. They want to listen to audio, while they are at the gym or walking the dog. Don’t miss the implications of audio access to our information from all of these devices like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Home, etc. We will be tapping into information through audio, to a greater extent than now, but today I want to feature more on video and 5G and what it means for us in sales.

Producing video content and uploading that to YouTube will become a more important aspect of “know, like and trust”. Video gives a very strong impression about us. How we look? How we sound? Are we trustworthy? How we relate to the audience? Are we authentic? As some of my friends have unkindly remarked, “Greg, you have a good head for radio”, meaning I am not very photogenic. True. Consequently, we may be shy to video ourselves, thinking that we are not handsome or beautiful enough, or smooth enough in front of the camera, or attractive enough on tape when a microphone is involved.

Forget all of that. This will be the age of discovery by buyers, before they ever meet us. This is how they will be searching for experts to bring solutions for the problems they face. They will be able to “try us before they buy us” by watching our video, to see if we have the goods or not. What if we are not attractive enough for video, won’t that work against us?

Well, I wish I was more handsome, but there is not much I can do about that. My parent’s DNA contribution has spoken. I have to go with what I have got and so do you. I am releasing three video shows every week. I don’t have a great sounding voice either, because it sounds husky, from all that shouting or kiai I did, in my 53 years of karate training. Can’t do too much about that either. One of our Dale Carnegie trainers in America is DJ Thatcher, who has a voice you would die for. Very deep and melodic. I can’t become DJ Thatcher, but I can control what comes out of my own mouth.

So despite how we look and how we sound, are we providing actual value? Our videos have to show we know something special about our subject and that we can be useful to the buyer. Don’t think you have to hold the “best bits” back either and keep them secret. You have to go the other way and provide strong expert authority in this environment and do it for free. Put your best stuff out there.

You might sorry, “won’t my buyers become sated on my free video offerings and not need more from me?”. I don’t think this is a concern. When they need more than what they can get from a video, you are the one they will select over everyone else you are competing with. By the way, if a video can fix their issue that simply, then there probably wasn’t a substantial engagement involved anyway.

Won’t my competitors steal all my best ideas? The old style control function of buyers by suppliers, through exclusive, high value, proprietary knowledge, still exists, but only just these days. Almost everything is out there today. I remember in karate training, that the Sensei had the secret knowledge of the kata and we could only learn it from him. It was a control mechanism to keep us in line. Today, you can learn the most amazing kata via YouTube. That secrets era has passed and there are not many secrets left anymore. You have to jump in because everyone else is. There is a safety factor though. They can copy you, but they can’t be you.

I could order a big truck right now and send all of our training manuals to my competitors, but it wouldn’t help them. They don’t know how to deliver it the way we do, so all they get is an empty shell. This is the same with your competitors. They can’t replicate who you are, your company culture, your approach to clients, quality, reliability, plus all the human interaction pieces which are the sum of all that you are, down at your firm.

As an example, I recently did the recordings for the audio version of my book Japan Sales Mastery. Anyone could have read the text, but no one would emphasised key words the way I did. This is because I wrote it, I know what I want to say and how I want to say it. We cannot be copied. Get busy and get your stuff out there in the public domain.

So let’s start working on video of you for your newsletters, video email messages, website, YouTube channel and then push it out through social media so that it can be easily found. These days you have so many choices. You can do it through various live broadcast functions as well. You just pick up your phone and away you go. Although, as I found live broadcasting is like walking on the high wire between two skyscrapers, with a strong wind blowing and no safety net for beginners. If you screw it up in the first forays, like I did (!), you are very visible to lots and lots of folks. Oops. I am your typical male who never reads the manual. I found out later there is a function you can select where only you can see the video, which is probably a good precaution when you are starting. Hey, I should have done that!

You can go for weekly YouTube TV shows like I have, with The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show or The Japan Business Mastery Show. High quality camera, lighting soft boxes, serious audio recording technology, a set, editing suite, green screen, etc. Or you can shoot something on the move with a mobile phone, or a tablet, as the camera quality is so good today. Just add an external microphone, stand close to the camera and away you go. It can be edited later, so you can correct any problems. I have a number of videos on our Japan Dale Carnegie TV channel on YouTube which were shot on my iPad with an external mic. Very low cost and time effective for the quality. The audio is key though, so I suggest you make an effort to get that to be the best you can arrange.

What about appearing in front of the camera? My recommendation is to do our High Impact Presentations Training course. I don’t say this because it is Dale Carnegie, I say it because it is such an awesome course. This will give you the supreme confidence and skills to master the lens. That is what I did and you can check out the results in my videos! I reckon if I can do it with how I look and how I sound, you can do it and probably do it much better. You will now see AI technology rolling over the top of you or you can start surfing down the face of the wave. The technology is here now and time waits for no salesperson.

Action Steps

1. Read up on the technical innovations underway and what it will mean for you

2. Understand the power of the YouTube search function with buyers

3. Get over your inhibitions about being video and voice recorded, no one cares, as long as you are bringing value

4. Be prepared to share your best stuff for free, because your competition will be doing that

5. Start, review, improve, continue, master

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Obviously we all have some trepidation when it comes to Q&A, but Japan is quite far behind the rest of the advanced countries when it comes to public speaking. Let me put it on the table. The level of presentations here is abysmally low and excuses abound. People here talk about a “Japanese style” of doing public talks. This is their excuse for not being at the global standard for communication skills and it allow them to get away with amateur hour presentations. What they actually mean by “Japanese style” is they speak in a monotone, with a wooden face, use no gestures, make no eye contact, employ no pauses, Um and Ah with gay abandon, engage no one in the audience and are supremely boring. They kill everyone in the audience with their unprofessional slides - 8 point sized font, four different font types, five garish colours. They turn their slides into a psychological weapon of warfare which decimates their audience. Because everyone is so bad, this is thought to be a “style”, obviously different from “Western” presentations. It isn’t a style. It is just plain bad.

Not being properly educated in how to give professional presentations, the trickier bits like Q&A are even scarier territory. For any speaker, once the bell sounds for Q&A, the struggle is on. As the well-known American philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face”. Relatively speaking, Japan is a kindergarten for Q&A compared to Western audiences. The ferocity of questions here is kids stuff. So you would think that everyone would be very chipper about handling the Q&A, but that is not the case. Here are some areas of the concern we found, when we polled our Japanese students of presenting.

1. If the audience is not familiar to us we get nervous

The reality here is that strangers are confronting for Japanese. The chances of having a lifetime of speaking to familiar audiences would be statistically impossible, I would say. The inference here is that it is less daunting to speak to a “tame” audience who, because they know us, won’t unleash fury upon our heads during the questions component of the talk.

Unfamiliar audiences should be the considered the norm. I have delivered over 550 speeches so far and I cannot recall every giving a talk to the same audience twice. The way to deal with this “unfamiliarity” is to be well prepared and to have thoroughly rehearsed beforehand. This is a tell. I would guess 0.001% of Japanese presenters have ever rehearsed their talk.

1. I am not sure if I can understand the question properly and also not sure if it is okay to ask them to repeat the question

Japanese society is very polite, so that is why until recently, you would be lucky to get any questions at your talk at all. The thinking has been that it is impolite. The nuance is that by asking a question, you are implying the speaker wasn’t clear enough in their oration. Also I don’t think any Western audiences would even consider the possibility that it isn’t allowable to ask the questioner to repeat their question. In Japan, that request implies the questioner wasn’t clear enough the first time and so is a veiled criticism. Because the request for the repeat of the question is made in public, there is the possibility that the questioner will lose face and we can’t have that.

My advice - politely ask the questioner for clarification on their impenetrable question. Japan is a polite place, so ask politely and put yourself at fault and not the speaker. You might say, “Thank you for your question. I really want to answer it correctly, so would you mind repeating it once more for me?”.

1. Not clear on how to answer the question

This will happen to all of us. In my case, I do a lot of public speaking here in the Japanese language and I always find the Q&A the most difficult. This is not for the ferocity of the questions, but because of the fog of the language. Japanese is a highly circuitous language and vagary is a prized achievement. Sometimes, I have no clue what they are asking me.

If we can’t answer the question, then we are human. We cannot always be the font of all knowledge and there will always be occasions where we just don’t have an answer for that question. We should apologise and fess up straight away. “Thank you for your question. I am afraid I don’t know the answer to it at this point. After the talk, let’s exchange business cards and I will do my best to come back to you with an answer after I do more research on that topic”. No one will complain about handling it in this way.

1. No questions emerge because the audience weren’t paying any attention to the speaker

Most talks in Japan are supremely dull, so naturally the audience escapes to a more interesting place like their smart phone. Suddenly the Q&A springs up and as they haven’t being paying attention, they have no idea what to ask about. The call for questions goes unanswered, so there springs forth this painful, embarrassing silence, as everyone carefully scrutinises their shoes, ensuring zero eye contact with anyone. The speaker is left high and dry and the talk finishes on a low note of disinterest. It feels like all of the oxygen has been sucked out of the room, the speaker deflates and then in short order, departs.

If no questions are forthcoming, ask your own question: “A question I am often asked is….”. This will often break the ice for someone else to muscle up the courage to ask their own question. I am always amazed at well his works in Japan. No one wants to go first. But interestingly they are happy to go second after you started with your own question to yourself. After doing this, If nothing is still forthcoming, then do a final call for more questions. If none emerge then give your final close and finish the proceedings.

Here are two basic rules for answering any question. Always repeat the question if it is neutral, to make sure everyone in the audience heard it and to give yourself valuable thinking time before attempting to answer it. If it is a hostile question, then paraphrase it by stripping out all the emotion and invective and make it sound neutral. For example, “Is it true you are losing money and that ten percent of the staff are going to be fired before Christmas?”. “Thank you, the question was about current business performance” and then you answer it. We call this taisabaki in karate – you slip off to the side, away from confronting the full force of your opponent’s attack.

We will face Q&A when giving our talks. Changing our mindset about welcoming the opportunity is a good place to start. We can add more information, we couldn’t squeeze into the talk. We can elaborate on a theme we raised. We get a chance to engage more deeply with our audience. When we shoot down a nasty, vicious, brutish, hostile question and destroy it, this makes us a legend of pubic speaking and adds serious luster to our personal brand. Bring on the questions!

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The Spa magazine in Japan previously released the results of a survey of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose. Salaries are a function of deflation and commercial success, as well as the tightness of the labour market. Feeling unappreciated and underevaluated though are both boss failings unrelated to the economy and cannot be esily dismissed. This outcome is the direct result of decades of neglect of the soft skills of leadership.

How do we improve on this situation? We need better leader eduation. The feeling of being valued by the boss and the organisation is the trigger to producing high levels of engagement for your work. Japan is renown for always scoring poorly on international comparative engagement surveys. APAC as a region usually trails last across the world and Japan is usually situated at the very bottom for engagement scores in APAC. The global study on engagement by Dale Carnegie showed that feeling valued was the key factor. The results for Japan were the same.

Good to know that we have the answer at hand to improve levels of engagement. By the way, disengaged or hardly engaged staff are not going to add any additional extras to their work or be motivated to come up with a better way of doing things. Innovation requires some sense of caring about the organization. So work productivity and innovation both need higher levels of engagement to help us get anywhere. In any competitive business environment, the abilty to out innovate your rivals has to be a very high value to the firm.

Fine, but so what? How do we get leaders who were raised in a different world of work – the bishibishi(relentlessly super strict) school of leading to now switch to becoming more warm and fuzzy? Telling them to do so is an interesting intervention by senior management that will go precisely nowhere. This requires re-education on what we need from our leaders. The most widespread system of education in corporate Japan is OJT (On The Job Training). How does your bishibishi boss change mindset alone? They can’t. That is why training is required to better inform bosses about how to gain willing cooperation from subordinates, instead of just pulling rank on them to drive their obedience.

In the modern era, young people have all become free-agents, like the baseball stars. In their parent’s time, staff were fearful of being able to get another job, if they strayed from the beaten path and quit where they worked. Not today. There is an army of hungry recruiters scouring firms to lift people out and place them in another company. They can click the ticket for 40% of the first year salary on the way through this change of employ. By the way, the individual recruiter gets 50% of the fee. It is a highly lucrative profession and relatively young, unremarkable people make a lot of money so the incentives to take your people and place them somewhere else is super high. In this circumstance, there is no need to make it any easier for the recruiters by treating your staff badly.

How to deal with mistakes is a key to the future in a society that hasn’t worked out that mistakes are the glide path to learning. Japan is a mistake free zone and this is a big disincentive to experiment, to try the new. Locating oneself in the middle of your comfort zone makes the best sense, so you want to avoid all change efforts. Here is the contradiction. If you want innovation, progress, creativity, then change must be embraced. That also means embracing risk - the risk of error.

If the internal evaluation process for promotion is used to focus all the failings and insufficiencies of the staff - the dreaded HR little black book of staff mistakes - then don’t expect your shop to become a hotbed of innovation anytime soon. What should we be doing? Leaders need to be helping staff lead intentional lives. Goals, strategies to achieve the goals, milestones, targets all come as part of the package. This is different from being Mr. or Ms. Perfect and holding the team to standards you yourself can never possibly achieve.

Encouraging people to come out of their comfort zones, take some risks and try new things requires a lot of communication skills. It requires feedback, but not critique. Telling people they are wrong, may make the boss feel superior and good, but it kills staff motivation and interest in doing things any differently. Good/better feedback is a better strategy. Tell them what they are doing that is going well and praise them for that. Tell them what they could do to make things go even better. The point is still communicated, but in a much better way and will be received in a more positive frame.

Because of the old fashioned style of management in vogue here, Japanese bosses are actually untrained in how to give praise. Telling staff “Good Job” is not praise by the way. That comment is a very vague reflection on a piece of work. Tasks have many facets, the staff know that and so which part of that project did they do well? We need bosses to be very specific about which bit was done well and how it was done well. Leader then need to explain how that task fits into the big picture of the organization and encourage the staff member to keep doing that.

Clearly, the leader in Japan has to do better. The soft skills area is where the greatest productivity gains will come from, because hard skills education in Japan is already maximised. This is the next frontier of leadership. If Japan can unlock the full potential of the working population, we are in for an exciting future. If it can’t, then things look bleak.

What is happening in your organisation at the moment? What are your leaders focused on? What is current your staff attrition rate? How long does it take to hire in new people and what is ther quality like? How expensive is it to replace people? Do you have strategy for all of this? The best time to start was yesterday.

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Riffraff inhabit all corners of the business world, but the sales profession suffers more than many others. Bankers do all sorts of evil things with our money. Stock brokers do all sorts of evil things with our money. Real estate agents tell one version of the truth to buyers. Government officials purloin our money. Everywhere you look, someone is ripping us off. However, these industries and institutions do not get blanket smeared with the failings of the few, like in the case of salespeople.

We are our own worst enemy in many ways. There is a taint to the profession, an odious odor, scandalising the hallways. Desperate people do dumb things and tell lies to buyers. There are no common standards of conduct being adhered to in the sales profession. You just become a salesperson by dint of putting your hand up for a sales job. After that point, you are free to unleash your reign of terror and destruction on all around you.

“I am not like that” you may say, but how would the buyer know that? They have been trained to expect to be ripped off by salespeople. It is one of my pet hates with the profession. Lo and behold someone called me up with a lie. A lie? How could anyone be that stupid, you might be wondering?

Well, have you heard this one before, “Hello Mr. Story, how are you today? I am from XYZ company and we handle a range of investment products. One of our representatives will be in your area and so are you available for a meeting next week?”.

This industry of selling investment products is tricky. I know, because I oversaw the sales of these products at the Shinsei Bank and the National Australia Bank here in Japan. What makes them difficult is you can’t hear, see, touch, smell or taste these intangibles. Investment products are abstract ideas. The buyer will have no idea if the decision to buy was a good one or not, for many months and in some cases, many years.

So the obvious thing we are all buying is the trust that what we have been told will in fact happen. Given the trust element is so vital, how could the leadership at XYZ company come up with a sales script like this one, totally built on a lie? Amazingly, this is the first thing coming out of their mouth. Reality check: their representative won’t be in my area. That is a total fabrication, a complete lie. Why? They think that somehow this will convince me to see that person.

I don’t put up with is unprofessionalism and I go after them. When they call, I ask them which area their representative will be in. They panic, look at the suburb address on their screen and blurt out “Akasaka”. So, because I am unrelenting with such idiots, I ask, “Well given Akasaka is quite a big place, which exact part of Akasaka will they be in next week?”. More blustering and panic, because now we have gone completely off piste.

Let’s step back and take a look at the big picture inside the sales profession. Japan is a very honest culture. This means though, that when people tell lies, they never readily admit to it. They never want to take any accountability. Instead they will tell you anything, in order to not admit that what they told you was crap. They try and move the blame back to you, by claiming you misheard or misunderstood what they were saying.

This honest culture can blind us to this quaint trait to lie. So when we are leading our salespeople, we can’t just assume because everyone is so honest in Japan, that our salespeople won’t lie to the client. This is also a culture where the buyer is GOD and whatever the buyer wants the salesperson will make happen. This can include lying, breaking the rules, over promising and being disingenuous. The back office delivery component of the company cannot easily deliver on salesperson over-promised goodies. Now we have a new set of problems to deal with, as sections within the company start to feud amongst themselves. Or they agree to a deal that is bad for the business. Being truthful with clients also means delivering bad news too. Salespeople in Japan have to be guided to do this, because of their own accord, they will avoid it every time and prefer to sow chaos internally.

It is important to state and keep re-stating what should be obvious – don’t lie to buyers. We have to explain we would rather forego a deal than get it by lying. This gets harder when their bonuses and commissions are linked to the sale. Also, a hard-nosed sales culture will force people into positions where they will compromise their personal and the firm’s integrity to do the deal. Suruga Bank had been a very aggressive lender in the market. They reaped the whirlwind of negative media coverage, because of all the lies told by their bank staff to get loans written. Wells Fargo had a similar issue with staff creating fake accounts to meet aggressive quotas. The real cost of those lies play out over many years.

We may have our own aggressive targets too, but we also have to ensure that we are guiding people along the correct path of how to make those targets. If we all agree that trust of the buyer is key, then we can start to build that trust by ensuring that our salespeople are never lying to the buyers, in order to make a sale. We have to remind salespeople of one very important thing. We are not after a sale. This is important so let me repeat this point - we are not after a sale. We are after repeat orders and these only come when there is a track record of trust.

We are currently negotiating with one of the biggest companies in the world. We won’t continue with them, because they are after a single low value transaction rather than an ongoing relationship. We are not after a single sale. We would rather put our energy into finding a buyer we can work with forever, than get bogged down in a small transactional piece of business.

Let’s wrap this discussion up. The solution to this lying salesperson problem doesn’t arrive from outside. John Wayne is not going to come charging over the sand hill, heralded by a bugle call, to our rescue. This is an inside out process. We have to start with our own sales operations and clean that up. If we do this consistently over time, we can isolate out the baddies, the dodgy types, the liars and contain the harm they do to us. None of us want to work in a profession that stinks. Our job is to develop good people in sales, rather than good salespeople. Is this what you are doing at the moment

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Like a lot of people, I subscribe to various sites that send you useful information, uplifting quotes etc. The following morsel popped into my inbox the other morning, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care–Anonymous”. Wow! What a powerful reminder of the things that really matter in our interactions with others. This piece of sage advice should be metaphorically stamped on to the brain of every single person involved in sales.

Don’t miss it - selling stuff is a tough gig. Rejection is the normal response to our spiffy sales presentation and follow up offer. You have to be tough to survive in a sales job. You need other things too. Product and technical knowledge is important. Total command of the detail is expected by clients. However, we need to be careful about what we focus on. Are we letting the product details and features confuse us about what selling is really all about?

Some salespeople I have encountered remind me of an icy Siberian mammoth trapped in a time warp from the past, still trotting out the product brochure and seeing if I will go for one of their goodies? You don’t like that one, well then how about this one, or this one, or this one, ad nauseam? I want “blue” but they keep showing me 50 shades of “pink”. They are playing that pathetic, failed salesperson game named “process of elimination”.

I want to buy, but are they really showing me they are focused on understanding me? Are they demonstrating to me that they foremost care about my benefit? Are they communicating to me that, “in your success Greg, is my success”? Or do they come across not with stars in their eyes, buy $$$$ signs?

I can recall seeing them sitting across the table from me, mentally salivating at the thought of the big fat commission this sales conversation is worth? I can sense they have already bought the 3 series Beemer before the ink is dry?

The quote at the beginning, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care” reminds me of a great Japanese word, which should be embraced by everyone in sales - kokorogamae(心構え).

It can be simply translated as “preparedness” but the Japanese nuance goes much deeper than that. Anyone studying a martial art or a traditional Japanese art (道) will immediately be on my wave length, when they hear this kokorogamae term. I would prefer to translate it as “getting your heart in order”. Sounds a bit woo, woo doesn’t it.

Well it is sound business sense. This means to really hark back to your most basic principles of true intention. What we can call True North – the purity of our intention. What is the spark in our heart driving our behavior? Is it the money or is it the serving? Is it what you want or what the client wants? Is this going to be a long-term relationship or a fleeting transaction?

Salespeople need to start by searching their heart for their true intention. Huh? There I go again. Does this sound a bit too “let’s all hold hands around the a tree” California emotional for you?

Why do I recommend searching your heart? Because clients can sense your motivation isn’t centered on their best interests and therefore they won’t buy from you. Even if somehow you do manage one sale, you will miss the key objective – the buyer’s re-order

Of course, there are the exceptions – the Hollywood image of the “smooth talking” salesperson who could sell you anything and will certainly try to. They are like skyrockets that initially blaze through the night and then explode! They are here for a good time not a long time and they give the profession of sales a bad brand. Wolf of Wall Street ring a bell here. That dude went to jail, which is where he deserved to go, for ripping all of those punters off and stealing their savings. He is out of jail now and is a sales trainer – the mind boggles at the thought. This is why people don’t trust salespeople. We have to prove we are different because we are judges guilty from the outset.

The best Japanese salesperson I ever interviewed for a sales job was also a criminal.

A criminal? Well, the criminal part didn’t surface immediately, but came up later through some background checks. Let me make a note to Sales Managers – do background checks!. He was absolutely brilliant in the first two interviews, polished, genius personified in the role play, and WOW, what a closer! I thought “Yes!” at last, I have found my perfect Japanese salesperson. Actually, he was a liar, a thief and a baddie. He had zero True North orientation and his kokorogamae was plain wrong. What a wake up and smell the coffee moment for me. I realised how naïve and trusting I was.

So let’s ignore the outliers, those riff raff of sales and come back to the vast majority of salespeople who are not evil, just inept. Change your heart, focus on True North, purify your intentions, show you genuinely care about the buyer’s best interests before your own. If you do that every single time you meet a client, you will have get success in sales and build a power personal brand.

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It's inevitable - at some point disagreements are going to come up in the workplace. Power struggles, political plays, sectionalism, siloism – the list goes on regarding sources of organizational conflict. As we all know, disagreements can get heated quickly and it can be difficult to put aside our opinions and biases in order to handle the situation diplomatically. We can get locked into positions and we regret what we said later.

Powerfully motivated people often have powerful egos and when conflicts arise, teamwork can be compromised. It can become our team against their team, except we are all working for the same organization! We have conveniently forgotten all about our competitors in the market, as we turn on each other. This is not a winning formula. Positive internal collaboration is a product of the culture created in the organization and needs to be built and rebuilt all the time. It doesn’t have to be a “winner takes all” and the losers are vanquished in a battle of wills and egos. There are several tried and true methods to "disagree agreeably” with colleagues and get the issues out on the table, but still preserve the teamwork. Would that be something that would be worthwhile pursuing? The opportunity cost of wasting energy fighting each other and not winning in the market is huge. We should stop shooting ourselves in the foot. Let’s become a united team that allows many viewpoints and alternate ideas. Sounds good except most organisations have no idea how to do that. Here are some ideas on how to navigate a disagreement in an empathetic manner, while presenting your point of view.

1. Give the benefit of the doubt. Don't immediately jump to conclusions even if you disagree with someone. Be generous with others.Hear them out, you may have more in common than you initially thought. We are not perfect, we don’t have all of the possible information or all of the possible angles to view an issue. Instead of concentrating on defending what we think, we should start with an open mind that there are many paths to the mountain top. We may be wrong and wouldn’t we want to have the latest and best information available, as we duke it out in the marketplace with our competitors?
2. Listen to learn and understand. Be an engaged listener, make sure you are listening on an empathetic level instead of just pretending to listen. We do this don’t we.By gathering all the facts about the other person's point of view, you will be able to deliver your counterpoint in a diplomatic manner. We need to switch gears from what we usually do. We are often notorious interrupters, jumping in finishing off other’s sentences before they do, or just talking over the top of them to thrust our opinion forward. We have trouble maintaining our listening capability when our brain is awash with what we want to say. Our own internal conversation is all encompassing, roaring and it is effectively drowning out the points being made by the other person. We need to be better at listening to others before we shoot our mouths off. It should be done in this order – ear, brain, mouth - not ear, mouth, brain.
3. Use a cushion. This is inserting a little break in the proceedings, so we can think before we speak.Acknowledge the other person's point of view and relate to their emotions through empathetic listening. How do we do that? We can use cushion statements such as "I hear what you're saying and what you're saying is important" or "I understand your point of view" to demonstrate that you understand and care about their feelings. As I said, it is important to wait until they have finished speaking before we respond. I know, I know, this might feel absolutely painful and excruciating but do it! Having exercised some patience to hear them out, now we bring in the cushion. This is a great little interregnum to allow us some thinking time before we go into our response. Our immediate first response is usually not our most considered or best response. It can often be an emotional response as well. Cushion, then respond – the results are enormously different. It takes practice and won’t come naturally but the rewards are vast.
4. Number 4 is never use "but" or "however." No matter how much you empathize with someone, if you follow up your cushion statement with words like "but" or "however," it will negate everything prior. You lose credibility and the person you're disagreeing with is unlikely to take your thoughts seriously from this point on. We are all trained like hawks to watch for body language guiding us as to whether they agree with what we are saying or not. So we have to make sure we are not giving off a negative vibe without even being aware of it. We are also trained to listen for key words that tell us whether we have an argument on our hands or not. Words like “but”, “however”, “in reality” etc, set off alarms in our heads. We immediately arm ourselves for counterattack when we hear those words.

Sun Zu’s advice in The Art of War, was to win without fighting, so let’s do that. Instead of words that contradict the other person’s original statement, use words like "and" or insert a pause instead. Here is an example. “That is a good idea but we have to look at the budget ramifications”. This sounds negative and unhelpful. Try this instead, “That is a good idea and we will need to look at the budget ramifications”. The impression we get from the second version is more positive and hopeful. Just change one word and the inference is vastly different.

Number 5 is State your opinion with evidence. Opinions are easy to refute, but facts are difficult to argue with. By backing up your point of view with evidence, you come across as more credible and can gain valuable leverage in a disagreement. By utilizing evidence, you may even be able to bring someone over to your line of thinking. It is also a smart move to bring in the facts in a subtle way. Rather than using facts as a mallet to belt them with, offer some consideration such as “I may not have all the facts but I was aware that this was the case, how does that correspond with your experience?” Always be aware that people don’t like to lose face, be embarrassed, be humiliated or to feel slighted. We know this but in the heat of the moment we may go too far. Ramming facts down their throat may mean you are correct. This may make you feel good, but you potentially create an enemy for life nevertheless. We get into trouble when the message is delivered in the wrong way.

So try these ideas and become much better with holding your position, being heard and retaining the relationship with people who disagree with you.

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We are such a judgmental lot aren’t we! We form opinions about people within seconds of seeing them, often even before we hear them speak. We judge their dress, their body language, their style, without knowing anything about them as a person. We are slow to unwind our first impression as well, so those first seconds of any interaction are vital. How is that going for you?

We are all critics too, when it comes to presentations. We want the best, we want to be educated, entertained, wowed in our seats and we are usually disappointed. We carry that history of disappointment around with us like heavy baggage, to the next presentation and the next and the next. We shamelessly hold others to a level of accountability, we never wish to have imposed upon us!

The cold, hard reality is that Presentation Effectiveness can be a make or break skill in the workplace. At some point in your career you will be asked to present information to a group. It doesn't have to be a formal occasion. It might just mean answering a question or being invited to express a view or opinion. It is your job to ensure that you are ready to step up to the call.

An individual who can present confidently and effectively immediately differentiates themselves from the rest of the group. This is how to stand out in a positive way, a way that gets noticed when bosses are looking around for high potentials and they are always looking round for high potentials. Whether you are a pro or a beginner with presenting or public speaking, here are some considerations for improving your presentation and communications skills.

Fear Many people are terrified of speaking in front of a group. Everyone is staring at you, your palms are sweating, your pulse is racing, strangely your throat feels suddenly dry and parched, your energy levels have mysteriously dropped to precipitously low level. Your knees might even be knocking as the fight or flight adrenalin chemical kicks in when leased by your brain.

Many of us can accomplish pulling off a presentation, but feel a certain amount of fear and stress. Speaking in front of groups does not have to be stressful or nerve racking; instead, make the experience positive so that it can help you stand out and get noticed.

Here are some tips that will help you fight through your anxiety and deliver an effective presentation:

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare If you have a complete understanding of your material, it will definitely give you an advantage during your presentation. It will help to reduce the fear element because you will be in control. However, do not feel you have to memorize your material; you just need to be familiar with it.

You can read key points as mental prompts to help you keep the flow going in the best order, but don’t read it in detail, if you can avoid it. Many people are wedded to their text. They spend the entire time making eye contact with their own words on the page in front of them, rather than looking at their audience. They then wonder why nobody was impressed with their presentation. Look at your audience – talk to them as if it was fireside chat, be relaxed and engage with everyone.

I attended the Harvard Business School, as part of an Executive Education Programme. I found this technique fascinating in its simplicity. One of the Professors had written down a list of 10 words on the back wall behind the audience. This was his 3 hour lecture presented entirely without any visible notes. This list was his navigation for the talk. We can do the same. A list of key words you talk to can be your presentation or you might use the slide deck as the navigation tool to move your talk along.

Open with Confidence. Here is a big secret - only you know you are terrified. Unless you tell us, we will imagine you are competent, after all that is what we are expecting. I saw a disaster unfold when the speaker told us she was nervous. She had an impressive resume, was tall, well groomed, a confident looking business professional. Or so we thought.

A few minutes into the presentation she suddenly stopped, told us she was nervous and that she had to take a deep breath. And she repeated this sequence two more times.

Her credibility just rocketed out right the window at that point and nobody took anything she had to say with any credence. She destroyed her message, her reputation and her personal brand in the space of 30 seconds.

She could have paused, taken a breath, regrouped and carried on. We would have thought it was a natural break in her flow and thought nothing about it. She chose to tell us publically – big error right there.

Keep it to yourself no matter how badly you feel inside. We don’t need to know and we don’t want to know.

Japan of course, being a very humble society, loves to start a presentation with an apology, often mentioning what a hopeless speaker the individual is. The President of a huge retail corporation here in Japan recently began his talk with an explanation that his English wasn’t any good and that he had never given a talk like this in English before. He was piling on the excuses. He then delivered a sparkling talk in near perfect English! Did the excuses add any value to his presentation? Of course not.

No excuses. No, no, no! This is a presentation – it is not chit chat with your friends. This is your personal brand we are talking about here. If you are sick don’t tell us. If you are nervous don’t tell us. If you are sad because your cat died, don’t tell us. Don’t say anything about how you feel, because then the focus is on you and not where it should be - on your audience. Work the room instead – focus outward not inward. Look at the audience the entire time you are speaking – never break off eye contact.

Your opening gives your audience a first impression of your presentation. Make sure not to leave anything to chance. Your opening sets the tone for your entire presentation. No ums and ahs please! If we recorded you would we hear a succession of ums ahs? Are you even aware you are doing this? Trust me it doesn’t add any value. In fact it detracts from your message, because you don’t sound convinced yourself. If you don’t seem sure of what you are saying why should I by into your message?

Want to know how to completely cure yourself of ums and ahs forever when speaking?Here is how to avoid the usual speaker opening kicking off with hesitation in the form of Ums and Ahs.

Select the first word of each sentence and hit it hard. Say your sentence. Now purse your lips once that sentence is completed and then hit the next sentence’s first word. Once you finish that sentence purse your lips again. Keep doing this over and over and hesitancy and timidity will disappear from your image as a speaker. Those ums and ahs will be gone. I know it works because I was a shocker too. I used this method and it cured me, so it can cure you too.

Also lift your speaking volume up to about 30%-50% higher than in normal conversation. This is not a normal conversation, so it needs a different approach. Stronger volume communicates greater confidence even if you don’t have any!. You usually have microphones, so you don’t have to shout, but lift your energy. You will find that extra energy will help you relate your message more easily to the audience.

We buy enthusiasm and a big part of enthusiasm is energy transfer from the speaker to the audience. You will notice that speaker with a little mousy voice gets switched off pretty quickly by the audience. You don’t have to have a DJ style bass voice. You just need to project your voice at higher levels that you are used to.

If you have a reasonably strong voice and it is a small gathering, dispense with the microphone altogether, so that both your hands are free for using hand gestures.

Focus on a Few Key Points. Know the major points you want to make. This will help ease your worry and increase your confidence. You should also use electronic visuals, note cards, or memory techniques to outline your key concepts. If you need some prompts then prepare them. If you are using a teleprompter make sure you can carry on without it. Why do I say that?

This incident has to be one of the biggest recorded meltdowns of all time. Famous Hollywood Director Michael Bay just got started on his Samsung sponsored public presentationin Las Vegas. When the teleprompter failed, in short order so did he. You can see the disaster unfold on YouTube – it is seriously sad to watch.

Remember, the slides, the flip chart, the teleprompter are all secondary to you – you are the message. Importantly, only Michael Bay and the host on stage at that time knew what he was going to say that day. He was there to support Samsung’s new curved TV screen, so everything had been scripted in advance by the marketing people. He couldn’t continue because the teleprompter had all the information he needed and he hadn’t prepared a back up plan, if the tech failed. Rather ironic for a film director who uses so much tech in his Transformer movies isn’t it. Always have a plan B is the lesson here.

By abruptly walking off stage in shamed, burning silence he broadcast to the audience in the room and thanks to social media, the entire world, that he had forgotten his message, that he had 100% unceremoniously and completely failed. Now, by contrast, he could have carried on with his thoughts and we would never have known it wasn’t the intended content. Only he and the host on stage knew what was in the talk. Carry on regardless, never let us know you have forgotten what you are supposed to say – we will never know.

Support Ideas with Evidence. It is always important to provide evidence to support your main points. Supporting evidence will help your audience understand your points and will give you a chance to explain your points more fully. Point-evidence; point-evidence; point-evidence is the way to go. Just because you say it doesn't mean we believe it is true. Prove it! Making claims and statement is not enough. Bring us proof, evidence, data, testimonials, corroborating expert opinion, statistics, etc.

Close with a Call to Action. This will be the last impression your audience has of you and your presentation. It is important to ensure the closing reflects the purpose of the presentation. Your closing should summarize your content and give your audience a clear direction. Ask them to do something after this talk, so that you can get them personally connected with your message.

Don’t forget that you must repeat your close again, after the end of Q&A. Most people lose control of the proceedings when they get to Q&A and many a meltdown has been witnessed at this vital last impression juncture. Don’t allow someone’s random question content define your final impression or final message for the audience.

I remember I was giving a presentation in Japanese, to an audience of HR professionals about how great Dale Carnegie training was and teaching them how to use some of the key human relations principles.

It was going gangbusters, until we got to the Q&A. This very charming, well dressed Japanese lady in her early 70s put her hand up to ask a question and then highjacked the proceedings. For the next 10 minutes she launched into her own speech! My message had been forgotten completely by the end of that speech she gave. I need to get it back on track. That is why you need two closes.

You must stay in command of the messaging and so the show ain’t over until you sing the last line of the wrap up after Q&A. Repeat your close so the last message they get is the one you want them to get. This is the mark of the pro! When you see a speaker wrap it up, call for Q&A and then just let things complete because time is up, they are still not there in their professional development. Keep an eye out for this when you hear people speak – see who is a real pro and who is still an amateur.

Here are some Action Points to remember

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
2. Open with Confidence
3. Focus on a Few Key Points
4. Support Ideas with Evidence
5. Close with a Call to Action

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Like a lot of people, I subscribe to various sites that send you useful information, uplifting quotes etc. The following morsel popped into my inbox the other morning, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care–Anonymous”. Wow! What a powerful reminder of the things that really matter in our interactions with others. This piece of sage advice should be metaphorically stamped on to the brain of every single person involved in sales.

Don’t miss it - selling stuff is a tough gig. Rejection is the normal response to our spiffy sales presentation and follow up offer. You have to be tough to survive in a sales job. You need other things too. Product and technical knowledge is important. Total command of the detail is expected by clients. However, we need to be careful about what we focus on. Are we letting the product details and features confuse us about what selling is really all about?

Some salespeople I have encountered remind me of an icy Siberian mammoth trapped in a time warp from the past, still trotting out the product brochure and seeing if I will go for one of their goodies? You don’t like that one, well then how about this one, or this one, or this one, ad nauseam? I want “blue” but they keep showing me 50 shades of “pink”. They are playing that pathetic, failed salesperson game named “process of elimination”.

I want to buy, but are they really showing me they are focused on understanding me? Are they demonstrating to me that they foremost care about my benefit? Are they communicating to me that, “in your success Greg, is my success”? Or do they come across not with stars in their eyes, buy $$$$ signs?

I can recall seeing them sitting across the table from me, mentally salivating at the thought of the big fat commission this sales conversation is worth? I can sense they have already bought the 3 series Beemer before the ink is dry?

The quote at the beginning, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care” reminds me of a great Japanese word, which should be embraced by everyone in sales - kokorogamae(心構え).

It can be simply translated as “preparedness” but the Japanese nuance goes much deeper than that. Anyone studying a martial art or a traditional Japanese art (道) will immediately be on my wave length, when they hear this kokorogamae term. I would prefer to translate it as “getting your heart in order”. Sounds a bit woo, woo doesn’t it.

Well it is sound business sense. This means to really hark back to your most basic principles of true intention. What we can call True North – the purity of our intention. What is the spark in our heart driving our behavior? Is it the money or is it the serving? Is it what you want or what the client wants? Is this going to be a long-term relationship or a fleeting transaction?

Salespeople need to start by searching their heart for their true intention. Huh? There I go again. Does this sound a bit too “let’s all hold hands around the a tree” California emotional for you?

Why do I recommend searching your heart? Because clients can sense your motivation isn’t centered on their best interests and therefore they won’t buy from you. Even if somehow you do manage one sale, you will miss the key objective – the buyer’s re-order

Of course, there are the exceptions – the Hollywood image of the “smooth talking” salesperson who could sell you anything and will certainly try to. They are like skyrockets that initially blaze through the night and then explode! They are here for a good time not a long time and they give the profession of sales a bad brand. Wolf of Wall Street ring a bell here. That dude went to jail, which is where he deserved to go, for ripping all of those punters off and stealing their savings. He is out of jail now and is a sales trainer – the mind boggles at the thought. This is why people don’t trust salespeople. We have to prove we are different because we are judges guilty from the outset.

The best Japanese salesperson I ever interviewed for a sales job was also a criminal.

A criminal? Well, the criminal part didn’t surface immediately, but came up later through some background checks. Let me make a note to Sales Managers – do background checks!. He was absolutely brilliant in the first two interviews, polished, genius personified in the role play, and WOW, what a closer! I thought “Yes!” at last, I have found my perfect Japanese salesperson. Actually, he was a liar, a thief and a baddie. He had zero True North orientation and his kokorogamae was plain wrong. What a wake up and smell the coffee moment for me. I realised how naïve and trusting I was.

So let’s ignore the outliers, those riff raff of sales and come back to the vast majority of salespeople who are not evil, just inept. Change your heart, focus on True North, purify your intentions, show you genuinely care about the buyer’s best interests before your own. If you do that every single time you meet a client, you will have get success in sales and build a power personal brand.

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People skills are really one of the key basics of leadership. Fortunately, leading is easy. Getting others to follow us is the tricky bit. I hope this isn’t new information, but not everyone is like you, so how do you get the team to follow you? Especially how to get others, who are so totally different from you, who are “difficult”, to follow you or support you?

Central to working well with difficult people is understanding ourselves. Yes, they are difficult, but why do we think so? Isolating out the annoyance factors helps us to pinpoint how to handle situations where we react or possibly overreact.

Reflecting on the past occasions when we have found difficulty with others is a good reality check. Here is a hint on how to do that – think of someone you consider difficult to work with, see that individual in your mind’s eye. Now ask yourself two simple questions – what is it about them precisely, that makes me see them as difficult? Second question – how have I typically reacted when dealing with this person, and what have been the consequences of those reactions? Take a pass on the psychobabble, but consider that this exercise offers up some critical insights into ourselves. Want change – start with you!

Ask yourself, are there particular “hot buttons” that trigger a strong reaction, like being told “no” to something you seek. Do you notice that you quickly become defensive, take things personally or do you find yourself exemplifying “the best defense is attack” principle? Double check if your body language is screaming at that person, without you being completely aware of it?

Do you just dismiss them and their “ilk” or do you try to at least see how it might appear from their perspective? Are you open to negotiation or compromise or are you a fully paid up, card carrying and patch wearing member of the “My Way Or The Highway” club?

By the way, how are you with feedback – not good? With feedback, “We don’t know what we don’t know” is always a pain. Hearing unpleasant things about us from others is a bigger pain. “Nobody understands me!”- even further pain, when having to deal with idiots, people who lack our brand of common sense and basic nasties who have the temerity to want to argue the point.

What can we do about it, because over time, the stress and tension will make us ill or possibly even kill us? Don’t try and change their world, start instead with yourself. Being generous with the benefit of the doubt will be a good starting point to help us tread an easier path through the various minefields in human relations. Look at the person and the situations which arise. Ask yourself, “what do I know about this difficult person that might help me understand the way they think or behave”? Where and how were they raised? What has been their set of life experiences that has channeled them into their habit patterns? Is it just an occasional thing - are they sad or mad? Is there something going on at home that is making them irascible? Is today’s flare up sourced by anger at their home situation and is it just oozing frustration into every fibre of their being?

As a leader, it is always good to presume everybody you meet in life is carrying a heavy load. Think about your own troubles – perfection doesn’t last all that long and before you know it, stress begins to well up.

Dale Carnegie's Principles to change behavior, without creating resentment, are a powerful and handy roadmap forward. Advice like “ask questions instead of giving direct orders” works well, because you invite them to have some influence and ownership over the decision.

Another insight is to “call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly”. This is useful because it precludes people becoming defensive and locking themselves into inflexible positions to save their face.

Actually “Let the other person save face” is another of the principles and good plain advice. Don’t win the battle and humiliate the other party. They won’t forget or forgive and you may lose the war over the longer game.

Another principle, “Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest” is not so easy. However, if we really analyse that person and the personality drivers in play within them, we can find some common ground that will appeal to their self-interest and we can unite behind that to go forward.

I recommend you read the classic he wrote called “How To Win Friends and Influence People” – it is just chock full of gems. Identifying typical current people issues and then applying the Principles to each case will make how to handle certain people an

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Job descriptions, performance reviews, incentive schemes, recognition programmes are often box ticking activities in organisations, which often lead nowhere. Overviewing these various systems and their execution may make the managers feel like they are earning their keep, but are they really contributing all that much to the required outcomes?

Counting what the heads do, getting those heads to think and think together are different challenges and the latter necessitates cultivating people. Cultivating people is the “new black” for managers, as they must move up and into real leadership.

So what is the difference between being a manager and a leader? There are many definitions but it doesn’t have to be complex. Leadership is all about creating environments that influence others to achieve the group goals, because people will willingly support a world they create. Management is the creation, implementation and monitoring of processes. People will willingly comply with a process that helps them succeed.

Moving forward means designating the next level of achievement. In a busy life, with a deluge of emails every day, spiced up with endless meaningless meetings, we can sometimes forget what is the point to all of this, as we are totally consumed with activity. We need to set the vision for the team of where we want to be and what is the next level for us.

It must be concrete, clear and well communicated. I ran across one the other day: “delivering extraordinary customer experiences”. Rather ambiguous – you could be delivering extraordinarily bad experiences to your customers! A bit more clarity needed back at HQ by the look of that one.

It raises the point though, that clarity in the communication is key, if you want to get people behind your direction. Don’t kid yourself, semantics matter.

So where possible, get buy in to the vision, such that it is a shared process. This may be difficult when “The Vision” is lofting down from on high, but there are always sub-visions for the work group, that can take it to a further concrete stage or which further clarify the main message for the reality facing the team.

With a successfully shared vision, the troops cease seeing their role as robotic task completion and switch to results completion. How about down at your shop – is there a shared vision (or shared sub-vision), are the team focused on painting by numbers or on producing a group triumph, do they know what the designation is for the next level?

We ask people to step up, but that also asks them to take on risks of the new or the different. The outcomes must be totally defined and clear, and the team must buy into achieving them in order to step out of their current mode and take on the risks of the unknown. “There be dragons” is a strong gravitational pull away from innovation or anything shiny and new. It must be countered by you, the leader.

“Leadership” begins to include “self-leadership” when we have buy in and clarity, because it allows the team to be more self-directed, handling their available resources without the need for micro-management. We can all quote the buzz words such as “empowerment,” “empowered behavior” etc., but actually realising that desired state is another matter.

The poor communication skills of those in charge are often the breakdown point. The “Vision Statement” penned by the CEO goes up on the wall in a nice frame, on expensive paper, safely protected behind glass and there for all to completely ignore from now on. No, no no! It has to live.

If your people can’t quote the company, division or section vision on demand, from memory, you are not even on the first rung to having a real vision. If you can’t remember it you can’t live it. It is not a one-shot all dancing, all singing pronouncement and move on affair. It always amazes me, how often to you have to keep telling the team the same thing, for it to really permeate. The leader will certainly get tired of saying it all the time, but has to keep going because the listeners always take much longer than expected to absorb the content. It just points up the fact we are competing with a whole bunch of “other stuff”, for the real estate of cluttered minds.

When you ask senior executives to identify the most significant personal characteristic needed by management, they will dutifully trot out “the ability to work with people”. Take a look at the expense line in your P&L – people are a huge component. Yet, so many leaders are woeful communicators. They are often promoted into position of accountability, on the basis they count. They are insular, brainy technical experts, they are CFOs who can’t grow but can watch the bottom line like a legend, they are the idiosyncratic salesperson who does it “my way”, but can’t teach it to anyone else.

We need to teach these smart people how to be “people smart” – it is a different attitude and skill set. The executive decisions get carried out by people, but how much time does your leadership team spend building your people, as opposed to issuing directives, giving orders, providing technical guidance etc.? These activities are all about the “how” and zero on the “why”?

Time to start work on some personal leadership, strongly communicating the “why” and getting the team to create a shared vision of your organisation’s better and brighter future.

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Everyone hates to be rejected, but not many people have this as a fundamental aspect of their work. We ask colleagues for help and they assist, we ask our bosses for advice and they provide it. Buyers though are a different case. They can easily find a million reasons not to buy and unashamedly tell us “no”. The rejection itself is not so much the problem, as is how we respond, how we deal with the rejection.

In Japan, the two areas our clients flag with us for special attention in sales training for their team are around understanding the client’s needs and asking for the order or closing, as it is commonly referred to in sales parlance.

The poor questioning skills are a result of salespeople wanting to tell the buyer a lot of stuff about the features, but not bothering to ask some well designed questions to uncover what their clients need. This in itself will explain a lot about why buyers say “no”. If we don’t properly understand what they need, then how do we suggest solutions that make sense and motivate the buyer to action?

The two problems are closely linked. Even assuming that the questions are well thought through and that the solution selected is professionally conveyed to the buyer, they may still say no. This is because the buyer’s hesitations have not been properly addressed. There was something unclear or unsatisfactory in what they just heard from the salesperson and they are not convinced this is the right solution to their problem.

This is why a “no” will certainly be forthcoming, especially from Japanese buyers. Risk aversion is a fundamental part of the fabric of Japan and buyers more than most, observe this in distinct detail. They would rather give up on something better, if they thought there was a possibility their decision might bring some stain on their record.

Failure is hard to recover from in Japan. There are no second chances here. People have learnt the best way to avoid failing is to take as few decisions as possible. Especially any decisions which can be traced back to you. Best to have a group decision, so the blame can be spread around and no one loses their job. Actually that works like a charm here, so no one wants to buck the system

Having given the sales presentation, many salespeople in Japan simply don’t ask for the order. They get to the end of their spiel and they just leave it there. The buyer is not asked for a decision, it is left vague on purpose, so that if it is a “no” then that will not have to be dealt with directly. The Japanese language is genius for having circles within circles of subtle obfuscation.

The end result is a “no” but nobody ever has to say it or hear it. To get a sale happening, the buyer has to do all the work here in Japan, because the salespeople don’t want commit, to take the plunge and ask for the order. If they get a “no”, their feelings of self worth are impacted, they feel depressed, that they are failing. Not doing fully competent work or being highly productive, yet keeping you job is a pretty safe bet in most Japanese companies. The level of productivity amongst white collar workers is dismally low. Collective responsibility helps because it lessens the impact of personal inability to reach targets or make deadlines.

Sales though is totally crystal clear about success and failure. It is very hard to argue with numbers – you either made the target or you didn’t. Sales is also a numbers game. You are not going to hit a homerun every time, so the number of times becomes important.

You will have certain ratios of success that apply right through the sales value chain and the only way to increase your sales, is to improve these ratios. You have to up the ante, regarding the volume of activity. This sounds easy, but it isn’t when you are feeling depressed, insecure and plummeting in confidence.

The key is to see sales in a different way. The increased volume of activity will even out the rejections. The way you think about rejection has to change. Rejection isn’t about you personally. Buyers don’t care that much about salespeople as people. They are rejecting your offer. As it is made today. In this part of the budget process. At this point in the economic cycle. In this current construction. At this price, with these terms. We haven’t shown enough value yet, to get a “yes’.

As these aspects change, the answer can go from a “yes” to a “no” and from a “no” to a “yes”. That decision is irrelevant of the salesperson and how the buyer feels about them. These are macro and micro factors which can impact the decision one way or another. The answer is to see more people. In that way you can have a better chance of meeting a buyer for whom all the stars align and they can say “yes”.

At the same time, you need to keep working on getting better, at showing more value. You need to harden up and become tougher. Whatever you are selling, you always need to remember your AFTOS mantra: “ask for the order stupid”. Never say no for the buyer and understand that “no” is never “no” or forever.

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When you see someone do a very good presentation, your faith in public speaking humanity is restored. There are so many poor examples of people killing their personal and professional brands with poor public speaking skills, it is refreshing to see talks done well. It is not that hard really, if you know what you are doing and if you rehearse and practice. This is where the majority of lousy, boring and uninspiring speakers trip up. They don’t rehearse or practice. Instead, they just unload on their poor unsuspecting audience. Here is a pro hint. Never practice on your audience!

The global CEO of a major pharma company jetted into town recently and spoke at a chamber of commerce event. The presentation was well structured and flowed in a way that was easy to follow. The slides were professional and clear. He spoke fluently, wasn’t reading from any script and instead was talking about the key points up on screen. When we got to Q&A, he repeated the question, so that everyone could hear it and then answered it. He did that while addressing the entire audience, rather than just speaking to the inquirer. When he did not have the information referred to in a question, he admitted it straight up, without trying to fudge it. This is not an admission of weakness, rather it builds trust and credibility.

I doubt he did any rehearsal for that audience, because it was a stump speech he has given so many times he was entirely comfortable with the content. Could he have done better? Yes, he could have added more stories into the presentation. A few vignettes from the exciting world of white lab coats, where they were developing new medicines to save humanity, would have been good. He could have delivered it with a bit more passion. It was professional, but it came across as a stump speech. He was supremely comfortable delivering it and that is one issue we have to be alert to. When we are too comfortable, we can sometimes slip ourselves into cruise control mode. We should keep upping the ante each occasion, to try and see how much further we can push ourselves as presenters.

Another function I attended was an industry awards event and the main VIP guest made some remarks before announcing the winners. Humour is very, very hard to get right. For every professional comedian we see on television, there are thousands waiting tables and trying to break into the industry. When you see humour done well by a public speaker, you are impressed.

You need to have material that is funny for a start. Then you have to be able to deliver it so that people laugh. This sounds easy, but as professional comedians know, the timing of the delivery is key. So are the pauses and the weighting of certain key words. It has to be delivered fluently, so no ums and ahs, no hesitations, no mangling of words. Getting the facial expressions to match what is being said is also tricky.

Our humorous VIP was delivering some lines that he had used a number of times before, so he knew his material worked. It is always good when big shots are self depreciating. We can more easily identify with them, when they don’t come across as taking themselves too seriously. “I am good and I know it”, doesn't work so well with the rest of us. How do you become humorous as a speaker?

Where do we acquire our humorous material? We steal it. Our speaker had probably heard those jokes somewhere else and just topped and tailed them for this event. Very cleverly, he made them sound personal, as if these incidents had really happened to him. This is important in order to build a connection with the punters in the audience.

So, when you attend an event and you hear someone make a good joke or tell a humorous story, don’t just laugh and reach for another chardonnay. Quickly write it down and later start using it yourself. The secret though is to practice that humourous telling on small audiences, to test you have the delivery just right. The cadence is important and that takes practice. I would guess our speaker had told those jokes many times before. It is fresh for us, but for him it was well within his range of capability. This is what comedians do. They introduce new material in small venues, filter out what doesn’t work and then they bring the best gags to the big stage. We should do the same.

Another place where we can find humour is in what we say that makes an audience laugh. When I returned to Japan in 1992 as a diplomat and Trade Commissioner, I was called upon to do a lot of public speaking in Japanese. I began with constructing jokes that I thought were humourous. This was a pretty bold step, because I had no track record in being funny in English, let alone in Japanese. These jokes of my own crafting all bombed completely. However, I would say something, not meaning to be funny and the Japanese audience would laugh. I took note of that reaction and realised that was a joke. I would incorporate that into my other talks. Over a long period of time and a lot of speeches, I built up a stock of these humorous sprinklings of pixy dust that worked with Japanese audiences.

It was refreshing to see two competent speakers in action recently and it is certainly a skill that all of us can improve in. There are some simple basics of speaking we need to concentrate on - prepare, rehearse, learn – repeat!

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Bullying, humiliation, ridiculous stretch targets, rubbish goods, stress, shame – a toxic cocktail often suffered in the sales environment. We often get into sales by accident. There are not many varsity business courses in sales. There is sales training available, provided by companies like ourselves, but often this is not offered by the employer.

The assumption is you look after yourself. We won’t invest in you and what’s more, we will fire you, if you can’t make your numbers. “Churn em and burn em” is the dominant ethos. The successful salespeople ride the favourable market conditions through until the inevitable downturn. If they survive that experience, they often wind up being the sales manager. Battlefield commands come on the back of your officer being removed by HQ or by the enemy.

There is a high turnover rate in sales both when people fail or succeed. In either case, you are out the door and off to somewhere else. The survivors who don’t want to move on the greener pastures, often become the bosses. They continue the toxic culture regardless of how stupid it is, because that is all they know. It worked for them, so it is supposed to work for you.

The client in all of this is the “mark”, to be harvested, to have their cash extracted and then abandoned to their own devices thereafter. Often in bad sales organisations, area salespeople have to cover big territories. This is because they can only hit that one market once. They are selling a lie. Their product is not matched by good quality relative to the high price they charge. They have to scarper with the cash and get out of Dodge. They are like sharks, which have to keep swimming around in order to breathe.

Who decided it would be like this? Not the salesperson. They join a company and then discover the disconnect between the cost and the value, between the public rhetoric and the internal reality. By this time they have already left their previous job and are treading water to make commission and not drown in debt. They are always just one week from financial oblivion, so they have to keep dancing while the music is playing. The sale’s evil ethos is the company’s making and this is where the blame should lie.

Bad sales organisations are inevitably run by bad sales managers. The reason is simple – “birds of a feather, flock together”. Good sales managers don’t want and don’t need to be involved in a business where they have to survive by fleecing the buyers. They see a bigger better picture. They have ability and talent and a war chest of funds to offer them choices.

There is an old Japanese saying that prescribes “the fish rots from the head”. Consequently your company’s bad sales boss, environment, culture and sales ethos stinks. If you are a “good” person in sales, swimming in a toxic cocktail of sales hell, then get out of there. You are not in a position to reform that business or the management. It didn’t get that way by accident. Now you may not be able to move immediately, but for the sake of your health and mental well-being, don’t put up with crap from idiots. As soon as you can, move on.

In the interim, strenuously begin educating yourself. There are tons of books, free videos and podcasts on how to do a better job serving clients. Access them. Feed your mind with the positive, because for sure you are being killed by the negative environment surrounding you. If you have the funds, then get yourself into some professional sales training. By whatever ethical means, make yourself more skillful and valuable.

I often refer to the word kokorogamae in sales, which I translate as our “true intentions”. Don’t let any toxic environment or people corrupt your true intentions. We should have a very clear guiding principle, a light on the hill and that should be to serve the best interests of the customer. That means we have their success as the catalyst for our own success. If we make them successful, we will get reorders, a steady stream of work and we will be earning good commissions, building up our financial security. Money elicits options.

This is not instant and means creating a different type of client relationship with a longer sales cycle. The share of wallet increases over time when there is a good track record and strong trust. The lifetime value of the customer becomes an integral part of the equation. This type of sales environment only exists in companies with a correct kokorogamae. If your company is not like that, then do not become a lifer pirate, get out of there and save your career, health and mental well being.

Action Steps

1. Decide that your time in this toxic environment must come to an end
2. Study sales diligently while you are organising your great escape
3. Make your kokorogamae a clear vote in favour of serving the client

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You want to promote your business or organisation, so that you can be more successful. A genius idea pops up amongst the brain trust over a few drinks after work – why don’t we enter the Business Awards? Someone has to win don’t they, so the odds are fair. Anyway, there is no downside is there? True but there can be, if you don’t fully think this through. I don’t mean the requirement for polishing the application or assembling the data in support of the claims being made. I am talking about seizing defeat from the jaws of victory on the winner’s dais.

When you win, you are invited up on to stage. The cameras are rolling, the lights are flooding the arena and the music is pumping. You are pumping too, baby. It quickly occurs to you that hammering the booze on the table to instill some bonhomie amongst the troops was a good idea at the time, but now you need to pull yourself together. You fight your way to the stage, negotiating your way through the labyrinth of socially distanced round tables.

Before you know it, you and the team have assembled on stage to receive the ovation from the crowd. In a moment, the MC announces you are about to be handed the cool looking trophy from the key VIP guest of the evening. The crowd now goes quiet as you draw up to the stand microphone of the stage grasping the prize in your hand. A thousand eyes are fixed on you, awaiting your acceptance speech. You fluff it.

A ragged series of ums and ahs are punctuated by disoriented rambling highlighting no cohesion of thoughts, concepts or ideas. You are now sweating bullets. Multiple beads of perspiration start to run down your face, your pulse is surging, you realize this is a disaster and mentally start looking for the exit.

Thanks to you, all the tuxedoed dandies present have enjoyed their modern day Colosseum bread and circuses moment. Once the victim has been disposed of by public humiliation, everyone just returns to their table chatter. You are not forgotten though. You are now outed as an incompetent, who can’t string three words together. Your tenuous reputation is shredded and the trophy somehow feels less weighty and magnificent in your grasp.

You recall having seen this before haven’t you. Underprepared speakers making a complete hash of it. Don’t try and wing it. Think ahead and be properly tooled up. There are some key basics you cannot neglect. Under no circumstances mention you are nervous to the audience, even if you worry you are about to pass out and faint. Fall full flat out on your face, but don’t apologise for your lack of preparation for this speech. Don’t begin by bringing up your totally bereft skill set in giving speeches. The audience can see that for themselves. Don’t try to make nervous jokes to release the tension you are feeling in the moment. You are clearly pathetic, not funny.

Begin where you should. Thank the chief VIP, the Chamber or Business Association and the judges for awarding you this magnificent trophy and great honour. Congratulate your vanquished opponents with great generosity extolling their virtues and achievements. Next take this opportunity to promote your organisation. That is why you applied in the first place isn’t it? Give them your thoroughly rehearsed and well constructed elevator pitch on why what you do is vital to mankind and the future of the universe. This needs to be tight, taut, terrific with no fluff.

When you thank the people who have made this happen in the team, make a short personal remark about each. Taro who stayed late so many nights, catching the last train home to get the project completed on time. Megumi for her total dedication to the care of the clients. Daisuke for his rousing leadership of the sales team when things looked grim. Mari and her team of angels in the back office who somehow managed to hold the whole thing together through thick and thin.

Finally, thank your family and friends who have supported you. If you become emotional at this point, don’t worry, whip out your handy hanky, wipe your eyes and just keep going. We will love you for it.

Wrap it all up with a rousing call to action for the crowd. Encourage them to play a bigger game and maximise their potential here in this wonderful, exciting special country of Japan. Thank the organisers once again, wave the trophy high while moving away from the microphone stand, to signal you have finished. Now quietly call the team together to join you and the VIP, as you all pose for the photographers with the trophy. Then get off the stage, order the champagne, you are done!

Before the event you need to prep yourself. Think through the award presentation component of the evening. Thoroughly prepare what you want to say, rehearse it many times, time it to make sure it isn’t too long. One final piece of advice is to stay off the booze, until you actually win. Good luck!

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We have all seen it. The presenters face is expressionless, wooden, devoid of emotion or life. It is usually well paired with a horrific monotone vocal delivery, to really kill off the audiencecompletely. Presenting is a serious business, so these presenters present a very serious physiognomy. Somehow, scowling is thought to be good too, to show the gravitas these heavyweights bring to the occasion. These are powerful people, who by definition, must look powerful. Technical people, in particular, love this no frills approach and smiling is definitely well off their list of possibilities.

To be fair, there are presentations where levity, smiling, frivolity are totally inappropriate. A remembrance ceremony for the fallen heroes and heroines in battle, would be an occasion for an austere face. Losing all the shareholder’s value through some idiocy would be another. A serious face however, doesn’t have to be an expressionless face. Recalling lost loved ones in a heartbroken community, can see the presenter’s face stricken and tortured with pent up emotions. When I gave eulogy for my mother at her funeral, my face was ashen and pained.

In business though, in most cases, we can use our faces as an additional communication tool with our audience. We are using tonal variety in our voice, our hands for gestures, our eyes for audience engagement. We should also be using our faces too. A raised eyebrow can speak volumes. It can indicate curiosity, incredulousness or doubt. Turning our face to the side and tilting our head to go with it, can show scepticism or cynicism. Pursing our lips together then pushing them forward in a pout shows disagreement or disapproval. Pulling our head back from the neck shows shock or surprise. Physicality is one of the tools available to the presenter.

When you think about it we are incredibly active using our face in normal conversation. If we filmed you speaking and played it back you would be amazed at how much facial expression you are employing. Stand you behind a podium or put you on stage in front of an audience though and maybe all that natural communication ability sails out the window and is replaced by a wooden you instead.

When we look at theatre performances, television, movies, comedic acts we can see facial tools being well employed to drive home messages. I enjoy the popular drama from Italy, Inspector Montalbano and the Italian culture really makes great use of the face to communicate emotions. They are just talking, but it looks like they are arguing and of course the gesturing is on fire. We should stop watching these shows just for the entertainment value and start re-watching them for what we can learn about how to employ our face more powerfully when presenting.

In the same way, when we are speaking, we hit key words with a louder or softer volume for effect, we should start employing our face to do the very same thing. When you want to raise doubt about some proposition someone else is putting forward, look for a suitable facial expression to back up that message. When you want to appear sceptical of some idea, then bring your best sceptic face to the fore. When you want to look happy, a huge smile will do the trick to convey that feeling.

This is very hard to coordinate when you are starting out. These days I have so much going on with my voice, eyes, gestures, body language I am not even aware of it. Watching myself on video with the sound turned off, I can see how much natural variety I am bringing to the talk. It wasn’t like that at the start. My very first public presentation in my life was in Japanese to the Sundai Yobiko cram school students who were forced to listen to me. I was so nervous, I managed to finish a 25 minute speech in 8 minutes. I am sure my face was not only wooden, but also bright red from all the stress I was feeling.

Like anything to do with public speaking this facial involvement takes practice. Presenting in front of a mirror is a good chance to see how animated you are. Video is better though and these days everyone has a smart phone with a very good quality camera lens included. Try doing the same piece with repetition to see if you are bringing your face into the communication. Also check you are doing it congruently with the content you are addressing. Over time, you will start creating appropriate facial expressions for that piece of the content without even noticing it. To be a more effective public speaker, get your face more involved!

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In a previous episode, I mentioned a Spa magazine survey in Japan of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose. The Lehman Shock in 2008 opened to door to job losses in larger companies, something which only had been possible in smaller firms in the past. The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple nuclear plant meltdown drove many businesses under. The Covid pandemic finished off renown restaurants and hotels and threw people out on the street to seek work, despite their years of loyalty. The sense of lifetime employment as a given has been removed and a brand new world of work has emerged.

Feeling unappreciated is a construct of leadership. The Japanese system of hierarchy in companies has followed the lessons proffered during the military service experienced by those who participated in World War Two. Brutalisation by superiors was widespread and everyone was expendable. Postwar leaders in the West were also the graduates of the battlefield leadership system as well. Things changed in the late 1960s however and modern economies moved away from the old military models of leadership, to seek best practice based on research.

Japan has not even started on that path yet. The post war years were a frenetic effort to rebuild a devastated economy and to catch up with the rest of the world. When I first came into contact with Japanese businesspeople, I remember their joy as Japan knocked off one Western economy after another, to climb in the rankings to the number two GDP in the world.

The bubble economy saw Japan go completely crazy and lose all sense of proportion, as the 1985 Plaza Accord Agreement sent the yen into the stratosphere of supreme value and everything, everywhere was a bargain. I was back in Australia during that time and wondered why those lovely Japanese people I had met pre-bubble, were now replaced by these rude, arrogant, overbearing types?

During all of this transition, there was no driver to change the management systems in companies away from the war-time model, because things had worked out pretty well. It wasn’t broken, so no fixing required and anyway nobody likes change because of all the risk attached to it, so steady as she goes.

Here we are decades later and life has certainly changed, but the leadership mentality has not caught up yet. Bosses were schooled in the Tough Love Academy of Leadership. Communication, coaching, feedback, encouragement – all the key soft skills were never in that curriculum. You probably can’t beat Japan when it comes to hard skill education. Their perfectionism, combined with a relentless curiousity for small incremental kaizen style improvements is a wonder to behold. Soft skills were not so much of interest to the captains of Japanese industry.

Japan is always bottom of the charts whenever firms do engagement surveys. Japan is the global leader in the bottom rung of microscopic scores for percentages of highly engaged staff. Yes, there are cultural issues with these surveys, given Japanese humility, conservatism and circumspection. But just ask any Japanese firm if they think the low scores are fiction and everyone agrees that directionally, they are correct.

So we need some solid work here for Japan to catch up and join the rest of the advanced world of work. The HR function in Japan, apart from its policeman role in having the rules followed, is there to move you around the organization so that you can become a jack of all trades and a master of none. On The Job Training (OJT) is still the main methodology of leadership instruction.

Just passing on what each boss experienced to the next generation, without any structure, excellence, best practice capture, design, doesn’t sound too smart, does it? Yet that is exactly the problem, not enough thinking has gone into what Japan needs from it’s leaders going forward. Soft skills and hard skills are both called for, but you need a mindset change to appreciate that they are both important. That Spa survey showed that the areas of greatest demand were for soft skills solutions.

Have a good look around your own operation and see just how much time your leadership group are spending on encouraging, coaching, recognising and praising. My guess would be not a lot, because they simply don’t think these areas of attention are so important. What a lost opportunity. It is time to turn that around and get this country going. The pivot point is with the leaders. If we educate them to become professionals, then we set up a new generation of workers who expect their bosses to be supportive and make sure they feel valued. That feeling of being valued is the springboard to becoming highly engaged. That is a major mindset shift needed in Japan.

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This is an old saying in sales and one we forget at our cost. We might have made the sale and then we keep moving forward. We get wrapped up in the intricacies of the getting other customers to commit and in the logistical details of delivering our previously sold service or product. Our schedule fills up quickly and we have filled it with the present and future, not the past. That customer we sold to gets forgotten in this busy life and they return the compliment and forget about us too. We know that creating new customers is more expensive on an acquisition cost basis and that selling again or selling more to our existing customers is easier than making a new sale. Why then don’t we do a better job of developing further business with our existing customers?

We usually do a good job in the immediate post sales service period, but the key word there is “immediate”. We don’t schedule in the “just checking in “ contact, because we are too busy chasing down the new contacts. Now that the customer has had the benefit of our product or service, we don’t call back and ask, “How has it been going? Are there any subsequent issues that have arisen that we can help with or fix?”. A good rule to apply is always make the time to connect with the buyer. They will either be happy and we can see if they know others, who would also benefit. If they are unhappy, we can fix the issue for them. Silent, unhappy customers are not what we want, because we are killing our brand and our reputation without even knowing it.

Clients may have cyclical needs when there is a certain cadence to their buying. Upgrades or replacements require follow up. When these are scheduled into our diaries, we can make sure to re-contact the client. It may be that there is no sequence logic and so we have to intentionally create a schedule, so that they don’t forget us. There are few things more disheartening then contacting an existing client to find they did have a need and they filled that need with our competitor’s solution. Ouch. I really hate having that conversation, I can tell you.

We can add the client to our email mailing lists and they get updates. The problem is that they don’t read them or even notice them or they go into their junk mail box, so a “set and forget” approach is a bad idea. We have to be able to cut through all the clutter and noise of daily life to reach out to them, so that we stay top of mind. This is harder today, more so than it has ever been. There are so many emails, so much social media, so many meetings, no wonder our buyers get swamped. Have you ever had a new message notification flash up on the top of your computer screen and then disappear? You have to spend ten minutes going through all the possibilities to find where that message came from. Trying to get anyone on the phone these days is mind numbingly hard and it is like a miracle if you succeed. No one calls you back anymore either.

Japan has a set pattern of seasonal gifts which are sent to clients for the express purpose of reminding them that they have not been forgotten. Depending on how many clients you have, this can become expensive and is probably easier for larger firms. A hand written thank you note on the anniversary of the business conducted with the client is not expensive and because hardly anyone gets postal mail anymore, it will stand out. Even though you can’t get people on the phone so easily, don’t just hang up. Don’t expect to get called back either, but always leave a voice message, so they hear your voice and understand you have been thinking of them. Some of my business contacts here tell me that their millennial employees avoid the phone like the plague, much preferring to text. It doesn’t matter, young or old, leave them a voice mail anyway.

Sending relevant White Papers, books, reports, media clippings, videos, audio etc., are always good ideas, but you can’t leave this to chance. It is a good discipline to be looking for these items, with specific customers in mind. When you see something that will resonate with them, this is when you have to be disciplined to send it. This doesn’t have to be every month of course, but probably twice a year is a good practice, on top of the email blasts and newsletters that existing clients receive anyway.

Making appointments with yourself, is one of the best ways to make sure we actually do the immediate and the sustained follow up. Good intentions are terrific, but planned, disciplined contacts are better. Choosing electronic or analogue systems is not the issue, the real key is having a system that delivers the updating, reminding process to the buyer. If we don’t have a system then we need to create one and the best time to start was yesterday.

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The head of a pin isn’t much real estate is it? The metaphor for presenting is to have pin point accuracy around what you are presenting. Going straight to the slide deck production component dilutes our message concentration and takes us too broad. This should be the last element, rather than the first. The temptation though is to get into thinking about different visuals, graphs, statistics, etc., we can show, to back up our argument. There is the rub. Just what exactly is our argument? What is the one key message we want to get across to the audience. Often we have too many things we want to get across and so we go too broad in our approach. We want to think about getting that one main message so concentrated, we could get it on to the head of that pin.

A good way to start, is to brainstorm all of the elements of that subject area, which are most relevant to the audience. There is a dilemma here between what we want to say and knowing what interests our audience. Starting with the audience in mind though is a good discipline. This is because designing something for ourselves runs the risk of alienating our listeners and delivering a talk to a totally bored, listless, irritated bunch of faces. This boring people experience is plain painful.

Get the ideas out, yes but take the audience perspective. Get them out visually and then start to rank them by priority order. This ranking process forces us to make judgments about which elements are considered more important than others. Is this easy? Absolutely not. Does it have to be perfect. Not really, because the audience themselves are not united on agreeing what they think are the most important items. As long as we can isolate out what we believe will be of the most interest to that wide spectrum audience and we address that, then we are in a good place as a presenter.

Before we start assembling the argument though, we need to write down in one sentence, what is the key point we want to get across. This type of wordsmithing is important to help us get clarity around where we need to go with our supporting arguments. Getting the key point into one sentence, the head of the pin metaphor, then allows us to scoop upevidence to back up what we are saying. We have a limited amount of time in which to speak, so we need to pare down the possibilities we can cover, to only the most rich and powerful arguments. This paring process is like choosing between your children. I am often hopeless at it, because I tend to fall in love with too much material, for the time allotted. It is painful, but I have to toss stuff out and sometimes that process kills me to do it.

Once we have selected the most convincing evidence to back up our case, we need to arrange those points into chapters of the talk. This is the main body of the presentation. We have already created our conclusion when we were refining our key point. We need to elaborate a bit more on the key point and then craft our Conclusion One. Following that, we design Conclusion Two, which we use for after the Q&A. We don’t want to lose control of the talk, at the Q&A point and have someone take the whole conversation off script. Their question may have absolutely nothing to do what we have been talking about and there is the danger that this becomes the final focus of the talk. We cannot allow that. We have to control how the presentation will end and what will be the last words ringing in the ears of the audience. Our words and our key message.

Now we are ready to design the opening. We need to achieve two things in the opening: grab the attention of the audience and introduce our conclusion. The grabbing attention part might be a famous quote like “when you are going through hell, keep going” or “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” or “the teacher appears when the student is ready”. These are recognisable quotes that gives the talk some credibility and smoothly allows us to transition into the key point we want to make.

We might start by telling a story on the basis that we are all designed from childhood to identify with storytelling. It gets us in and we want to hear what is the point of the story. For example, “It was early Sunday morning and the doctor attached the portable x-ray machine to my chest. I was barely conscious, fighting for the air coming through the plastic tubes delivering the oxygen. The results showed the lungs were down from three quarters filled with fluids to now only two thirds full. I knew at that moment that I would live”. Hearing that story at the start of the talk, you would want to know why I was in hospital in that condition. This is the power of storytelling to engage an audience and keep them with you to the end.

We could use a surprising statistic. “Power harassment claims in Japan have increased by 320% over the last ten years”. Our audience will want to know why that is and what does it mean for them. We can move into our main point for this talk, now that we have their full attention.

The success of our talk comes from having a clear focus on what the audience is interested in, combined with a very clear “be able to write it on the head of a pin” statement about what is the take away we are going to deliver during our presentation. The rest is mechanics around the Conclusion, the Main Body and the Opening. The slide deck is the heavy artillery we bring in to back up what we are saying with visuals to get the message across concisely and quickly. The discipline required to start well will carry us forward for the end of the talk and we will be successful in delivering our message and maintaining people’s attention throughout. Given this audience Age of Distraction we are living in today, that is no longer an easy task. Clarity is absolutely needed to be effective as a communicator in this modern world.

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A number of years ago, I recall reading in Japan’s Spa magazine, the results of a survey they completed of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose. Apart from not enough money, in a time of massive corporate profits, the other issues they flagged are all about leadership soft skills. Here we are today, finally emerging from deflation, but wages are not moving much and these other issues are still with us. Dale Carnegie Training did a global study of engagement. The results for Japan were consistent with the global trends. Japan’s scores were also consistent with every survey I have ever seen on the subject of engagement in this country. The percentages of those who are not engaged are always gob smacking.

Why would staff feel underappreciated? The reason is obvious. No one in a leadership position has shown them any sign that they are important, that what they are doing is important and that they have an important place in the organisation. Part of the reason is cultural. Japanese prefer understatement and subtlety, not passionate outbursts of appreciation. A boss coming back from a training course suddenly telling staff how great they are and how much they are appreciated would be viewed with distinct suspicion that something odorous was about to descend. It would be viewed as some sort of smoke screen before all hell breaks loose.

This says a a lot about entrenched ideas about leadership and expectations about leadership in Japan. The bar is so low here that any deviation toward something approaching more normal western management styles is viewed in a negative light. That means we still have some work to do.

That global study said the gateway drug to gaining higher levels of engagement was to have staff feel they are valued by their managers. Often, work can become routine and parts of it can be tedious. The lower down the totem pole you descend, the harder it is for those at the bottom to recognize that what they are doing has any great relevance for the organization. This is where the boss has to re-connect them to align with the machine. They need to see how what they do is important and where it fits into the overall picture. The essence of the job itself has to be established as having relevance, for them to feel they have relevance.

Their work may or may not be perfect, but very few people in life actually try to do a bad day’s work. They may not be geniuses, but they are usually doing the best they can. If we want higher skills, we need to train them. Remember we say, “hire for attitude and train for skills”. If we want greater productivity, we need to help them become motivated. How can that happen? Well telling people “be motivated’ won’t do it. Try it. Tell them five times in a row “be motivated” and see the result. It will be a big fat zero. This is an inside out, not outside in process.

The boss’s job is to have such good levels of communication that the individual aspirations of the team members are known and the work can be related to how this will help them achieve their aims. There is a common alignment of purpose and direction between the staff and the organisation. For the boss to be able to do that with any credibility takes training in communication skills and understanding people. Barking orders at plebs is not the type of communication skill set about to unleash hitherto latent talent and high levels of enthusiasm for the work.

For bosses, even finding the time to actually speak about these things with their team are difficult. Flatter organisational structures has pushed a lot of work on to the boss’s plate. If the boss can manage time properly and if they can delegate effectively, then this flat structure ordained busyness will be counterbalanced to some extent. So boss effectiveness in managing themselves, sets up the organisation to help them manage others in a more professional way. How many bosses do you know who are doing this well?

Corporate Japan needs to address these failures of leadership in the soft skills area and tap into the full strength of the working population. There is little hesitation to invest in hard skills, but what about these key soft skills? By the way, OJT or On The job Training won’t be enough, so it is time to get serious about doing some real leadership training. The investment for the future needs to be made now. They are not making as many Japanese as they used to and so we are facing a major demographic shift of less access to human resources. We have to make sure we allow all of our staff the chance to shine.

In this regard, bosses have a bigger responsibilty than ever before to get this right. Let’s make sure the bosses are fully tuned up on how to do that and for them to be successful in leading the team forward. If we keep doing the same things, in the same way, we will get the same result. As Einstein said, doing the same thing every time and expecting a different result, is the definition of craziness. Let’s not be crazy

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“We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan”, is an old saw that is still true today. Despite an avalanche of tools to help us plan well, we still manage to do a lousy job of it. Another oldie goldie is “a good workman doesn’t blame his tools” and so this applies perfectly to the tech panoply we have at our fingertips. Having tools available and using them at all, much less effectively, is the bugbear of most sales organisations. The firm buys the tool or the monthly subscription, spends a lot of money on it, only to see the salespeople barely engaging with it. The information stays in their head or on loose bits of paper, perhaps in a notebook or in an organiser. Anywhere but where it needs to be, to be of any assistance to the marketing effort, to properly segment and go after specific, defined markets.

Salespeople like people and they like talking to clients. This is relatively easy. Keeping records of those conversations is another matter. Getting those records into the Client Relationship Management (CRM) system is a different ask.

Setting up the meetings is a process which can be very poorly done in the hands of poor salespeople systems. The timing of meetings should be done with a mind to geography, so that you are not traipsing across town over long distances. You need to be grouping the visits together, so the time lost travelling is kept to a minimum.

There was a funny commercial you could see on the monitors in the back of taxis in Tokyo. about selling in Japan. A new guy was being welcomed to the sales team and one of the tanned, tough looking, veteran sales guys enthusiastically shakes his hand, but then notices the newbies calf muscles are puny. Mr. Suntan and the other veterans proudly show off their super muscular calves, built from going door to door to see clients and deride the new guy. The point of the commercial was that this was very much an old style sales methodology where you hit the pavements. Today, they were saying, you can use computer programmes much more effectively to reach clients. I quite liked Mr. Suntan myself, he was pretty cool, rather than Mr. Puny Calf Muscles wielding his computer. Anyway, I digress.

To make appointments needs a prospect list. A prospect list comes from leads coming in through SEO, your website, pay per click ads on Google etc., also existing clients, prior clients who have gone cold, networking, referrals, inbound phone contacts or highly selective cold calls. There are new clients to be targeted and this requires real research and effort. Today in Japan, you can’t easily buy client lists anymore. There are so many restrictions now around privacy of information and getting permission to connect. Getting simple information is much harder today than it was even five years ago, so we need to allocate sufficient time to do the research.

If you don’t know the name of the person you are calling, then the staff taking the call are all gold plated, absolute pros at getting rid of you. They make sure you never get through to the person you seek, who is always in a meeting by the way and who never returns your call. No one is thinking “let’s all make sure the wheels of industry are turning faster and faster and let’s grease the wheels to make sure that happens”. They are in full shield wall defensive posture of protection and denial to invaders from outside. So you at least need the name of who you want to contact to get on the first rung of arranging a meeting.

Keeping track of how many people you are contacting, how many you are actually reaching, how many appointments you are winning, how many deals you are concluding and the average size of those deals, is critical for the well organised salesperson. This provides us with success ratios and norms around how much activity is required to generate new business. Yet how many salespeople know their one ratios, know how many calls they have to make to reverse engineer everything to achieve their monthly budget?

When we do meet the client, how good are the notes we are taking? Are we talking notes or leaving it all to our ironclad memories? Remember that the faintest ink is vastly superior to the best memory. Write it all down. If for some reason you can’t take notes during the meeting, get it all down immediately thereafter. The next step is to get the key bits into the system. This way your notes are kept safe, can be accessed from anywhere and can easily be shared. When you are looking for case studies of success these notes are goldmines. They usually describe the client’s problem in detail, the proposal you put together talks about the solution you provided and the P&L provides the results.

When we know how many contacts have to be made to meet budget, have the prospects identified and selected to pour into our sales funnel, we can use our excellent time management skills to make sure we are doing our tasks in priority order and that we are doing the most productive thing at every given moment. None of this happens by itself. We have to plan our activities carefully and plan our days fully. Record keeping is pretty boring, but for those salespeople who get it, they know that is where the gold is buried. What are you doing about all of this down at your shop?

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Here we are back with Part Two of the fascinating journey exploring how to use visuals when presenting.

Given how straightforward this is, you wonder how come so many people make a mess of it. Let's keep going with some guidelines to help us stand out in the crowd, as the special few, who are professional and know what they are doing.

Graphs are great. They make it visually easy to compare items. For certain very heavy numbers focused presentations, you want to compare different variables using bars. Line charts are also clear, quick to understand, and show change over time. When you want to compare two or three items over time, it is very easy to see this one is up and that one is down, and these are flat. Try to avoid more than three lines though, because it gets very confusing very quickly. Simplicity rules when dealing with numbers. Pie charts are also fantastic for showing the parts of a whole. What is the share or the ratio of something? As long as there are not too many slivers, then a pie chart works well. When you have too many slices of the pie, it gets very hard to fathom the relativities between items. For that task, bar charts or line graphs are better.

People still manage to get this wrong. The real key is to only show one big graph per slide, if possible, or two graphs if a comparison is needed. As soon as we put up more information on the slide, then the information becomes very small, and the mind is assaulted by too much data at one time. Keep it minimalist and clear.

With lighting, be very careful when the room gets set up. Getting there early is the rule. Honestly, I am yet to meet any people who set up the rooms who are also do presenting themselves. They are just told by their boss, "you set up the room, put the chairs here, and put a desk there, put the mic there". Particularly at hotels, I noticed that a lot of times hotel staff very unhelpfully will turn off all the lights in the room. The whole stage is black, and the screen is the main light source. No.No. No. You want the lights on that audience. You want to see your audience, you want to be looking at their faces. What is their reaction to what I'm saying? Am I boring them? Are they with me? Are they nodding? Are they shaking their heads? Are they distracted looking at their phones? You must see your audience.

So keep the room lights up on the audience. Do not let anyone turn them down. If they do, then stop immediately and request they put them back on again. If you have to turn it down at all, turn it down very, very little try and keep the room lit. Around the screen area itself, it's good if you can actually have the lights off just above the screen. Then the screen becomes easy to read, but definitely leave the lights on you. When you shut the lights down, you are now in darkness. So you're invisible to an audience. Just a minor voice in the dark. Nope- have the lights on you, the spotlights on you, so the audience can see your face. Your face animation has got so much power of persuasion.

You can also add so much more credibility to the message through using your face, your gestures, your body language. Don't miss the opportunity. Make sure that the audience can see all of that.

I'm struggling to think of too many venues that manage to isolate out the lights above a screen. But today, with most projectors and monitors, the screens are pretty good. Even with all the lights on. So it's usually not such a big deal. And again, if you design your visuals with that in mind, you're not going to be too dependent on too much information on the screen.

When we have a particularly bright room, there might be a lot of natural light. In that case, you need a slide with a light background with very heavy dark text as a contrast. That works very well. So the contrast of dark fonts on a light background in a light room can work. Or sometimes in a dark room, you might go the other way and have a dark background with white and even white bolder text on a screen to really stand out and have the contrast.

Colors on screen are tricky. You rarely see people using them well. Colors like black blue, green work well on a screen. They are the best colors. Stay away from orange, gray, yellow, and particularly red. Black and blue work together well as a contrast. Green and black also work well together as a contrast.

They're good colors to mix and match on the screen, black and blue, green and black. Red can be very hard to see. In fact, I was at a presentation not that long ago on marketing, quite good content and reasonably well delivered, but the screen had a dark blue background, with red on dark blue. No one could read it very easily. So avoid red. It is hard to read on a screen.

Also, don't go crazy and try and have some sort of rainbow federation going on. It's too distracting and too confusing. Remember, you are the message. You, your face, your body, your gestures, your body language, your energy, you are the message, not what is on that screen.

The screen must be a servant to you, not the other way around. So when we are preparing, one of the tricky things is we often sit around in front of a computer screen. We are at a very close distance when we are preparing the visuals. Then off we go to give the presentation, and we're in a big room, a big venue with a huge screen. And somehow it doesn't look like it did when we were preparing it. And you go, "oh", usually, that is too late. When you are preparing, your computer has a presentation mode function. Go to that and then run your slides through that and see how it looks.

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The world's third largest economy and one of the most sophisticated and advancedcountries is a notorious underperformer on the international stage. I was reminded of that by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. She was a guest speaker at a foreign chamber event,drawing a capacity crowd. She is whip smart, charismatic, and knows how to charm thecrowd. She speaks Arabic fluently and her English is simply excellent. Yet, She chose toaddress the assembled chamber members in Japanese, not in English. What anopportunity missed to show Tokyo and Japan's internationalism.

Having been a diplomat, I know how these events are totally scripted beforehand, sonothing can possibly go wrong. The event featured a series of questions from the directorof the chamber to Koike. These questions were all vetted prior to the events. So Koike hadcomplete knowledge of what she was going to be asked.

They are all softball questions anyway, which made them easy to handle. The foreignchamber is never going to get aggressive with the governor of Tokyo. So Koike wasamongst firm friends. Yet, she switched to Japanese after making some flawless off thecuff comments in English at the beginning. This included cracking a joke about channelthree on the headsets were receiving the translation in Arabic. That was witty and said toeveryone, she was a very confident person in dealing with foreign languages. At the end,she switched back to perfect English again. More witticisms followed and then sheelegantly glided out the door.

Why didn't she do the whole piece in English? She obviously had the ability.Yes, it was onthe record, and there were members of the Japanese media there recording hercomments. So by speaking in Japanese, she could play to the broader populace of Tokyo.Here is our governor, effortlessly dealing with foreigners, type of thing.

You may have noticed that the governor of Tokyo does not want for attention. Here was anopportunity to work on the non-Japanese media, to work on the Japanese fans andboosters in the room. Projecting Tokyo as a truly international city was always a stretchunder her long reigning predecessor, Shintaro Ishihara.

Because he was so parochial in his views, Koike is a breath of fresh air in that regard andcould have played an effective role of evangelist for Tokyo, speaking directly to the foreigncommunity. She distributed some very high quality books on Tokyo, to the audience, whichwere first rate exemplars of the sophistication of the capital.

She could have worked the room and converted everyone to fandom, but she chose toretreat into Japanese. She could have chosen to make her main remarks in English, andthen answer the questions at the end in Japanese or rely on simultaneous translators? Iknow from my own public speaking experience in Japan, in Japanese, that the questions atthe end can be difficult to follow at times. However, she had simple options to get aroundthat issue, which she chose not to exercise. Why?

We see it again and again. Japan's scared to step out. Soft power should be a tremendousadvantage for Japan, but it consistently decides not to take it up. koike's luncheon event isyet another example.

The conservative bureaucrats in the governor's office were no doubt laser focused on howeliminating all risk was important. Speaking English is risky, so let's not do that. What aboutthe upside? I guess that this was a non contest between balancing some degree of riskand achieving a much more positive result. As we know in Japan, mistakes are not allowed,and the best way to avoid a mistake is to do nothing different or new.

Isn't the time we started to work on this, construct? In our companies, we need to embracechange, to allow failure as a learning process to have our BHAGS, our big hairy audaciousgoals, which take us out of our comfort zone. Leaders like Koike would be fantastic rolemodels for the country, if they choose to play that role. They choose not to and so Japancontinues to fly under the radar. When will Japan be ready to become a player on the worldstage in international business or global relations?

Don't hold your breath in anticipation of anything changing too soon. When the best andthe brightest decline the challenge.

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Today we are going to look at the proper use of visuals when presenting. Many people ask us at Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training, what should I do with preparing my PowerPoint or my key note presentation? What about the visuals? What is too much? What is too little? What is the best way to make this work for me? Well there are a couple of things we need to consider at the very beginning.

What about the types of visuals that we need to use? How many visuals are required? Some people have very few. Some people have a lot. I once gave a five minute presentation and I used for that, I think, about 90 visuals. Now you might be thinking, 90 visuals in five minutes? Are you nuts? Well that particular presentation was a warm up to a keynote speaker. We’d sponsored the event and for that we got five minutes of stage time. Now I remember a quote from Abraham Lincoln. Something along the lines of, if you want me to give a three hour speech I can get up and give it right now. But if you want a 20 minute speech it will take me three or four weeks to prepare it. And that’s right. To give a very long rambling speech is relatively easy. To give a very concise sharp speech is very tough.

Five minutes is a really tough time period in which to speak and very hard to have impact. So in that particular case, I used 90 slides. I was using visual stimulation every two seconds. As I was speaking, behind me on a big screen, visuals were just hitting the audience hard, because in that five minutes, I needed to get across an image about Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training.

I used massed visual stimulation, because I didn’t have many words available to me in just five minutes, to really grab that audience’s attention with strong memorable ideas. So I was using that two seconds interval as a technique. For that particular case, it worked very well.

Generally speaking, at the start in the design stage, I usually want to use too many visuals, because I am too greedy seeing all of these great slides I can show people. I want to show them, but I really have to pair them down. I have to really discipline myself to cut them out. It is painful. “Oh, I really want to use that graph”, “Oh that’s a great visual”. No, no, no, no. Cut it out. Try and keep it in some sort of range that works for you depending on what the purpose of your presentation is. Degree of permanency is something you need to think about. It might be better to use a handout. It might be something that is too complex to put up on the screen.

Unfortunately you often get this visual complexity on slides. I worked in the financial sector for a number of years and had to sit through countless presentations of spreadsheets up on screens with numbers that were so tiny, the person standing next to the screen giving the presentation had no clue how to read them and they would say crazy things like, “I know you can’t see this but…”. Well of course we can’t see the thing, it’s too damn small. Get those sorts of visuals in the hands of the audience, rather than try to see it on the screen.

As for the size of the audience, for a very big audience, the visuals may be more important than for a small audience. A big venue is less intimate. From down the back of the hall, you are a tiny, remote figure standing there on the stage. The audience is more easily fixated with what is going up on the slides on the big screen above the speaker.

Ask yourself, “does this visual back up the content of what I am saying? How much time have I got to prepare?”. Where I think a lot of people make a mistake is they put all the time into the slide production and no time is spent on the rehearsal.

So the whole balance flips. Instead of getting the presentation structure and content right and then spending time on the rehearsal, all of the time is sucked up into the visuals logistics. Be very cautious about spending all your time on creating slides and not allowing enough time on the actual physical standing delivery practice. And finally the cost. Sometimes there might be a cost to buying visuals which have copyright. That may not be something you want to do.

Here’s some guidelines for using visuals. As it was mentioned before, sometimes less is definitely best. On a screen, try to avoid paragraphs. Try to avoid sentences. If you can, single words, bullet points. Single words can be very, very powerful. Just one word or even just one number can be very, very impactful. You can talk to the number, or you can talk to that word. Or just put up a photograph or a simple visual and you talk to the visual. You don’t have to crowd the screen with stuff that we can read ourselves.

What you really want is the audience to be focused on you, the presenter and not what’s on the screen. This is very critical. We don’t want the screen competing with us. The less you have up there the better, because people look at it in two seconds, they’ve got it and then they come back to you. Which is where you want them.

Let me talk about the new two second rule. Attention spans are so micro today. If you are putting something up on a screen and an audience cannot understand it within two seconds, it’s probably too complicated. Think about reducing down the volume or breaking it into a couple of parts and put these on different slides. Maybe just leave it out and replace it with something you can talk to. Don’t make people work their way through something very complex on the screen.

Generally, the six-by-six rule means that again, less is best. Six words on a line. Maybe six lines maximum on a screen is good. Again, keeping it very minimalist.

With fonts, try to make fonts easy to read. You might use for the title 44 font size, and for the text a 32. Large font is easier to read if you are at the back of the hall. In terms of font types, sans serif fonts like Arial are very easy to read. Whereas serif fonts like Times, Times Roman, which have a lot of additional fancy work can be distracting. Be very sparing with all uppercase. It’s actually screaming at your audience; it’s shouting at your audience when you use strong uppercase like that. You can use it. But use it strategically and very practically to make a strong point. Upper and lowercase is much more balanced.

For visibility, be careful about underline. Yes you can use underline, but use it sparingly. Bold, yes you can use bold, but the same thing, only use it occasionally. Italics, yes, but very rarely with italics, because it’s not so easy to read.

With things like transitions and animations, sometimes it’s good to reveal one concept at a time, because there is only one idea on the screen and then you can talk to that, so you are not competing with a lot of words on the screen. Try and keep it consistent and simple. Or sometimes maybe have it all up on the screen at one time.

If you are going to have animation, where it might be wipe left to right for example, as you bring in something, then have it wipe right all the time. Don’t have one wipe right, then another wipe up and the next one is wipe left. It’s very confusing for an audience.

And if we are going to indent on a visual, do it maybe just once on that page. Don’t have a sentence and a couple of words and a whole bunch of indents. Just try and keep it as simple as possible. If you’ve got that much information, whip that over on to another page.

Pictures have a lot of visual appeal and as we say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Very simply, in two seconds, the audience have got it. Now they’re ready for your words to talk about the relevancy of this visual image to what your talk is about today.

In a few weeks’ time, in Episode #295, we continue with Part Two of the correct use of visuals and look at graphs, colours, room lighting and some technical nightmares to avoid.

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Japanese people are famous for having learnt over many centuries how to get along with others. High density living in the modern era and village communal agricultural activities in the past, have both seeded probably the best example of how to have a complex, but low friction society. Arguments, fights, road rage do occur but compared to anywhere else with such a large population pressure cooker, Japan doesn't even rate as a contender for serious problems in this area.

The concepts of tatemae or proffered reality and honne or actual reality, are a big part of creating that harmonious environment. Of course, as foreigners, we initially struggle with this separation of the real world and the imagined world. It can seem that Japanese people can be two faced - saying one thing, but doing another. Being the bearer of bad news rarely becomes an issue in Japan, because no one ever delivers it. No shooting the messenger here because people have learnt to be extremely circumspect about how much they tell others and how they tell it. The language is an excellent tool for this, because it is so excellent for vagary and obfuscation.

Western society does the same thing, but we tend to notice it more here. At home, if your father-in-law has been on a "see-food-diet" (see food and eat it) but asks if you think he has lost weight, you are likely to plunge right into a tatemaeanswer that will tell him what he wants to hear. No unvarnished truth that he is obese and there is no difference from the last time you saw him, which would be the honne. So we do it in our cultures as well, but Japan has institutionalized it.

Being indirect, vague, circuitous are all admirable traits for Japanese communicators.

Rude, unrepentant, bombastic Westerners, card carrying members of the "tell it like it is" society, have trouble with what they see as duplicitous behavior. What do you do when people won't tell you the truth? How can you lead an organization when you don't know what is going on and when bad news only ekes its way out, when all efforts to hide it have failed? How can people be held accountable when you can't count on them to adhere to the internal rules around transparency.

It gets worse of course when you are the boss. Any boss, in almost any culture, will be served up some form of tatemae, simply because they are the boss. People want to tell you what want to hear, as a means of sucking up to you for some possible advantage or to avoid your wrath, if it all goes the wrong way. There are plenty of killed messengers in the Western world and we have all learnt that this is role to avoid whenever possible. Japan just takes the mastery level up a couple of notches.

As the boss, how do we get to the bottom of what is going on, if we can't rely on those who work for us to speak up. We have a few options available to us however. Find a confidant, who is plugged into what is really going on, who can tell you the truth. Be careful of the "gaijin handler". This is the English speaking Japanese staff member who uses their English communication facility to get close to power and to be a double agent. They may look like they are on your side, but actually they know you won't be around forever and they have to build powerful patrons from within to get that all important leg up to the top. They are there to feed you what others want you to know, make sure you don’t find out too much and keep an eye on you. It is hard to spot the difference between a confidant and a “handler”, but just be careful and keep your eyes open.

A better method is to be a great boss Be the boss people can trust and will not feel fear, whenever they have to talk truth to power. You might imagine that is you already. However, wasn't it you who erupted when the target achievement was poor or the deadline was missed or someone did something dumb? Never forget, everyone is watching the boss like a hawk. How does the boss react to bad news? What happens when the pressure is really on, does that bon vivant boss become a monster? Keeping calm, no matter what, takes courage, patience and practice.

Building a personal relationship of trust with staff means making time available for them. The boss who can't manage their time or can't delegate is just a leaf being blown around by the winds of busyness. These bosses can't coach and can't create real relationships because they don't have the time. Let’s avoid this fate and make the time and get busy working on time management and delegation skills. Also, let’s work on our communication skills around clarity and being concise.

We found in our research that high engagement levels are not an accident of fate. They are created through the boss taking specific actions to build a relationship with the staff that translates into having more honne conversations and less tatemae substitutes.

When that trust is established, then you will find out what is really happening. The way to build those high engagement levels is to make staff feel valued. However, those educated and raised in the staff are “expendable” tradition will struggle with this one. They think, “Staff are there to produce numbers and it is my way or the highway around here, because I have responsibility for the numbers, thank you very much”. They will never know what is really going on within their team.

Instead, make the time to talk with the staff. Find out what motivates them, become their “assistant” to make what they want happen. Back them, praise them, support them and good things start to happen. Making people feel valued is a science but it can be very wearing. Start with your true intention - what is it? Snow the punters or actually establish a real relationship based on trust? Get this right at the outset and you will be in a much better and more credible position.

Okay, you may never find out all that is going on, just because you are the boss and this is Japan and you can't read the air. However, you will get a much better clue and will be infinitely better informed that your contemporaries at other gaishikei multi-national companies.

When you arrive in Japan to lead the operation you are dispatched to a lake. A heavy fog has descended on this lake and you are swimming around looking for the best direction forward. You can hear noises and make out indiscriminate shapes, but not such more. After a couple of years of this, the fog beings to lift ever so slightly and now you can see the shore and a bit of an island maybe. As things finally start to clear, you are sent home or on to you next post. The way to get out of the fog earlier is to understand how Japan works. The locals are not about to change it anytime soon and certainly not to suit “transient you”.

Create staff members who feel empowered by you. Make them feel valued in a sincere way. Make the time to communicate and to build the relationships.

The fog will lift and tatemae and honne will just be cultural steps to succeeding in Japan, rather than roadblocks imperiling your meteoric rise to the top. Accept the boss is always the boss and that getting perfect, full disclosure will never happen, no matter what.

Action Steps

1. Understand we have our own versions of tatemae and honne

2. Be careful of the gaijin handler

3. Keep calm and never show your emotions, especially anger, in front of the team

4. Work on building their trust in you

5. Make the time available to build good relationships with your staff, regardless of how busy you find yourself

6. Accept that, as the boss, you will never find out what is really going on in Japan anyway. That is the honne!

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The idea of asking questions of buyers during sales calls is actually ancient. For at least eighty years, we have known this is the most effective way of getting agreements to our offers. If this key insight has been around for so long, how come there are so few salespeople who have discovered it thus far? Salespeople in Japan turn up to see clients and launch forth straight into their pitch. They do this without having even asked one question about what the buyer wants, needs or has some interest in. “You can’t easily hit a target you are not aiming for” is obvious. If the target is a sale, there must be a need the client has, in order to convince them to hand over their money. If you are not constructing your conversation with the buyer around their need, then you are not aiming for the target, and you won’t trigger any buyer action.

Conceptually the idea of asking buyers questions is not complex. Japan throws up the curve ball though, that asking questions of buyers is considered rude here, so salespeople decline the chance and go straight into their pitch instead. This is a religious difficulty here. The buyer is GOD in Japan and GOD brooks no questions from mere mortals. Well, GOD they may be but the buyer will answer questions and willingly, if we ask them the right way.

We simply use a four-step approach: (1) tell them what we do in general terms. (2) note a specific case where we have provided value to a buyer, with concrete numbers attached. (3) suggest that perhaps we could do the same for them. (4) mention that in order for us to know if that was possible or not, would they mind if we asked them a few questions? Yes, there may be some rare holdouts among Japanese buyer GODs who demand our pitch be given, but for the vast majority of cases, the permission to ask questions will be granted.

Okay, so now that we have been granted permission to ask questions, where do we start? In fact, we start way before the actual meeting, when we are planning the call. Planning the call? Again, for some strange and mysterious reason, there are many salespeople who don’t plan their calls. I guess if you are just presenting your canned pitch, then not much planning ahead is required. If you are going to be successful in sales, then planning your call is a must. You need to do some hard thinking about the client, their business, their market and their competitors before you turn up at their door.

Research the industry. If you are not that familiar with its details, first find out who are the major competitors and what do they offer. Look at the on-line annual report, if it is a listed company. If it is unlisted, do a search on them to see what information is available from the public domain. None of this should take massive amounts of time. We are just trying to get an idea of what things we need to ask the buyer during our meeting. Today ChatGPT will make a lot of this grunt work much easier to perform and will save a lot of time.

Also, in the published annual report there will usually be glossy photos of the President in a corner office. There is usually an accompanying article on the leadership’s strategy and vision for the enterprise. This is useful because we can ask about how the global strategy is working out here in Japan, or what changes they had to make to the global strategy to fit the Japan reality?

In the case of an unlisted company, we may have trouble finding out any concrete information, but we can ask about their competitors. Again, ChatGPT may be of help to gather information. They may be listed firms or maybe not, it doesn’t matter. As one of our questions, we can ask how these rival companies are affecting the buyer’s business? This is a nice oblique question to help us gain intelligence on what is going on with this company at this moment.

What we are trying to do is get the buyer to tell us key details about the current state of play in their company. This is the “As Is” question to gauge their current reality. We need to know this because we want to find out where they would like to be going forward, or what we call the “Should Be” question. Unless there is a nice big gap between where they are now and where they want to be and a sense of urgency about bridging that gap, we may have no hope of making a sale. Small gaps and plenty of time to fix them are bad news for us.

They may feel they have enough internal resources or time or manpower to get to where they want to be, without our help. The way we find that out is by asking the “Barrier” question. We ask what is stopping them from achieving their vision in the time frame they need? Finally, we ask the “Payoff” question about what success would mean to them individually, so that we can personalize our solution presentation later in the conversation.

The key in the questioning process is to keep going and dig deep. When we teach sales training to our class participants, I notice that many skim over the questions part. They ask a question, get an answer and then simply move on to the next question. They have often just passed up a golden opportunity to go much deeper based on the answer they have been given.

Asking a further “why” question when we are told things by the buyer is a great way to better understand what they are thinking. By this I mean asking more than just one “why” here. We need to keep going with asking why, why, why to get more forensic clarity around the situation. We have to do this in a way which is very soft and well-constructed. That is why our planning is so key. Asking a series of why questions can feel intrusive and rude very quickly unless we ask them in a polite, gentle, curious way.

Asking deep “why” questions also has the added benefit, in many instances, of crystalising the buyer’s thinking on a topic. We invite them to go further into their own analysis of the situation or to review the strategy or to reflect on a past decision. Gaps, inconsistencies, possible future problems are often hidden from their daily view. This is because everyone is super busy putting out fires and beating off crocodiles with their oars, so that they can’t easily grapple with these problems.

By asking “why” so many times, we challenge the buyer to think again about what they are doing, why they are doing it and to go deeper in their approach to the problem.

This enables us to provide more comprehensive solutions to the buyer’s problems, surface greater needs and expose the opportunity costs of taking no action. That sounds to me like a pretty good menu with which to make a sale, compared to the shotgun spray of just going into a canned pitch and blathering on at length about your widget’s spec.

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We have probably all been on the receiving end of it or have been a witness to it. The presentation is completed, after which come the questions; some are fact finding, some seek clarification, while some are just plain really nasty. Perhaps the questioner is not trying to be mean, but the result is the same. All eyes in the room burn a hole into you the speaker, as everyone breathlessly waits to see how you are going to handle this incoming missile, that is thinly disguised as a question.

Some presenters splutter, nervousness sapping intellectual and verbal powers, while some give such a pathetic response we can see their credibility sail right out the window as they speak. Some get angry, assuring everyone there that they are not fit for higher responsibilities, because they clearly can’t control their emotions.

Do these questions come up? Yes, so there is no point imagining that we won’t have to face the meeting room moment of truth. It could be from an ambitious colleague, elbows out, trying to push past you to get the top job. It could be from a member of the board, totally underwhelmed by what you have said, or from a member of the audience, who takes umbrage at your line of thinking.Do we usually prepare properly beforehand, in the event that someone might decide to go after us? In 99% of cases the answer is “no”. The missile catches us off guard and we simply flounder. Trying to think on your feet, when your brain is on fire from nervousness is very hard. We put ourselves in harm’s way unnecessarily.

This is an embarrassment that can be easily fixed. Below are a few steps that will trounce your rivals, diminish your adversaries, and show everyone what a true professional you are.Most preparation prior to any presentation generally focuses on the content and not the delivery. Taking questions, by the way, is part of the delivery and not something tacked on to the main proceedings. When preparing a speech or presentation, we are in control of the direction. However, once the questions start raining down on us, sadly, we are no longer in command of the situation. The street fight has started and there are no rules. We have to recognise that reality.

The first step before the meeting is to imagine what trouble may lie ahead. Who will be in the room? Who has a vested interest in seeing you go down in flames? Who are the potential troublemakers and their acolytes, possibly beavering away at creating problems for you? What have been some of the historical issues between your section and other parts of the organisation? Will there be someone in the room still smarting over you getting his or her’s funding for last year’s project? What are some of the current burning issues that have a lot of money or prestige attached to them that would invite someone to slice you up in front of the assembled masses? Is your topic likely to engage strong opinions opposed to what you have to say?

Having identified the issues that are likely to become “hot” during the questioning period, let’s design some positive messages. Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, gave a great piece of advice once when announcing at a press conference, “Who has questions for the answers I have ready for you?” It is an amusing display of raw honesty from a speaker, but also very smart. Rather than moving straight into damage control, which can often appear weak, squeamish, shifty and dishonest, be ready to go on to the front foot. Be ready to put forward a strong positive message about the benefits of what you are proposing. Have at least two or three of these up your sleeve, for each issue that you have designated as potential trouble.

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Sontaku is a Japanese word which means to surmise or conjecture about someone else’s feelings or desires. It is often associated with another Japanese word omotenashi or superb levels of hospitality, for which Japan is rightly famous. Sontaku means supplying an omotenashi style high level service before the customer has realised they actually need that service – anticipating the customer, based on the host’s conjecture about what they might need.

Steve Jobs at Apple did that with the iPhone. We didn't realize we needed it when we were all happy with Nokia, Blackberry, etc., but now we can’t go back. Wayne Gretzky, the legendary ice hockey star made the same point, when he said “skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now”. Gary Vaynerchuk from Vaynermedia is famous for understanding where our “digital attention” is heading before we understand it ourselves. All of these aspects have a sontaku or conjecture element to them.

What about leaders in Japan? There are many business challenges facing us here: the pandemic, currency movements, government regulations, North Korea threatening our security, supply chain issues, oil price fluctuations, China’s military control of the sea lanes to Japan, weak consumer spending, potential collapse of the welfare system in Japan due to the aging population, Government debt levels, etc.

Another biggie is staffing. Delivery companies can’t keep up with on-line retail purchase orders, soba restaurants can’t get young people to spend the many years required to learn the craft, speaking Chinese will help when we go to the convenience stores, because not enough Japanese want to work there. We know that farmers are aging but there are not enough successors in the pipeline. The construction industry is going to lose 1.28 million workers between now and 2025. In 2022 there were four times as many workers aged over 65 compared to those aged between 20 and 24. It is a physical job, that doesn’t age well. Overall the youth population up to the age of 35 is going to more than halve between now and 2060. Where are the new hires going to come from?

The dual aging and decline in the population is currently being addressed in two ways. One is moving businesses offshore or buying businesses in foreign climes, where there is a growing buyer base. The other is automation. We will replace people with robots and machinery of some sort to make up for the shortfall in workers. Driverless vehicles makes sense when you can’t hire enough drivers. Robot attachments to our limbs is a reality now, to help the aged go up stairs. The same idea applies to give workers the power needed to lift heavy items in factories and on building sites.

Leaders will not be automated any time soon because of all the soft skills needed. Are we going to be facing a major “sontaku deficit” though because our leaders in organisations are not anticipating what their workers will want? Basic economics tells us that a reducing supply of labour coupled with a rising demand, makes everything much more competitive and expensive.

Our global research, confirmed for Japan as well, was that the sense of feeling valued by your boss and the organization was absolutely critical for being highly engaged at work. Great, but how would you know that you are valued? It all comes down to the skill of the boss and how the boss communicates and interacts with you. This is where sontaku comes in. The boss anticipates your needs in your career and work before you realise it yourself. The leader is having the right type of career conversations, the correct discussions about what drives each staff’s individual motivations, the ability to do delegation correctly so it is seen as a career enhancer and not a punishment.

Are your leaders skating to where the puck is going to be or are they racing into the 20th century in leadership terms. Are they still working off the old playbook of worker low mobility, high loyalty, total sacrifice and obedience? If your senior leaders are the product of OJT (On The Job Training) alone, then get ready for disruption. Their own mediocre bosses were their role models coming up through the ranks. The current crop of younger leaders own best efforts to repeat that low standard in their own leadership will take your organisation nowhere in this new world of work. Today’s younger generation of leaders expect the sontaku to be applied to them, not the other way around. Brace for impact everyone, in this relentless war for talent we are about to crash!

We are entering the new day of ruthless competition to recruit and retain staff. Leader’s soft skills of getting willing cooperation, encouraging real innovation, fostering creativity, being excellent persuaders and having supreme people skills are the new minimum requirements. Technical knowledge isn’t disappearing anytime soon in terms of importance, but hard skills alone won’t be enough. If that is all you are providing to your teams, then watch your staff jump ship to your rivals who have skilled up their leaders in how to apply sontaku to their staff, as a recruit and retain strategy. The future is going to be painful for all of us.

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“You are who Google says you are” is a quote from Timbo Reid, the host of the “Small Business Big Marketing” podcast which I follow. His point is people check us out before they meet us, using search engines like Google. In sales, buyers will also peruse our company website, search us out on Google and probably look us up on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. What are they going to find there? Are we in photos on Facebook, doing something stupid or embarassing, fully fueled by copious amounts of alcohol? Are we conscious enough of how our personal brand is being perceived? Have we got business enemies who are posting damming claims about how we didn’t pay them or how we ripped them off.

Our lives in sales today are open books. We can’t miss the point that we need to control what gets written in the pages of that book. If you have Facebook posts that are not consistent with the professional image you want to portray, then delete them all. If it is really bad, delete the whole thing and start again. When we look at the photos of you in your profile page, is it you with a straw hat and a cocktail in hand, in some sand and surf setting, rather than you in a suit? Is your LinkedIn profile some pathetic, indulgent job resume? Are you raging against the other political party on Twitter, upsetting the other fifty percent of the population, including half of your buyers?

Personal branding in sales is gold. Before we even get to have the meeting with the client, we want to create an image in their mind of someone who is serious, trustworthy, reliable, expert, credible, friendly and easy to work with. Unfortunately, today, this can create itself and morph into something we don’t want to project to clients, unless we step in and take control of our public image. The rule in sales is to avoid divisive subjects like politics and religion. This is obvious, but we may have firm views on these things and our public record is there for our clients to see. We may be losing business opportunities because of our very personally held, but widely and very publicly broadcast ideas on these subjects.

Have you done an audit on yourself lately? Do a search on your own name, using a number of popular search engines and see what it throws up. Take a good look at your Facebook and LinkedIn pages and see what you are projecting to the world about you, as a potential business partner for buyers.

It shouldn’t just be from a defensive posture. What can you do to project expert authority to buyers, by what you present on social media etc. Post blogs about your area of expertise, offering good insight and advice to buyers of your product or service. It doesn't have to be hundreds of blogs, but it should also not be a barren wasteland of nothing. Extended blogs can become articles which may be suitable for publication in magazines. These can get picked up in your Google search and they add to your personal brand as an authority in this area. You can push the articles out through your weekly newsletter to clients or through your social media. If you produce enough blogs, these may become an eBook or a hard copy book. Again your expert authority is being highlighted and you are going to be seen as an expert in your field.

You may not like to write or maybe you are not very good at it. You can always record what you want to say, get a transcript of it and work on editing that. If you need to, there are plenty of editors and ghost writers available to help you polish it up. I remember seeing an article written by a fellow I know and it was very good. I was surprised because he never seemed that articulate. I found out later I knew the guy who had ghost written it for him. Today, ChatGPT may help you with the article or book plan. It doesn't matter. People don’t care that much, they take what they see in front of them and it is either good or it isn’t. You are still making your key points and it all supports your personal branding.

You can also use audio for podcasting. This is not for the faint hearted because once you start, you have to be committed to keep going. You also have to release episodes with reliable regularity. You can’t tell the client on one hand that you are a reliable supplier and then have show episodes released at crazy intervals, that show zero ability to be consistent. Not good.

You may prefer video and that is cheap and easy today, compared to years ago, when you needed lots of equipment, a camera crew, a sound crew, video editors etc. Today you can broadcast using various live streaming platforms and have no crew and no editing. Simply buy a device holder that screws into a tripod, buy an external microphone and set you phone or iPad and just hit record. You may not even bother to edit out the bits of you pushing the start and stop button or get someone else to push them for you.

Video is good because it shows you in action and attracts more trust. We can see your eyes and read your body language, to gauge if we can trust you or not, before we bother to meet you. It allows us to demonstrate our expertise on a given subject and add value to others in the same industry. If you know a bit about editing or have access to editing help, you can add an intro and an outro to brand yourself even better. You can also inject slides into the video to show graphs or text to support what you are saying. If you are really crazy, you can be like me and start your own TV show as an expert on a topic on YouTube and produce episodes every week for years.

We are seizing control of our public image and we are stuffing it full of expert authority. We know we are going to be found anyway, but we are proactively deciding just what will be found. We are assembling content in various forms that appeal to buyers. Some like to read text, others like to listen to audio and others want to see us on video. We marshal all of the social media available, our email list and enlist the cooperation of others who will share our content to get the greatest bang for the buck. A little bit of planning goes a long way to setting up the sales meeting and selling the client before we even meet.

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If you are called upon at an internal meeting with the big bosses, or during an external public event, to suddenly speak on a topic, do you say, “whoopee, here is my lucky day, it is time for me to shine” or do you find you are suffering from instant whiteout of the brain? Not being prepared for a presentation at any time is bad. What about when all those beady eyes are focused on you and you are panicking? You don’t know what to say and you are thinking “Uh, Oh, here comes humiliation”. You make a mess of it and your personal and professional brands both just got sunk mid-ships.

Knowing your subject is one thing, being able to get up on your feet and speak about it with no warning is a completely different thing. “Oh, this would never happen to me”, you say. Big bosses can be very nasty people sometimes and they can be rude and seek your opinion on the project or the idea without any warning. “Um, um, um, ah, ah, I, er, er, um,…” is not a brilliant career building response.

It could be at a public event, it might be a panel discussion and you are attending as a member of the audience, safely ensconced in your seat down the back, away from harm’s way. The moderator, trying to appear super cool, decides to call upon you for a comment, knowing you are an expert in your field. Some helpful functionary thrusts the hand microphone into your sweaty palm, you reluctantly stand up and offer “Um, um, um, ah, ah, I, er, er, um,….” Not a brilliant personal brand building response.

Obviously the degree of difficulty of this type of talk is a lot harder than when the day has been set in advance, the notices have gone out, you are fully prepared and ready to go for your formal presentation. What can we do when impromptu speaker Armageddon beckons?

If you are an expert in an area under discussion, you can always mentally assume that you will called upon to speak. You are never caught flat footed in this case. While listening to the discussions you have ruminated a little on what you could say, were you forced to do so. That unwarranted jab with the hand microphone feels a lot less threatening when you have composed yourself beforehand.

One good practice is to always have a question ready for the speaker. Even if you don’t actually ask it, think of a very good question you could ask. If you are called upon to make a comment, you can then talk about a question you had and then answer it yourself. “Thank you for asking me to say a few words. A question I have been asking myself is…. Now, as far as I understand it, it seems that….”. This shows that you are tuned into the topic and that you have your own views on the subject. The answer doesn’t need to become your own full blown speech displacing the actual speaker, but it will allow you to make some well thought through comments. The audience will be impressed that you actually have expertise in this area and your personal brand gets elevated.

Another formula is using WHO, WHY, WHAT. The WHO refers to the people in the audience. If it is a business audience, we can say something like, “I was chatting with a few people before the talk and a common concern which surfaced was about XYZ. This is an important consideration and my own views on the subject are that….” Or we could say, “I guess one of the reasons we are all here today is to find out more about some of the key issues. One that interests me is about….”.

The WHY are our comments on the importance of the topic. We can put the topic in context with the current situation in the industry or the economy more broadly. “FinTech is occupying the minds of a lot of people in the banking industry. This is the age of disruption, as we have seen in many big industries already and this FinTech area has all the potential to be a big disruptor to the way we do business. My own feeling is…”.

The WHAT could be picking up something the speaker has said already and making a comment on that. “Our speaker mentioned that FinTech is only relevant in certain economies at the moment and I agree with that. What we have seen though with technologies like the mobile phone is certain nations have skipped the infrastructure investment in land lines stage and gone straight to mobile networks. FinTech could be a disrupter that puts access to credit into the hands of third world citizens, much faster than we currently think is possible”.

The secret is to be ready to go if called upon. It happens. I was comfortably seated next to my wife at a pleasant Ikebana International event in Osaka. At that time I was representing my country as the Consul General for Australia. Suddenly without a “bye your leave”, the speaker called me up to the stage to say a few words.

Naturally those few words would have to be in Japanese. The distance from my chair to the podium was about ten steps. I wasn’t prepared to say anything. It wasn’t an occasion I could ask the speaker a question, given the context and I had the distinct feeling my heart rate was racing at around 190 beats per minute.

I looked to my environment around me for salvation. What could I draw from that to say a few words. It had been raining earlier that day, so I connected that idea to the cut flowers coming into Osaka from Australia. I mentioned about these cut flowers arriving into the Osaka Flower Market earlier that morning, with the soil and water still in their stems from Australia. I told them how each flower was like an Ambassador to Japan from the land Downunder, bringing a little piece of Australian beauty to Osaka. I thanked everyone for supporting Australian flowers and got off that stage lickety-split.

That was a lucky escape. I realised I had dodged a bullet there and I had better be ready in future to be called upon to speak. So ever since then, I am always thinking of a question I can ask the speaker. I know I can either use it as a legitimate question or as a crutch, if I am called upon to say a few words. I also have the Who, Why, What formula at hand, ready to roll if need be. What about when it’s your turn - will you be you ready to roll?

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“What anchors their behavior is the salaryman’s desire to protect himself – no one wants to put their position at risk by telling the truth”. This little gem of an insight was made by a retired nuclear engineer who worked for Toshiba. He was referring to the various scandals that had taken place there and explaining why illegal decisions made by senior management like cooking the books went unchecked internally.

Corporate Japan in some ways, could be a modern model for George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”. Big Brother is the leadership group who define that truths are lies and lies are truths. They determine that anyone against the system must be eliminated, because 100% loyalty is the minimum. There are facts and then there are “alternative facts”. The bosses do the thinking around here and your job is to carry out their genius ideas.

This is not surprising, because kids are inculcated into accepting authority, doing not questioning, following authority figures, even if they are only one year older. Sempai (seniors) sensei (teachers) are respected as part of Japan’s Confucian construct. Group responsibility lessens the burden and gives air cover to individuals. They have learnt this is essential if you want to avoid the stain of failure on your record. When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.

Errors are kept track of and come into play later in your career when the bosses consider who gets the promotion to move up and who goes sideways. That is one of the reasons HR is so powerful in Japanese companies – they decide the transfers to new roles and locations and they have the dirt file on everyone as they come up through the ranks. This system guarantees little risk taking or attempts to push the envelope fold. Keeping your head down and a low profile is the safe path forward.

So how do we get innovation going in our companies? The innovation process has trial and error built into it, by virtue of the fact that what we are going to do is new, untested, experimental. How do we test stuff if no one wants to try anything new, because there is a risk of failure?

The fear of failure restricts people mentally from the very start. They are afraid to voice opinions because they have learnt from early childhood that going along is how you get ahead. Don’t stand out by taking a stand. Blend in, find the absolute middle of the fence and sit there. If the survey is a one to five scale select three for everything.

Just employing someone into your firm doesn’t erase years of conditioning here about what is acceptable and what isn’t. Yet, we hear foreign executives moaning about they don’t get any quality ideas from below, that productivity is low, decisions are painstakingly slow, people don’t contribute during meetings, etc.

All true, but not a fait accompli. The environment for failure has to be secured. The fear to step out has to be replaced with rewards for trying, not just succeeding. Performance reviews and the measures used have to be changed away from just outcomes to include more process. Process in the sense of generating ideas, suggestions, taking risks, trying new things. All unrelated to actual success.

If we only reward success, then we had better hope we have a bunch of geniuses working for us. In the Western work environment, we reward success but we don’t see failure as fatal, if people fail in the right way. Being incompetent in your current task is not acceptable. However, pioneering some new intervention or iteration is seen as good work and if it fails, the lessons learnt are considered valuable and the person is not terminated. HR is not making a note for later reference when the promotions are being considered.

In a Japanese context, nobody believes failure is not fatal. It has to be shown that failure is acceptable as part of the innovation process. That means bosses have to walk the talk. The worst case is saying we welcome innovation and then whacking someone in the head as soon as they fail.

Maybe “innovation is good, we accept failure as part of the process” is the ethos in the dark wood paneled recesses of the executive floor, but it also has to permeate the culture throughout middle management. Getting middle management to accept this culture requires a lot of re-training in Japan. However, is this factored into the firm’s formal innovation process or are we just hoping for the best instead? Let’s make sure we are all walking the talk and sending the right message of “your ideas are welcome here, experimentation is welcome here, we understand not every attempt will succeed but we support the attempts regardless”. Innovation is needed and the process is messy. Our internal systems and corporate culture have to be able to deal with that reality.

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Are you failing in sales yourself or do you have sales staff reporting to you who are not making their numbers? Sales is a brutal, metrics based activity where there are no hiding places or at least none that can be sustained. Eventually, the numbers show if you are making it or you are not. What happens then? In the West, the usual next step is you are fired and a replacement is found. Japan is a bit different. The social and legal bias is against firing people for poor performance. In the case of large companies, the management is expected to move that failing salesperson into another job, where they can do better.

Smaller companies don't have that same pressure, because the courts know that survival can be impaired by underperformers. The herd must unite together to survive, even if it means releasing one of their number. Nevertheless, internally, the other members of the team expect that the failing salesperson be given some sort of vague chance to right their ship of sales. They don’t like seeing heads lopped off, because they always feel that “but for the grace of God, there go I”.

Whether it is you who are failing or one of your staff, what should you do? The issue usually lies with the work style of that person. What they are doing today is the product of what they have been doing for a long time and so they expect that to work. The issue often arises that when you shift companies or even industries, what worked before is no longer working. As human beings we are sometimes so programed to keep repeating what we know and what we think will work, that we become blind to reality.

In smaller companies and in gaishikei, foreign multinationals, the whole age and stage hierarchy gets mixed up as well. Suddenly you find your boss is younger than you or a woman or both! For older men, this requires a level of flexibility that they have never had to find in their previous work life. If the old dogs can’t learn some new tricks, the gaishikeibosses will be quick to disappear them.

Welcome Back Sales is tough and requires constant re-invention. We have to develop higher levels of self awareness and understand that what we think is correct may not fit this situation and therefore need to find a new truth that works for us. Smaller companies don’t have other spots to move failing salespeople around to, so usually it is one last chance or imminent departure.

In the current market, where it is very hard to hire salespeople, especially English speaking salespeople, then a degree of patience is required on the boss’s part. Even if this person is not performing well enough, they are knowledgeable about the products and the clients and so have a base from which to improve. The simple solution is to just fire them. However, once the sale’s problem child has been fired, we have the difficulty of finding a replacement at all or finding one who is actually better than the last. In a tight market, you tend to take what you can get and hope you can train them to be better. This is great in theory and totally logical. Do you actually have the means of doing that though? Who will train them? What amount of onboard training will they get. In small firms everything is super lean so the training component tends to be Spartan.

If there are age and gender issues confronting them, then the salesperson has to realise they have to suck it up and get used to this brave new world of work, which is not how it was back in the day of their long departed youth. So what. They either have to learn how to fit it or they will be out on their ear. From the boss’s side, at least giving people a chance to come back from the precipice fits in well with social values in Japan and the rest of the team will prefer that to casting them out into oblivion. The retention of your other performing team members is a key job of the boss in this era of multiple jobs for everyone looking for work in Japan. People observe how you handle poor performance very minutely and forensically.

No easy answers anymore, to the poor performance conundrum in Japan. The bad news is that this isn’t going to ever improve, so we all have to navigate our way around these issues in more creative ways than before. The failing salesperson has to reinvent themselves and we bosses have to do the same. The market punishes those who are not able to move with the times and find the flexibility needed to thrive and survive.

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I am infamous in Tokyo. I always ask the first question of the speaker at an event. “Oh Greg, you always ask the first question”, people say, as if it was a bad thing. They don’t get it. In my case, I have found that having an interesting question is one thing, but having the chance to get it answered is another. In the past I would be there with my hand dangling in the air to ask a question and the organizer would suddenly say, “We have no more time for further questions, please join me in thanking our speaker”. That was most annoying. I decided going first was a known thing, whereas who will be last was not, so to improve my odds, I decided I would try to go first.

Later I found there was another good reason for doing it. I attend a lot of presentations as part of my networking activities here in Japan and you see what works and what doesn’t over time. Before you start your question, the organisers always request you state your name and affiliation. Now I say my name and my company name slowly, precisely and clearly. So what?

Well reflect on your own experience. I think you will find that 99.9% of questioners you hear at events just rapidly mumble their own name and their company’s name. No one can understand the content of what they have just said, let alone remember who they were. Now, how about when it is your turn? Can people easily catch your name in that same situation or are you sxhyf xqtelpbq from vzqithmsfpl company? I am guessing the latter!

As one way to promote myself and my business, I decided that there was an opening in the market here for considered self promotion (for a good cause though!). I decided I want to have the names “ Greg Story ” and “ Dale Carnegie Training ” penetrating the minds of all those in the audience at the event, as a form of subtle advertising. I can’t always be the speaker and lift my profile that way, but I can be a questioner at other people’s events and there are a lot more of those available to me.

Everyone understands the importance of the mantra: “know, like, trust” in order to grow your business. The “know” part can cost a lot of money to cement in the minds of potential clients. Being “top of mind” is what we all want in business so that they call us first, if they need something. We all spend huge amounts of effort and money trying to achieve that. We are hosting responsive websites, buying ad words, doing retargeting, posting content on social media, advertising and trying to bolster our SEO. Why?

We want to be top of mind for when the buyer is looking for our solution. At events, we have a golden opportunity to position ourselves as top of mind for no additional cost to the price of the ticket. All we have to do is raise our hand. Human psychology being what it is, most people are hesitant to go first in front of others, so we can usually get to ask the first question.

The other thing people say to me is , “Greg, that was a really good question”, as if that were a random accident. Folks, this is my personal brand out there, so the question has to be a really, really good one. While the event is underway, I am thinking about the question I want to ask and how I will ask it. It is being silently distilled in my mind during the proceedings, so that when I get up to speak, it sounds as fluent and smart as I can possibly make it. I want to impress.

We all know in advance who the speaker is going to be, so it doesn’t take a lot to research them a little, to be able to ask a more pointed question than what usually emerges from the hoi polloi. For example, the new President of All Nippon Airlines (ANA) was a speaker at the American Chamber in Tokyo. As usual, I had the first question.

I made the comment about how poorly people’s mistakes are handled by management in Japan and how this is an inhibitor to the messy process of innovation. I asked about the culture of dealing with mistakes at ANA? I then specifically noted that when he was the Head of Sales at ANA, his idea of providing first class passengers with individually ordered meals had become a big problem. The service had to be stopped, yet he made it to become President. So ANA must have a good way of encouraging innovation, without punishing people for mistakes in the process. Could he tell us about that? You could have heard a pin drop in the room after I laid that little baby out. By the way, he was delighted with the question, because he could brag about how great the culture at ANA was etc., etc.

People came up to me later, saying they were amazed by my question. Now all of this was readily available public information. They could all have asked the same question, if they had spent a few minutes searching out the background of the speaker. I relate this little episode just to demonstrate how you can enhance your personal brand by approaching mundane things like the Q&A, from a fresh angle.

It does take guts though to be the first questioner and to put yourself out there in front of everyone. If your question is not so good or not so well articulated, then that doesn’t add to your personal brand status and possibly drops it down quite a few notches. You also have to have a thick hide, because some people will take umbrage with you for having the gall to always ask the first question. Jealousy is a curse.

I usually find a strong correlation here with one aspect of these types of jealous people. They usually have zero personal brand power. I always think to myself, “It's a free country, if you want to ask the first question, knock yourself out”. The point is, there is always a vacuum when the Master of Ceremony calls for questions. The majority of people are shy to put themselves forward in front of a big crowd of their peers. If you have the guts, seize the day, seize the moment!

And you don’t have to always ask the first question. I do it because I want to promote my company, I want to have “Dale Carnegie Training Japan” top of mind, relative to my competitors. Ironically, if for some reason I don’t ask any questions, people will complain to me after the event. “What happened, you didn’t any questions today. I always like your questions”. So you can’t win either way. You may as well go for it!

Action steps

1. Ask your question, be it first or otherwise, but first state your name and company name slowly and clearly

2. Make it an intelligent question that will reflect well on your brand

3. Do some simple research on the speaker before the event

4. Ignore critics because they are stupid and the smart people will get it

5. Never apologise for doing your best for promoting your business

6. By the way, don’t expect a good answer to you excellent question! That rarely ever happens.

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In the military, junior officers are the equivalent of middle management in business. In times of warfare these middle managers are often wounded or killed in battle. There are no replacements from officer school, so the most capable member of the team is promoted on the battlefield, as the replacement leader. It makes no sense in business to have this as the model. Yet, this is often what happens.

The current middle manager is poached by a vigilant recruiter or they jump ship for greener pastures. The organisation has had no capacity or has given no great thought to the issue of succession planning and there is no opportunity to transfer in a seasoned manager as the replacement. The most capable member of the team is tapped on the shoulder to step up into a leadership role. How are these individuals judged to be the most capable? Usually, this is never based on their leadership capability, because they have never had an opportunity to display their latent talent. It is mainly based on their technical expertise, functional experience or longevity in the team.

Having selected the most likely leader, they are now thrust into the job and given the opportunity to learn how with OJT or On The Job Training. The “training” however is the self-paced, pick it up as you go along variety. The previous boss didn’t understand the importance of delegation as a way to groom successors, so no one got a taste of what being the boss was like. The new boss’s reporting line going up are too busy with their own work, to spend much time coaching the newbie boss. Trial and error is now the established curriculum of leadership.

Going from one of the team, to the leader is no easy task. Your colleagues have a broad range of reactions to the new order from incredulity, to disdain, to jealousy, to support. The new leader wonders how to project their authority with the former colleagues? They also discover that while variety amongst colleagues was previously an amusing observation, now that they have to lead them, they discover they are all quite disparate in their thinking, desires and expectations. They can’t be led as a mass group, like a herd of sheep. This lot walks on two legs and talks back to the boss.

The new leader also discovers that they are responsible for the results of the whole team. They are still working on their on their own tasks, because there was no replacement for them, once they moved up. The team is one down in fact and so the same amount of work has to be done by less people. Punching out the results requires a player/leader combination role. For the first year this works, because the new leader is capable of doing the work required, to get their own numbers. The team also shuffles along pretty much as before.

The new leader has no idea about how to leverage the team to get higher results. Delegation is an unknown. There is the perennial fear that the delegatee won’t be reliable. The delegatee in fact may be highly resistant, because they believe they are already busy, busy with their own work and they don’t see why they should be doing “the boss’s work” as well. No delegation capacity puts excess strain on the time management of the new leader. Actually, their time management wasn’t much chop before, but it was sort of containable. Now the pressure is on and the cracks start to open up.

With the new financial year comes the inevitable higher targets. Now the new leader finds that the team is still one short, the hours in the day haven’t increased, the team is working as they always have, producing what they have always produced. The difference is that the new leader has to produce both the team numbers and fulfill the tasks required by the organisation. These include exciting new tasks like reporting, carrying our performance reviews, handling the team administration, plus still doing their own job. This is now becoming unsustainable.

Their time management and leadership skills haven’t improved, so they are now stressed and run ragged. They don’t produce the numbers, the employee survey pastes them for their “poor” leadership ability and the organisation fires them. The machine then whips out another battlefield promotion and we start the same process once again.

The moral of the story? Have a succession plan developed, give your new leaders training on the difference between doing and leading, set them up to succeed and assign a senior leader as an active mentor to coach them through the minefields of middle management.

Action Steps

1. Ensure that all leaders in the organisation are delegating tasks to subordinates, as a way of exposing them to issues before they step up into leadership positions

2. Work on the time management skills of all the leaders, so that they can do delegation properly

3. Help the new leaders by giving them formal training

4. Assign a mentor and hold the mentor accountable for their success as a leader

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There is a saying in Japan, Kuki wo Yomu, which means read the air or be aware of the atmosphere or subtexts in the meeting. In sales, we need to be on high alert all the time for what is the atmosphere prevailing with the buyer at this moment. What are any changes we are noticing during the meeting and what sort of changes do we want to see.

I was talking to a salesman about a call he and a colleague had made on a buyer. The buyer was an existing client and this was just a meet the new guy introduction meeting. There was no need to pitch, as they were already a buyer. My friend had briefed his colleague that no pitch was required, as it was a meet and greet occasion. That didn’t stop the colleague though, as he ploughed in trying to sell the already sold buyer. The reaction on the part of the client was surprise and a touch of incredulous confusion. The brand of the seller was not advanced on that occasion, as the buyer wondered, “what is wrong with these people?”.

Why didn’t the colleague get it? Why did he pitch, when there was no need? Is this issue something you can fix through training? That is a good question and to some extent it is similar to the question “can you fix stupidity through training?”. Probably not. This same colleague has a track record with this type of behavior apparently, so he is obviously not learning as he flits along, from one disaster to another. If you do not seem intelligent to the buyer then they don’t want to know more. Basically, they won’t buy from dumb people.

There will always be a portion of any population who are dim. Some of these dim people wind up in sales. From the buyer’s point of view, we salespeople are all tarred with the same brush, until they can differentiate us from the dim people. There is not too much that can be done about dim people in the sales profession, except to try to keep them away from buyers as much as possible.

The other issues however relate to ourselves. We may be dim at times as well. We may be missing signals during the meeting and also be barging in, with both barrels blazing, when we shouldn’t be. How can we successfully read the air and better align ourselves with what the client is thinking? This is especially tricky in Japan, because often the buyers are master poker players, hiding or minimizing their body language and facial expressions. They become very hard to read. We have to be really watching them like a hawk and look for any telltale indications that they like or don’t like something we have said. Easier said than done by the way.

We can get caught up in what we are doing, when we are in the moment of presenting our solution, we can miss these important signals. If our brain is on fire with what we want to tell them, we may imagine we are listening to the buyer, but it may be self delusion. We may only have what we want to say in our own mind at that moment and therefore may not be concentrating enough on the people in front of us. Are we listening with our eyes as well as our ears?

There are things called “tells” in poker games, where the opponents peg a certain behavior indicator with a line of decision making. The idea is to work out the “tells” of your opponent, so that you can predict their actions. For example, they may have a habit of rubbing their left ear when they are bluffing. They may not even be aware of it but you will want to know that if you want to call their bluff. There are “tells” in body language, breathing, eye line, posture, etc., that can give us a hint on how our buyers are reacting. If you don’t know Japan well, at first, these signals may be lost.

I am not talking about the obvious ones like sucking the air through the back teeth, which clearly indicates what you are proposing is a difficulty or an impossibility for them or drumming their fingers on the table with impatience to see you out the door. I am talking about more nuanced and subtle signs that can be simply missed. Even if they are missed in the beginning, at least start practicing trying to link up what you see in front of you, with how things are going in the meeting. Over time, the connection between all of these “tells” and the results start to collide and you get a better idea of what you are actually witnessing.

The key point is everyone has certain habits, which are linked to how they are thinking or feeling. When we are dealing with buyers, we need to be scouring their reactions to give us early warning signals of resistance or doubt. We need to read the air in the meeting, especially when we are dealing with a buying group. There will be different stakeholders in that meeting, who will have different views on how attractive your offer is to their self interests. You need to be watching very carefully for internal resistance, so that you can assist your champion inside the buyer company to prevail against any possible opposition.

None of this is a walk in the park in Japan, but we have to raise our sensitivity to our buyer’s reactions. We can’t get lost in that beautiful sound, which is our own voice and in the warm embrace of our own ideas. We have to see everything that is in front of us, all the way through the meeting. We need to find out how to hit any hot buttons that will generate enthusiasm for our solution. We need to learn how to shut up, listen and watch instead, for clues on what is really going on. Learn to read the air if you want to make sales in Japan.

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Usually when we hear the term “presentation”, we think of a public arena, a big crowd and a lot of formality. These public occasions are important because this is your personal and professional brand on show to the world. There are other presentations though, which are in the family bosom of the company, away from the bright lights and the fanfare. This is when you are addressing the troops, people who see you day in and day out. They know who you really are.

In these cases we may need to recognise people, perhaps hand out awards, celebrate a birthday or work anniversary. This is our crew but don’t take them for granted. We can’t be laid back about it and think it is not as important as a public soiree. We still have to prepare properly. This is inside the family, so the temptation is to see the stakes as being lower. Actually, these types of speeches are the hardest ones to give and we need to be at our best. Engagement and motivation are closely driven by how we make our people feel. How much attention we give them and how we treat them, are critical elements of our authentic leadership.

Typically though, we don’t prepare, we just wing it and so end up with a pretty ordinary facsimile of a proper presentation. Wrong thinking! Well what we should we do? Here is a simple four part formula for these occasions. Firstly, explain why the award is being made. It may be for dedicated service, high quality job performance, a major sales achievement, etc. Probably everyone knows already, but we need to remind them and set the scene for the presentation. For example, “Mary has won the sales over $500,000 medal” which is pretty boring. Compare it to, “Mary beat out hundreds of other salespeople to make it into the very exclusive half a million dollars club of outstanding salespeople”. We need to set the context for the award at the start.

Secondly, talk about the team member’s role as part of the team. We need to connect them with the group and how they contribute. We might say, “Mary is a high performer and she is a fantastic team player. Her willingness to help the team win, shows the mark of a true professional. I know many of the people in this room today can attest to her openness and availability to assist wherever needed and share knowledge with others.

Thirdly, we talk about the award itself, why it is deserved and how we are all proud of the recognition this has given to our whole team effort in the organisation. We say, “Mary has been a model of persistence. She has done all the steps of the sales process, consistently and professionally. Her achievement today is also driven off the back of the number of referrals she got from clients which led to new business with other companies. We preach this referral idea and Mary is a model to remind us to make this succeed for all of us as well”.

Fourthly, we congratulate the recipient on behalf of everyone. “Mary, I am very proud to make this sales award to you today. Congratulations from all of us, we want you to receive this recognition with our best wishes and hopes for even further success in the future”.

The danger of these presentations is to go too frugal or too exaggerated. We do want to create some buzz around the award but at the same time, it has to be real. Exaggerating the importance of the award or the winner’s achievements makes the whole thing sound like a parody, a fakery. Telling the audience “Mary is genius personified, a true legend in the business. She will stand in the hall of fame of salespeople in this organisation for time immemorial”, is obvious overkill and creates serious doubts about the integrity of everyone involved in this award ceremony.

Japan is a country of institutionalised flattery so we have to tread carefully here. If you have ever been on the receiving end, then you know how embarrassing these types of effervescent comments can be. The remarks have to be sincere, true and tempered with reality.

If we over praise one person in the group, the danger is the others will become jealous and shun them. In some cases, it may be better to present this speech to Mary alone, without an audience. A nice lunch with the boss and the award presentation one-on-one may be better than gathering everyone together. Japanese people get nervous when they are singled out for too much recognition. They know the knives will be coming out straight afterwards. In this sense, Japan is a bit tricky and you really have to know the person involved and the group itself, to decide which is the best plan.

The point is to treat this as a major speech, that directly hits the team’s motivation and commitment. When you think of it that way, then you give the talk the proper attention it warrants and you can make these occasions a great opportunity to engage the team even more successfully.

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Wayne Gretzky is famous for the ice hockey quote “skate to where the puck is going to be” about anticipating where and when the critical actions have to be taken, rather than just following what is already happening. This metaphor applies even more in business, because the complexities are much higher, the team is usually a lot bigger and the ramifications much larger. In reality though, we often find ourselves following, rather than leading.

We are frequently looking at numbers which are historical indicators, not forward guides to what is coming. The ebb and flow of the day also sucks up all of our time. We are dealing with people issues and these are inspired by something that has already happened and can’t easily be undone or was missed and didn’t happen. Again, we are all historians, poking over the bones of the event to try and create a narrative to explain what has happened, so that we won’t see a repeat of a failure.

The puck location idea here is to get ahead of that daily grind and look forward. We know we should do this, but the amount of actual forward planning we do is often limited to working up the annual plan. Daily changes make that plan irrelevant pretty quickly. As the famous philosopher Iron Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. We are getting punched in the mouth everyday and are usually bogged down in reaction, rather than spending any high value time in anticipation. Ask yourself this question, “How much time do I spend on a daily basis predicting, rather than reacting?”.

Some numbers can be made available that allow us to track trends and give some insight into where the numbers may finally fall out. The run rate on revenues can tell us whether we are on track to reach an annual goal. The monthly accumulative revenues are one indicator, but run rate can show we are in trouble. It tells us we have to take some action now, to influence the final numbers, rather than crawling to the finish line exhausted and find we have come up short.

Companies who are adding people and growing rapidly are often consumed by absorbing the new people, but give no thought to the future culture construct of the organisation. When I was working at the Shinsei Retail Bank we were rapidly hiring mid-career staff to sell our financial products to the very wealthy. At one point, the new hires became the majority. That instantly meant we had lost control of the culture of the organisation, because there was now no single dominant culture. We had to scramble to create a “One Shinsei” culture, but we hadn’t spent anytime predicting that would happen. Consequently we now had to go into catch up mode. The vision, mission and values of the organisation are the glue. Rapid expansion can unglue the compact between the team and the leadership. Skating to where the puck is means anticipating the outcome of the changes we are currently executing. This sounds simple, but most of our days are spent belting crocodiles with the oar and trying to keep things afloat.

Somewhere in our day we need to be tracking the future. It could be revenues, supply capacity, clients who have missed a payment or whatever. These are rather mechanical. The tricky part if tracking what is happening with the people. For example, the predictive work needed to understand how we can retain our people isn’t being done yet. In a declining population demographic that is suicide. We see companies around us unable to source enough staff, but we never anticipate that is going to be us, in the very near future.

For those anticipating growth, that means thinking now about how many new leaders will be needed and who they might be. Next, how can we prepare them to succeed? Often we put them straight into the leader job with no training. They fail, so we have to replace them. We repeat this process forever. Giving training early is much better than coming up with the solution too late. Once they have burnt their bridges with their team, it is very had to roll that back.

Where is your puck going to be and are you ready?

Action Steps

1. Review what metrics are available to help us with our predictive needs

2. If we are adding people anticipate the possible impact on the organisation’s culture

3. Calculate how many new leaders will be needed, identify the candidates and give the final selection the training they need, before we give them the responsibilities of being the leader

4. Allocate time for predicting, rather than just spending everyday reacting

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“We Don’t Have Any Budget”.

Yes You Do!

In the profession of sales, this is one of the most widespread pushbacks on our sterling offer. It also a false flag as well. We should never believe it when we hear this, because they certainly have budget. What they really mean is they are not prepared to allocate any of their budget for this product or service. Why would they be that crazy and not make the allocation?

The issue is with us, we salespeople. We have not provided enough value to warrant any change in the current allocations. This is me too, when I am the buyer. If I get hit up for some expenditure and I am not convinced that at that price point I am getting sufficient value, then I reject the offer. I don’t say it directly though. I try to be gentle and nice and just say “it is not in my budget”.

Well that is crap actually. My budget, like everybody else’s budget is a set of random numbers in cells in spreadsheets. On the left side is written some words describing the topic. Things like salary, rent, marketing. On the right side on that line, under the column for the current month there sits a figure attached to that topic.

Where did that figure come from? It was an assumption at the start of the year of where the money would be likely be spent in the next twelve months. In reality, though we overspend in some areas and underspend in others. If we are motivated enough, we can find the money. We just take it out of one cell and transfer to another. So “I don’t have any budget for this” is simply buyer BS.

Fine, but what can we do about it? The value failure is due to a number of factors. We may not have fully understood their business or their needs, so we have been suggesting the wrong or a weak solution. They don’t find this convincing enough. Maybe our questioning component of the sales interview was insufficient in scope or maybe they didn’t open up to us and tell all.

Remember that often this is the first or second meeting with a client and the first full sales call. We are a relative stranger to them. Yet here we are as bold as brass, interrogating them within an inch of their life, like one of those a hardened detectives on a rough beat, that you see in movies. If the trust hasn’t been established then they may not want to expose all their firm’s dirty laundry to a new face.

Or maybe we did understand but the solution we presented didn’t grab them. This can be the issue of the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, being too small. I had this recently. I went through the solution in detail but I could sense this wasn’t pushing any excitement buttons. I failed to explain well enough how the solution I was proposing for the money sought, was going to improve their business results.

Reflecting on that meeting later, I realised I hadn’t done a good enough job of drawing out word pictures of how things would be different inside the company once they had our solition. I didn’t describe in enough detail how the people would be changed and really firing. I was operating at 30,000 feet and needed to get down on the deck more about the positive differences we would bring. They felt they could get where they wanted to go under their own steam, without my invaluable help and assistance. That failure to make the sale was on me.

In other cases, it might be a timing issue on budgets. The person we are talking to has to justify the number to someone in the windowless basement room downstairs, who are wearing green eye shades, shirt arm bands and counting the money. The sacred budget created at the start of the year doesn’t include this allocation and now we want to make a change. This is where we have to get creative. We need to look for payment timings that won’t trigger alarm bells in the accounting section. Maybe we split the payments across months or financial years, to make it easier to get through the bean counters. Maybe we deliver the service or product now and get paid later? In many countries you wouldn’t dream of doing that but Japan is different in that regard because you are unlikely to get ripped off.

This timing issue came up recently. I had made a full solution proposal and the local team liked it. Headquarters in Europe however had a meltdown. Well they would wouldn’t they! Anytime you take that miserable EU peso and put it into yen, the currency calculations boggle their old world imaginations. Never mind that this is a totally different economy. Or that their own local staff salary bill here in Japan is totally vast, compared to what they are facing in Europe for the same level positions. They conveniently overlook these realities and can’t get their head around spending such a huge sum of money.

Fortunately, we were able to come up with some solutions that enabled the local Country Head to move one set of numbers from one cell to another and do the business. This was worked into this year’s and next year’s budgets. They had the money all along. It was just a question of being able to pony up the value component sufficiently to get them to make the switch. So sometimes “it is not in my budget” can be rejigged, so it is done.

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This was a gala affair for a very worthy cause. A grand setting. Beautiful ladies in evening gowns, men resplendent in their tuxedos. The host of the charity event was duly introduced, to give an opening speech. The speech actually started quite well. He told a powerful story about a young person struggling in their life. The trials, tribulations and barriers described in the lead up to the point of the story were gripping. The punch line was delivered, and it was a direct hit to the heart. The person he was describing to us was a very close relative. This had real impact with the audience, it made it personal. Taking an abstract idea and then driving it home with reference to your own reality, brings an audience to you. They are sympathetic, some will be empathetic, but all will be moved.

This was a high point of emotional engagement and then he continued. And continued and continued. You could feel the power of the speech, the grip on the audience, was slowly being eroded. The attention of this luminous gathering was being lost, reduced, dissipated. Sitting there, I wondered, at what point should he have stopped while he had everyone in the palm of his hand? When it is us up there, how do we know when is enough is enough?

Perhaps his attachment to the loved one was driving him to keep going, elaborating and expanding on his message. Maybe he felt there were many things which needed to be said to this audience. No doubt there were many worthy points to be conveyed that evening.

The problem is, this is what we want. But what does our audience want? If we want to reach them, we have to give the audience what they want, so we can keep them with us. Once we indulge ourselves and prioritise our own interests, no matter how admirable, we are in danger of disconnecting our audience from our key message. This is what happened on this occasion. He should have finished on a high, while he had everyone’s emotional support.

For most speeches we are asked to do, we will have a strict time limit set by the organisers. We don’t have a chance to waffle on and keep babbling beyond that time dispensation. When you are the organiser however, there are no limits on you and this is dangerous. We need to be sensitive to how long we can expect to absorb our audience in where we are taking them with our talk.

The issue goes back to design of the talk. Even if you don’t have someone foisting a time limit on you, you need to foist one on yourself. Once you get to the arc in the story, the countdown to disinterest starts immediately. We have hit them with a powerful point or a powerful story. We have got them emotionally or logically or better both. This is when we must strike and deliver the key call to action. The linking of the emotional or logical grip on them and the action requirement we have for them, has to be made as proximate as possible. Once we start padding out the story or start adding additional things, we lose their focus. Don’t dissipate the power of your story.

So in revisiting this particular case, the plan would be to lead the audience along a path of our own design. They don’t know where we are going with the story, when suddenly we reveal the surprise which leaps out and grabs their emotions. Now we have their full attention. This is the time to deliver the key call to action. Then we wrap it up, so that the last thing they have ringing in their ear is the action item we want them to take. We do this while their hearts are still feeling warm, benevolent and predisposed to do what we are saying.

If the point of the talk is to hear our own voice and get no traction with the good cause we are promoting, then that is a different scenario. If however, we want people to get with our programme and part with their cash or whatever, then we need to bring the speech to a clear end. This speech I have used as a case study could have been a third of the length and had one thousand times more impact.

When working out how long to talk on a point, we have to be parsimonious with our scope. Better to leave an audience tonguing for more, than feeling sated or even worse, feeling overfed. The message we want to get across is our one point of focus. In our planning, we carefully arrange everything prior to that point so we can set it up during our delivery. We want no more and no less to get the buy in.

Take your speech in the design phase and keep chopping bits out, until you have laser beam clarity around what you want to achieve with your listeners. Is this hard to do? Absolutely, because we fall in love with our own prose or the sound of our voice or our opinion or all three. Often we have come up with all of these cool slides and we want to show them to the audience and this elongates the point beyond what is required. We have to be disciplined and need consistency of view – the audience view, rather than our own. Less is more is true when speaking, especially if you are in the philanthropy business.

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How do we set up a positive mindset? More importantly how do we set it up from morning when we awake and when we start work? What are we feeding our mind? What things are occupying our thoughts? How do we control what we allow into our mind? Who has influence over our mindset? Are we in control or are we being controlled?

Usually, our start of the day begins with a quick scan of our email or social media to see what has happened overnight. The problems of yesterday and the one’s we will be facing hereafter are brought straight into the brain from the start of the day. We then access the media in some format or other, but the content is consistently the same – predominantly bad news!

Is this the best way to get us into a positive mindset? It is reality and we are unlikely to change the need to access our email or to check on world and local events. We could just ignore it all, but in this fast paced world, that is a luxury that we won’t be enjoying anytime soon.

We can’t shut it out, but we can balance it out a bit better. Accept that the start of the day is already working against having a positive mindset and accept that it is going to be like this forever. We need to take some countermeasures. We need to create some time at the start of the day to get ourselves into a positive frame of mind. The start of the day is key because once the day get’s going, the chance for any type of personal reflection is absorbed by crises, meetings, email deluge, phone calls, etc.

We shouldn’t expect that somehow this positive mindset pivot is going to happen by itself. We need to schedule an intervention. Schedule is the key word here because time is all we have and how we use it means everything. If we want to become more positive we need to take action. That means scheduling time to allow that to happen. It might mean that for the commute we are listening to podcasts on educational or motivational topics that get us thinking and positive. It might mean we start the day by reading something on the train or bus that is pouring positive sentences into our brain. It might mean we are reviewing our goals and our WHY.

Most people don’t have concrete goals. They have wishy washy wishes, masquerading as goals. They are usually high level and aspirational – I want to be successful, rich, happy etc. These vagaries are suspended in the ether as well, because they are not written down anywhere. Real goals are concrete, written down, have timelines and milestones.

What about the reset for our values everyday? Have we pondered just what it is we stand for? Have we distilled our True North? If we have spent time thinking about what type of person we are and want to be, we will need to have a internal conversation about what are our values. Writing them down for review everyday helps us to reconnect with what we believe in and our best self.

So setting aside time, before the work day really gets frantic, to review our goals and our values provides us with clarity about our purpose in life, our aims and direction. How long would this take? Probably less than ten to fifteen minutes depending on how deep we want to take the process. Is that a massive burden? This re-connecting with who we are and what we want is a way to get us organised mentally to make sense of what is happening everyday. The alternative is we are a rudderless mind, being blown off course at the whim of outside forces. Leaders are supposed to be the best organised because they have been put in charge of the direction of the company. Often, however work sucks up all the time and our personal needs are sacrificed. We have company needs and our own needs. We need to vigilant because it is too easy to get that balance wrong. Start the day by ensuring a positive mindset and the balance will be assured.

Action Steps

1. Create time at the start of the day for you

2. Review your goals

3. Review your values

4. Make time to inject positive information into our brain

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In the profession of sales, “We Don’t Have Any Budget”  is one of the most widespread pushbacks from buyers to our sterling offer. It also a false flag as well.  We should never believe it when we hear this, because they certainly have budget.  What they really mean is they are not prepared to allocate any of their budget for this product or service.  If we fully believe that what we are selling is going to help them, then we are thinking “why would they be that crazy and not make the allocation?”.

The issue is with us, we the salespeople.  We have not provided enough value to warrant any change in the current allocations. This is me too, when I am the buyer. If I get hit up for some expenditure and I am not convinced that at that price point I am getting sufficient value, then I reject the offer.  I don’t say it directly though.  I try to be gentle and nice and just say “it is not in my budget”.  

Well that is crap actually. My budget, like everybody else’s budget is a set of random numbers in cells in spreadsheets.  Budgets are built on assumptions, hopes, expectations and aspirations – the whole thing is a tissue of lies and wishful thinking. On the left side of the P&L is written some words describing the topic. Things like salary, rent, marketing. On the right side on that line, under the column for the current month there sits a figure attached to that topic. 

Where did that figure come from?  It was an assumption at the start of the year, of where the money would be likely be spent in the next twelve months.  In reality, though we overspend in some areas and underspend in others.  If we are motivated enough, we can find the money. We just take it out of one cell and transfer to another.  So “I don’t have any budget for this” is simply buyer self-delusion.

Fine, but what can we do about it?  The value persuasion failure is due to a number of factors.  We may not have fully understood their business or their needs, so we have been suggesting the wrong or a weak solution.  They don’t find this convincing enough.  Maybe our questioning component of the sales interview was insufficient in scope or maybe they didn’t open up to us and tell all. We only got the tip of the iceberg and their real concerns are still lurking under the waterline.

Remember that often this is the first or second meeting with a client and the first full sales call. We are a relative stranger to them. Yet here we are as bold as brass, interrogating them within an inch of their life, like one of those hardened detectives on a rough beat, that you see in movies.  If the trust hasn’t been established then they may not want to expose all their firm’s dirty laundry to a new face.

Or maybe we did understand, but the solution we presented didn’t grab them.  This can be the issue of the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, being too small.  I had this recently.  I went through the solution in detail but I could sense this wasn’t pushing any excitement buttons.  I failed to explain well enough how the solution I was proposing for the money sought, was going to improve their business results. 

Reflecting on that meeting later, I realised I hadn’t done a good enough job of drawing out word pictures of how things would be different inside the company once they had our solution. I didn’t describe in enough detail how the people would be changed and really firing.  I was operating at 30,000 feet and needed to get down on the deck more about the positive differences we would bring.  They felt they could get where they wanted to go under their own steam, without my invaluable help and assistance.  That failure to make the sale was on me.

Welcome Back In other cases, it might be a timing issue on budgets.  The person we are talking to has to justify the number to someone in the windowless basement room downstairs, who are wearing green eye shades, shirt arm bands and counting the money.  The sacred budget created at the start of the year doesn’t include this allocation and now we want to make a change.  This is where we have to get creative.  We need to look for payment timings that won’t trigger alarm bells in the accounting section.  Maybe we split the payments across months or financial years, to make it easier to get through the bean counters.  Maybe we deliver the service or product now and get paid later?  In many countries you wouldn’t dream of doing that, but Japan is different in that regard, because you are unlikely to get ripped off.

This timing issue came up recently.  I had made a full solution proposal and the local team liked it.  Headquarters in Europe however had a meltdown.  Well they would wouldn’t they!  Anytime you take that miserable EU peso and put it into yen, the currency calculations boggle their old world imaginations.  Never mind that this is a totally different economy. Or that their own local staff salary bill here in Japan is totally vast, compared to what they are facing in Europe for the same level positions.  They conveniently overlook these realities and can’t get their head around spending such a huge sum of money. The exception would be Scandinavian countries because their pricing is always higher than ours in Japan.

Fortunately, we were able to come up with some solutions that enabled the local Country Head to move one set of numbers from one cell to another and do the business.  This was worked into this year’s and next year’s budgets.  This proves my point. They actually had the money all along, so it was an allocation problem not a sufficiency issue. 

As salespeople we can get confused about this and think we have to start slashing our numbers to push the deal over the line, but this is a false flag.  Come on - we have to be better than that.  This discounting course of action is the mantra of the amateur salesperson who doesn’t have a clue about what they are doing.  These people spoil it for the rest of us by the way and I wish they would depart the profession and leave it to the professionals. In this example, it was just a question of being able to pony up the value component sufficiently to get them to make the switch.  So sometimes “it is not in my budget” can be rejigged and it is our job to make that happen.  Step One is to change our mindset and never believe what we are being told and instead get busy and start working on creative ways to belie that statement.

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A businessman reached out to me after attending my speech on “The Seven Deadly Fails Of Selling In Japan”, which I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo. He wasn’t interested in hearing about how to sell in Japan, but he was frustrated that he was too low profile in his industry. The consequence of being invisible in your industry sector is that people don’t look for you or find you very easily. Having people call you up to help them in their business is the preferred way to get new business. It is vastly superior to spending time and money running around trying to find buyers yourself. Great! How do you do that?

This gentleman’s business was in a very defined niche and there were rivals who were dominating that niche. They were getting the lion’s share of the business as a result. He was sick of getting the crumbs and wanted to raise his profile so that his phone would start to ring. His enquiry to me was about doing our High Impact Presentations Course, so that he would be a more skilled presenter. However, he mentioned he also needed to engineer the speaking spots as an expert authority, to use these speaking skills we are going to impart to him.

This “get found by buyers” aspiration is all part of our personal branding efforts. One mental shift we have to make though, in this world of content marketing, is to understand that we are all publishing companies now, as well as being in our mainstream businesses. By this I mean, we have the ability today, to project our ideas around the world and very inexpensively, to an extent never imagined before. We can start by writing or talking if we can’t write. Writing blogs or recording blogs and then transcribing them into text is a good starting point. Great Greg, but what do I write or talk about?

In your area of speciality, there will be problems facing your buyers. You already know what they are, because when you meet your clients, this is what they talk about. Just give yourself fifteen uninterrupted minutes sitting there with a pen and some paper. You will soon be able to come up with the most important issues in your industry. These points can be fleshed out further into blogs. As I mentioned, you may prefer to talk about the issues and then transcribe them. It doesn’t matter. Get the IP (Intellectual Property) out of your head and on to paper. You could weld all of these issues together into a longer article. This would be suitable for publication in an industry magazine. The various Chambers of Commerce also usually have their own magazines and are always looking for good content.

Submit your article for publication and expect that they will edit it for you. This activity gets you in front of the readers, both those who actually read what you have written and those who only noted the headline and your name. The latter outcome is also fine because you are building an association of a topic and your personal brand. Often these organizations have an on-line version of their magazine and you will appear in that too. This is handy for getting picked up by search engines.

Take that same article now and go back and break it up into single issue blocks. Each of these is a blog post in itself and so add an intro and a conclusion. Load them up to your website, blast them out in your email newsletter, post them on all of your social media.

Contact event organisers who run conferences in your industry and suggest yourself as a speaker. Send them a copy of your long article, preferably once it has been published in a magazine, for extra credibility. They will be very happy to hear from you, because they are always looking for presenters. In some cases, they might want you to pay to appear. This might be doable or prohibitive, depending on the event.

When potential clients or event organisers want to check you out, they will do a search on your name. These blogs and articles you have written, which are pieces of evidence of expertise on this subject, will pop up. It looks better to have a number of relevant posts, than just one long article, so try and populate your feed with multiple examples of good content. You don’t have to go crazy and post hundreds but more is better than less.

If you find there are podcasts on your subject, contact the podcast hosts and suggest you do a guest spot. If you have a lot of material or can consistently source great guests, then start your own podcast. You may not broadcast it every day or every week, but you will need some degree of frequency and regularity to get any traction. You can use social media to publicise your podcast episodes. Again, this activity can be referred to buyers or conference organisers, as proof of your expertise. The search engines start to attach all of this activity to your name and when people search for you, up comes all of this expert authority.

These days shooting video is super easy. Facebook live videos take away all editing and you can send them out later through social media. Or you can shoot video on your iPhone or Ipad. The camera quality today is excellent. Just buy a frame to hold your device, screw the holder into a tripod, attach a separate microphone, stand about a meter away and you are off to the races. In iMovie you can edit the content and then upload it to your YouTube channel. You can take the transcript of the video and use it for articles and blogs. You can imbed the video itself into social media posts and add the text back in as well. The audio can be stripped out and used in your podcasts or posted in social media with a link.

All of this is multi-purposing. It creates more chances for you to be found. When you are found, people can gauge the level of expertise you have on a subject and then make a judgment about whether they want you to speak at their event or not. Even if you don’t make it to the stage at the event, your chances of getting found by potential clients goes right up. What does it require? Not much money but it does take time and effort. The best time to start all of this was yesterday and the second best time is now!

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In 2017 METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry), and the peak industry bodies the Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and industry launched their Premium Friday campaign, encouraging firms to allow their workers to depart early on the last Friday of each month. Approximately 70% of the Japanese economy is based on domestic consumption and the idea is to give consumers more time to consume, thus stimulating the economy. All good stuff, although it hasn’t really worked but there is a deeper problem for companies than more consuming.

Parkinson’s law that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion” fits Japan perfectly. The very long hours spent in work in Japan are producing work at a relatively glacial pace. There is a surprisingly slow rhythm here in white collar work. If you want to see work being done at a fast clip, then look at the manufacturer’s factories and the construction industry.

Big city office workers though are a different breed. There was some respite thanks to remote work, but people are flooding back to the office, so the same old problems are still there. They spend long hours commuting during the peak times. Why? They need to live far away to have affordable accommodation and they can’t get up any earlier to miss the crowds, because they are staying up so late every evening.

Now we have a constant rhythm in operation. Go to bed late, get up without enough sleep, so automatically feel tired, struggle through the morning commute and arrive at the office exhausted. Leave the office very late every evening. Repeat every working day of your entire miserable working life.

This is the brain era. We have the fastest communication technology in history available to us. We have total connectivity, so we are plugged into everything. Speed and mental sharpness should be our forte but often it is not. People seem unable to turn work around speedily. They are tired, so their work speed has slipped into a cycle of slow execution. Tired people are rarely creative or enjoy great acuity. Every other firm is the same, so nothing seems out of the norm here.

If you come from a different country, then you see the speed factor is much slower here. Supreme caution around mistakes does slow down the decision making process. This and the tiredness slows down the execution. The upshot is things take longer to get done here. On a positive note, things get done here without as much rework, due to better attention to detail. Mistakes can be common in our countries.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant though if we could take that Japanese attention to detail and speed everything up a bit and get the best of both worlds. Sadly this hasn’t happened organically and it won’t happen by itself!

To get better speed, we need to change the pace of work from the current slow state to a faster cycle. Parkinson’s study showed that the more time we allow for working, the staff will have no trouble filling up the hours. Japanese societal work pride is attached to input of hours not speed of output. The issue though is the same amount of productivity could be achieved in less hours. If we can get to this point, then people can go home earlier. They can spend time on hobbies, with families and friends, go shopping, go out eating, etc. This would have a lot more impact than a couple of hours once a month on the Premium Friday.

Setting the finishing time early is a good idea. For most office workers, why does anyone have to work past 6.00pm? Making people apply first and justify the need for overtime is also a way to monitor work productivity. You can substantially boost your income by working overtime in Japan, so that is a natural stimulant to working long hours.

As the boss, you put boundaries around how much time is needed to produce the same amount of work. This will positively impact the work pace. On the flip side though, we need to help our people to relax. Just forcing them into a work hyper-accelerator tube may blow them up, unless the lifestyle changes accompany the process.

In my observation, Japanese are not much good at relaxing. I am an Aussie and we are experts at relaxing. Japanese are reluctant to take long vacations still, so they never get that longitudinal benefit of time off. Culturally, they have trouble slowing down. I remember seeing Japanese on holiday in Australia. They don’t go swimming in the surf or lie on the gorgeous, golden beaches and relax. They take a photo together, with everyone flashing the peace sign and with the beach in the background. They then head off to the next location to repeat the same process all day. They get tired, so they sleep on the bus or train and then don’t see any of the scenery. They come back to work exhausted from the holiday.

We need to be the “relaxed boss” and encourage them to take more time off, to really slow down and relax, to re-charge. Getting away from work is necessary to think afresh about what you are doing. This simple thing still eludes most Japanese. Taking two or three weeks off in a row, should be seen as a good thing, not some traitorous misdemeanor. While we are at work though, let's work like legends, punch it out and then go home.

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Intention in life is key. Are we living an intentional life or are we a buffeted bystander of what is happening around us? We have our personal vision, aspirations, goals, targets or maybe not. Sales is one area of professional pursuit where intention is everything. Assertion is key in sales, but it is assertion with a Smiley Face not a grimace. Of course, salespeople need to have superb people and communication skills. The point though is toward what end? What is the intention behind everything that is being done? Is it to make a lot of money, to be the big dog in the sales team, to own lots of luxury goods?

This is what kokorogamae is all about. This is a compound word. Kokoro itself has a number of meanings, one is heart, another is spirit. Kamae undergoes a phonetic change when joined together and becomes Gamae in the compound word. It means to take your stance and we use it in karate, when we talk about the different opening postures we use. In the Dojo, when you hear the command kamae everyone knows to go into their fighting stance.

So all very interesting Greg, but what has any of this got to do with sales? If I translate kokorogamae as true intention, then perhaps it makes more sense than “spirit stance”. We have a starting point with our intention in sales. The infamous Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort’s kokorogamae was to rip off as many people as possible and make himself super rich in the process. Wikipedia lists him as “an American author, motivational speaker, and former stockbroker”. They left out the “heinous criminal” descriptor. After coming to an agreement with the prosecutors to rat out his partners, he spent only 22 months in prison for his fraud scheme. He now does speeches and runs training clinics on sales.

As an Aussie, I say to myself, “that is America isn’t it”, where the notorious can still make money regardless of how many people they cheated out of their life savings and how many families they destroyed. But this is not what I am talking about. Dale Carnegie talks about not being a good salesperson, but being a good person in sales. There is a tremendous difference between the two. I hate people like Jordan Belfort, because they pollute and poison our sales profession with their toxic mentality. They should have left him in jail forever, rather than let him run around giving public talks on how to do sales.

We all have an obligation in sales and that is to win the trust of the buyer and then honour that trust. These criminals like Belfort or Bernie Madoff, who ran a huge Ponzi investment scheme for years until he went to jail, where unlike Belfort he is serving a life sentence, make the skepticism nerve in buyers run on a ragged, raw edge.

The kokorogamae question is which one are you? Are you in sales to serve the client and make the client successful or to make yourself successful at the client’s expense. There is nothing in the middle. There is no grey area involved here. One of my sale’s heroes is Zig Ziglar. He was a door to door pots and pans salesman, who became a highly successful trainer of salespeople. He is also a Dale Carnegie graduate by the way. One of his great quotes is, “you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”. This is the correct kokorogamae in my book.

We have a job to do in sales and how we approach it makes all the difference. If we want to have a long and successful career in sales, our kokorogamae will determine the degree of success and longevity. There is a Japanese four character saying that I like, “shin shi kei shuu” which means to have integrity from start to finish. If this is your north star, guiding light, beacon on the hill in sales then you are on the correct path.

Well, this all sounds good in theory. The problems arise when salespeople become desperate and start ramping up the buyer, to get more revenue to make their targets and keep their jobs. They are making decisions based on their own interests and not the interests of the client. They recommend solutions that pay a higher commission or yield a bigger profit, regardless of whether that is the best solution for the client. I was speaking with an American sales guy once who related how he could never make sales calls for his product in the same town twice in his territory. This was because the consumers would have discovered after the purchase, just how poor the quality was of what he was selling them.

Another example was from a friend of mine who was being interviewed for a job as a recruiter. The scenario was that your candidate had been offered another job which was perfect for them, but from a rival recruiting firm What do you do? My friend said she would advise the candidate to take the other firms job and not hers, because the other job was the perfect job. The interviewers replied, “No, your job is to make the candidate take the job you are offering”. Where are the best interests of the client or the candidate in this little episode – both missing in action.

The antidote for this short-termism is study, effort, training, practice, self-awareness and reflection on what are your core values. Become highly skilled and highly trustworthy. Make a decision about what you as a human being actually stand for? If it isn’t being honest, having integrity and doing the right thing by the client every time, then please get out of sales right now.

Sales is a process that requires an understanding of the sales cycle. Plan the sales call and do prior research, build trust at the initial meeting, ask really well designed questions to understand the buyer’s needs, present the solution stressing the benefits to the buyer, deal with any push back, ask for the order and then do the follow-up perfectly. Excellent communication skills, especially drawing out emotive word pictures, makes the end result become real for the buyer.

At the heart of all this though is our true intention. We can use our sale’s cycle and communication skills for evil, like these low life, pond scum criminals in sales I have mentioned or we can vow to serve the client’s interests. Make your mantra that “in the client’s success, I sow the seeds of my own success”. Kokorogamae is a term that captures that idea of our true intention - our starting point.

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When we are writing, we can create a style of our own. The way we use certain vocabulary, the phrasing we apply in our sentences, the types of subjects we tackle. What about when we are speaking? What would we like to be known for? When people hear we are speaking, are they saying to themselves, “I need to attend that talk”? The answer to can we create our own style is definitely “yes” and you don’t have to look far for role models.

Simon Sinek launched a new career off the back of his now famous TED talk, emphasising the WHY behind what we are all doing. Anthony Robbins is famous for his massive amounts of energy and self confidence when presenting. Rowan Atkinson for his sly and dry wit. Brian Tracy for his very science based approach to his subjects. Zig Ziglar for his storytelling. Locally here in Tokyo, Jesper Koll has a distinct use of casual dress, powerful rhetorical questions, data (and colour!) saturated slides and references to when Germany will win the next World Cup.

One aspect of building a following is getting numerous, sustained gigs over long periods of time, so that you become well known, like Jesper. There are many economists in Japan, but few performers like Jesper. He can mix it up, combining dry economics with pizzazz, to make the whole event enlightening and entertaining at the same time. I am a fan and I always attend.

What about the rest of us, who for many reasons, don’t get that many chances to speak publically in a year? How can we build a brand? The first thing is to decide what you would like to become well known for? Is it your sparling wit, your cutting analysis of complex problems, your supreme confidence on what you are saying, your expert authority, the quality of your data?

Generally speaking, we will have a relatively small number of content areas we will cover. For example, I never hear Jesper speak about Japanese politics because that is outside his specialized knowledge. In my case, I cover three topics – sales, leadership and presenting. That is a bit unusual, but as we are a training company, it makes sense because these are our core areas of expert authority. I write blogs, shoot video and speak on these subjects. Here is a hint, you can do the same thing. Your blogs can be thought leadership pieces or data heavy contributions or considered commentary on a subject.

Some friends say, unkindly, that I have a good head for podcasts, but I shoot my videos anyway. Audiences search out content in different places, so it makes sense to try and meet them where they are looking. Good head or nay, I choose to get my content out there. It is often through our blogs and videos that we become known for expertise or interest in different subjects. When people are looking for a speaker, they can see the quality of what we can do and this may inspire them to invite us to speak. The impetus is on us though, to make it easy to be found.

If you are a witty type, then certainly be witty when speaking. This is a natural extension of you and it is congruous with your presentation style. If you are not witty, then spare the rest of us from failed attempts at stand up comedy, when speaking on business topics. Cautionary note to Aussies and Brits – avoid all of those culture centric sardonic witticisms. They rarely translate to broader audiences.

If you have access to excellent research and quality data then make this something that you are known for. Jesper is a well established economist in Japan, so he can easily access his own original research data and other worthy published sources. When you go to his talk, you know you are going to get some new information. This draws a fan base of repeaters like me. We can do the same, because in our different lines of business we come across golden nuggets of information, which are not so easily available to all the punters out there in audience land. We can become known for the quality of our content.

The delivery is the key though. Boring people are not attractive and won’t build a following, no matter how good their information is. So don’t be boring! Engage your audience when you speak, speak clearly and confidently. I remember reading one of Anthony Robbins’s books about how he sought out speaking spots, as many as possible, when he first started. He did this to short circuit the learning curve for himself. I am sure many of those early speeches were horrible, but by getting the repetition done, he could find ways to become the speaker he is today. We should do the same and grab every opportunity to speak however humble it may be. We can improve and become better at our speaking craft and we should be committed to doing so. The last thing the business world needs is another boring presenter!

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Rising in a company in Japan requires talent, but this is often held hostage to time. Your age, longevity and seniority in the system are factors that often trump talent. The usual internal talent development programme is based on OJT (On The Job Training). This is fine if your boss is a great practitioner, communicator and coach. Not many of those floating around Japan.

There is also a degree of humility (or is it fear of failure?) in Japan that surprises the gaishikei foreign multi-national company foreign bosses. Inexplicably, they see potential rising stars decline promotions. When they ask why they are told because “they don't feel they are ready yet”. As we move along the demographic trend line of a declining youth population, every company will need more people willing to step up to replace those retiring. The “I am not ready” mentality needs to shift some gears.

Looking at how people rise in organisations in Japan there are some interesting tweaks. The Personal Development Plan is often a perfunctory process, that is done to keep the HR paper chase happy, rather than a time for self-reflection. Why don't staff and managers in particular see this process as a career booster? If we are working on a different elongated “I am not ready” time schedule, then there is not much connection between the idea of planning a career and having a career.

This glacial evolution of the leader in Japan has a tremendous consistency. Generations come up under the same basic regime and it seems like an endless loop. The lack of role models for planning one's career means there isn't a well developed sense of how to influence your progression up the ranks. Taking on more complex stretch roles are avoided for fear of failure. Training isn't seen as a leverage point to boost one's capability and prepare for bigger accountability.

Patrons are the time-tested means of rising in the company. Attach yourself to a powerful individual and in return for total loyalty, you will be swept ever upward. Your rise is timed to the patron’s rise and not in your control.

Gaishikei companies however work off a different model. This is the usual routine of self-promotion, grabbing every chance to receive training and go for bigger assignments to prove one's capability to step up. So how can we help Japanese staff become leaders? How can we have those who are leaders already keep working on themselves to prepare for their next bigger role?

Coaching for these leaders assists them to broaden their thinking and as a means to challenge them to take some risks. The creation of an internal culture of failure, as a learning process, rather than a career killer is also important. When we ask people to step out of their comfort zones, there is an implicit social compact that they are permitted to fail. Doing something for the first time means we will be imperfect, but we will learn what works and what doesn't.

Often though, Japanese bosses brought up in the “no failure allowed” environment, don't understand or even agree with that compact. They immediately verbally whack their subordinates. Whacking people for errors in an experimental phase of anything is a guaranteed formula for canceling their creativity ticket. Is such middle management helping the company to move forward? Not at all.

The lead up to training is also an important preparatory stage that is often missed in Japan. The regular approach is for the boss to say " You have training on in two weeks, HR has the details". Japanese staff members receiving this type of briefing may wonder why they are being shipped off to training? Are they failing in their work and this is a form or correction? Is this part of an HR plot to ease them out of the company by establishing their poor performance can't be improved, even after giving them training?

Trainers regularly encounter the “hostage” personality who is anti the training, regardless of the content or the quality. They don't want to cooperate and assume the role of critic of whatever is being presented. Trust me - they are a nightmare.

If there was a proper conversation about how they had been selected because of their excellent work to date and because the company was investing in their future development, they might see the training opportunity a bit differently. If they had a coaching conversation with their boss that had them reflect on where they could do even better and to set some outcomes from the training, the motivation to participate would go right up and the outcomes would be much improved.

We need to work on the individuals and their bosses, if we want to build leadership bench strength. Culture, coaching, training and communication are all integral to getting the mix right. Those companies who work this out are going o do much better in retaining their staff and building leaders.

Action Steps

1. Create an environment that tolerates failure as part of the creative process
2. Coach High potentials to change their mind set about achieving their full potential
3. Don’t just provide training, provide the WHY of the training for them

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Former American President John F. Kennedy left us with a great quote: “Let’s never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate”. Actually, we do fear to negotiate though, don’t we. We worry about asking for too much or too little. We usually imagine a “negotiator” as someone totally unlike ourselves, a tough individual with ice coursing through their veins.

Ironically, we are all negotiating everyday within our families, circle of friends and companies. Decisions have to be taken, a direction has to be chosen and we need others to agree with our idea. This often requires compromise or even giving up our idea, in preference to competing suggestions. We are not taught how to negotiate though and so we are mainly unschooled amateurs flailing around.

Somewhere along the line, we find ourselves in a sale’s role and we have to negotiate with the buyers. Procurement officers are often highly expert in negotiations or at least they are deaf to our appeals about the value we provide. In Japan however, they are rarely specialists and often take a very basic approach.

They have their matrix with your name arranged vertically along the left side of the spreadsheet, together with all your competitors. Across the top they have the products nominated. In the corresponding spreadsheet cells, they plug in the prices. Bingo, find the lowest priced cell and buy from that company. This is bad. There is no allowance for any differentiation which you may have, because they are applying a very basic code of reference here. In these cases, we need our internal champion to intervene and fight for paying more for better quality.

Let’s now look at the usual negotiation cases, where we are not dealing with procurement officers. This “negotiation” issue is a big topic, so let’s narrow the focus to common mistakes we may be making right now, which we should eliminate forthwith.

Negotiating price before details

There are many elements usually involved in making a decision and price is just one of them. We need to garner the full spectrum of issues involved and check our assumptions about what will happen once a deal has been struck. There are variations on pricing according to volume, frequency, regularity, quality, colour, sizing, delivery options, etc. Many aspects are in play in addition to just price, although most people get fixated on that one variable and that is a mistake.

Clients are also going to be suspecting things like hidden fees, tricky terms of payment or penalties, timings. Hopefully, you don’t have any of these issues to complicate building the relationship with the buyer.

We should anticipate the client’s concerns and create our own checklist of items, before we even have any discussion with the other party. The object of the negotiation is not to outsmart the other side. It is to create a relationship, which is mutually beneficial and so tricks and clever tactics where you win and they lose is a formula for a short and limited relationship.

Failing to keep the end in mind and leaving no room for negotiation

Key details can occupy our complete attention to the detriment of what we are ultimately trying to achieve. There are micro and macro perspectives involved and we need to be able to keep reminding ourselves of the big picture, while we are mired in the mud and blood of the details.

Lack of confidence

We undermine our mental attitude to the process of negotiating by talking ourselves down. Coming across as hesitant, unsure, nervous may embolden our negotiating partner and we achieve a diminished result as a consequence.

Salespeople who have targets, quotas, bonuses or commissions riding on a deal, are very prone to cave in on price, because they are so desperate for business, any business. This weakness will come across to the buyer and the price achieved is almost guaranteed to go down as a result.

Remember, in our lives the vast majority of people we will be negotiating with will be rank amateurs, just like us, so we shouldn’t be shy about what we are doing. As a salesperson, if you believe in the goodness of what you are doing for the client, then you can be confident when negotiating.

Failing to understand the needs of the customer

Some things may not be negotiable, often for reasons which we could never even imagine. Once we understand clearly what the other side wants, we will be in a better position to find middle ground and strike a mutually satisfactory agreement. We can get captured by a single item in the negotiation and miss the many options that are also in play. Often, what we imagine to be the key for the other side, may not be their main concern. We need to find out what is their main concern and find a way of supplying it to their satisfaction.

Letting the customer dictate the process and outcomes

The buyer may feel they are the dominant side in the negotiation and may try to force us to an agreement through the brute strength of their buying power. A bad agreement is a bad agreement, so we are reasonable in asking for input into the process and for deciding to walk away from the negotiating table if we need to.

Acting desperate

We may in fact be desperate, but handing that key insight over to the negotiating partner is not necessary. We become all give and no take in the toing and froing of the negotiating process.

Using argumentative communications

Emotional control is an asset we should develop and cherish. Verbal or written outbursts may make us feel important. Usually, however, they don’t help to find an agreement. It is rarely a good idea to set fire to the emotional wick inside the other person we are negotiating with.

Failing to recognize the walk away points

We don’t have to agree if we don’t like the arrangements and we are better to flag those early, if they are deal breakers. Time is money, so let’s move on and find someone else more suitable to negotiate with. We need to have our BATNA (Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement) ready to go, should we need it. If the buyer is being a real pain, remember life is short, so go find a nicer buyer! We have to spend a lot of time with our clients and having a client list full of nice people who appreciate all that you do to advance their business is the better way to live.

Narrowing negotiations to one point, usually price

Price is only one element of cost – there are other levers around financing, quality, timing, volume, contract length, etc., which can come into play. There ar so many combinations which can create flexibility in the negotiation process. Always look for points of agreement where the value you can provide outweighs the cost of you product or service. When you really understand the client’s needs, proffer a very good solution, often price isn’t even raised.

Sometimes we get in our own way and make things unnecessarily hard for ourselves. If we stop making these basic negotiating mistakes we will do a lot better in getting a preferred outcome. The preferred outcome is a happy client, you are also happy and the relationship is becoming more and more solid, based on trust you are building and the partnership you are creating.

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A businessman reached out to me after attending my recent speech on “The Seven Deadly Fails Of Selling In Japan”, which I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo. He wasn’t interested in hearing about how to sell in Japan, but he was frustrated that he was too low profile in his industry. The consequence of being invisible in your industry sector is that people don’t look for you or find you very easily. Having people call you up to help them in their business is the preferred way to get new business. It is vastly superior to spending time and money running around trying to find buyers yourself. Great! How do you do that?

This gentleman’s business was in a very defined niche and there were rivals who were dominating that niche. They were getting the lion’s share of the business as a result. He was sick of getting the crumbs and wanted to raise his profile so that his phone would start to ring. His enquiry to me was about doing our High Impact Presentations Course, so that he would be a more skilled presenter. However, he mentioned he also needed to engineer the speaking spots as an expert authority, to use these speaking skills we are going to impart to him.

This “get found by buyers” aspiration is all part of our personal branding efforts. One mental shift we have to make though, in this world of content marketing, is to understand that we are all publishing companies now, as well as being in our mainstream businesses. By this I mean, we have the ability today, to project our ideas around the world and very inexpensively, to an extent never imagined before. We can start by writing or talking if we can’t write. Writing blogs or recording blogs and then transcribing them into text is a good starting point. Great Greg, but what do I write or talk about?

In your area of speciality, there will be problems facing your buyers. You already know what they are, because when you meet your clients, this is what they talk about. Just give yourself fifteen uninterrupted minutes sitting there with a pen and some paper. You will soon be able to come up with the most important issues in your industry. These points can be fleshed out further into blogs. As I mentioned, you may prefer to talk about the issues and then transcribe them. It doesn’t matter. Get the IP (Intellectual Property) out of your head and on to paper. You could weld all of these issues together into a longer article. This would be suitable for publication in an industry magazine. The various Chambers of Commerce also usually have their own magazines and are always looking for good content.

Submit your article for publication and expect that they will edit it for you. This activity gets you in front of the readers, both those who actually read what you have written and those who only noted the headline and your name. The latter outcome is also fine because you are building an association of a topic and your personal brand. Often these organizations have an on-line version of their magazine and you will appear in that too. This is handy for getting picked up by search engines.

Take that same article now and go back and break it up into single issue blocks. Each of these is a blog post in itself and so add an intro and a conclusion. Load them up to your website, blast them out in your email newsletter, post them on all of your social media. Contact event organisers who run conferences in your industry and suggest yourself as a speaker. Send them a copy of your long article, preferably once it has been published in a magazine, for extra credibility. They will be very happy to hear from you, because they are always looking for presenters. In some cases, they might want you to pay to appear. This might be doable or prohibitive, depending on the event.

When potential clients or event organisers want to check you out, they will do a search on your name. These blogs and articles you have written, which are pieces of evidence of expertise on this subject, will pop up. It looks better to have a number of relevant posts, than just one long article, so try and populate your feed with multiple examples of good content. You don’t have to go crazy and post hundreds but more is better than less.

If you find there are podcasts on your subject, contact the podcast hosts and suggest you do a guest spot. If you have a lot of material or can consistently source great guests, then start your own podcast. You may not broadcast it every day or every week, but you will need some degree of frequency and regularity to get any traction. You can use social media to publicise your podcast episodes. Again, this activity can be referred to buyers or conference organisers, as proof of your expertise. The search engines start to attach all of this activity to your name and when people search for you, up comes all of this expert authority.

These days shooting video is super easy. Facebook live videos take away all editing and you can send them out later through social media. Or you can shoot video on your Phone or tablet. The camera quality today is excellent. Just buy a frame to hold your device, screw the holder into a tripod, attach a separate microphone, stand about a meter away and you are off to the races. You can edit the content and then upload it to your YouTube channel. You can take the transcript of the video and use it for articles and blogs. You can imbed the video itself into social media posts and add the text back in as well. The audio can be stripped out and used in your podcasts or posted in social media with a link.

All of this is multi-purposing. It creates more chances for you to be found. When you are found, people can gauge the level of expertise you have on a subject and then make a judgment about whether they want you to speak at their event or not. Even if you don’t make it to the stage at the event, your chances of getting found by potential clients goes right up. What does it require? Not much money but it does take time and effort. The best time to start all of this was yesterday and the second best time is now!

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Dynamic, powerful, driven, single-minded leaders get stuff done. They are resourceful, disciplined, patient, highly demanding of themselves. They are often poor listeners. They are so focused on making things happen, getting decisions executed, pushing through, that conversations become monologues rather than dialogues. They are so into their thing, that they want to talk about that and not much else. Often they are the founder of the business or someone sent in to turn it around.

Crash through or crash is tattooed on the inside of their brain. In Japan, if you are an entrepreneur, then you have additional hurdles to overcome. The process of overcoming them sets up a style, a default operating procedure where you have to push like crazy to get anything done in this country.

The danger is the under done listening component of the skill base can be denying access to opportunities. Vital information isn't being processed. This is because the leader is only operating with a push out approach and no or very little drag in. Rather than carefully listening to the client, the dynamic leader wants to tell the client about a whole range of exciting things coming up. The powerful desire to drive through is not free. Missing clues, hints, subtle references has an opportunity cost.

Because these leaders are so result focused they have pretty low self-awareness. They are oblivious to the signals. They just don't see their listener’s frustration with being assaulted with all of this energy, passion and commitment. All good things, but usually good things for us but of relative interest to the listener who is also selfishly self absorbed. They want their moment in the sun too, but they don't get it.

In sales we say "selling isn't telling" and leaders are salespeople. They are selling a vision for the future, a direction, a corporate culture, a business plan, a set of values. Just hammering people with the content by occupying all the air waves and trying to beat people into submission doesn't work. Another sales quote, " a man convinced against his will, is of the same conviction still". And this is what happens. Steamrolling over the top of the listener may make the leader feel bolshie and good, but the listener is not really sold. What should leaders be doing? Slowing down is against their dynamic natures, but a lot is revealed when they do this. The listener is given more chances to comment. When we are talking at someone we only know what we already know. When the other person can contribute and make it a dialogue, we have the chance to learn new things or gain new perspectives. We also build the relationship. We are showing respect for the other person and they appreciate it. They become a supporter because they have a sense of engagement with the issue, rather than feeling like a casual observer of something that has very little to do with them.

Asking questions is a simple but important way of engaging the other person. When they are feeling engaged they are more cooperative, more loyal, more resourceful. And this is particularly the case with staff.

In Japan, trying to get things done requires Herculean strength and perseverance. You have to push hard. It can become a bad habit. We also need to grow bigger ears and listen more. That means we have to shut up and let the other person speak. If we have been powering through work, driving everything, then the staff have been trained to not contribute. They become very passive, just waiting around for the next feeding session from the rampant boss.

Asking questions has to become the new operating procedure rather than a one time dalliance. It has to be done consistently to demonstrate to the staff that they count and their opinions are valued. They have to see this process repeated before they will have confidence to lodge an opinion. The reaction to the opinion is also critical. If we cut them off, criticise or dismiss what they say, they learn their opinion isn't important. Subsequently, they keep it to themselves after that.

There is a balance between being dynamic and being inclusive. We can't do it all on our own. We need clients, we need advice, we need insight. We need to empower our staff not overpower them. The power-right-on-through model can become the default if we are not careful. It usually happens without us even knowing it. This is where our poor self awareness starts to hurt us. Stop what you are doing and listen. Are you really listening? Are you getting suggestions from your team or is it an idea free zone at your shop, with a muzak like monotone soundtrack? Just you!!!

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This is a pretty big subject, so I will pick up a few of the more noteworthy differences. In the West, salespeople, for the most part, are involved in an occupation for which they have received no training. They are thrown into sales, to sink or swim. If they don’t sell, they don’t eat, because of the sales commission structures. Total commission based remuneration is a normal thing in most countries or at least the pay structures will have a very high “at risk” component. In many cases, this drives desperation and salespeople saying anything to get a sale, in order to last another week in the job. Cold calling potential clients is a big part of finding new buyers and a lot of attention is placed on prospecting and pipeline building activities.

Japan is quite different. There are very few salespeople here in 100% commission sale jobs. The simple reason is because they don’t have to. Anyone on that type of pay scale is in a very low level job and are usually pretty young people who not very well educated. The touts you see on the street outside clubs in Kabukicho in Shinjuku or in Roppongi or Akasaka will no doubt be on high commissions and very low base salaries. The societal status attached to those in commission sales is also very low and so it is very hard to find anyone who wants to do it. In Japan, you don’t want your daughter to marry one of them.

Like the West, most Japanese people have no training in sales apart from a perfunctory On The Job Training exposure. I say exposure because it is rather more cosmetic than concrete. Your boss or one of the more experienced salespeople, will take you with them to visit a few clients and then bingo, you are out there on your own. Your boss and the others in the firm went through the same process, so no one thinks anything about it. This is a brilliant system for reproducing mediocrity, generation after generation. In both cases of untrained Western and Japanese salespeople, they notoriously launch straight into their pitch without asking any questions of the buyer. They immediately go into the dark pit of details, the facts, the spec, the brochure, the flyers, the powerpoint, etc.

In the West, commission based salespeople can have ultra short professional lives in sales. Most people, with little or no training, have simply no idea what they are doing and so they just fail. In short order, they are sayonara out of sales. The Darwinian penalty for failure is sales oblivion. In Japan, sales people are usually on a salary and bonus arrangement or base salary and commission, with the base being fairly high. For some of my followers living outside of Japan, it may be news to learn that because of the labour laws here, incompetence is not an acceptable reason to fire people in companies. We are predominantly talking about the mid-sized and big companies now, because in smaller firms that bias is not so pronounced.

Nevertheless, in Japan, the failing salesperson would get a good dose of verbal abuse from the boss, on a regular basis. If they can’t take that, then they will quit or if they can take it and won’t quit, they will be transferred to another non-sales role elsewhere in the company. Fairly useless salespeople are tolerated here, much more than in the West.

Japanese larger companies are “generalist”, rather than “specialist” production machines. Everyone is expected to migrate their way around the different parts of the company, picking up experience along the way over the course of their long career. One of those rotations may be into the sales department. Strangely, there is very limited activity applied to prospecting, especially cold calling. Japanese salespeople rely on their firm’s brand to do the bulk of the selling for them. If you aren’t very good at hunting, getting new clients, then no problem, you are assigned to become a farmer taking care of existing clients. Basically your job is to turn up and clip their ticket for the next regular order.

For all Japanese salespeople, you must be totally subservient and uber obedient to the buyer. You must do whatever they say, be available 24 hours a day and put up with large amounts of crap to keep the buyer happy and loyal. And trust me, Japanese buyers are incredibly picky and demanding. If you make a mess of even this in the lesser demanding role of farmer, then you will get moved out and into another department. You won’t get fired.

In the West, we are trained to persuade the buyer, to counter whatever they say, to have a comeback immediately. We say the buyer is King, yet we need to get their royal agreement to buy. There are lots of tactics used to get this “Yes”. Salespeople can be very aggressive and terrier like about this process. They will argue with the buyer and try to convince them to reverse their opposition to purchasing. For example, if the buyer says “I will think about it”, then the salespeople will ask them, “what in particular do you need to think about”, “who else will be involved in this decision” etc., and keep pushing hard to get a sale.

In Japan, the end decision maker is very vague and unclear sometimes inside companies. When they say “we” will think about it, they mean it, because the person you are sitting across the table from cannot make the decision on their own. Everyone who will be impacted by the buying decision has to be consulted and a consensus reached, before moving forward. In Japan, this always seems to take a lot of time.

Now in Japan, the buyer is not King. The buyer is God. Salespeople must meekly obey whatever God says. The buyer will solely direct the sales meeting conversation and will be looking for the salesperson’s pitch, so they can fillet it and then destroy it. This is a tried and true technique to reduce risk.

By pulling the pitch apart limb from limb, they want the seller to now show them this is not a risky decision that will come back later to haunt their career. Part of this pitch and then firestorm of buyer criticism routine is that there are no discovery questions being asked of the buyer. The salesperson is scared to ask the buyer, that is to say God, any questions, so they remain ignorant of their needs. If they happen to have what the buyer needs and they have successfully dealt with the risk question, then they will get a sale.

The typical lack of sales training is similar in the West and Japan, but the degrees of aggression are quite different. Pushy sales techniques just won’t work here. If you don’t know how to get permission to ask questions, then be prepared to be like the grouse at a shooting afternoon in Scotland, as the well armed buyer gives you both barrels and blows your pitch out of the air. Decisions are always going to take time because of the group orientation of this society and the buyer is never on your nor your boss’s schedule.

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Sometimes we read that when we are presenting it should be just like a conversation with your friend. The idea is we should be relaxed, inclusive, totally focused on the people we are speaking to. Now will that work in the boardroom when presenting to the senior executives, none of whom are particularly friendly? Will this work with an audience of legitimate experts in your field? Will this work with clients when pitching for their business.

We need to determine from the very start what it is we are trying to achieve. Are we going to pass on a lot of recent and relevant information that our audience will appreciate, because they can then use that in their work or use it to add to their own presentations? If it is a technical topic and the attendees are experts, then an inform style speech will work very well. Should it be chatty? Probably not. The audience may feel we are not taking them seriously enough.

This doesn’t give us a blank cheque now to be dull and boring. We need to tailor our talk to our audience and to how much they know about the subject. Too high level and full of insider jargon and we, the great unwashed, will feel stupid, isolated and diminished by the speaker. Then we will get angry at our unfair treatment.

As the speaker our job is to be an effective communicator, so we need to be using power in or power out to highlight certain words we want to stress. We should be using gestures which are congruent with what we are saying. Our eyes should be on the audience the whole time picking up visual clues as to how well they are receiving our message. We should be telling stories to make the points easier to recall. Where possible we should include aspects of our own experience both good and bad, to be added to the mix to make it real for the listeners.

If the object is to impress your audience and convince them of your suggestions. then we need lots of evidence in the talk. This is not a backyard over the fence chat. This is well structured to layer on so much evidence that the audience can only agree with our ideas. We need oodles of logic, facts, data, statistics, testimonials, evidence etc. We may need a little showmanship to bring these dead numbers to life. A distance expressed as a numeral is an abstract idea for most people. But if we expressed it as so many football pitch lengths, then people would have a much better idea of how far we are talking. The same with volumes. If we compared it to a Sports Stadium or an Olympic pool, then the concept of sizes is easier to grasp.

If our aim is to persuade or get people to commit to action, then we need to be highly energised. If we don’t look enthusiastic about the idea then the audience may well be asking themselves why they should bother to get behind this suggestion from us. We will need plenty of word pictures to draw out the end result such that the audience can see it in their mind’s eye. Getting from the abstract to the concrete as fast as possible is critical. We need to be describing what the future looks like after they take up our ideas and suggestions. If it was a course in financial accounting, for example, we need to be talking about the types of complex analysis the graduates will be able to perform. Now comes the important bit, relate that new found facility to the business and how it will either save or increase money. We cannot leave the outcomes at the general directional level, we need to nut out the concrete gains.

If our job is to entertain the audience, then the conversational manner is a good one. This is disarming, because we are inviting people to relax through our own informality. The storytelling will need to be on fire. We will be relating incidents and filling them out with people, places, seasons and all manner of detail to make the scene come alive. This is the verbal equivalent of the novelist setting the scene for the action. In novels, the writer doesn’t just say an exchange of spies took place. The author constructs the tense drive to the bridge, outlines the bleak surrounds, paints in the fog encased atmosphere, injects interesting personalities into the mix. As the speaker we need to be doing the same thing.

Chatty, witty talks are fine for when we should be chatty. At other times, we need to be more circumspect and formal. Not dull, but formal and the difference is mightily important. In some cases we may need to come armed with a battalion of bar charts and tie our audience up with our line graphs and then hit them with our pie charts. We belt them with detail and data until they surrender.

We might also need to be at our pulpit, preaching our doctrine, making our strident calls for obedience to our ideas and words. Fully indoctrinated, we attempt to infect others. Definitely not a chat. Or we might need to be topical, on point, deep in the zeitgeist as they say, informing others of what is the state of play. The key is to decide which approach you will take from the very start, before you even get anywhere near a slide deck. Do that and you will be well on the way to exceeding your audiences expectations.

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Our education moves through many transitions. We do our basic academic education at school and university and then we hit the university of life. Company education programs begin with very basic induction sessions. We may be studying technical subjects for regulatory requirements or the firms specified areas for further study. We might get some rudimentary soft skill education, although the majority of companies rely on OJT - On The Job training, particularly in Japan.

During the middle management years we might get some leadership training or in the case of large firms be dispatched to some worthy academic institution for a week of executive training. The instructors are academics, the case study method is a favourite, as is group work. Often the course colleagues are from around the globe. The whole thing is fascinating and very cool. The nature of the approach means we are usually focused on the middle to distant future. Very macro and broad in nature.

It is hard to grab hold of something from one of these courses and start executing it on the first day back on the job. These experiences happen infrequently in one's career, because of the cost in terms of money and time. They are delivered in big doses and then separated by years or possibly it was a “one shot and your done” game.

What about on-going education? The frequency is a key factor. Those who drive and spend some considerable time in cars have access to a mobile university courtesy of MP3 recordings, podcasts or apps. The same for those doing the daily commute on trains and buses. There is such a wealth of knowledge available today, it is astounding. Most of it is free. These days, you can also go on to YouTube and learn just about anything.

TED talks are great for specific topics and there is now a self-paced study mega industry based around information products. These are for a fee and are usually provided by practitioners, rather than academics. The academic world itself is also putting out their offerings on-line for free, so we stand before a tsunami of knowledge heading our way.

However, are we spending our time fruitfully accessing this cornucopia of information, insight and wisdom? Often we are not, because we are so busy working IN our businesses that we have little time and energy left over to work ON our businesses. We are all creatures of habit and routine. We have found a way through all the complexity of modern life by trying to minimize the scope of what we do. The problem with this approach though is that we go into stasis.

Business keeps unfolding and evolving and we have to keep up. In this age new developments can make you a buggy whip maker before you know it and you can be out of business. Anyone in Japan remember iMode? It was pretty good and a world leader in it’s day and now it is gone. Blackberry? MySpace? By the way, did you see that press conference with the head of Nokia bemoaning “we didn’t do anything wrong”, after Steve Jobs killed off their business with the introduction of the iPhone and the app universe. That is one example that highlights the power of challenger technologies and systems.

The viewpoint of each successor generation is different. Those who grew up with the telephone, differ from those who had the fax, and differ from those who wield a mouse. Now we are walking around with massive computing and inter connectivity in our palms through our digital devices. This means that whatever you learnt even five years ago on that executive course is probably redundant or soon will be. If that was the final investment in you by the company, what have you been doing to educate yourself?

As the boss you need to keep studying, keep pushing and keep up. Are you doing it though? Look at your timetable, how much is allocated to study in a week. Reading the newspaper doesn’t count by the way. I am talking about more specific efforts in your business area of specialty. If the boss isn’t growing then how can the business grow? Bosses, get on it!

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Japan is a big small place. It is about the same size as the UK, but is covered in mountains, the latter making up 70% of the land area. We have very few of those horizon stretching field vistas like they have in England. This mountainous aspect has led to quite strong sub-regional differences here, especially reflected in language, customs and cuisine. England has these too, but I think Japan is more pronounced in this regard. These differences pop up when you are selling here as well. The following are my experiences having sold in all of these cites and having lived in Kobe/Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo and having made sale’s calls in other provincial centers.

If we go from south to north and start in Kyushu in Fukuoka, there is a local dialect and basically everyone went to school there and graduated from the local colleges and universities. Foreigners are not calling on companies all that often down there, so there is still something of a rarity factor at play here. Back in the good old days, when companies had generous entertainment budgets, the local staff were really glad to meet you. This was a grand occasion to use you as the excuse to have a big night out on the town on the firm’s dime. My ego took a bruising when I finally worked out it wasn’t the Story charm, that was generating this great enthusiasm for a night out on the town. That big spending night out culture has gone by the wayside, but the rarity interest factor is still at play. Language is an issue though, because the English speaking capability is still underdeveloped in most of Japan. The local burghers are quite cautious and conservative too. It will take a lot of patience to do business here, but it can be done. It just normally requires a lot more time than your company’s leaders or shareholders are prepared to give you.

Kobe was opened as an international port on April 1st, 1868, so it is one of the most open minded towns in Japan regarding international business. They have had foreigners living in their midst for a very long time, so there is nothing special about us from a uniqueness point of view. Trade has meant dealing with the outside world and being flexible about it in the process. The denizens of Kobe often have a better level of English than other parts of Japan and they enjoy being seen as one of the most international cities in the country. I always found people there open to discussing business.

Osaka is an ancient merchant town with a merchant mentality. It was the center of the great commodity markets in Japan for salt, rice and soy beans. One of the great things I like about this city is they will give you a “yes” or a “no”. Often, the reluctance to tell you “no” in Japan, leaves the whole decision piece dangling, without any clear idea of where we are going with this. Not in Osaka. If they like it, they will explore if there is a deal to be done and some money to be made. They are proud of their local dialect and this is a big divider between insiders and outsiders. As a foreigner, we are so completely outside of all consideration, that in a way, we are probably better accepted than their despised rivals from Tokyo.

Kyoto I always found very closed. The aristocratic capital of Japan for centuries, it features a defined smallish city area hemmed in by mountains. The interconnectivity of the local people is pronounced. Their families have lived here for centuries, they know each other and they know who is a “blow in” and who isn’t. Even for other Japanese salespeople from out of town, Kyoto is a hard market. If you are from the outside, you are “out” for the most part.

The area around Nagoya has produced the three most famous warrior leaders in Japanese history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa family Shoguns, closed the country off from the rest of the world. When I say “closed”, this was upon pain of death for entry or exit. This went on for hundreds of years. In my experience, Nagoya is still relatively back there in a time warp – still closed off. I didn’t find the local mentality particularly open to foreign business and there wasn’t much English going on around there either. I said that in Osaka you get a “yes” or a “no” and that this knowing where you stood was attractive. In Nagoya, they do the same thing and the answer is usually “no". The pride of businesspeople in Nagoya is to have an exceptionally humble looking headquarters, with lousy office furniture, stained, aging carpets and everything very much down at heel, but to also have a huge pile of cash sitting in the bank. I found they were extremely tight with their money too.

It is the only place I have seen, where when a new shop opens and they put those decorative flower arrangements out front on the street, that passersby will shamelessly take handfuls of the flowers away with them. They justify this on the basis that it is a waste to see them die and it is much better to have them home at their place. It is a rough and tough market. In a word to the wise, they have one little commercial idiosyncrasy that will kill you. You meet, negotiate, agree the price and sometime later the agreed goods turn up at the seaport or the airport. This is when they like to renegotiate the price with you!!

“Character building” is how I would describe doing business in Nagoya. The locals are very aware of who they are and don’t open up to “foreign” Japanese from distant places like Tokyo. So, in one sense, they are very fair and they are closed minded to everyone, not just foreigners from overseas.

Tokyo is a really a first class international city and so different to when I got here over forty years ago. The tallest structure here when I arrived was Tokyo Tower, which seems incredible today, when you take in the ever accumulating city skyline. English is widespread, people are sophisticated, very international and everything works well. Getting a decision though can be seriously painful. Because Tokyo is often the headquarters for companies, the scale of businesses being here is large. As a consequence, there are many, many people who have to be consulted. Getting them to agree can take an age.

Sendai and Sapporo are a bit like Fukuoka to me, in the sense that they are not often visited by foreigners, seeking to do international business. The capacity to speak English is sparse and the local businesspeople are rather conservative. Sapporo at least, is an international destination during the ski season, so there are pockets of more international business there. Expect to have to keep coming back many times to build the trust. Things will move slowly and in small test increments.

When I first lived here in Japan in the suburbs in Kunitachi, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I always imagined that the rest of Japan was like Tokyo. It was only when I travelled around Japan selling in the late 1980s and then later lived in Nagoya in 1992 and in Kobe in 1996, that I realised that Tokyo was not Japan. The regional differences are so important. Of course, we can do business anywhere in Japan, and ultimately I did have success in regional centers. The key success factor though is to know what is different locally and to have a defined, different strategy for each major center. Did I mention you need a lot of patience?

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In business, we are asked to present as a team. We may be pitching for new business and the presentation requires different specialist areas of expertise. This is quite different to doing something on your own, where you are the star and have full control over what is going on. One of the big mistakes with amateur presenters is they don’t rehearse. They just turn up and fluff it. They blow up their personal and organisational brands. When in a team environment, you absolutely cannot neglect the rehearsal component. There will be many sessions needed before you are ready to face an audience, so you have to plan for this. Do not leave this until the last moment after you have all been diligently assembling your slide decks.

The batting order is important. Don’t put the brainy nerd up front. They may be the legitimate expert, but unless they are the best presenter keep them in reserve. We want the best person to lead off, because this is how we create that all important first impression. They may come back for the close out or have another equally skillful person secure the positive final impression. The technical geeky people can be safely placed in the middle of proceedings.

As mentioned, don’t allow all the available team time to be sucked up by creating slides for the presentation. This is the mechanical part and we need the soft skills part to be really firing. That takes time and repetition. Set deadlines for deck completion, well in advance of the event, so that the chances to get everyone together are created.

Having worked out the order, do dry runs to see how the whole things flows. Practice little things like each presenter shaking the hand of the next presenter as a type of baton pass between the team. It shows you are a tight, united unit and connects the whole enterprise together.

Also, make sure each presentation can be given by everyone in the team. People get sick, planes get cancelled or delayed, all manner of circumstances can arise. At the appointed time, you are down some key members of the team. In this case the audience expects the show to go on and for you to cover the missing person’s part.

This cannot be the first time this idea has occurred to you,. You need to plan for this at the very start. As you all rehearse together you hear their section over and over, so jumping in and working through their part of the deck shouldn’t be an impossibility. The questioning part might be different, but the presenting part should not create too many difficulties, if you are organised.

Have a navigator for the questions determined at the start. When questions land you want that process to be handled seamlessly. I remember being on a panel for a dummy press conference, during media training. One ex-journo in the audience asked us a very curly question and being amateurs, we all just looked at each other, having no clue as to who would take that infrared missile. Our work colleagues in the audience just burst out laughing, because we looked such a shambles. Pretty embarrassing stuff, I can tell you.

Anticipate what likely questions will rise, nominate who will take care of which sections and if anything indeterminate hits the team, understand that the navigator will take care of it. The navigator, will also control the questions. If it is straightforward, then after thanking the questioner, they will just say, “Suzuki san will take care of this topic” and hand it over.

If it is a bit tricky, tough or complicated and is going to be hard to answer, the navigator must control things. They need to build in a bit of thinking time for the person who is going to have to take this one. They need to “cushion” the answer. By this I mean they will say something rather harmless, but which buys valuable thinking time for the person. This allows them to brace themselves for their reply.

It would sound like this, “Thank you for your question. Yes, it is important that the budget allocated helps to drive the business forward. I am going to ask Tanaka san to give us some insight into how to address this budget issue - Tanaka san”. That sentence takes around 12-15 seconds to say. Tanaka san already knows she will get this one, because it is within in her designated area of expertise to answer during the pitch. The navigator provides her with some extra time to compose her strategy for her answer.

Another technique, which you can only use sparingly, is to simply ask them to repeat the question. You actually got it the first time, but you may want to build in some extra thinking time to come up with the best answer. Do this too often and the games up!

Teamwork requires coordination and rehearsal if you want to appear professional and well organised. When you competitors turn up like a train wreck, you will be happy you put in the work. Just make sure you don’t turn up like a train wreck and make your rivals look good.

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Brace yourself for everything to take a big hit twice a year. Speed, attention to detail, output, results are about to fall off a cliff. No this has nothing to do with currency rates, wars, supply chain issues, trade regulations, tariffs, gunboat diplomacy or anything politicians may do. This is here in Japan, every year and mainly relevant in the major cities.

Roughly one third of your team in Tokyo are going to become a lot less productive, firstly as they battle with the demon pollen plague that hits every spring. Cherry blossom time has had the gloss taken off it substantially, since the cedar pollen levels have risen to such grandiose heights. Those pinky-white buds herald the onset of a living hell. Expect a repeat in Autumn, when the grasses are heavy and are sending fine particles into the air, which impact our delicate nasal passages. It is hard to concentrate when you are crying and your eyes are so itchy you think you are going to go crazy. Just to offset these maladies, you can insert massive intermittent bouts of sneezing. The tissue box will get a hammering and those tissues will start attacking the fine membrane under the nose, so that it hurts like blazes.

For those really suffering, they won’t even make it to the workplace, because going outside is a killer. This means less shopping, restaurants in the evening and beers after work. It means masks, goggles, eye and nose drops, doctor visits and keeping indoors as much as possible for months. The disruption to the workplace is real. Even if they are working from home, it doesn't mean they are not suffering there too.

Tempers become shorter when people are irritated and in pain. They are less tolerant of others as they double down and focus on themselves and their woes. Cooperation is lessened somehow, as they are not so generous with their attention. They are less creative, because their brains are on fire trying to deal with a hostile intruder that is attacking their nasal passage microsites.

Anyone suffering from kafunsho or pollen allergy who has a detail oriented job is going to make more mistakes. Others will take longer for tasks and re-work frequencies will go up. Those in the creative industries are going to be less creative. Your rhythm is completely out of kilter and the concentration muscle has atrophied. Those in the sales army are struggling not to sneeze all over the client and to keep it all together during the sales call. Sales technique and customer focus are AWOL.

How do bosses deal with this modern pollen plague? They usually carry on as if everything is as per normal. They expect the targets to be achieved, the logistics to keep working perfectly and everything to carry on as if we were not under siege. On the other hand, during influenza or Covid outbreaks people disappear for a whole week, one by one, as they infect each other. The workplace can look like a ghost town. A few hardy types keep it together, until the troops rally and return. The outputs are directly affected.

These cases are accepted however as serious health issues and bosses are understanding about the health ramifications, missed numbers and targets. The difference with kafunsho is that this is the death of a thousand lashes. You don’t get to take a week off and recover. You don’t recover at all, because the symptoms stick around for months. You have to turn up to do the work, but only a shadow of your former self is actually turning up. It is time to accept that the months from February to May, up until around Golden Week are going to be a disaster. Expect that Autumn is going to be another time for work dislocation. Together, this adds up to a full third of a year we are talking about here – no small thing. Statistically kafunsho affects one in four Japanese, but the actual rate is much higher in the big cities, because of the toxic combination of pollen and pollution from cars. I said one in three and that is a guestimate, based on my observation of what is happening every year in Tokyo.

Spring is particularly bad. When the cedar and cyprus pine trees are at their maturity peak, you see heavy clouds of deadly yellow pollen on television, being whipped up by the wind. News reports track the spread of the pollen from south to north and nominate days when levels are very high. This is not going away anytime soon and so we have to adjust our expectations during these high infection months. And it is an infection - the pollen gets into your eyes, nose and throat and creates severe inflammation and distress. Autumn hay fever is a shorter version, but still potent.

So bosses – be sympathetic with your team members who suffer. Adjust your production number estimates down during these months. Keep a sharp eye on accuracy levels for key parts of the business. If you are not a suffer, become a fellow traveller. Be caring for those members of the team who are doing it tough. Be fully genuine about it, because there is nothing more irritating than being patronised to, by someone who has no clue what you are going through. This is when the boss’s real commitment to the team is shown, on stage and for all to see. Get it right every year and twice a year!

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How I hate those four words – “send it to me”. I get that heavy feeling in my stomach and around my shoulders. I know we are now on the path to sale’s hell. I particularly hate it when I hear that request after I have tried for the second time to secure a meeting to go through things face to face be that online or in person. After you have requested the meeting and they push back, you can go back again and try for the meeting. However, when they push back twice in a row you have nowhere to go, you have to send it or you come across in a bad light, as someone who is either stupid or socially tone deaf. Neither are attractive to buyers so we best avoid plunging ourselves into those negative brackets.

The “send it to me” request usually refers to sending basic information such as brochures and flyers or it might be around content and pricing. The latter is usually a quotation or a proposal. The reason the buyer normally puts forward for not meeting you is that they are too busy to see you. If you have had one meeting already and it is time to propose the deal, you can send the document by email and not meet. The chances of them buying though are substantially reduced and you may as well post it to yourself for all the good it will do. Those flyers and brochures you diligently sent in response to their request will soon be winging their way to the waste paper basket, to be forgotten immediately.

I struggle with this “send it to me “ request. I know I have to do it, if I have exhausted my chances of a face to face meeting in a room or virtually. However, I know this is a dead duck. I often meet senior decision makers who will request I send the information so they can share it with the “team”. What does that look like? If it is a physical entity it will just be sent to the designated person with very little explanation.

Now I may have spent an hour with the senior company representative going through chapter and verse of the innumerable benefits and marvelous advantages of our widget. This gets compacted down to “take a look at this” when passed down the line. The end receiver in Japan is often indignant that anyone is intruding on their turf and they have that “not invented here” histrionic approach. If they didn’t know about it already or they didn't find it for themselves, then it can’t be any good.

The people who need to get involved vote with their feet and end the process right there. You are left high and dry with nowhere to go. You don’t get to meet them. When you follow up, the big boss tells you the team has had a look at it and decided they are not going forward with the information. Where do you go? Basically you go and find another buyer because this is a train wreck.

Next time though you should apply a different approach. Ask the senior person to introduce you to the people down the line, who will do the actual work. Now they may refuse to do that for whatever reason, but you should always ask. And ask in a way that is hard for them to say no. For example, “Suzuki san, what we have found is that when we present our materials to people who often carry out the actual tasks, they see many more possibilities than we can imagine, because they are at the coal face. Would it be beneficial for your company to be able to generate innovative ideas and new possibilities if I was able to take your team members through the details, rather than just passing on materials which by themselves, provide insufficient context?”. Now that is a question carefully designed to elicit a “yes” response and this is the type of question we need to insert at this point.

When it is a proposal document, we are normally sending it to the senior person we met previously. Remember this a false dawn. They are going to go straight to the back of the document and will see only costs and no value in the pages presented. Without us there to explain the associated value of the investment, they cannot rationalise the two together, very easily. We know our product or service much better than they do, we have broad experience of where other buyers have benefited from it and we can answer any enquiries they may have right there on the spot. When we send it, we are sending the proposal out naked to the world, with no protection from the harsh glare of buyer skepticism.

The proposal is like the headline of a magazine article. To really understand what is going on, we have to read the article itself, to get the proper perspective and context involved. When we don’t get that chance we are sending our sales hopes into oblivion. I had one of those “send it to me” requests last week and I sent the proposal with the numbers knowing full well, this was a guaranteed suicide mission.

When the buyer decides to not make the time, then they haven’t been sold enough on the value. I had one prior meeting, but obviously I didn’t do a good enough job on explaining the value of what we do. The leadership team over there will look at the numbers and will say to themselves that it is out of their budget. The reply I expect will be “thanks, but no thanks”. Those numbers supplied are relative to the return they will bring and the real cost of our service is zero, because the costs will be paid for out from the additional growth. This genius conversation is unlikely to be had, because I won’t be able to get in front of them to make my points.

“Send it to me” is the kiss of death in sales. Sometimes we just can’t avoid it but we should always push hard for a face to face meeting. Don’t push too hard though, because you will mark yourself out as an idiot and they will never deal with you again. Today’s “no” is only no to the offer in it’s current form, in this part of the business cycle, within the limitations of this year’s budget. It doesn’t mean no forever and one day the planets will align and we will go back in there and make the sale. We have to be patient and keep plugging away with other buyers in the interim.

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When a presentation event unintentionally turns into comedic relief, you know you have a major credibility problem. Imagine it is after work, a cavernous hall filled with hundreds of people, the booze and small talk all free flowing. The MC attempts to introduce the main host of the event, to make some worthy remarks. The hum continues as people are more riveted by their own conversation than anything the crew on stage has to say. In a stroke of pathos, the MC starts shooshing the audience to attempt to quieten them down.

The audience aren’t buying any of this Mother stuff from the MC and keep chatting regardless. This leads to even more ridiculous shooshing, only louder and more strident this time. The MC doesn’t appear to have had any presentation training. So they have reverted to parental authority over the naughty boys and girls in the audience, to restore some semblance of order. We have now descended into comedy, but more a comedy of errors.

Almost giving up, the main speaker is now trotted out by the MC for more of the same. This speaker thankfully didn’t try any shooshing of their own, but the MC was on a roll and unhelpfully weighed in from the sidelines, with more shooshing, during the speech. The main speaker was not skilled, interesting or commanding, so their words were subsumed into the general low drone echoing across the hall from all the crowd hubbub. There were other subsequent speakers and they also were buffeted by the strong winds of disinterest.

Should we blame the speakers for being unskilled and boring or the audience for being ignorant and rude or both? Well I don’t think we can blame the audience and even if we did, what difference would it make? Should we have burly security guards on hand, to frog march noisy offenders out of the hall. We could try this to spread the general idea that we the organisers can’t be brooked and require better manners from the assembled rabble.

In reality, I think we have to accept that if you release free flowing booze into the audience, then their conversations are going to be more attractive to them, than anything else happening on stage. In many cases in Japan, they hold the booze back for that very reason. If you are well behaved and don’t talk over the speeches, we will reward you with a drink when we get to the toast.

This Pavlovian style training tends to inject more discipline into the proceedings. It is not completely foolproof and some hardened conversationalists, maybe the non-drinkers in the audience, will still continue their tete-a-tete during the main speeches. It is a much smaller group though and generally everyone is listening to the speeches. The negative thing about the Japanese methodology though is the speeches are usually too many in number and too long in length. If you are all that remains between you and drinkees, then remember to make it short and memorable, then get off.

Well what can we do when it is us up there on stage, at the podium, surveying the great unwashed, unreformed and unruly rabble. They are shamelessly standing there staring back up at us, while willfully chit chatting, with no sign of embarrassment or remorse.

The first thing is to design your talk to be powerful, impactful and short. Waffling on about nothing of great import or of any consequence to the audience is a guaranteed formula for being ignored. Our main speaker did a great job of doing just that. Naturally people were not moved and the MC, in vain, had to bring out the shooshing nuclear harpoon to corral the audience.

If you are in this position, think very carefully about what you can say at the start to get the audience engaged. Talking at them won’t cut it. We need to be speaking with them and this is where getting crowd involvement works like a charm. Ask them a rousing question. Get them physically and mentally involved.

This occasion actually really lent itself perfectly to this task. It had a sporting theme and the audience was chock full of opposing supporters covering a large number of competing teams.

If our MC or the speaker had asked the audience to nominate which team was going to win the competition, then audience involvement would have been tremendous. Additionally the pro technique is to say, “I didn’t catch that, who is going to win?” By doing this you get the audience to really ramp up their energy and volume. They want to talk, so give them their chance to really rock it, but only for a moment. There is a particular mass rally, large crowd effect we want to tap into, as there is tremendous energy therein, which we want to direct.

Following that raucous reaction, thank them, then pause. You will now have a still quiet in the room. This is when you had better say something really gripping. You have the complete attention of the masses and they are now open to you. They are having a good time at last.

As you proceed into the talk, the low hum at the back will return. Expect that, so again ask them another leading question in a few minutes time. This will allow them to burn off all that excess chat energy they have, so that they will be calm and listen to you again. You can’t keep doing this ad nauseam, otherwise it feels manipulative. People won’t respond anymore, they won’t like you and will leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

The answer to keeping audience interest, is to be interesting. Use word pictures, tell relevant stories, lift your speaker energy right up to the top of the scale to command the room. Rock stars can do this, because they have massive amplifiers, electric guitars and a full drum kit to work with. You don't have any of that, but you have to become as powerful as a rock star on stage, to grab easily distracted people’s attention. Your projection of your “ki” or body energy, big gestures and powerful voice strength are the equivalent of the amplifiers, electric guitars and full drum kit.

In our presentation training, the participants are at about 15% energy levels when they first enter the training room. We the instructors have to project our own energy levels up to 130% or 150%, to lift the audience up to 100% of their potential energy. Speaking in front of a noisy crowd requires the same strategy. In this case, you have to go above their energy levels and seize control of the room. They are already chatting at close to 80% to 90% energy levels, so we have to go to 150% to stay in command of the proceedings.

Sadly, our speaker did none of that and was totally forgettable. The MC was just annoying and the whole episode was a shambles. Those on stage were all speaker road kill when it got to their turn.

If you are ever in the nominated speaker position to address a noisy assembly, take the ideas outlined here and you will be heard and well regarded. You will emerge with your reputation really enhanced, because skilled crowd lion tamers are few and far between.

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Brace yourself for taking some big hits in Japan. Speed, attention to detail, output, results will fall off a cliff. No this has nothing to do with wars, currency rates, trade regulations, tariffs, gunboat diplomacy or anything politicians do. Every season there is something going on here which will harm the work flow and the desired outcomes.

Spring is usually seen as a happy time and a relief from the cold, gloomy months of winter. It isn’t happy for everyone though, me included. Roughly one third of your team in Tokyo are going to become a lot less productive, as they battle with the demon pollen plague that hits every spring. Cherry blossom time has had the gloss taken off it substantially, since the cedar pollen levels have risen to such grandiose heights. Those pinky-white buds on cherry trees herald the onset of a living hell. It is hard to concentrate when you are crying and your eyes are so itchy you think you are going to go crazy. Just to offset these maladies, you can insert massive intermittent bouts of sneezing. The tissue box will get a hammering and those tissues will start attacking the fine membrane under the nose, so that it hurts like blazes.

For those really suffering, they won’t even make it to the office and will prefer staying at home, because going outside is a killer. The economy gets hit directly. This means less shopping, restaurants in the evening and beers after work. It means masks, goggles, eye and nose drops, doctor visits and keeping indoors as much as possible for months.

Tempers become shorter when people are irritated and in pain. They are less tolerant of others as they double down and focus on themselves and their woes. Cooperation is lessened somehow, as they are not so generous with their attention. It is hard enough to gather cooperation when everyone is working remotely anyway, but this just adds another layer of complexity. They are less creative, because their brains are on fire trying to deal with a hostile intruder that is attacking their nasal passage microsites.

Anyone suffering from kafunsho or pollen allergy who has a detail oriented job is going to make more mistakes. Others will take longer for tasks and re-work frequencies will go up. Those in the creative industries are going to be less creative. Your rhythm is completely out of kilter and the concentration muscle has atrophied. Those in the sales army are struggling not to sneeze all over the client and to keep it all together during the sales call. Zoom sales calls become a necessity, as much as we may prefer meeting buyers face to face.

How do modern bosses deal with this modern pollen plague? Sadly, they usually carry on as if everything is normal. They expect the targets to be achieved, the logistics to keep working perfectly and everything to carry on as if we were not under siege. On the other hand, during the winter influenza season outbreaks occur and people disappear for a whole week, one by one, as they infect each other. Nowadays they are also disappearing because they have contracted Covid and are out from work for at least a week in most cases. The wheels of commerce stop turning. A few hardy types keep it together, until the troops rally and return. The outputs are directly affected. A friend of mine has twenty people in his team and five of them got Covid at the same time. That is devastating for his business.

These types of illnesses are accepted however as serious health issues and bosses are understanding about the health ramifications, missed numbers and targets. The difference with kafunsho is that this is the death of a thousand lashes. You don’t get to take a week off and recover. You don’t recover at all, because the symptoms stick around for months. We talk about long Covid, but kafunsho is much longer.

You have to turn up to work be it at home or in the office, but only a shadow of your former self is actually turning up. It is time to accept that the months from February to May, up until around Golden Week are going to be a disaster every year. This is a full quarter of a year we are talking about here – no small thing. Statistically kafunsho affects one in four Japanese, but the actual rate is much higher in the big cities, because of the toxic combination of pollen and pollution from cars. I said one in three and that is a guestimate, based on my observation of what is happening every year in Tokyo.

The cedar and cyprus pine trees when at their maturity peak, produce heavy clouds of deadly yellow pollen, which is whipped up by the wind. News reports will track the spread of the pollen from south to north and nominate days when levels are very high. This is not going away anytime soon and so we have to adjust our expectations during these high infection months. And it is an infection - the pollen gets into your eyes, nose and throat and creates severe inflammation and distress.

So bosses – be sympathetic with your team members who suffer. Adjust your production number estimates down during these months. Keep a sharp eye on accuracy levels for key parts of the business. If you are not a suffer, become a fellow traveller. Be caring for those members of the team who are doing it tough. Be fully genuine about it, because there is nothing more irritating than being patronised to, by someone who has no clue what you are going through. This is when the boss’s real commitment to the team is shown, on stage and for all to see. Become a paragon of empathy for those suffering.

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When you contemplate this title you are probably thinking about heroic sales efforts, massive privations, sacrifice, striving, discipline, patience and forbearance. Actually I am not talking about any of that mighty stuff. I am talking about your client. The really irritating thing about sales is trying to get someone to buy who doesn’t need what you are offering. You know they should have it, but they don’t know. That makes it really hard to persuade the buyer to activate.

We know we should be running the sales conversation along the railway track progressing through the sales continuum. That track follows this order-build the trust, get permission to ask questions, uncover needs, perfectly match solutions, deal with any push back and ask for the business. When we get to the discovery part, there is nothing so painful as finding out they don’t have any significant pain. The client is happy with their current supply arrangements. They can’t see the need to encompass dealing with the angel (you) they don’t know, when they are comfortable and safe and sound with the devil (your competitor) they do know. Not all is lost though. We can try all manner of things to break in, such as suggesting some form of trial, also some other very low friction starts to the relationship such as elongated payment terms, etc. We can try and introduce something better at a small scale to try and pry open the jaws to new business.

Japan is a place where once you get in, the client tends to want to stick with you, because you are a known factor and so the risk element has pretty much been homogenised and dealt with. A new supplier is painful for the buyer because now they have to go through that whole risky process from the start. Here the buyers are super risk averse, so it is easier to say “no thank you”.

The other pain point is no perceived need. We deal with a lot of large companies, particularly multi-national companies who have devolved their own internal solutions. This is a big irritant. The local boss feels there is a solution that works already in play. So there is little pain requirement there to elicit any change or to introduce something additional. This is the point. When they don’t feel any pain and significant pain right now, you can’t gain the new business.

I was speaking to a potential client and knew they had an internal solution. The reason I knew it is because I have been trying to break into their company for a number of years. Every time I saw the boss, I would hit him up about doing something together. I had a very steady response rate: no, no, no and no, for the last eight years.

Well that old boss just retired and bingo we have a new face running the show. So of course, I am thinking here might lie some pain relief against this permanent rejection I have been suffering. Valiant efforts to excite the new broom on the possibilities were made, but that spark of interest wasn’t burning in his eyes. I am dangling tasty morsels in front of him, but he is not salivating in anticipation. His eyes are dull and disinterested. He is polite, which I like, but I can’t see any buying signals, which I don’t like. Why? I can see that what I am offering, in the way I am offering it, is not demonstrating a big enough pain gap between where they are now and where they want to be. He thinks they can do it themselves, so no sale.

There is always an issue with industries which are booming. The money is rolling in, so the idea of doing anything new or different isn’t a contention. Ironically when things go bad, they are trying to cut costs, so they are hell bent on reducing the supply of various external solutions. So when is the happy time to make the sale?

I was thinking about what could I have done better, to demonstrate the differences our solution could have brought. I had tried a few well tested ideas that have sponsored some interest previously, in other similar situations, but the eyes were not shining. I could see the passivity inside the mind. I just wasn’t hitting anything interesting enough to inspire a test or trial or any of the usual door openers.

Sometimes the gap is not big enough to squeeze through. The amount of pain being experienced, is being dealt with sufficiently from within. They have invested in a solution already, it works, so “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it baby” reigns supreme as an ideology.

I think I didn’t do a good enough job on painting the word pictures of what the brave new world with us would look like. Reflecting on the conversation, I was mightily aware of the sunny uplands of our solution, but I failed to get that image into words that inspired action.

So unless your client feels pain or is shown that pain is coming their way, there will be no gain for the salesperson. We have to keep trying and we don’t always hit the ball out of the park, but we have to keep swinging.

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When we are presenting, we can be mentally separating out personal selves from the content of the talk. There will be facts, data, statistics, details, examples, evidence, etc., which is all rather far removed from the individual presenting. It is almost like we are doing third person presentations rather than first person. Technical people, in particular, like to remove themselves from the proceedings and only talk about the facts. This is a big opportunity wasted.

I am an introvert, so I understand about the reluctance to inject oneself into the story. People who know me will be doubting that statement entirely. They will say I am outgoing, confident, vocal, not shy and retiring at all. The Myers Briggs personality analysis results define an introvert as someone who when they get tired, likes to retire from the fray, rest up and then return. The extrovert grabs energy from others and so wants to occupy the center of the fray. Following this split, I am a withdraw now to return refreshed later type.

As an introvert, talking about myself or my family was something that I was highly hesitant to do. In fact, I managed to give hundreds of public speeches, while safely keeping myself out of the narrative. I realise that this was a big mistake.

Now we don’t have to hang all the family’s dirty laundry out for all to see, but we can inject something of ourselves into the talk. We can refer to our experiences with a particular subject. We can tell stories of what happened to us when we did something we are recommending people to do or not to do. When we do that we make a very strong connection with the audience and with a sense of reality. Now the talk has moved from the theoretical to the practical.

We all want to know what the reality is. That is why we appreciate the opportunity to read consumer comments on products or services they have bought. We are looking to cut through all the company propaganda and get some sense of what is really going on. You Tube is full of videos of people reviewing products and commenting on their experiences with them. We love the chance to get more objective information before we make our purchase.

Well, audiences are the same. They want to know what really happened. This means if we can inject our experiences and insights into the presentation, the audience speaker credibility gauge starts to really move the needle in a very positive direction for us. To do this we have to be willing to share stories and episodes of what happened. Sometimes these are hard to relate because maybe we are not being shown in a perfect light.

The funny thing about audiences is that they don’t like people who are perfect. Too smooth, too polished, too slick comes across like a rat with a gold tooth. Your internal danger beacons starts flashing and the loudspeaker broadcast is telling you “danger, danger”. Our audience likes to hear about the struggles, foibles, mistakes and failings of others. They don’t regard these people as weaklings to be discarded on the mountainside like we have all read about in ancient Sparta. Instead they identify with our human frailties. They feel more able to relate to us.

Humour is tricky with presentations, but self-depreciating humour never goes down badly. I was watching one of the masters of sales presentations –_Zig Ziglar. He was relating his tough, early days in sales, going to host’s kitchens and cooking up a storm for the invited guests who were his prospects. In passing he casually mentioned that even though he was struggling early in his career he did sell quite a bit - his car, his furniture…. It was quite funny the way he told it and the joke was against himself, rather than against another person. This is the mark of a professional.

If we want to connect with our audience, we shouldn’t be afraid to poke fun at ourselves, tell of our failings, mistakes, disasters, train wrecks, etc. The audience will appreciate the honesty and also the peek inside about what not to do. It took me a long time to be able to do this, being an incredibly private person, raised in the isolation of the Australian bush. But when I did manage to start injecting more of myself into my talks, I found a stronger resonance with the audience and more acceptance of what I was saying. I realised I should have been doing this a lot earlier.

Try to find something about yourself you can include in the talk, related to what you learnt. We love the train wreck. If you say, “Let me tell you how I made ten million dollars”, we won’t be as interested as if you had said, “Let me tell you how I lost ten million dollars”. We really enjoy finding out what we should do to avoid disaster and you sharing yours, is much appreciated. So don’t be shy to talk about things that went off the rails, the meltdowns, the spontaneous combustions, the total disasters. Put yourself in the story and we will love you for it.

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Performance evaluation is not popular anywhere, but especially so in Japan. Teamwork and so team performance review is preferred to individual accountability here. Some firms are deciding that because their managers are doing a poor job twice a year with the performance reviews that they should switch it up and have permanent reviews instead.

Seems hardly a day goes by when yet another big player announces they are no longer using annual performance assessments. Basically, this is a combination of clever corporate PR and a recognition that their managers were not up to the job of leading their people. Performance assessments have moved from once a year to twice a year as a formal construct, to now regular discussions between leaders and the led. Has anything really changed except the patina of modernity and cutting edge investor relations department propaganda?

The issues are the same. How do we evaluate our teams, how do we determine who to promote or reward with pay rises, bonuses, higher commissions etc?. How do we get some consistency across the entire organisation, so that the same performance level is evaluated and rewarded in basically the same manner? When you have big teams this is tricky. Whether we are doing these reviews weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually makes little difference, if it isn’t done well. Being annoying more frequently isn’t progress.

Employee satisfaction surveys and engagement surveys consistently indicate that most performance reviews are not done well. Usually, neither party comes out of the affair feeling more motivated, empowered, inspired and better as a result of the process. Having more frequent poor quality dialogues doesn’t help much. Leaders who can’t communicate properly, just keep piling on the damage, and now under the new regime, they have the chances to ruin more occasions more often.

Previously, it was expected that somehow bosses would have regular feedback sessions with staff throughout the year, rolling up in to either annual or bi-annual formal evaluation processes. This in reality is such a rare event. Normally, email tsunami, meeting deluge and reporting rampage combine in a perfect storm with poor time management skills and non-existent delegation capability, to ensure the boss is maxed out. Poor or excellent conversations are simply not held, because the boss is too busy.

Moving to a more codified, frequent model of conversation implies there is sufficient schedule availability for this to happen and also that the proper preparation is being done prior to the conversation. What magic unfolded that a notoriously poor time manager, running a delegation free zone, can now function more professionally everyday rather than twice a year? Actually, none and now they just have an additional level of reporting to complete. They are already busy.

If there is professional skilling up of leaders on how to handle performance management and reviews, then there is some hope. The addressing of fundamental time management and delegation issues are closely tied in with that goal. Just spending time on the conversation model itself is pointless, if there is not the proper boss focus on the employee dialogue. That focus is a product of time management, communication and people skills. Training in improving all three would make a lot of sense, but is this the case? Does the new wind of groovy, corporate change bring forth a holistic fix?

People do make a difference and they are usually the most expensive and valuable component of any operation. Recognising that the current state of play with annual discussions is not sufficient is a good step forward. Recognising what is needed is trickier. Retraining busy, unrepentant bosses to be better communicators is certainly needed, but usually not done well enough.

This is not the quick fix of a two hour workshop. Of course, the HR function can safely check the box that the training has been completed and move on. The reality however is the people part is still left trailing behind. Getting bosses to move out of their Comfort Zones and do new things is not achieved by just giving them more or new information.

Intellectually, they may get it, but what comes out of their mouths will be the same old, same old. The skilling up process needs to address the risks and fears of doing new things and to have immediate linkage between the theory and the practice. Knowing about something and doing it, are not the same thing.

If we all abandon current review schedules for the fashion of permanent reviews, then we have to do a lot better at handling the content of the conversations. Unless this becomes a reality, this will be another fad that hangs around for a while and then is taken out the back and quietly garroted. Of course a lot of performance review consultants will feast out on the carcass before that happens. Probably not the outcome firms were hoping for though.

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Stony motherless silence unleavened by a stony face. That was the reaction to my questions from this first Japanese buyer and subsequent other buyers. I had studied the American sales guru’s sales techniques. I was a devotee of “consultative sales” and here I was in Japan trying to sell stuff and failing. In those days back in the early nineties, I was primed to ask my questions using the American guru sale’s models. Find out if they are the decision maker, if they are ready to move right now, what they like about what they have now, what are the things that aren’t fully satisfying their needs, etc.

This is all well and good and today we are still doing consultative sales. We sometimes call it solution selling, value selling or whatever, but essentially it is the same basic premise. Find out what they are doing now, find out what they would like to be doing, discover why they are not doing it already and then provide the pain point relief. This makes a lot of sense and should work in Japan too. Like a lot of imports into Japan, that have been successful overseas, there is often an adjustment or two needed to be made to meet the needs of the local market.

When I met the buyers and went through a little bit of chit chat, I would move straight into questioning mode. To my chagrin, the buyers sat there motionless. I would repeat the question, but nothing was coming out of their mouths at all. They were as silent as the tomb. Not being great with those long Japanese silences in conversation, this made me very uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what on earth I should do. I had just asked the same question twice, about their current situation and was getting a very cold, unfriendly reaction. Not a brilliant buying signal!!!

After what seemed an age, that first buyer just requested I tell him about our product. Well that was progress, I thought and went ahead with a glowing rendition of the finer points and wonderful attributes of this product, a crowning triumph in the modern era. The buyer then filleted my presentation like he was going to work on a tuna fish in a sushi shop. He was carving up my argument about my product’s suitability for Japan and for his business. Well I gave it the old school try to win back some credence for what I was offering, but left that meeting with my tail firmly tucked beneath my legs.

This would happen all the time. I started to wonder why I kept getting this pitch request and wasn’t being allowed to be a consultative salesperson in Japan. Gradually, I realised the problem was that I was launching into my questions, without receiving permission to ask questions first. I wanted this person, to whom I was a complete stranger, to fork over the most intimate details of all of the company’s failings, weak points, gaps, holes and shortcomings within three minutes of meeting him for the first time. What could possibly be wrong with this picture?

I also realised that the reason the buyers were tearing my presentation apart was for them to satisfy themselves that this decision to buy would be an extremely low risk idea and that it would not feature any blowback on them in the future. They were reveling in their risk averse natures and shooting my argument full of holes. This was their way of getting a comprehensive view of the risks. So I came up with the addition of the extra step in the process, to seek permission to ask questions first.

All good and it works – most of the time. Incredibly though, some buyers will wave that away and insist that you give your pitch regardless. They have been so well trained by pitchpeople, masquerading as salespeople, that they can only comprehend a sales conversation as a pitch, critique it then reject it continuum. What should we do with these holdouts for our pitch? We could just give up and give a desultory overview of our line-up and then retreat. We need to have a Plan B for this occasion for buyers who are intransigent pitch requires.

So, give your pitch with as much gusto as you can manage, but study their faces like a hawk. As soon as you see them start to disconnect and lose interest, you need to jump back in there and try to get your questioning model going. Say to them, “I wonder if what I am saying is of any interest? I get the sense that I may not be highlighting the key things you are interested in. I certainly don’t want to waste your valuable time today. May I ask what you would rather hear about?”.

This allows us to get out of pitch mode and bridge across to questioning mode, so we can find out if we have what they need or not. They have problems for sure and we have solutions, but we can’t move forward unless we know if we can help them or not. The only way to find that out is to ask them questions. Once we get to this point where we realise we have what they need, then sales will start to happen, as we better match their needs with our solutions. If you get pushed into pitching, see if you can pivot back to the questioning model. After all, you have nothing to lose, because your pitch rarely results in a sale. You have gotten the meeting, you have their attention, so that is a big deal. Now let’s try and convert that opportunity into a sale.

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Good posture never goes out of fashion. Standing up straight shows confidence, allows good breath control and projects energy. Given this is pretty simple, then why is it we get this so wrong when presenting? The problem is temptations aplenty in the presenting environment. The various acting awards or music performance awards are broadcast all around the world, to celebrate people making their living as professional presenters. Acting is presenting and so is singing, although we do not often think of the performances in that way, but fundamentally that is what these artists are doing.

Now this is one group you would expect to do this well. Yet, we see award recipients murdering their acceptance speeches. They stand there shoulders curved, hunched over the stand microphone, bending low from the waist to accommodate the tech, rather than the other way around. These are people who spend an inordinate amount of their time around microphone technology as users. Yet they seem incapable of mastering this sound dispersal device. We get a terrific view of the top of their heads, which when we have a bald or balding pate on display, makes the whole experience even more memorable in a bad way.

If you are ever in a position like that, where the height of the microphone stand makes the distance from the top of the microphone to your mouth seem too far, then change the scenario. Actually, hopefully you will have arrived early and will have checked the equipment beforehand so will know if the microphone as already mounted will do the trick or not. You should have already alerted the organisers to your preferred tech arrangements and because it is going to be an extended presentation, you have requested a hand microphone or a lavalier microphone.

Let’s presume you have not had that chance, because it is an award ceremony and your remarks will be brief. Don’t worry because the solution is devastatingly simple. Remove the microphone from the stand holder completely and bring it closer to your mouth when you want to speak. If the microphone is wedged in there and is not relenting or responding to your efforts to remove it, then go for more radical measures. Pick the whole damn thing up holus-bolus and speak into the microphone, so that you can be heard by everyone. Don’t be bossed around by the tech – show it who is boss around here.

The other great good posture denier is the podium. I always recommend dispensing with the podium entirely, if you can do that. These days we can have our slides there to help us navigate our way through the speech. The ubiquitous slide advance clickers free us from being trapped behind the podium and having to hit the arrow keys on the laptop to move through the slide deck. We can advance the slide show from anywhere on the stage and thus be able to access our full body language, to add to our communication piece.

What we often see though, is the speaker, usually male, applying a vice like grip on the outer edges of the podium, in an effort to stop it escaping from the stage at any moment. Male speakers also love it because they don’t know what to do with their hands, so choking the life out of the podium takes care of that problem completely. This double grip arrangement eliminates the possibility of using gestures, to back up the words, because the podium has now become a function of the speaker’s balance. This is because the speaker is standing back from the podium and leaning forward, head down, shoulders hunched over the microphone attached to the low flying microphone stand. When your weight is back like that, you tend to get stuck in that position and wind up delivering the whole speech with that poor posture.

If for some sad reason you are using a podium as a notes bench or even worse, are using your laptop screen as your notes bench, then stand up straight and slightly back and away from the podium. From here, you can’ t easily grip the furniture and this frees you up to use your gestures. I make a point of only ever touching the podium with my finger tips to make sure I am not tempted to throttle the podium and to remind myself to stand up straight, when I deliver my talk.

Good posture shows the mark of the professional, who is in control of their environment, the furniture and the tech. Gestures are there to amplify the points we are making and we don’t want to lose that functionality. We need to get such basics things right when presenting. Once we have managed that, all we have to do is concentrate on our audience and that is why we are there in the first place, isn’t it.

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A friend of mine was lamenting that he had not taken the time to complete our High Impact Presentations Course. He had had it in the back of his mind for some time, that he really ought to work on these key skills, but had never managed to lock it down and actually do it. Now he is facing a really, really big pitch and he knows his capacity isn’t where it needs to be. He is not fully confident he can be successful. Uh oh!

As the leader we represent the “face” of the company. People judge the whole thing on what they see us do. Our public persona is usually contained and controlled. Internal meetings are internal and we can be a bumbling, horrible communicator and only our long suffering staff are any the wiser.

Public forays do pop up in the most unexpected places though. It might be the school PTA meeting and you make a point or even a presentation and then people suddenly connect the dots. How did so and so become the top of their organisation, when they are so hopeless at representing the company? Our verbose, rambling, incoherent offerings are total personal brand killers. We in fact might be the least articulate person in the whole firm, but everyone watching us in action, now pegs the whole organisation at our level of incompetence. Sort of the “Peter Principle” in reverse. We drag the whole organization down to our level of incompetence.

The idea that we can be technically highly competent and therefore don’t have to be competent as a presenter is a complete fallacy. Technical people in particular, really cling to this false dawn as their salvation from being hopeless presenters. This is the age of media, especially now we have access to video for everything, be it YouTube, Instagram, Facebook Live, Snapchat etc. Everyone has their own media channel. We are all seeing a lot more people “presenting” than we have ever done in world history. Up until a few years ago, we only had live performances, television and video recording, but now we have everything on show inside those mobile device we are all lugging around with us 24/7.

The game has been upped substantially, but a lot of leaders are still hoping for a return to anonymity, where their public exposure is more controlled and a lot less frequent. You can choose to be a leader recluse, but if your rivals are really exploiting the social media scene like demons on speed, then your brand begins to wither in the client and public perception. This public exposure isn’t going away. We either adapt or we disappear from plain view or we destroy our brand when we do pop up. The answer is obvious isn’t it.

The enemy of excellence is the good and that applies to representing your firm as well. I have another friend who is very photogenic, attractive, super confident and thinks he is a fantastic presenter. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is King. Because the vast majority of people never want to have to stand up and present to anyone ever and where those who do present are usually untrained and unprofessional, my friend’s skills are much better than average.

From my professional eye though, I can see a talent that has so much more potential to be polished and taken to the highest of heights. His ego is the problem here. My friend doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and is unaware of the greater potential available to him through expert coaching. He is happy to be above average, but not humble or self-aware enough to recognise that he has set a low bar against what is possible.

My friend who has the big pitch coming is lucky because I have offered to spend a couple of hours coaching him to make this opportunity a total winner. He has access to expert input before the pitch, because of our personal relationship. It is a bit of a wing and a prayer though for you to hope that one of your friends will be there to bail you out at the that last moment.

Rather, go and get the training now. You can do the High impact Course in two days. That is doable and the skill and confidence that comes with the right training far exceeds the time required. “Don’t leave home without it” was a great tagline from the past. Presenting is a core skill that every leader would be wise to master. That skill, once secured, means you can walk out the door everyday knowing you are going to be excellent every time, every audience, every location and every topic.

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You would think that asking for the order would be the simplest thing in a sales job. Not the case here in Japan. Surprisingly a lot of salespeople here in Japan never ask directly for the order. They get to the point where they should ask but they choose not to. One of the reasons is they fear rejection, getting a “no”. They job of sales is an emotional rollercoaster all around the world, so preserving your self-esteem and self-belief is critical. There is nothing like getting rejected in selling to knock your ego around. Japanese salespeople have found a way to avoid that regretful eventuality by not actually asking for the business. It is left vague, sort of hanging there.

They usually lack skills in selling, so the steps which they should have completed in a professional manner, haven’t been done, so in fact they have no right to ask for the order. If you have built the trust, have asked well designed questions to fully understand the client’s needs, presented the correct solution, dealt with any hesitations or objections, then you can confidently ask for the order.

The way of asking doesn’t have to aggressive or hard sell. Actually, that won’t work in Japan, so let’s forget about that idea. We can simply ask , “shall we go ahead?”. Or we might offer an alternative of choice, such as, “would you like to start in January or would February be better?”. The selection of either of those months means that you are accepting the business and will go ahead with the deal. Another soft variation that works well in Japan is using a minor point. We can ask, “Shall I send you a hard copy of the invoice or is an electronic copy okay?”. Either answer means “yes”, we have an agreement.

Most often in Japan the answer is “we need to discuss it” or “we need to think about it”. In American sales training they have a harder edge and go after that statement, “What do you need to think about?’ or “How long will you take”. That type of pushy sales technique just won’t work in Japan.

Here they do have to think about it and they do have to discuss it. The person you are talking to is usually not the final or sole decision maker. They have the ringi seido system here where all the stakeholders have to attach their chop or seal to the recommendation to show they have been informed and that they agree. That means there is a lot of consultation required internally, so it is hard to make any commitments to the salesperson immediately. No manner of bullying the buyer is going to change that situation.

We have to be thinking how can we help our champion sell the idea to the other colleagues. We have to provide the arguments and show the value to make their persuasion job easier. We also need to find out who are the primary people who need convincing inside the company and we need to find out what issues might be important to them. Knowing this, we can help our champion address any potential pushback that might occur behind the closed doors of the client company, on our behalf.

We need to ask for the order to flush out any objections we may not have dealt with well enough in the earlier part of the sales cycle. Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job designing questions to fully understand the needs of the buyer. Maybe our solution wasn’t a good enough match for what they needed. Perhaps we didn't handle the objections which arose well enough. Sometimes the objections we were told were just a smokescreen and the real objections haven’t emerged yet. We need to get these out in order to deal with them. If we don’t ask for the order we won’t get the business and we won’t get to find out why we are not getting the business.

If they do bring up an issue, don’t fight it. Say, “Yes I see and why is that a problem for you?”. Any answer you start with words like “no”, “but” or “however”, will be guaranteed to have the buyer stop listening to you and go into combat mode to argue with you. We need to ask them why this is an issue to get more detail on the table so we can deal with it. Remember objections are like headlines in a newspaper and we need to get access to the full article explaining what the headline means. So we must dig for more detail. If we can’t deal with the objection, then don’t waste any more time, get out there and find the next potential client.

When closing in Japan do not use aggression, force of will or tricky closing techniques – none of that will work. Use soft sell here. Expect they will need to think about it, so you are prepared to help them sell the idea internally.

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When you hear an excellent presentation, it is easy to be well satisfied. When you are giving such a presentation and the audience are wolfing down your information, it is also easy to be self satisfied. The good is the enemy of the great we say, don’t we. The difficulty is when things are going so well, to know exactly how to take them to a higher level.

I was attending such a presentation recently and the speaker was very, very good. The content was right on topic, for an area which has real attention grabbing power for audiences. The room was a sell out. That is always a good thing isn’t it, when people are flocking to hear you pontificate on your topic. The information itself was fresh, new, well designed and cleverly arranged in terms of the cadence of the argument. The actual delivery was probably one of the best that that particular business audience will see in a long, long time. All good, so how to make something already working extremely well even better?

This is not easy, but I did notice one thing which I thought could have been added and it may be something that we can all consider when we are constructing our own presentations. When we are delivering an “inform style” of presentation, of course we need to be clear, concise and on topic. We also need to have crisp information which is new to the audience, so that they feel they were in the box seats for a very value deep presentation. This presentation knocked it out of the park in that regard.

When we are doing that inform type of presentation, we can be spending quite a big chunk of our time on the broad brush strokes of industry direction, the shape of the trend, the predictions for the future. This is great because as audience members, we are getting treated to a business equivalent of a massive star show of the outer galaxies, like we will see in a Planetarium .

Future direction is good, but to really take our talk to the highest possible level, we need to do one more thing. We need to connect this broad and scale based projection analysis to the day to day reality of our punters in the audience. The talk I attended could have gone one more step and have reached out to the audience, with some steps they could take to connect the information with their daily challenges. It didn’t have to morph into a complete “how to” presentation, but the inclusion of a few takeaways would have been the super icing on the cake.

We are talking about, particularly when we are involved in discussing broad orientational changes in an industry, that it is easy to get stuck at that general direction level. We are fully focused on the big picture.

We need to pick up around three things the audience can walk out with, which they can put into immediate action, to link the macro with the micro. There are bound to be things that our audience can do, as a result of hearing this speech, which will better prepare them and their companies for the coming changes. Everyone wants to know what is coming down the pike and what they need to do be ready for it.

The addition of these concrete steps brings the talk even more alive and makes it more relevant for our audience. Why three? Of course, we could probably list ten or twenty items, but the smaller number is easier for the audience to apply, without feeling overwhelmed. Trying to make too many changes too quickly, usually results in nothing getting done. Three is also good as a quantity because it has volume, which gives the talk a greater feeling of worth and credibility. These three points are sufficiently significant, without being off putting, onerous or burdensome for the audience.

So the next time you are giving a presentation of the “inform” variety, look carefully at your macro points and try and pull out some practical steps, some juicy takeaways, that the audience can feast on and integrate into their own businesses straight away. If you do this, they will leave the room with a sense of they have seen the future and they are better prepared with some practical steps to deal with it. You will have elevated an excellent speech to the highest of levels and your personal and professional brands will also be soaring.

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Japanese language has lots of insightful sayings and “mikka bozu” or only lasting as a priest for three days is one of them. It means we wilt in our determination and fold after just three days of commitment. On day one, when we start the new year, we are full of resolve, like an aspirant priest. The daily realty as we move through the year though, saps our ability to deliver on our initial best intentions.

If you feel a mikka bozu departure coming on, over the next weeks and months, here are a couple of ideas on how to deal with that less than satisfactory turn of events.

You may have been setting goals when flushed with the excitement of the moment, but the cold dawn of reality has now sunk in and you realise that maybe you were being a bit too presumptuous.

No problem. Re-set and focus anew on outcomes that are achievable and which can help to build some momentum. With resolutions we tend to be all in or all out. When we realise we were actually kidding ourselves, we just throw the whole show out the window and now go to nothing, the void, infinite empty space.

Rather than an all or nought approach, how about a recalibration on what is more realistic and possible. Can we see the realisation of a few steps, which further down the track, will lead to bigger goals being achieved? Can we carve off a few bite-sized pieces which we can actually consume? They are there, so let’s pick these out and attach some realistic milestones around their completion.

Some goals are more easily achievable that others. Start with doing those activities which will lead to wins. Success breeds success and we are often confidence players. The more we succeed, the more emboldened we are to try to do more. Let’s set ourselves up for success, by allowing ourselves to actually win. This is a good strategy. Piling up small victories over ourselves, our weaknesses and shortcomings creates positive momentum to help us keep moving forward. Coming out of our comfort zones is scary stuff, so let’s still do that, but in a way that doesn’t blow us up right at the start.

We may have set bigger goals than we could chew, because we were listening to what others were doing. Some guru was spruking big hairy audacious goals and we were carried along for the ride. Keep in mind, that some of these gurus make their living from occupying the gap between your goal and your ability. They project themselves as the solution to bridge that gap, so it is in their interests for you to feel inadequate. There is an earner in there, but it is not for you.

Or we may be influenced by what our family or friends are doing. We need to keep up with the Joneses and we feel pressure to do more than we should. Better to concentrate on what we need to do, at the pace and in the way we need to do it. The hare and the tortoise race is a famous fable about the ability to be self-aware and to play to your strengths. Slow and steady often wins the race, but the key word here is “steady”. Keep going, however slowly, rather than handing back your priestly robes in a pique after three days and quitting.

I like that quote from the Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi about “blocking and tackling” being the keys to success in football games. Reflecting on my own 51 years of training in traditional Japanese karate, we always start our training with the basics.

The basics are the key to business success, but we often get caught up in the glamour and complexity of the more elaborate solutions. If you watch enough TEDx talks and guru videos you may start to wonder what is wrong with you? Why aren’t you achieving at these genius levels.

Well you can, but only if you start with mastering the basics. So here is how hard it is: take 10 minutes, sit down, get out your pen, some A4 paper and in the middle of the paper circle the words “The Basics”. Around those words start adding other circled words that describe what the basics of your business are. Having fleshed them out, now add numbers to the circled words – the priority of importance of each of these selections.

Ten minutes later you have a game plan on where you need to start working and on what. It is not hard, is likely to be very practical and realistic and directly correlates with your success in your profession. If you focus on the basics then momentum is invoked, ideas will come and things start to happen.

So, don’t give up like a mikka bozu. As the philosopher Mike Tyson told us, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. We might have gotten a smack in the mouth by day three or month three of the new year, but we can regroup, recover, recalibrate and reestablish our starting point. Another favourite quote is by baseball coach Yogi Berra who said, “it ain’t over till it’s over”.

Baby, by day three, week three, month three or year three it ain’t over.

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In the West, we have all been trained in consultative selling for many decades. The buyers are used to salespeople turning up and asking a lot of questions to find out if there is some way they can help the buyer, through providing their solution to solve buyer problems. The act of asking of questions is never even thought about, because that is how it is done.

In Japan, they don’t really have professional salespeople, because here they have pitchpeople instead. They ask no questions, just turn up and give their pitch. They roll out the flyers or the brochures and go straight into the nitty gritty of the detail and the spec. They want to throw enough mud at the wall to see if any of it sticks. This is what the buyers have been trained to expect as well – no questions, just a pitchfest.

If you are coming out of the Western sales environment, you are going to be using consultative sales techniques and start asking the buyer a number of questions. This is a problem. In the West, we say the buyer is King. In Japan, the buyer is not King, but God. By the way, God doesn’t brook any questions from impertinent salespeople. They are insulted to be asked questions. God is used to getting the sales pitch and then destroying it, to make sure the risk factor has been fully minimized.

You can ask questions of the buyer in Japan, but you can’t just blunder your way in there and start blasting forth from the get go with probing questions. Fully boned up on American style sales methods, I remember applying these questioning techniques in Japan, in my early sales career here. I was met with stone cold, motherless silence by the buyers. In short order they were changing the subject and calling for my pitch.

To ask questions in Japan, you need to set it up first. Here is how you do that. You begin with a bit of chit chat to break the ice at the start of the meeting. Next you describe what it is that you do. Then give an example of a similar company’s case where you have helped them improve their results. Suggest that “maybe”, you could do the same for them. Then say, in order for you to know of that is a possibility or not, could you ask a few questions?

For example, “Dale Carnegie Training is a global specialist soft skills training company. We help people to develop in their careers and develop businesses to get the outcomes they are after. An example of this would be XYZ company, where we trained all of their Hotel staff and they found the client feedback really got a lift and repeat bookings definitely improved. Maybe we could do the same for you. I am not sure, but in order for me to know if this is possible or not, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”. There is your request for permission to ask questions, as opposed to going straight into the questioning format.

You will notice we say “maybe” rather than we can “definitely” do that for you. In the West, we might say “we can definitely do this for you” as a statement. We say “maybe” in Japan and we do this to make it soft and less aggressive. We only ask for permission to ask a few questions. If there is no match, well there won’t be many questions, but if it is a match and there is interest, there may be many questions – we won’t know that until we ask the first few questions of the buyer.

We ask well designed questions of the buyer and are simultaneously mentally running through our library of solutions, to see if we can help them. If we can’t, we shouldn’t be wasting everyone’s time. We should be off finding a buyer we can actually help.

When it comes to the solution provision part, we know what they are after, so we can link our product or service to the solution provision they need. In Japan, it doesn’t work like that. The pitchperson here turns up and skips straight past the questioning stage, plunging headlong into the detail of the solution. They do this, not even knowing if it is the appropriate solution for the needs of the buyer or not. The buyer has been trained by these pitchpeople and are simply not able to encompass the concept of questions for God.

You turn up with your professional Western sales approach and start asking questions. Normally, what you will get then from the buyer is total silence. They just don’t respond and it feels very awkward. This is because they can’t accept God getting questioned by a nobody. As I mentioned, they will just change the subject and be asking for your pitch. Trust me, you don’t want to go there.

You have to set it up and get permission to ask questions. If you do that you will be successful in Japan. If you want to be pitchperson instead, let me know how that is working out for you. I don’t think it will go too well. Much better to be a professional salesperson and ask well designed questions to uncover where you can be of service to the buyer. Remember, with questioning buyers in Japan, always get their permission first.

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Being persuasive is not down to luck or accident, it is the result of good planning and execution. This is the problem. The vast majority of speakers do not prepare properly. The slide deck gets all the attention, the data gets lots of love, the logistics are thoroughly checked. The planning component? Not enough going into that effort unfortunately. How can we become more persuasive? There is a formula for this, in fact a magic formula

This formula is simple but pure genius. It has four steps : Step 1. We open with the incident: who, what, where, when. We believe something to be true. Why is that? We have come to that conclusion through something that has become known to us. There is a back story there somewhere driving our conclusion. We tell part of that backstory. In Step 2, we get into the evidence to provide context to support our recommendation. This is woven into the incident we are relating. In Step 3, we suggest the action needed and make our recommendation

In the final step, Step 4, we focus on the benefits, telling our audience why our recommendation will help them

Before we present anything, we need to analyse our audience so that we hit the right note with them – not too complex and not too simple. We need to consider a few angles for the talk. This is a vital precaution very few speakers ever take and then get themselves into trouble and wonder why. How much does my audience know about my topic. What will be the benefit to this audience. What would be some skeptical or negative attitudes toward what I am going to say? How much resistance can I anticipate. How can I overcome that resistance?

Where possible we should be trying to tailor the talk to the needs of the audience.

We need to look at the audience point of view regarding how their current situation is relevant to the topic. What are the challenges they are facing. What do they consider to be important or unimportant concerning my topic? How could they benefit by taking the action I’m recommending?

After understanding where your audience is, you can use the magic formula to capture attention, build credibility, eliminate nervousness, call others to action and get results.

We must apply good discipline such that we don’t start rambling on about some long winded story of how we came to our epiphany. We need to be sharp about getting to the point or we risk losing our audience. Ninety percent of the time should be devoted to telling the incident but we do it concisely.

Include animation and vocal variety. We next draw out the evidence. As part of the storytelling, we include the context behind the incident, as a way of backing up what we are saying. Audiences can disagree with our analysis of the ramifications of the incident but they cannot disagree with the incident itself.

At this point we make our recommendation. We specify what action we want our listeners to take. This component of the process represents only five percent of the time allocation.

The next five percent is when we provide the benefit of taking our recommended action. The whole piece is tight and compelling. Hearing the background forces the audience to come to their own conclusions about what they think should be done. Probably they will have come to the same conclusion we came to. This is an ideal outcome.

Here are some key points to remember in the magic formula

1. The story telling doesn’t allow the listener to resist us, because they don’t know what we are recommending as yet
2. The story weaves in context and evidence as to why what we are suggesting is the best idea. The client often projects ahead, after hearing the context and arrives at the same decision we did, about what is the best action to take
3. We make a clear call to action
4. We immediately follow up with the benefit, so that the last thing the listener hears is the positive thing for them, if they take our recommendation

So think about an opportunity coming up where you can apply the magic formula to persuade others? Think about why you are making this recommendation to the audience. There is bound to be some context or a background reason why. Can you create a story which captures that context, so that the client can easily agree?

The ability to persuade people is one of the most critical business abilities but it is possessed by very few. Use these ideas and become one of the top 0.1% in business in Nippon.

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New Financial Years, new calendar years, new starts or not? We religiously muscle up and set our resolutions to improve ourselves in the coming 12 months. Often these resolutions are inwardly focused. Lose weight, get better organized, be more patient, etc. Every year, let’s set a breakthrough goal be it a financial year or a calendar year and make it really worthwhile going through this process. Let’s become a catalyst, a trigger, a spark to become the light on the hill for others around us. “Be the change you want to see” is a great Gandhi quote and tremendously wise and insightful.

We can start by changing how we see others. Instead of being a perpetual “fault finder”, a corrector of errors, a righteous blade to cut those making mistakes, a terminator of the terrible, why not try another approach? Rather than putting others down for their failings, why not become a person who is a serial encourager and builder of others?

Imagine the type of workplace you want to work in? Is it rife with politics, backstabbing, petty power tussles, whining, bitching and complaining about others? I doubt that is what any of us would vote for as a “workplace of the future”. We probably want a trouble free zone, where each person pulls their weight, is cooperative, supportive, committed, capable, successful and nice.

How we see others has a big influence on how we interact with them. If we see people in a negative light, we tend to search out their poor performance, their faults and inadequacies, while remaining blind to their strengths, achievements and potential.

Switch gears and start becoming a “good finder” rather than a “fault finder”. See that each person is operating under tremendous pressures – personal, financial, health, etc. When we see that all of us are united in carrying heavy burdens through life, we can become more empathetic, more forgiving and less judgmental. Remember we often selfishly hold everybody else accountable to a higher standard than that which we set for ourselves. We ingeniously cut ourselves some additional margin, because we know intimately all the problems we face, which mitigate our ability to be perfect. How about we extend some of that understanding to those around us?

Henry David Thoreau is often misquoted, but what he actually said still carries significance, especially here in Japan: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. Japan is a modest place, not much given to hubris, exaggeration, bombast, boasting, self-promotion or superlatives. Whether it be ridiculously high density living in the big cities or the gossipy, tedious provincial humdrum, Japan is a place where few people realize their full potential. They purposely rein themselves in, knowing if they don’t, society will do it for them.

This adds up to tremendous internal, self-induced pressures which constantly bubble away under the surface calm. The Japan patina of customary standard politeness and consideration masks what is really going on in people’s “desperate” lives. So let’s get off our high horse this year and stop being a pain. Let’s encourage those around us to live to their full potential.

Let’s feedback to them what they are doing well. Let’s recognise them for their many strengths. Let’s be indirect, tactful and circumspect about pointing out any shortcomings. Let’s help others to really stretch their Comfort Zones and assure them that the risks associated with growth are worth it. Let’s note and praise tiny, faltering steps forward, to inspire others to make even bigger strides.

We must simply stop complaining. We should take that whole sad vocabulary out of our thought and speech patterns. We will now speak in positive terms about life, business and those around us. We will switch on a mental outlook that emanates a powerful external illumination to guide others to find their own strengths hidden within as they climb the hill.

In short, we should become a tremendous giver of good. A guiding beacon for the positive in our dark, desperate, foreboding and at times, simply terrifying reality. Decide which world you want to inhabit and then become that world. We often want and wait for everybody else to make the change, to improve, to do better. By the way, how has that been going for you so far? This time let's try another approach. Be the light.

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Japan loves data and detail. All good, but it can be a trap when you are here trying to make sales in Japan. In a Western sales model there is a defined process to go through and the buyer is also trained on how that works as well. In the Japanese case there is a love of detail bias. This will take you down the wrong path, if you let the buyer control the sales call. Which is what happens to all the Japanese salespeople here, by the way.

The buyer loves the detail, the spec, the features of the product. They can’t get enough of that stuff. The problem is we don’t buy the features, we buy the outcomes, the benefits. In sale’s training we often use the example of buying a hand drill at a DYI Center. There are tons of detail on the drill – weight, speed, power source, battery life etc. We are not buying a drill, because what we are really after is a hole of a certain diameter in brick, metal, concrete or wood etc. The drill‘s features are not what we are buying, but that is often all the salesperson talks about.

So here in Japan we have to be careful, because the buyer can drag us down into the morass of the detail and features of the product or service. We have to control the sales call and redirect the conversation away from only the detail on the spec and move on to the outcomes, the benefits these features will provide for the buyer. Generally speaking, most salespeople around the world get to the feature bit and only a tiny minority elevate the conversation to cover the consequent benefits from the features. Japanese pitchpeople have trained the buyers here to focus on the spec, the detail, the data.

We need to get to a higher level of discussion. We need to be drawing word pictures they can see in their mind’s eye. We need to be describing all the future benefits they will get from this purchase. This requires telling stories, talking about outcomes and results.

Having done that we need to show some evidence that what we say works. The series of statements coming out of the salesperson’s mouth is not counted as evidence by buyers. Salespeople like to talk a lot. We can do this, we can do that or we have this, we have that. So what? We need to be referring to the cases where we have helped other companies. We need to provide data to back up what we are saying. We need to be showing the application of the benefits and where this has worked elsewhere. This makes the whole sales call more credible.

This has to be real – you cannot make this stuff up. If you want to lie to the buyer, then get out of our profession, we don’t want you polluting the waters. It has to be authentic, real, something that you can prove to the buyer if they want that level of detail. Then you have to move into a trial close to see if there are any areas of concern. Is there anything we haven’t covered in sufficient detail. Did we miss anything, are there any objections to what we have said?

The Japanese pitchperson doesn’t get to any of this level of sophistication. They are bogged down in the detail of the features. Remember, the buyer has been trained to only expect the pitch. They will keep you there and keep asking detailed micro questions. They do this because they are risk averse and they want to make sure there will no issues with your solution. That is fine but we can’t stay there for the whole sale’s call. You have to move them out of the minutiae, up the ladder to the next sunny uplands of benefits, application of the benefits, evidence that this works and a trial close. This is a structure and the Japanese pitchperson doesn’t have any structure.

We need to reeducate buyers on selling here. We have to guide them along a different path to what they are used to. It isn’t easy but if you want to make sales in Japan this is the requirement.

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The organisers of public presentations are usually not very happy for the presenter to start flogging their company’s products to the audience. They are looking for good information for the assembled masses and no propaganda. This makes sense because if you are sitting in the audience and you start to hear what sounds like a commercial for the speaker’s products or services you feel offended and belittled by the presenter.

I was in such a gathering when the host of the Chamber of Commerce event introduced himself as an “expert”, in his particular line of work, when kicking off proceedings. It immediately had a bad smell about it. If you have to go around telling everyone you are an expert, then we will question just how much of an expert you really are. Participants will also complain to the organisers about you and your blatant self promotion and you may not be invited back to speak.

Obviously, we give these public presentations to promote our personal brands and our companies. Exactly where is the tipping point to know when you have pushed it too far? Subtlety is always the best policy. I still remember visiting the German Pavilion in the Tsukuba Expo in 1985. There was a long, winding staircase to the second floor and all along the wall were framed photographs of all the German Nobel Prize winners. There was no banner announcing “we Germans are smart”, but the huge number of faces peering down, as we wound our way up the stairs was a subtle tour de force of sustained German intellectual power. It was impressive.

We should rely on some key elements when selling ourselves when presenting. Bald faced telling people you are an “expert” is completely ridiculous in my view, but showing through the quality of what you present that you really know your stuff, is very convincing and makes you highly credible. There needs to be some fresh data or perspective to cut through all the competing messages floating around the internet and media.

I like Jesper Koll’s presentations. He is a perennial favourite of different Chamber events here in Tokyo. He is a leading economist in Japan and I have probably seen Jesper present twenty times or more over the years. Every time he is super engaging as a presenter and always has new and high quality information on the Japanese economy. He is the master of the pregnant pause when asking his audience members questions. Just as the victim is ready to bumble out their answer, Jesper slips in the answer, revealing that was a rhetorical question after all and not requiring an answer. As an audience member it certainly keeps you on the your toes! He doesn’t have run around telling us he is an “expert”. His content and delivery tell us that.

Delivery is the other indicator of expertise and professionalism. You can be beautifully attired, shoes with a mirror shine, hair perfect looking like a Hollywood idol and still be a dud if the presentation isn’t done correctly. I was watching a VIP visitor to Tokyo, representing a major division of a huge multinational energy company, who gave a very dull presentation. The information was fine, because some minions in the marketing department had cobbled it together in a workman like fashion. The perfectly coiffed, suited and booted presenter delivered the whole thing slowly, clearly and completely devoid of passion. It was painful and decimated his personal brand. If he thought he was selling his organisation to the audience, he was completely wrong. In fact, he was damaging the company brand severely, as well as his own personal brand.

To be credible and prove you are the goods, have first class content and deliver it in a completely professional manner. Blatant self promotion is self defeating and your speaking career will be short lived, as the invitations dry up. Please never allow the claim that you are an “expert” leave your lips. We are not that dumb.

The best advertisement for your firm is you and the best advertisement for you is to provide value to your audience. We judge everyone in your organisation on you. If you are great, we think everyone in your firm is smart. If you are a dud, we doubt the whole organisation. Is this fair? Probably not, but this is how things work and we have to be aware of that. Push your company brand by being an excellent presenter, proffering real value, all totally relevant for the audience. That is an unbeatable combination.

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Listen to our most popular episode in presentations for The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show!

Formulistic presentations may tick the boxes, but definitely don’t ignite much enthusiasm in the audience. Yes, the key points were covered, the time was consumed, people heard the presentation matching the topic previously promulgated, but so what? When we attend a mediocre or even bad presentation, we are reminded that a great opportunity has gone begging. When it is our turn and we stand in front of an audience, we are representing our personal brand and our firm’s brand. People will evaluate our company on how we perform. So our job is to perform well and really build fans for our business and ourselves.

Yes, a written speech is grammatically perfect, but it is often boring because of the flat way in which it is delivered. The reading cadence doesn’t suit the live speaking situation. Have you ever noticed that a flat, deadly boring speech can be followed by a very engaging Q&A session led by the speaker? This is because the speaker is now freed from their self-imposed limitations of reading the speech. They start telling us stories of people to illustrate their points. They pepper us with useful information and data that gives us insights. We see some passion in what they are telling us. We all need to be like this in the main body of the speaking time.

Observing a lot of speakers, I have noticed that the things that often go missing most are their passion and commitment for the topic. Additionally, it may be that an already low energy, flat delivery is further hindered by a poor structure. We enter a room full of pre-occupied people, with microscopic attention spans, basically entirely distracted before we even start. We need to grab their attention away from whatever it was they were thinking about before we get up to the podium.

An excellent opening needs considerable planning. It must be a battering ram to break through the wall of audience disinterest and skepticism. It must have a powerful hook in there to keep our attention. Remember, this is how we in the audience are trained. Headlines, the opening stanzas of newspaper and magazine articles, book titles, talk shows, the nightly news programming, television dramas, movies, etc., are all carefully designed and scripted to grab and keep our attention. This is what we, as speakers, are competing with – a professional class of smart, well paid, attention monopolizing experts.

So our opening has to instantly grab attention. Next we need to lead our flock through the intricacies of our topic, so that they can keep up and understand where we are going. If we have key points, then give them numbers, because we more easily follow number sequences. Just don’t make it too many numbers. Keeping up with the thirty three key points of any topic, delivered in a thirty minute speech, is a nightmare the audience doesn’t need.

Wrapping it all up at the end is a critical component too, because this is the speaker’s final impression with the audience. Have you noticed how often the final words of the talk just fade out. The speaker’s voice strength just drops away altogether at the end. What we really want is passion backing up the conclusion. The voice tone should rise to a crescendo. The talk completes with a powerful hypnotic, all embracing call to action. We want everyone, metaphorically, to join us and storm the barricades.

Instead we get that limping, low energy fade out, as the ineffective speaker just bumbles their way into Q&A. Typically, they don’t have any strategy to control the flow of Q&A either. Because of this, they lose control of the proceedings. They have committed a fatal mistake and allowed the final question to completely determine the final impression of the talk with the audience. How many times have you heard a question raised which was completely off topic? Unfortunately this happens quite often, so the danger here is that the questioner highjacks our speech. Their topic is the last item ringing in the ears of the audience rather than what we were there to talk about. Do not let that happen! We need two powerful, passionate closes – one for the end of our speech and one for the end of Q&A.

Passion for the topic and the audience are requirements. These are not optional extras, useful additions, that we can include or not at our leisure. If we don’t feel passion for our topic and our audience, then we come across as flat, perfunctory, formulistic. In these cases, when the audience leaves the venue, the speaker, topic and their organisation are immediately forgotten. With that type of result, we have to ask, “well just what was the point?”. The residual impression is negative. The listeners feel that their time was wasted and no great value was imparted. They leave determined that if that same speaker ever pops up again in the future, they won’t bother to attend.

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It sounds quite obvious not to hire people who are dangerous. The problem is people can have a nice resume, can sound quite articulate in interviews and we buy this false persona. They can also have a lot of energy, can be quite forthright and outgoing. They are often brimming with confidence and self-belief. On the surface, it all looks fine. After hiring them the issues come out though in dribs and drabs.

They often have a weak association between their mouth and their brain. They shoot their mouth off, with great vigor, babbling stuff and easily overwhelm others around them. Somewhere along the line they have discovered they can dissemble their true ability and baffle people with pap. The content of their babbling becomes the future pain point for the organisation. Their mouths are too fast for their brains. Stream of consciousness thinking probably works better in literature, than it does in business.

I was facilitating a brainstorming session for a client and observed a painful reality. Loud, aggressive, active, dim people can do major damage to companies. They compensate for their intellectual inferiority complex by becoming very vocal, dominant and assertive. Considered, steady, sensible people allow these dangerous types air to breathe, because they are polite, fair, want to see everyone contributing and are open to a variety of ideas.

This is fine in the idea generation stage, what we call “green light thinking” and that is exactly what is needed. By the way, when you are doing brainstorming, don’t mix idea creation and idea evaluation together at the same time. Separate them out. The problems arise though when we get to the idea parsing stage or “red light thinking”.

Here the need to be dominant surges up in these dangerous people and they push their ideas, not through the value of the contribution, but through the force of their personality. This is why it is often better to have an outside facilitator, who can be oblivious to the internal politics of the organisation and can make sure that everyone gets heard - not just the loud, aggressive, agitating and voluminous. Because they are usually not deep, reflective thinkers, they rely exclusively on top of mind idea generation. That is fine, but the best idea creators will take those starter ideas much further or will plumb the depths of possibility of an idea and go much deeper, seeking richer veins.

Another dangerous employee variety is the seemingly intelligent sort. Most of what they say seems reasonable, but their analytical ability is weak. They tend to damage companies more by what they miss and don’t contribute. They are harder to spot because their camouflage is pretty good. The damage often only becomes apparent after the event. These are the missed opportunities, the chances never seized, the information never proffered, the connections never made, the added value never added.

This is the brand killer for companies. The clients realise later they have been short changed by these dangerous people. They find out there were parts of the system they could have mobilized to boost their business, but that little morsel was never offered. There was a timing advantage that closed out unclaimed.

When the clients raise the point, they are unhelpfully told “oh yes, you could have done that”. This makes clients irate. They are immediately gripped with the thought, “then why on earth didn’t you tell me?”.

They have spent the money and the time to subsequently discover they only got partial value. They now understand they have just witnessed a splendid opportunity go sailing by unrealised. Successful businesses make every post a winner and cannot tolerate lost opportunities. The selling organisation’s reputation and brand are now potentially shredded by the activities or actually non-activities, of these dangerous people.

How do these brand assassins survive? Their bosses are to blame. They are not educating them, guiding them, controlling them sufficiently. They are too busy, too distracted or too trusting. Maybe the boss is not the sharpest tool in the toolbox as well, so now we really start to multiply our problems. Or it could be there is no internal mechanism to work on analytical skills. The educational backgrounds may have yielded a “once over lightly” approach to decision-making, problem solving and situational analysis.

Dangerous people reading this article won’t recognise themselves. They are simply too confident, based on nothing in particular. They lack self-awareness and they lack it almost completely. Left to their own devices they will hurt you. Search them out and either fix them or find a place where they cannot hurt you any further when dealing with clients.

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When we are under stress our concentration and productivity levels are much lower than normal. Sales has to be one of the most stressful occupations on the planet. It is an emotional roller coaster, where we go from one meeting feeling elated, to being totally depressed after the next meeting. We are swinging in the breeze between making our target and missing our target. Our boss is giving us a hard time when we are behind on the numbers. If we are on commission then we are not making enough money to live on or provide for our families. These realities add to our stress levels. We have to know how to manage our stress, because we know that too much stress can affect our health and our work.

One place to start is with our self-talk. We need to switch our language away from the negative to the positive. For example, the negative view would sound like this: “I feel hopeless at persuading customers”. We have to switch our language to a positive view, so we say,

“I can better prepare for my customer meetings”. The action step attached to this would be to

write down the likely objections from the customer, before you go into the meeting and have your response properly prepared. The act of preparing better for the client meeting will help you to relieve your stress.

There are also some handy stress management principles we can employ.

1. Live in day tight compartments

We put pressure on ourselves by allowing sales disasters of the past to drag us down. We also add additional pressure by projecting what could go wrong in the future. We imagine we can’t make enough sales, so we don’t have enough money and our partner leaves us as a result. Actually none of this has happened, but we worry about it nevertheless. Instead of that, don’t allow the past worries or future worries into your today. Just focus on what we have in front of us. We should always plan for the future, but we don’t have to dragoon it into today and worry about it.

1. Ask yourself, “what is the worst that can happen”

Often we are feeling stressed but have no one clear thing to concentrate on. Call out the big problem facing us, by identifying it. When we do that, our mind gets clarity and we can start working on solutions. For example, we may not be making enough appointments with clients. We have isolated the core issue so we now get to work on fixing it. In this case, we can increase the call rate or contact rate with clients we haven’t contacted in a while and drum up some business that way.

Write down answers to four key questions:

1. What is the actual problem?

2. What are the causes of the problem?

3. What are the possible solutions?

4. What is the best possible solution?

This is so simple but it really works. We get great clarity around where we need to concentrate our energy.

4. Cooperate with the inevitable

We can accept that the thing we fear is going to happen. Rather than continuing to worry about it, we accept that it will be the case and instead we can now concentrate on what we can do to mitigate it or reduce it. This gets us out of victim mode and into action mode and that pivot is critical to moving ourselves forward. Our mindset is powerful, so we need to exercise control over our thoughts.

1. Expect ingratitude

Our expectations can lead us into stress when things we expected to happen don’t happen. If we don’t expect anything from other people, when they let us down, we don’t feel any stress. This is because we had already discounted receiving anything from them. The client with whom we have a great relationship, buys from our competitor or doesn’t choose our solution in the pitch contest. We shouldn’t take this rejection personally. We know it is never “no”. It is only no to the offer at this time, in its current construct, in this budget cycle, in this market. We get busy serving the next client and don’t get depressed about losing one sale. We live to fight another day.

These stress management principles are very practical. The key is to change our thinking about the thing that is causing us stress. We know one thing for sure, the amounts of stress we are all going to be facing in the future are not going to get smaller. Controlling our stress is a key skill set for success in sales and one we must master.

So how will you apply what your learnt today in your daily sales work? Why not start by taking some other typical negative self-talk content and start creating positive versions, like “I am too busy to do all the followup” and change it to “When I plan my day, I can get the highest priority items completed”

Which of these stress management principles can you practice each day, to relieve the amount of stress you are feeling? Remember, either we control our stress or it controls us.

We will only face increasing levels of stress in sales, so we must make the decision to master our stress management.

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When you hear an excellent presentation, it is easy to be well satisfied.  When you are giving such a presentation and the audience are wolfing down your information, it is also easy to be self satisfied.  The good is the enemy of the great we say, don’t we.  The difficulty is when things are going so well, to know exactly how to take them to a higher level.

I was attending such a presentation recently and the speaker was very, very good.  The content was right on topic, for an area which has real attention grabbing power for audiences.  The room was a sell out. That is always a good thing isn’t it, when people are flocking to hear you pontificate on your topic.  The information itself was fresh, new, well designed and cleverly arranged in terms of the cadence of the argument. The actual delivery was probably one of the best that that particular business audience will see in a long, long time.  All good, so how to make something already working extremely well even better?

This is not easy, but I did notice one thing which I thought could have been added and it may be something that we can all consider when we are constructing our own presentations.  When we are delivering an “inform style” of presentation, of course we need to be clear, concise and on topic.  We also need to have crisp information which is new to the audience, so that they feel they were in the box seats for a very value deep presentation.  This presentation knocked it out of the park in that regard.

When we are doing that inform type of presentation, we can be spending quite a big chunk of our time on the broad brush strokes of industry direction, the shape of the trend, the predictions for the future. This is great because as audience members, we are getting treated to a business equivalent of a massive star show of the outer galaxies, like we will see in a Planetarium .

Future direction is good, but to really take our talk to the highest possible level, we need to do one more thing.  We need to connect this broad and scale based projection analysis to the day to day reality of our punters in the audience.  The talk I attended could have gone one more step and have reached out to the audience, with some steps they could take to connect the information with their daily challenges.  It didn’t have to morph into a complete “how to” presentation, but the inclusion of a few takeaways would have been the super icing on the cake.

The problem is that usually we are so wrapped up in the macro scale of what we are talking about, particularly when we are involved in discussing broad orientational changes in an industry, that it is easy to get stuck at that general direction level.  We are fully focused on the big picture.

We need to pick up around three things the audience can walk out with, which they can put into immediate action, to link the macro with the micro.  There are bound to be things that our audience can do, as a result of hearing this speech, which will better prepare them and their companies for the coming changes. Everyone wants to know what is coming down the pike and what they need to do be ready for it.

The addition of these concrete steps brings the talk even more alive and makes it more relevant for our audience.  Why three?  Of course, we could probably list ten or twenty items, but the smaller number is easier for the audience to apply, without feeling overwhelmed.  Trying to make too many changes too quickly, usually results in nothing getting done.  Three is also good as a quantity because it has volume, which gives the talk a greater feeling of worth and credibility.  These three points are sufficiently significant, without being off putting, onerous or burdensome for the audience.

So the next time you are giving a presentation of the “inform” variety, look carefully at your macro points and try and pull out some practical steps, some juicy takeaways, that the audience can feast on and integrate into their own businesses straight away.  If you do this, they will leave the room with a sense of they have seen the future and they are better prepared with some practical steps to deal with it.  You will have elevated an excellent speech to the highest of levels and your personal and professional brands will also be soaring.

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Accountability In Your Team

Holding our people accountable is one of the basics of being a leader. They flounder, deadlines pass unheeded, things get missed, work is not completed to a satisfactory standard. Why is that? People are not trying to fail in their jobs, but they do let the team down with their poor performance and lack of accountability. What can we do about it?

As the leader we have to start with ourselves. The most crucial resource we have is our time and how we choose to use it. If we are poor time managers, then we apply unnecessary stress to our own lives and those of our colleagues. We show up with unreasonable turnaround times for work, because we were not properly organised. We become very stressed and that spreads like an epidemic across the team. Our stress immediately impacts our mood control and our mood can lighten or darken the workplace within seconds.

We are time poor because we haven't done a good enough job on defining our priorities. We are also rushing around because we are doing too much. The reason we are so busy is because we are unable to delegate our work properly. We tried it once, there were errors, problems, rework and we decided, "it is faster if I do it myself". This is false economy, because we can't do everything by ourselves. We need to gain leverage from accessing the full power of the team. Delegation is also an important driver of career development for our successors. By giving them some of our tasks, we can start to groom them for higher things.

In large companies, promotions are often decided by boards. It is beneficial to be able to say you have been doing a number of delegated asks for the leader of the section and have been successfully operating at that level in the current position.

The reason why we think delegation doesn't work is because we have been doing it the wrong way. Done correctly, it can help us to use our time for those tasks that only we can perform. One of them is coaching our people. Leaders imagine they are coaching their people, but in reality, they are just handing out orders. The accountability of the team is closely linked to the amount of time and energy we invest in coaching them. If we are stretched too thin, then we have very little time for developing our staff. It becomes a vicious cycle where we don’t invest in them because we are too busy and then later we can’t delegate higher levels tasks to them.

We always want higher outcomes, which means we either do something new or something old, but in a slightly new way. That means change and people resist change. They resist it because they don't want to step outside their Comfort Zones. If we want them to step up, we have to coach them, delegate to them and hold them accountable for the results. All of these aspects are linked together and we need a rising tide to lift all boats, by applying a comprehensive approach to leading.

When we have time, we are in a strong position to monitor progress and check on milestones. Unpleasant surprises are never greeted well by the organization’s hierarchy and we don't want to be the bearer of bad news because one of our team missed a deadline or a quality standard or compliance with a regulation. Delegation is not dumping work on people. It is taking the time to explain the Why, the What and the How. It is having them take ownership and having them see this as a stepping stone to bigger things. In this way, the sense of ownership of the task and therefore the accountability is strong. It means coaching them on the way through to completion of the task so that there are only pluses and no minuses.

We give them a task to work on, we encourage them to decide how to execute the task and we check in regularly to see how it is tracking. There is nothing worse than to find that the project has been taken off in a direction we could never have imagined would be possible and which doesn’t deliver the outcomes we need. Or worse we find out about it too late to fix it. There is a balance here between micro-managing and checking in and that is the right balance we need to uncover.

So if we want accountability in our team we start with ourselves. If we have good time control we can better lead and we can have the necessary time to better communicate with our team. We are able to walk our talk because we are in control and can deliver what we say we will do. This is how people judge whether we are trustworthy or not. If we want people to deliver we have to deliver for them. That means giving them a chance to grow in their careers, supporting them through coaching and being consistent in our mood, behavior and interactions. We are able to do this because we are not stressed through poor time control and trying to do too much by ourselves. We need to adaptable to change because business is in constant flux and the market waits for no one. We need to create new, better habits and become better leaders.

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Life is full of various rhythms and flows. We have a set piece most mornings. Arise, eat, get ready for work, head out the door. We work, finish, go to the gym, hobby, etc., or go straight home. Saturday we have a certain flow going on and it is usually different to our Sundays. We like certainty, predictability, constancy. That is all fine, because we are all deep in our Comfort Zones. This is the cuddly place where we have reduced as much risk as possible and we feel safe. All of this is bad for the sales life.

Sales is chaos. It is fragile, uncertain, unpredictable, unreliable. We have to learn how to ride the tiger, not how to dismount. I laughed when watching the movie Kung Fu Panda with my son, when the chubby panda says “my old enemy – stairs”, as he contemplates the long climb to the top of the temple. In sales, we have an old enemy too and it is called “comfortable”.

When we get too comfortable, we stop hustling, pushing, striving, reaching. We get into a routine because we have built up enough repeater clients to make our numbers or keep our jobs. Sales should be the ultimate meritocracy, because it is all metrics, easily and constantly measurable – how much have you sold today? That should mean that people in sales are all high performers, but they are not. There are many average producers in sales, who still keep their jobs. They are not totally hopeless enough to get fired, but they don’t shoot the lights out either.

Pareto came up with the 80/20 split concept and in any sales organization there are going to be roughly twenty percent of the sales folk accounting for eighty percent of the revenue. That means that eighty percent of the team are only coughing up twenty percent of the revenue. If the raw amounts being generated in total are sufficiently large enough then it all works. Sales managers often tend to be spending their time trying to put a better shade of lipstick on those who are not producing enough. They should be spending their time on the top producers trying to encourage them to produce more, because their contribution will be at a significant scale. If a low performer increased their sales by fifty percent, it may not be as insignificant as a top producer increasing their sales by only twenty percent. The numbers show the difference. For example, the low producer has annual revenues of ten million yen and the top producer has revenues of one hundred million yen. The low producer goes up to fifteen million yen a year, but the top producer would be producing one hundred and twenty million yen annually.

Top producers are human too and they get into rhythms where they don’t grow. They are getting enough money now and don’t feel motivated to go for more. Japan is especially like this. Incentive schemes are hard to get to work properly in Japan because the individual hunger is not strong. The society rewards people who fit it in, rather than those who want to stand out. Being super hungry and motivated to succeed and make a lot of money seems anti-social in Japan and is punished from an early age. People grow up knowing that if they stand out they will be ostracised and put back in their place pretty quickly.

You hardly ever see “leader boards” of individual sales production in offices. The numbers get counted of course, but it is all kept demure and polite. It gets interesting when that new boss just jetted in from some foreign clime, gets religion about individual production and wants to incentivise and recognize people. Often the people don’t want it.

Those getting recognised don’t like it because they know the knives will be coming out immediately and they are going to become uncomfortable with all this boss approbation and attention. The rest of the crew don’t like it because it makes them look bad and they have lost face publically. Japan is the country of don’t stand out and well meaning expat bosses always struggle to understand why the sales people are not motivated by money and glory like at home.

I was coaching a client who was having trouble getting production out of the sales team. The problem was instantly obvious to me. They were paying a base of ten million yen and a commission on top of that. No one was motivated by the additional commission, because the base was already high enough. Very few salespeople in Japan are on commission structures, because they all prefer the safety of a defined salary with a regular bonus. They know they could earn more on commission, but they are risk averse and prefer to earn less but with more certainty.

How can we motivate salespeople? Recognise top performing salespeople privately. Take them out for a very nice swanky meal, make it personal, unique, special. Theoretically, we should try to adjust the salary structure so that the base salary is as low as possible and the “at risk” part is as high as possible. Now in Japan, at the moment, that is not easy because of the shortage of salespeople. So we have to start paying them higher base salaries and lower commissions to get them on board. We have to increase their commissions to keep them with us. Having said that, we need to try to up the ante on the rewards when they hit their targets.

It is better to keep a base salary you feel is too high to retain people and really crank up the upside, rather than risk losing staff. For example, in Japan, in this market, if the annual base salary was five million yen and the commission ten percent, you will have trouble getting people to take a drop to a four million yen base for a higher fifteen percent commission. It will be better to swallow the five million base and offer twenty to thirty percent commissions when they hit a certain target numbers.

Take another look at how you reward salespeople? It has to be motivating for them or why would they bother? Don’t be mean with the upside rewards. Remember, your top twenty percent brings home the bacon for the eighty percent of sales. This is the group you need to get out of their Comfort Zone and get going to go higher, go harder. This is how you can get scale in production in Japan.

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My regular Rotary meeting held every week at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo has a featured speaker. Our speaker this time was a celebrity in his eighties and very well known to the audience. Rotary runs like clockwork and every section of the hourly meeting is choreographed and the meetings always finish on time. Not this time though. Our speaker gave a rambling talk, which seemed to lack any direction or point. For no good reason he also managed to go way over his allotted speaking time, so the meeting finished late. This Rotary audience is full of the captains of industry in Japan and so they are busy executives, for whom time is their most valuable resource. I was sitting there thinking what have we got here with this speaker’s thinking?

My conclusion was that this speech was for his pleasure. He wanted to ramble around and across a number of unrelated subjects. He clearly liked the sound of his own voice and was happy to have a big audience in front of him. The fact that he managed to go over the time was amazing given there was almost no structure to his talk and he could have ended anywhere really. Japan loves its celebrities, so they get cut a lot of slack and are indulged. This has probably been the speaker’s experience for decades and today he is quite indulgent with himself, because clearly for him, there are no boundaries.

It reminded me though of the importance of focusing on our audience. The danger can be we become wrapped up in our subject or in this case, wrapped up in our own importance. This happens in business too. High powered CEOs jet in to give a speech, they have people fawning all over them and are treated like rock stars. A few years of that and their sense of proportion starts to drift. The issue though, is as speakers, they represent the brand. If they are too impressed with themselves and their superior expertise and ability, the audience can feel it. It becomes obvious they are focused on themselves and not the message or the audience. This is not a plus for the brand.

It can happen with passionate speakers too. They may be legitimate experts in their field and are fully sold on the merits of what they are doing or offering. All great stuff, but this can lead to a shift in focus away from the audience on to the details of the subject and their glorious part in it all. In many ways this talk is all about them and their love for the subject. We don’t want that outcome either.

From start to finish, the focus has to be on getting the key messages into the brains of the audience and selling them on why those messages are important. We the speaker are the vehicle not the main act. As we get more confident speaking in front of audiences and as we start to enjoy holding sway over large crowds, the danger arises that this becomes an extension of our egos about how great we in fact are. Anytime we switch the focus off our audience, be it to the details of the technology or to our glorious selves. When this happens we are clearly going in the wrong direction.

The design and execution of the talk should be solely focused on the audience and giving them what they want. We know this by our prior research into who is coming - gender, age, job titles, company name - and by mingling with the early arrivals, to get a sense of what brought them here etc. We know that the Q&A section will help us address specific interest points for individuals in the audience, which may not have been fully covered in the main body of the speech. It will also flush out any disagreements with what we have said. That can happen in Japan, although usually not from the Japanese members of the audience. Throw a couple of foreigners into the mix and you can be assured they will push back on your views, if they don’t agree with them.

The starting point of why we are doing this talk should be clear. It is not about us, but about those who have taken the time and made the effort to listen to us. If we start the design phase from that perspective we will be well down the track to get the talk right for that audience. We need to navigation of the talk to help make clear the key points we are trying to make. We need to work on our delivery to achieve the same aim. Hitting key words and phrases makes a big difference in raising the status of certain ideas over others.

In sales, we say we have to “join the conversation going on in the mind of the prospect”. In presentations, the same logic applies. We have to consider what the audience is expecting to hear. What are the points they want more information on and think about how they can gain something worthwhile from our talk.

Our personal and professional brands are on show every time we speak in front of audiences. Being highly indulgent with ourselves and not considering the value transaction of listener time being traded for gain is a brand destroyer. We need to keep our eye on the prize, which is be someone of real worth for our audience, based on how they define their idea of value. If we do that every time we will be successful as a speaker and presenter.

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How do you run your business. Sharp on the cost control, right on top of the quality, working hard on building the brand, watchful of competitors, full throttle on appealing to shareholders and stakeholders? There is one area that is going to become a bigger headache. That is people.

I am not talking about just training them. I am hearing from leaders in Japan that they are growing more concerned about getting staff and keeping them. In the “good old days”, there were tons of staff to hire and fire as needed by Japanese companies, but that is changing big time. The lack of qualified staff is hitting across more and more industries.

There are multiple job openings for new hires from which to choose. Why would they pick your company and even more importantly, why should they stay? We know people don't leave companies, they leave bosses. Today there is so much information about your shop available on-line, they can check you out thoroughly before they even contemplate joining. There are battalions of diligent recruiters out there, busily contributing to Japan's labor mobility by moving people into jobs and around jobs.

The idea that we can have an unattractive workplace where people are ill treated by the system or their bosses or both, is clearly out of date. Position aspirants will read about how the organisation really treats people behind the velvet curtain.

Once inside, they will be engaged in direct relation to how they are managed. The results of the engagement surveys, we have conducted world wide hold up true for Japan as well. The feeling of being "valued" is the critical piece of the puzzle to get our staff engaged.

The only trouble with this construct is that the presidential suite of offices is not where too much mass staff engaging takes place. This is more the wheelhouse, scouring the horizon for opportunities and trouble. This is where the organisation’s direction and preferred culture are determined.

The actuality of the delivery is done by people much further down the food chain. Supervisors and middle level managers are the dispensers of justice and travesties of justice, that either keep people or enrage them to leave.

One quick contemplation of this current reality tells you that the leadership of organisations is only going to become more complicated and more important. How well do your middle managers treat your team? Are they ensuring the increasingly finite human resources under their stead are being properly taken care?

Do the troops feel valued? Engaged staff don't move shops, they spurn the recruiter’s siren calls to jump ship. They see a future for themselves right where they are, they feel valued and that their contribution is both recognized and making a difference.

How do they know this? Because their boss is communicating this to them. These bosses really know about their team members. They know their fears, frustrations, concerns, hopes, aims and aspirations. When I was growing up in business, there was a solid wall between work and private. The boss going into the non-work zone was a taboo. This is no longer applicable today, as so many face issues with aging parents and the younger employees want a more holistic approach from the company.

To date the pressure on bosses to produce numbers, have mainly been concentrated on revenues. Now, in addition to that, the pressure to retain staff and maintain low turnover numbers has become more critical.

Flexibility is bending the previously rigid HR rules in companies. In fact, it is changing HR. The classic Japanese model of HR focus is that of enforcers. Meeting out penalties for breaking the rules, punishing them by dispatch to remote provinces or mentally torturing miscreants until they crack and quit.

The idea of the HR partner in the business is still catching on in Japan and the “rule police” role is still the default mode. Reality has collided with demographic trends. More wives are working, staff need to take time off to take their parents to hospital, to stay at home when their kids have a fever or break their toe or get a cold or refuse to got to school.

They need to have their request to work from home granted and not to be judged slackers and doubtful future management material. They may need to come in late or go home early. Until the pandemic, these were disloyal travesties in the thinking in most Japanese companies. Remote working has really opened up more constructs for the business, but there is nothing differentiated here because all employers are doing it. What will be interesting though is what happens when companies want to force their people to come back to the office post-Covid-19? Maintaining this remote work flexibility may become a differentiator and become attractive for people who do not want to get involved in the rush hour crush on the trains anymore. Let’s keep an eye on this and see if there are some opportunities available for nimble firms.

Bosses need to be handing out more praise and it has to be quality praise. Quality praise - what does that mean? Comments like “well done” are low quality praise and pointless. Exactly what was well done? The praise has to capture the concise detail of the thing done well and this has to be fed back to the staff. The credibility of the praise is directly linked to the specificity of the praise.

It also has to be timely. Saving praise up for the annual review, like a Christmas present to be delivered on just one day of the year is an antiquated idea. The impact of the credible praise is directly linked to its proximity to the event that deserves the praise.

The boss as super coach is also a new idea, that will only grow in importance in Japan. The “can't delegate” boss is an anachronism in this era. Delegation is how we train people to take over our jobs and not some happy dumping ground for our workload. The time devoted to helping staff step out of their comfort zone is correlated to the number of innovative ideas which will arise from conversations with staff. Senior management in Japan complain to us that they hardly hear of any innovative ideas from the front line. The reason is simple. The middle managers are doing a poor job engaging and encouraging their people.

Having ideas picked up and implemented by the organisation and being praised for their work will engage staff to stay. It also results in the social media jungle tom toms broadcasting this is a great place to work, where people are valued, ideas are implemented, bosses care and do coach their staff.

Do your middle managers get it yet? If they don't, then some remedial training on the new reality is in order. The possibility of running out of people to maintain your current business is here right now. Being a Leader is fun isn't it!

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If you meet any salesperson who doesn’t ask you questions before explaining their widget run! This person is not a professional in sales, so don’t bother talking with them because you should only deal with professionals in any business and sales is no exception.

Salespeople in their forties, who have been selling their whole careers are professional salespeople. They are not Johnny Come Latelys who found themselves washed up on the shore of the sales profession or people who wandered through the wrong door and found themselves in a sales job. They have been in the game for decades and have acquired vast experience. Or so you would assume, but Japan always has a surprise or two up its sleeve.

My wife contacted a very large multinational insurance company here to buy some cancer insurance. The company reps were coming around on the weekend to get me to sign the dotted line for my component of the policy. Why they needed to send two people was a bit of a mystery to me, but this is common in Japan. Being a sales guy myself, I am always nice to fellow salespeople and treat them well. The policy was wrapped up and the documents duly signed and completed when they bridged into a cross sell.

We had now moved away from their insurance range of products to an annuity product. It wasn’t announced as such, but I quickly realised what it was because we used to sell these when I was at the Shinsei retail bank. Actually they are a good idea for Japan because the Government pension scheme will collapse in the future when there are not enough young people paying in, to support the retirees taking the money out.

Being a “best selling author” of Japan Sales Mastery you can imagine my interest in seeing how these seasoned Japanese insurance sales guys were going to conduct the sales process with me. The brochure was immediately produced and we were walked through the details. Dollar cost averaging got a lot of attention and there were graphs and tables to support the idea. There was even a quiz with three amounts to choose from representing how much we thought the dollar cost averaging investment approach would produce, based around a fluctuating graph of investment fund performance.

I chose the largest return amount and was immediately congratulated as being only the second person he had even met who got the answer correct. Terrific! However, while sitting there, I was beginning to wonder when these two characters would start quizzing me on my investment and financial goals, the structure of the family unit, current allocations, etc. Nope, not a question about any of that. Just a long pitch on this product and the return parameters we could expect at the end of ten years. Actually, Japan has a such a low interest rate environment, the number proffered at the end of ten years was a peanut.

I took hold of the brochure at the end of the pitch and started reading through it. They said their company was the fund manager, but what I found was it was a fund of fund structure. That is fine, nothing wrong with that, but what was the composition of these various funds they had selected. Not a word about that. I also found the bit about the fees, that the funds charged, including the tail. I asked about these fees and it was instantly obvious neither of them had ever looked at that section of the brochure. How could that be? You would think the buyer would have more than a passing interest in how much the initial costs was and what were the ramifications for the ongoing fees and therefore they would be ready for that type of question.

These are professionals in sales who don’t know their own product and don’t ask any questions. Actually, I would not qualify them as “professional” at all despite the many years they have been in sales. How can you expect to sell a sophisticated annuity product to a client, if you have no idea what their timelines are for retirement, what is the nature of their inheritance tax planning regime, their goals for investing, where they are currently tied up?

This is Japan. Salespeople are often woefully under trained here. This multinational may have a sales force here and assume that their “professional” salespeople in their forties, who have been in sales all their careers, have a clue. They would be wrong in this case and you have to ask why they don’t know that? This raises the question of the quality of the leadership of this firm, especially the sales managers.

What about the quality of your own sales managers and salespeople? Are there some assumptions being made that the salespeople have twenty years of experience, when it may be they have one year of experience duplicated twenty times? It pays to check just what quality of a sales team you have, rather than imagining everything is alright. How can you tell? Some simple role playing will revel all very quickly. If your salespeople are thrusting the product brochure in front of the buyer, before asking key questions, then begin to worry. If they don’t understand the detail of pricing of their product range, then begin to worry. You might check into what your sales managers are doing with themselves too, while you are at it.

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The podium is a powerful place for powerful ideas. The audience has no idea what you are going to say and where you are going to take them during your presentation. In Japan, at least, they will politely hear you out until the end and then perhaps offer up a question or two. For the thirty or forty minutes allotted to you, you are the master of the universe, omnipotent over all seated before you. And what have you done with this remarkable opportunity so far? Not that much I would reckon.

In business we are very pragmatic, practical, down to earth, focused. No one expects a businessperson to be giving a fiery, impassioned call to storm the Bastille and put the heads of useless politicians and leaders on pikes to be paraded through the town square. In fact, we bend over backward to be apolitical on the basis that we have customers of various allegiances and beliefs and we don’t want to upset our revenues or hurt our brand.

This tends to breed a focus on the details of elements of our business when we speak. We might be doling out useful advice based on our own experiences to date. It is all kept pretty locked down, neutral and safe. We don’t challenge ourselves and so don’t challenge our audience either. This is not varsity, where a lot of airy fairy stuff can be debated for intellectual stimulation. This is the real world.

The only issue with this “steady as she goes” model is we don’t push ourselves to go higher. We focus on what we know and have seen, instead on what could be imagined. We don’t try to think about issues at a more holistic level, to take a local company issue and elevate it to a conundrum facing the industry. We don’t try to project our intellects to a higher plane of thinking because we are caught up in the weeds of the detail of our speech. We spend vastly more time deciding the order of our sides than on any big idea.

This doesn’t mean our business speech has to whir off on a philosophical tangent far removed from the reality we all face. It does mean though that at a couple of points in our talk we can try to go higher than our own self interest and look at the bigger picture at the industry, country and international level. It may just to be offering up issues for consideration or to project different angles to a problem. To push ourselves to see something in a new light and from a bigger perspective.

The dealing with everyday problems can bury us in the everyday, every day of our working lives and that is a limiting factor in our own intellectual development in business. By taking the opportunity of the podium presented to us, we can challenge ourselves to see what we can say on a bigger topic. One or two big insights per speech is probably enough though, otherwise it sounds like we are on our soapbox, indulging our egos. This should not dissuade us though from thinking “what bigger points can I make about the world of business in my speech? Where do I see future danger points for the industry, the society, the country etc?”.

So when we are next preparing our talk, let’s ask ourselves “what can I say on this topic that will elevate some issues beyond today and my small part of it?”. That act alone elevates our own thinking and vision. Our job in the actual presentation is to do the same for the members of the audience. To challenge them to think more deeply and think differently.

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The younger generation are the future and they want a different type of boss. That boss has to be a new model - persuasive, able to sell the WHY of the job, razor focused on building the team member’s careers, a brilliant communicator and personal coach. A snap really – probably be able to knock that lot off before lunch. Well maybe not.

In Japan, they are not making as many members of the younger generation as they used to, so what they want becomes very critical to the boss’s ability to meet the demands of the organisation. The over 65 age bracket in Japan is currently accounting for 36 million people, whereas those under 15 are only 15 million. That youth number will continue to decline.

Meeting their expectations means survival, because if you are losing them to your competitors, then you will run out of having enough staff to run the business. You can see it now in construction companies, convenience stores, even sushi restaurants in Tsukiji, all having to find non-Japanese young people to do the work.

Japanese youth will be in high demand and the ability of their boss to satisfy their requirements will determine their longevity with the company. Are these bosses up to the task though? It doesn’t appear to be the case. Japanese government statistics show that 31% of young graduates are quitting their jobs within the first three years. This isn’t going to improve.

How skilled are the current crop of middle managers in Japan at coaching. Pretty lousy I would reckon. Why would I say that? There is almost no leadership training in Japan for middle managers apart from OJT (On The Job Training). This effectively means the flawed systems of the past are faithfully transmitted to the next generation, without any insertion of modern professionalism. If your mentor was really skilled, then you were exceedingly lucky, but that batch is few in number.

The boss super coach needs to identify what are the skills needed in the team. There are many possibilities so prioritisation is essential. The person being coached, together with the boss as coach, picture the desired outcome. What is the skill gap to be closed and what does success look like? The goal must be owned by both sides.

Attitude is vital. People are different though and what triggers desire for improvement in one, may not work in another. What the boss thinks is exciting, may underwhelm the under 30s team members. Is the trust in place? How well does the boss know the team members? If the boss has invested the time to know their staff, then coaching them becomes easier, because they can identify their respective interest triggers.

The key resource needed for coaching younger people tends to be the boss’s time. This is in critical short supply usually, which is why so little coaching gets done in the first place. There is a chain reaction that starts with the boss’s time management ability. This is rarely a strong suite for middle managers in Japan. The super coach has mastered time management and prioritisation, so they can live more in Quadrant Two (important but not urgent) rather than Quadrant One (important and urgent) of the classic time management structure.

The ability to spend time reinforcing the strength of the company brand, explaining the Why behind what we do around here and applying attention to developing the skills of the younger team member are the keys. This means having the bandwidth for identifying, explaining and demonstrating the skill required. It means coaching the practice of the skill rather than abandoning the young to their own devices. The latter approach usually fails and so their self-confidence gets hit hard, limiting their appetite for doing more or trying new things.

The idea of recognising results only at the end is flawed, but that is how most people do it. Young people are constantly coming out of their Comfort Zones, so they need instant feedback on two things: what they are doing well (good) and how their can improve further (better).

Recognising their baby steps and partial successes is vital to embolden them to keep going, to keep facing what they see as the black tunnel ahead full of risk and potential career obliteration. Rewards should definitely come at the end and if we know them well enough, then we will know what type of recognition most resonates with them.

The modern boss in Japan has to become a super coach and give the young people in their charge, all the things they themselves should have received on the way up but never did. Unfair, yes, but we can’t keep shortchanging each successive generation and expect we will be making consistent progress in our organisations. The time is now and we have to see some significant changes in the role of today’s boss.

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Brain fog can hit salespeople when they hear a buying objection from the client. As soon as they recover, they spring into action. Usually, it is the wrong action. It involves arguing with the client about why this isn’t a reason not to buy. This effort goes nowhere and is a complete waste of time. In today’s episode find out what we should be doing.

Getting pushback, rejection, disinterest when you present your solution to the client’s problems is the natural state of things. Getting a sale is an exception. That is why the best salespeople are exceptional. There are so many ways to fail in sales, it is no wonder that getting to a ‘”yes” answer is so hard. One of the common questions or issues we get in our sales training classes from Japanese salespeople, are about how to handle the client’s objections. There are some key techniques we need to be applying at this point in the sales conversation.

Obviously, we should always question the objection. The words we hear are an abbreviation, a headline for a much longer reason or more elaborate reason for them not to proceed with us. We want to hear the full thinking behind their rejection of our offer. We also know that we shouldn’t get busy answering the first objection they share. This may not be the real objection. Always have the tip of an iceberg picture in your mind’s eye and imagine there is a big chunk of reasoning as to why it is a “no”, hidden below the surface.

We need to keep pushing for other reasons not to go ahead, after they have told us each one, until we have exhausted their supply. We then ask them to rank them in order with the highest priority first. That is the one we attempt to answer. When we get to this point we have to make a couple of judgement calls. Is this a real objection? Is it a legitimate reason? If it isn’t, then we have not uncovered the real culprit yet, as to why they can’t proceed with us. We need to keep digging for their actual issue with our proposal.

If it is a legitimate reason not to proceed, we need to move on to the second judgement. Can we actually supply what they want, at the price and in the way they want it? Can we overcome the objection within our resources and within the bounds of our pricing and profit model.

Some clients love to play a game called “sport negotiating”. They have a big ego and want to see how hard they can push us on price. This isn’t as much about the economics of the deal, as about their need to win. We may conclude we don’t want to play that game and walk away. That is always my preference when I meet these types of buyers. You can usually tell from their attitude what they are doing. I would rather find a client who will become a repeat buyer and with whom I can cement a long term, rather than transactional relationship with a bully.

If you conclude that you can deal with their price issue, then it is a matter of judgment on how low you need to drop your price. In Japan, once you drop it, then that becomes the ceiling and they want to push you even lower. Never go in with your best price, unless you want to get massacred. Always have some margin in there, so that if you are forced the drop the price, then you can still make the deal worthwhile from your own financial point of view.

Another common objection is that they are satisfied with their current supplier and don’t want to change. This objection is much harder to deal with than price.

The risk averse nature of business here drives everyone to find someone they can trust and then to keep using them. It makes sense in a society which doesn’t tolerate errors or failure. You may disagree with that philosophy, but nobody cares what you think.

There must be some clear differentiation to what you are offering, compared to what the incumbent provides. This may be speed, quality, reliability or cost. Proving this through salesperson hot air and bluster is impossible. You need to ask for a trial or a test or a period of engagement to demonstrate why you are the superior choice. Japanese companies are always very focused on what their competitors are doing. This means that the idea that what you have is really good and will certainly be going to their competitor, to make them an even more formidable rival, if they don’t buy from you now, will get people’s attention.

When we talk about a test or trial, expect it will be an elongated affair. No one gets rewarded in Japan for making a quick decision, but plenty of people are made to suffer if they make a wrong decision. They will want to test and observe, test and observe at their leisure, rather than addressing your preferred timing. I would rather take part in a long test maturation process with the client, than get locked into some disadvantageous pricing.

We recently had that case with a global automotive company. Their foreign headquarters decided that our Japan pricing didn’t fit into their global model and we should reduce it. This particular class they wanted to do, always has a long waiting list. This is at the current pricing and there is a limit on how many can take part in each class. I had no hesitation in telling them we couldn’t match their expectations.

I tried to educate them on different cost frameworks, country by country. I asked them if they were willing to reduce their Japan HR team’s personal salaries, to match those in equivalent jobs in the foreign headquarters? Their answer was no they would be able to do that. Of course not, so why expect me to match that foreign regimen with my Japan pricing? Sometimes we are dealing with uninformed, parochial idiots.

I would rather forego the business, than comply with an uninformed opinion about our relative cost, against our quality. If you believe in what you are selling, then you should be brave in the face of objections. Remember, in 99% of cases there are usually plenty of buyers in an industry. There will be other buyers who will appreciate your quality at that cost. Let’s all go find those companies.

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Our mental approach to our activities determines our success. We know this in sports and in business, but when it comes to speaking in public, we somehow manage to forget this vital point. In fact, when it comes to presenting in front of other people we often have a negative mindset about the activity. We may be reliving humiliations from elementary school or high school, when we had to make a presentation and were teased about it. Without actually remembering any particular incident, we manage to maintain a dread for speaking in public into adulthood. This was me by the way. I avoided public speaking pretty successfully, until I was around 29 years of age. I was fearful of it and there must have been something in my darkest memory, which was driving that fear.

As we get older and advance in our careers, we cannot avoid public speaking and giving presentations, whether we like doing them or not. We know we have to make a presentation, the date has been set and there is no escape. How do we approach it? We get straight into the details, mechanics and logistics, without spending even a moment on our proper mindset for the activity. Given we are putting our personal and professional brand out there for all to see, you would recognise this was a fairly important opportunity to get it right.

The mindset game is a critical one, especially if we are nervous about giving presentations. Confidence is paired with credibility in the presentation game and we have to exude both. We may be very unsure, nervous, even petrified but we must never show that side to our audience. Hesitation kills the message delivery and therefore the impact.

I saw a speaker recently and I felt he was impressive. Thinking back about why I felt he was a good speaker, I realized he wasn’t saying anything breakthrough or particularly valuable. He wasn’t bringing much in the way of new information or insights to his audience. What he was bringing though, was a tremendous amount of confidence to be there, in front of all those quizzical eyes, looking back at him. We the audience we re buying his confidence more than anything else.

Often when we are anticipating the presentation, we imagine that our wondrous content will carry the day. We justify our ineptitude by that presuming that we can be hopeless presenters, but somehow because of the quality of our material, it won't matter. This is pretty delusional and basically it is folly. There are very few subjects where we are the font of all knowledge and therefore everyone else has to put up with our lack of professionalism.

Normally, we are competing for the attention of our audience. Social media has made a hell for presenters, because within two seconds our audience can escape to any number of other more interesting worlds. People are becoming used to multi-tasking. They are reading their Facebook feed, searching for things on Google, checking out Instagram, replying to emails and scrolling through LinkedIn or Twitter all the while they are doing something else, like supposedly listening to us.

We need to have a powerful presentation and speaking faculty to compete with the wonders of the Internet. A big part of our appeal is our message’s worth and the delivery of that worth. We need to understand that both are required. To get the right combination, we need to sell that we are confident in what we're saying and that our content is valuable. This means we are able to deliver the talk without having to read the text. We can talk to key points in front of us or up on the screen. This is different from burying your head in text notes and not engaging your audience. To have the confidence to work the room while speaking, means you have to know the content. You can do it because you created it or you adjusted what someone else had put together for you.

Start with a powerful opening, including the key message captured in your conclusion. Isolate out 3-5 key points so make your argument and support them with evidence. Design both your first close and your second close for after the Q&A.

You have managed your schedule well, so that there has been ample opportunity to practice the delivery. People who are spending all their time on the making the slides

forget they have to rehearse the delivery for an audience. They usually prefer to practice on their audiences, then wonder why the whole thing was very flat with no engagement of their audience.

In the weeks leading up to the talk we are the thinking about what we want to say and how we might say it, we are combing the media and books for juicy quotes and examples to back up what we are saying. We are playing it out in our mind's eye. During this mental imagining, we see ourselves as very confident and successful - we are predicting our success by seeing it before we even do it. We are seeing the audience nodding and agreeing with what we say. We can see ourselves enjoying the moment and feel in full control.

When we have rehearsed, we know the timing, the cadence of the talk. We know where to pause, which words to hit harder than other to emphasize our key points. We are confident on the flow of our talk and with this knowledge we can now relax and enjoy the process rather than dreading it. We have to work on our mindset toward what we are doing. We have to change our self-talk around how we approach the talk. We have to focus on the benefits of building our personal and professional brands. We have to look for every opportunity to talk, because that is how we become better and better. If we can change our mindset, we can change our starting point and that will bring the results we know we need to generate.

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Are you moody? You might say no. You see yourself as an upbeat individual, smoothly navigating your way through the workday. Good, but the workplace is roiling with confirmed, card carrying boss watchers. They have their antennae out every time you appear, as they gauge the risk level of any interaction with you today.

Should I raise that project possibility, talk about the budget, have that revenue results discussion, etc. They have been studying your body language, your gait, face and voice with such intensity, that they can easily distinguish your mood on any given day and throughout the day.

So if you are troubled, have you been a sufficiently skilled actor to mask the emotions coursing under that bespoke suit? We radiate information to our team regardless, but do we maintain our equilibrium when everyone around us is losing theirs? When everyone is panicking, are we an amplifier or a suppressor?

We are the boss, so we set the tone for the day. If we are up, we have a much better chance of taking everyone else up with us. Conversely, if we are worried, concerned, down, then we drag the entire crew toward the bottom. The scary part is how hard it is to draw them up and how quickly we can sink their boat.

Are we circumspect in what we say? If we awake in the morning and the look of the sky determines our mood, how much control are we exercising? The somber rain clouds, driving sleet or ice cold snow may encourage us to whine about what a “lousy day” it is.

Alternatively crisp blue skies and lovely fluffy white clouds under a gorgeous warm sun might make us comment “what a great day”. Both are dangerous statements. Both tell everyone, that it is acceptable for our mood to be randomly controlled by the weather.

We have to be the sunny boss, every day, regardless of the meteorological conditions. We don’t discuss the weather at work with any judgmental comments. We might note it is raining, so we need to take our brolly, but that is as far as we are allowed to stray.

There are other moods we need to be vigilant about. If the mood doesn't grab you, are you procrastinating on doing certain unpalatable tasks. Especially, those you find difficult, boring, time consuming or require you to really think hard? When you scan your well considered priority list for today’s assault on the workload and you spy that a certain item has now crept to the upper reaches of the “to do” pile, do you inwardly wince?

Are you frantically looking for an escape route. Maybe a quick diversionary attack on the email, social media, papers scattered on the transom or that phone call you need to make. In other words, every possible thing other than the irksome burden in front of you. Do you feel your spirited, happy mood start to fade as the reality dawns that massive pain is inbound?

What about when people let you down? The news arrives that a certain item hasn’t been completed, on time, on budget or to the required standard by one of the team. You were hurtling down the highway of happiness, fully charged with control of your day and now this train wreck appears on the horizon to derail your positive mood.

The boss is not allowed the luxury to react. As the boss, you can only respond. That means engaging both the head and the heart. It means super control over your moods, to intentionally impact both yourself and your team. The discipline to do the things you need to do and when you need to do them is the objective. The boss is not perfect but has to appear perfect to everyone else attached to the oars on the galley deck.

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Marketing plays a key role in generating leads. They are trying to maximise the accuracy of the segmentation of the data base, to make offers that resonate specifically with different segments. They are producing content marketing pieces that will spark leads through the SEO route. Buying ad words to get pay per click activation from buyers, who are searching for your specific good or service is another channel. Potential buyers raise their hand when they download a white paper or an eBook from the website or leave an inquiry. However this is never enough from a sales point of view.

Salespeople want to fill the top of their funnel of leads. They know they have certain ratios which will unveil the KAIs or Key Activity Indicators. If we try to email or phone a certain number of prospects, then we will get a certain amount of replies or contacts. By tracking how many we make contact with we can get a ratio of our activity relative to our success. The next stage is converting those contacts into face to face or online meetings. In Japan, for the vast majority of B2B sales, face to face has been required, especially if you are a potential new supplier. Online meetings with new clients just pushes the degree of difficulty right up. Regardless, there will be a ratio of success here counting appointments achieved against attempts to get a meeting. Then obviously we can count how many of those meetings led to a deal being done. That is another key ration.

We can calculate the value of all the deals we did against the number of deals and work out our average sale value. If our average deal size is 1 million yen and our annual sales target is 30 million yen then we can work backwards and nominate how many original client contacts we need to be making to generate our target number. The problem is very few sales people have any clue what their KAI is and they just ramble around thoroughout the year.

When we know our KAI we know we need to put aside what marketing is doing because we can’t control that process. We can control though, how many networking events we go to, how many cold calls we make, how many reactivation calls to orphan clients we need to make. We have a clear idea of what an ideal client looks like.

We have clients in an industry who have rivals in the same business. The chances are high that the problems and issues facing one five star hotel in Tokyo will probably be shared by other similar hotels. Our insights derived from dealing with one can provide us with a battering ram to break into the other hotels.

Commonly, cold calls fall on stony ground in Japan unless you know the exact name of the person you need to talk to. The lowest placed young woman on the totem pole is always designated to pick up the phone. Despite her tender years she has become a hardened, ego demolishing, expert at keeping her bosses protected against pesky salespeople. “Who are you”, “Why are you calling, “We will call you back”, then crickets is usually how it goes.

Most salespeople just ask to speak with the sales manager, false promises are made to get rid of them and deafening silence on the return call front is all they ever experience. The Sales Manager never contacts you and you are never ever confident that young Ms. Call Killer even passed your message on to the boss in the first place.

Now, based on our insights gained from working with similar companies in the same industry, we can try a different angle. “Hello, this is Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training Japan, we are global soft skills training experts. We have been working with your direct competitors here in Japan. What you will find interesting is how we have been having great success helping their sales teams to win new business for their Hotels. These rival sales managers have loved seeing their teams going after new business, succeeding and so substantially expanding their sales. Maybe we could do the same for you. I am not sure. Please allow me to discuss this possibility with your sales manager, to see if we can help your firm achieve similar success. Would you please transfer me to the sales manager?”.

Invariably the Sales Manager “isn’t there”, even if they actually are there. At this point Ms. Call Killer often goes stone motherless silent. She will not offer to take a message, as she is hoping you will crack and say “I will call back later”. That makes her feel good about getting rid of you, because experience has taught her that most salespeople don’t try again and she won’t get a call back. She will not tell you the name of the sales manager if you ask. If you don’t give up so easily and you ask to leave a message, she will take down your name and number - maybe. You have to rely on her tender mercies for your message to be passed across. Here is a key tactic. You should keep calling back every few hours, until you get to talk to the sales manager. You have to be that persistent to break through the wall.

Making these cold calls needs discipline, guts, a thick hide and time. Every single day you need to make a key appointment. That is the one with yourself, to hive off time to get on the phone and hammer against these protective walls. Think about it. You will always defend the time to meet with a client and you have to apply the same rigour to the time you need to make these calls. Get it into your schedule and BLOCK that time out.

This is one way we can take control of our own destiny and make our own leads. It is tough, but persistence and conviction that what you have is what they need and the time to make the calls, are the prerequisites. Block out the time and get on the phone. Take command of your priorities.

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We go to a lot of effort to prepare for our presentations. We find the best quality information, assemble the slides to showcase that data and we make big efforts for the successful delivery of the talk. Once it is over, then that is the end of it. It was a lot of effort for a one time event. It reminds me of that esoteric Japanese art Sunae, where you craft sand into artistic landscapes and designs and then discard the artwork thereafter. We craft our artistic efforts and then as the presentation comes to an end we discard the work. Isn’t this a waste? Or should each presentation stand alone, representing a point in time in our speaker journey?

For me, I try to create the opportunity to give the same presentation a number of times. Obviously, repetition helps to improve the presentation. We learn so much from the first time we gave it, that it seems motainai or a complete waste not to be able to use those insights and try again. The problem is how to create the opportunity to repeat the presentation? Various host organisations have some degree of requirement for exclusivity and they want their members to have the virgin roll out and not the recycled rendition. They resist allowing you the opportunity to offer them the new and improved version because they want to differentiate themselves from other organisations.

I understand the point but in fact no two presentations are ever the same anyway. The speech is not being read out aloud (if you are doing that please contact me immediately!), so we are usually talking to the points we bring up. What we say in the moment may be phrased an entirely different way to last time. In fact one would hope that was the case, because the idea is we learnt something from last time and now we can offer a better version.

We may have supplemented the slide deck or thinned it down based on our last experience with the limits of the time, for the quantity material we prepared. Hopefully these were not too far apart, because we should have been rehearsing before we gave it, so we should know the time required for the delivery. After we gave it the first time we realised that now there may be some slides which no longer fit, given the time interregnum between presentations or we may have found something better since the last time.

We may have left bits out the first time, in our fevered efforts to get through the presentation and this second time we want to make sure they are not missed. The audience questions may have raised issues we hadn’t considered when framing the presentation and now we can incorporate the answers to those issues this time around. Or we may have been given constructive feedback and have now been able to incorporate that into this delivery.

We might worry we will be flat the second time around, as it has become a bit ho-hum for us. That is rarely the case though, unless you are doing the exact same presentation every week for months, which for most businesspeople is highly unlikely. Even stage actors, who have their shows run for weeks, always manage to freshen up their performance. If you see the same show twice, you will notice that the two performances are slightly different.

If we can, we should try to convince the good burghers in our towns, to have us present the same topic to different groups, within a reasonably close span of time, to reap the benefits of what we learn from actually doing the presentation in front of an audience. I remember when I gave a talk to a 5000 person audience. I found the scale of the venue was so different from normal, that I had to change how I presented. I instinctively knew that in order to master that environment and that situation, I would need to repeat that experience at least five times a row in order to master it.

Keep all of your presentation materials and notes and plunder the past for the keys to future glory. Practice makes perfect, so manufacture lots of opportunities to speak. Don’t wait for the phone to ring, instead get on the phone and get the next gig. That is how the pros did it and why wouldn’t we do the same.

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There are billions being spent in the beauty business, the weight loss, fashion and entertainment worlds. These are the fantasy lands from where we receive our images of success. By comparison, we are too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat, too poor, too whatever. Actors, sports stars, captains of industry all seem to be living the dream and we are barely making a living.

If only I had been born to wealthier parents, in a better neighbourhood, in a better city, in a better country. I wish I had a better education or had a better job, better prospects. I wish I had been dealt a better hand in life.

Stop wishing that because you are not going to be dealt a better hand. You have what you have, you can’t change what has happened in the past, but that doesn’t mean that is all you can ever have.

Many have made mistakes, specified poor choices, taken unwise paths, and have hung around with the wrong crowd. Face it, accept it, stop fighting it - you can’t undo the mistakes of the past. Stop trying to go backward and use that energy to go forward. Don’t live in the past. Look at your strengths, not just your weaknesses.

Well this all sounds very fine, dandy and noble but how do we do that? Well, we have to become our own first responder. When a catastrophe occurs, the first responders go in and rescue people, they apply life saving procedures and spirit the wounded away from the scene to safety.

The white knight, on his white charger is not about to turn up anytime soon and rescue us, so we had better get busy helping ourselves. We had better come up with our own rescue plan and start to move forward.

Before we can make that move though we have to throw off the heavy burdens holding us back. These are not physical, but mental barriers. We need to start by freeing ourselves from our past. Horrible, sad, unfair, gross, ridiculous things happened to us or we had supreme bad luck – it doesn’t matter, we have to move forward.

Now I didn’t say we had to forget what happened – that is unlikely and probably impossible. The trick is to free ourselves from the incapacitation that those events in the past are having on our daily reality. We need to focus on what is in front of us today. What is in the locus of our control.

If yesterday is haunting us to the point we can’t focus on today, we are never going to break free. To get rid of yesterday, so we can concentrate on today, we need to take the worry component out of our frame of reference. We can recall the past, but we need to deduct the worry bit. Worrying about it changes nothing, so recall but stop worrying about it. Create your own hermetically sealed memory house with glass walls, ceilings, windows, floors and doors where the content is visible but nothing can get out. Mentally make it so the worry dimension cannot escape to contaminate your today.

Having done that, we switch gears and look at our strengths and assets. Assets – what assets you ask? You have time and that is your greatest asset ever. You spend time either productively or less productively, but you still spend time. By looking at the time available as your asset, you can now start the process of going on to the front foot and thinking about how to spend that time more efficiently, effectively and productively.

You can set down a detailed vision for yourself. Where and how you would like to be in the near future. Next you can arrange a series of key high priority goals which will help you achieve that vision. Your goals must break down to precise, defined, realistic action steps to realise the vision’s objectives. Now we devote all the time we have available to working on those actions steps. This process creates forward momentum from which we can build further, step by step. What did all of this cost you? A small part of your greatest asset – time.

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Listen well enough to the client’s needs. They miss the key cues, misunderstand the problem, can’t override their fixation on what they want and do most of the talking during the sales call. They wonder why getting an agreement to buy is so hard.

One of my sales coaching students was relating how he took the client meeting into negative territory from the very kick off of the sales conversation and then proceeded to dig the hole deeper and deeper for himself. Small talk at the start is needed to set the foundation for building the trust, as buyer and seller get to know each other. In this case, the small talk conversation went into a death spiral. This is when the redirect button is pushed to make it more meaningful for the buyer.

In this case, he just lent harder on the shovel and dug faster. If we find things are not going well, then stop talking and start asking questions. This allows the buyer to feel in more control to direct things the way they want them and for you to regroup and prepare to take back the reins of the conversation. Usually we have the selling plan, but the buyer doesn’t have the buying plan. They are wandering around with no direction in mind, because they expect to hear what they need from us. We need to keep that conversation on track.

Our intrepid hero was sadly successful in convincing the client to buy the thing which would have zero return. When we had our coaching session together, I was drilling down into what would the client get in return for their hard earned money, based on the conversation that had covered what the client was trying to achieve. It was obviously zero value for the client but good for the seller, who was having trouble moving this product. Great, but this destroys your reputation in the market. You do get the sale and usually the size of the sale is a peanut, as it is the first sale. You blow all your credibility at the start and then the client tells everyone in town you are radioactive and to be careful of dealing with you. The lifetime value of the client means that the loss is enormous, when measured that way. That peanut will also be expensive, given the way it will shred your reputation.

We worked on a more custom solution for the client and took the solution in a completely different direction. This customisation process is always the best idea. We tend to have ready to go, off the shelf solutions, which are cost and time effective, but these won’t always match the needs of the client. The more customised the solution, the better in terms of client satisfaction, ROI and perceived value. Make the solution fit the client’s needs, rather than make the client fit in with the seller’s needs. No more square peg in the round holes solutions please. Let’s have good self-awareness

When we hear what the client is trying to achieve, the solutions we suggest have to be in line with delivering that. You would think that is the most logical thing in the world, but salespeople do the most surprising things. They try to redirect the client’s needs, to match their own needs. If there is a higher commission being paid on one product, over the others, then they want to stress that product, regardless of whether that is the best one for the client or otherwise.

They may be under pressure from their boss to push a solution that benefits the company the most. This is where you start getting into hole digging territory. The client may be following our advice because we did such a very good job of establishing rapport and building trust at the outset. When we FOIST the wrong solution on the client, we are haemorrhaging that trust immediately. The ROI we should be focused on is the client’s ROI not ours.

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This global company is a household name in Japan. They have spent a fortune getting the brand name known here. They had some tough times early on too and got a hammering from the media about aspects of their business model. A lot of negative publicity was generated, so the name is well known, but not in a helpful way. The President is giving his talk about the company and the industry to a mixed audience here in Tokyo. It was sadly underwhelming. Sitting there was a form of torture for me, who teaches this stuff. Well what made this an under performing presentation and what can we learn from it?

The meltdown in the media from a few years ago is a common memory. But what a great “return from the dead story” lies therein. There must have been amazing characters involved. Even the foreign head office President had to get involved and apologise. There was drama aplenty and lessons numerous falling out from the catastrophe. We all love to learn by hearing about the errors of others. We gobble that stuff right up, because we have that Schadenfreude thing going in the background.

Instead, we got a very one dimensional, flat talk about the business model and not much on the lessons learnt. It was delivered with a very passionless effort, that failed to ignite anyone in the audience. The speaker looked tired and sounded only slightly interested to be there talking to us. His facial expression was single throughout. There were no highs and lows of the journey reflected in his expression. He seemed to make sure to match his voice to his wooden face and spoke throughout in a deathly, dull monotone. This means he gave up the chance to punch out specific words for emphasis, to bring phrases to life by turbo injecting them with power or alternatively, dropping the strength out for contrast. It was bland.

In fact, this was a major brand damaging exercise from go to woe. By that, I count both his personal, professional brand and also the corporate brand. He mentioned that he had given a couple of these talks to various audiences already and I was thinking that is pretty sad. Why sad?

I was reminded of that story about Campbell’s tomato soup. I can’t remember who was the ad guy in charge of the advertising account for Campbells, but the owner complained that the advertising agency was promoting all of the other soups, except tomato. The ad guy’s reply is very informative for speakers. He said the reason was that their tomato soup was orange in colour and not all that good. If he promoted it vigorously, more people would try it, become unimpressed and Campbells would suffer severe brand damage.

This is what happens to speakers like this one. They nefariously roam around destroying their personal and company brands, by exposing more and more people to their zombie presentation performance. He needed to be a lot more energised in his talk. This was potential high drama, full of powerful stories that would stick with us, long after the talk was over. Here we had a great redemption story of how they came back from the brink of expiration in Japan, to recover, regroup and re-conquer the market.

The delivery had one gear and that unfortunately was stuck in low gear. We never had spurts of speed or energy. We just dawdled along at three kilometres an hour until it ended. We all need to become passionate about our story, telling it with a lot of voice strength and using our body language to good effect.

We take the audience with us on a trip to Space Mountain at Disneyland. We are strapped in, and then we whiz into the blackness of their downfall, curving at high speed around the media assault, dropping precipitously into a deep dive of lost business from which it looked there was no return. Next, we soar skyward as we get over the disaster and rebound the company, people and the brand.

We needed that passionate retelling of the journey, the highs and lows, the lessons, the characters involved. All we got was a slide deck with lots of data on it. What a lost opportunity. We all have many stories, good, bad and educational. We need to use these to engage our audience, so that they feel like they have been with us through that hair raising ride and have touched back down with us, exhausted but elated at having survived the ride.

Remember, people won’t recall the detail of your talk. They will forget all the statistics. Even if they wrote them down, they won’t consult them ever again. They will not remember all those groovy slides you crafted and assembled so meticulously. They will remember the stories though. They will remember you and how you came across. They won’t forget how much you excited them or didn’t excite them. Treat every chance to talk as a great brand building or exploding opportunity. As the speaker definitely be passionate, tell energising stories and be memorable in a good way. This is how you build both your personal and company brands to good effect. The negative alternative is not a very pleasant contemplation.

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If we want to influence others with our visionary leadership, then we have to start with ourselves and clarify what is the vision we have for ourselves.

If we are to live intentionally, we must visualise our objectives in concrete detail, to make the whole process as real as possible. We also look into our future state and see how we will live. What sort of person are we to become? Who are we with, how do we get along with them and what do we do? How are we regarded by others and how do we treat others? Where do we travel to, in what style do we travel and what experiences do we have? What sort of car do we drive? Which restaurants do we frequent? What are our fashion flourishes?

We create a combination photo and word picture description of the future state we want to realise. We now have to consider the goals which, when they come to fruition, will supply the vision objectives we have set for ourselves. Goal setting works best when broken down and linked to our roles in life.

Often, we only consider our corporate goals and forget about ourselves in this process. We are multifaceted beings and so should be our goals. We have our company role, but we also have our family role - wife, husband, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, etc. We have financial, health, friendship, personal development and lifestyle goals we want to achieve.

The point is to link these goals back to our personal vision. The vision is the direction, but the goals are the vehicle to carry us along the road to realisation of the vision. We have set an overall timeframe for the vision achievement, so the goals have to have milestones too, to be able to back up the timetable we have set.

Normally we think of a visionary leader as someone who shows us the way forward, who motivates, encourages and inspires us. The entry ticket to becoming a visionary leader though, is to have a clear vision for yourself. We are all notorious spruikers of pungent advice for others, none of which we normally adhere to in our own lives. This is where the visionary leader’s personal credibility bit sails right out the window.

Visions should be backed up with goals. Leading an “intentional life” is a good starting point as an aspiration. This means we don’t aimlessly wander through the decades, directionless or often becalmed. We choose to garner ten years of experience rather than achieving one year of experience ten times. We choose the way forward and we choose to work hard to realise those goals we have set for ourselves.

What is the timeframe to realise the vision? Where can we start? Let’s leave the company vision thing aside for the moment and concentrate on our personal vision first. This makes sense, because if our own life is a meandering mess, then how do we imagine we can magically bring order to the corporation? If you don’t have your own act together, then the people working for you know that and your credentials as a visionary leader look a bit torn and tatty.

Normally, our future vision is an extension of how we want to see our future life. Where will we live, in what circumstances, who will we be with, how will we live, what will motivate us, entertain us and fulfill us?

In corporate life, we spend considerable time, effort and money to define the brand we want to establish for a new business or a business being taken in a new direction. We can do the same thing for ourselves. We might think about the most desirable location for our house. Which city, which part of the city and maybe even which street? We can collect myriad magazine photos for our vision book of beautiful houses that have elements of our dream home.

We should determine the house colours, the exterior, the interiors, the approach to the house, the scale of the property, what is in the house, what is in the backyard. Going to this level of detail makes the whole exercise more concrete and more likely to be realised, than a vagary like “I want a nice house”.

Zig Ziglar had a great quote, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”. If we want to be a visionary leader for our team, we need to be able to help them realise what they want. First step, stop kidding ourselves and let’s get our own act together. The sheer focus that process will bring, will establish our credentials to help others achieve their own goals. When we can do that, we gain willing cooperation from our team and we become a true visionary leader.

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Really Understand Your Expectations Of Your Sales Team

We hire people and they don’t perform as we expected. The time passes and the numbers are not rolling in. We thought they would be more proactive and more skilled at getting new business. We fire them and start over again. Except that in Japan, you can fire them, but replacing them is a different and difficult matter these days. Recruiting salespeople is horrendous, so the retain component is the mirror piece we have to master as well. Turning the tap on in the sink, with the plug removed, isn’t getting us anywhere and this revolving salesperson door is just that issue. We are wasting a lot of resources.

We are often the problem though. I have a start-up founder client who is a nightmare. I have interviewed all of his direct reports and finally the big man himself. Actually, I don’t want to work with his company. They can keep the money. He is the issue as to why they are having such significant staff turnover. He has a “plug and play” mentality with people. When you find a problem, you just hire someone in to fix it and then go back to running around like a headless chicken as before. In this case, the leader is the problem.

His expectations are unrealistic with the current state of the market. He thinks we are still back in the old days, when there wasn’t the same amount of job mobility and where people tended to stick around, because it was hard to get another job. He had key people jump and rather than try and fix the problem, starting with himself, he just wants to throw another body at it.

There are three areas where we need to audit ourselves and our expectations. Are we sure of what we are looking for in our salespeople when we hire them? If we hire a farmer and they don’t hunt, we fire them. Whose fault was that? Ours not theirs. We need to know at the very start are we bringing in another farmer here or a hunter? In Japan, farmers are much more numerous and so the chances of getting a farmer on board are statistically higher.

How can we tell which is which, in the interview process? Ask the candidate about their current client base. Where did those buyers come from? If they say through the marketing team’s efforts generating leads, the pool of “orphan clients”, their boss or from departed colleagues, then that tells you they are farmers. If they talk about how they recruited new clients, by beating the bushes and finding them then, you have a hunter there. This is not to say one is better than the other, but that in Japan you are more likely to wind up with a farmer than a hunter. Once you know that, you adjust your expectations and know you need to get busy feeding them.

Another case is how fast we expect people to get up to speed. When the months roll buy and the numbers don’t role in, we get frustrated. We need revenues and we need them now. The costs in salary, insurances and expenses flow out like a flood and the revenues from new salespeople comes in like a trickle. Where do we get our expectations from? Are they rooted in numbers, experience or hope. Often it is the hope component, followed by our personal experience and rarely are any comparative numbers involved. It is always dangerous to judge others through the lens of ourselves. “I did it, so they can do it too”, makes sense at one level, except when you uncover that very few other salespeople are like you. A better analytical tool is performance.

Take every salesperson who has worked for your organisation over the last five to ten years and trace them all back to Day One when they started. Track their revenue production monthly. In this way you can compare like for like. There will be some averages you can apply to give you a measuring stick, against which to gauge their output. If you have a sufficient number of people to look at, you can take out the worst and the best performer and form an average from those left. If you don’t have enough people, then a straight average is enough. This gives you quarter by quarter, what, on average, you should expect from your people after they join. This has nothing to do with what you did and so is a more objective means of defining performance and tempering your expectations.

The third thing to look at is your sales incentive scheme. American style 100% commission systems are not much in evidence in Japan, except in very dubious occupations, closely associated with skulduggery. Usually salespeople are on fixed salaries with bonuses. This is not a great system and so try to change it. A better case is where the base salary will be lower and a percentage of sales as commission is paid.

If your scheme is mainly to benefit your pocket, then don’t be surprised if people don’t get excited about it. I have a friend who is mean, when it comes to paying salespeople and has tremendous turnover, wondering why. I keep telling him why, but he is too greedy about getting the money and not spreading it around with his team, so he refuses to change. I just sit back and observe the regular carnage.

Foreign company leaders often complain to me that they brought in this really spiffy incentive scheme, but none of the salespeople seem the least bit motivated by it. I ask about whether there is a component that recognises bringing in new business? If you want hunters, but you pay everyone a straight commission, regardless of how they got there, then you will usually encourage farming. I also ask about the base pay? Usually these are very high, so in risk averse Japan, everyone is happy to keep doing what they have always done, rather than try something new. Those high base pays need to be reduced, so that there is more at risk for the salesperson, if they don’t hit their numbers.

The “number” or target is also important. If we make it too high, then people just roll over and give up. Our expectations can outstrip their own self-assessment of their individual capability. They start to suffer from imposter syndrome, where they don’t believe they can operate at that level, so they underperform to get themselves back to an equilibrium they are more confortable with. Getting the number right is an art more than a science, but getting it wrong becomes expensive.

Our expectations are often the source of our woes. We need to take a cold hard look at why we have our expectations, are they realistic and do we need to alter them?

Action Steps

1. Check whether our salesperson recruiting system is favouring farmers over hunters, when we are looking for hunters
2. Create some production norms we can measure new performers against, to get a better grip on reality, rather than being in thrall of our hopes
3. Structure the incentive scheme so that the salesperson’s target is reasonable and then increase their risk component of their package.

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We run training on presentations and public speaking continuously. These three requests to be more concise, clear and persuasive, often come up from the participants, regarding the nominated areas where they want to improve. In this Age of Distraction, if you miss the first two, you can kiss goodbye to number three. As soon as an audience hears you rambling, they are scrambling for the mobile phones to exit your talk. When you are mystifying your audience, they bolt for digital device safety.

I am the only English native speaker in my team here in Tokyo. My staff all have very fluent English and are skilled communicators. One of them however, as much as I love her to death, drives me nuts. When her brain has fixed on a topic she launches straight into the main body of what she wants to tell me. It has become a bit of a running joke in the office, because I will stop her and ask “what is the subject of this wonderful exposition?”.

We can do the same things when we are speaking. We are so deep into our subject, we forget that the people listening are unable to follow our thread, because we haven’t set up the topic properly. We have phases of our talk. The opening is the dynamite, the nitro. We light the fuse and blow everyone out of their complacency, sloth and slumber in order to get them to pay attention to us.

In the main body of our talk we need to be thinking in terms of five minute blocks. At around this frequency, we need to be switching it up, to keep our audience attached to what we are saying. We might do this through a powerful story, an impactful slide, an insightful quotation, or a killer question. When we make a statement in the main body, we need to make sure we are bolting on some evidence to prove what we are saying. Data, statistics, survey results, testimonials are all excellent sources of credibility for our provocative claims.

The arrangement of the blocks needs to have a logical flow. It might be by theme, chronological, micro to macro, problem-solution-result or any number of easy to follow formulas. The point is to choose one and use it, rather than allowing the muse to take you on a journey without direction.

Bridges between the sections are useful guideposts too. For example, “We have covered XYZ, now let me explore ABC”, or “In a moment let’s investigate the influence the economy may have on our projections”, or “There are three key things we must be vigilant for, the first is….”. These are threads to stitch the whole presentation together into a format the listener can follow without having to work hard at all. If we make our audience work hard, we often find they are all lazy escape artists and we have lost them.

Time is the weapon of choice for the speaker when it comes to learning to shave words, hone sentences and trim excess. Rehearsal is absolutely key to getting the timing correct. On how many occasions have we all had to sit there and listen to an unprofessional speaker tell us they are “running out of time” and they will have to “whip” through the last slides? How do we feel? Cheated, big time! We came to get some key information from the talk and skipping over key slides to satisfy some arbitrary time constraints has us worried we are not getting full value from the time we are allocating.

When the stop watch is running, you learn to sharpen up the prose, glean the essentials and focus on the most important things only. Rambling away soon trips you up and you realise you need to cut the excess and stick to the most powerful points only.

When we get to the end, we wrap it up with two closes, one for the pre-Q&A and one for the very end. These are our opportunities to underscore our punch lines, hammer our main conclusion, reinforce the ideas we are promulgating and leave the audience with a thought pounding so loudly in their ears that it won’t get easily displaced by something else. The close puts a nice bow on the whole enterprise, wrapping things up sweetly.

Action Steps

1. Plot the talk in five minute brackets
2. Create bridges to lead the audience into the next section
3. Get out the stopwatch to tighten up the delivery
4. Spend time designing the opening and closes to properly marshal the talk

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Leaders gain automatic trust by dint of their position power. Title and authority ensure people will toe the line, laugh at our jokes, tell us “Yes”. This type of trust only goes so far though in gaining the willing cooperation of the team members. In a busy life however, with so many demands on our time, we mentally merge automatic trust with earned trust and confuse the two. Earned trust differs from automatic trust because it is based on the reality of our interactions and communication with our team. This is the “walk” as opposed to the “talk”. We imagine we have established a trust relationship with the team and therefore are getting their full support for our efforts to progress the business. As Yogi Berra once noted, " Leading is easy. It is getting people to follow you that is the hard part".

Time management is closely related to trust. The ability to leverage ourself as a leader and get others to work on projects for us, means we can concentrate on high level tasks that only we can do. However, if the trust is not there, the person receiving the task feels unmotivated and lacking in commitment to do what needs to be done.

If we are not able to trust our team we are afraid to delegate, because we a concerned they will not be reliable and we will suffer later, when things go wrong. The flip side of this scenario is we don't delegate and therefore kill ourselves twice. Once by not developing our people, by giving them a chance to grow through taking accountability and responsibility for higher level tasks. Secondly, because we murder our own time management abilities, by heaping too much work on our own shoulders, ensuring we are doing mainly lower and medium value tasks for the most part.

Discretionary effort is that jewel whereby our team want to go beyond, to innovate, create, think ahead and step up. They get paid for their services of course, but this is a much higher degree of commitment. It goes far beyond the basic expectations of labor in exchange for money. When the trust levels are high, then the discretionary effort levels are also very high.

Building trust is not a “one and done” effort. It is a constant and we can be adding. to and withdrawing from our trust account with our team. We lose our temper and lash out at one of the crew. The previously accumulated trust now goes through the floor. We take strong exception to a suggestion from a team member and in doing so, we just cancel their innovation ticket. We say one thing but do another, or we say something and do nothing, provide no follow through etc. and the trust is out the window.

We are well intentioned, hard working, busy people so we cut corners all the time to get it all done. One of those corners is with our communication. We are chronic non-communicators. Now some reading this may be thinking, " No I am not". Talking a lot and telling everyone what to do, isn't the type of communication I am referring to. I am on about the communication facility that leads to increasing trust. This is the communication of explaining the WHY, of listening, of asking for input, of seeking beyond the limitations of your own experience and ideas. This requires more time than telling those around us what to do and how to do it.

Here is where we close the loop on ourselves, like a hangman’s noose around our own necks. We don't have the trust to delegate, therefore we don't have the time to communicate properly. So we fail to build sufficient trust to delegate and so around and around we go.

Spending time with our team, finding out what inspires them, interests them, what they fear, what they hope for, are the fundamental building blocks of good communication. These efforts lead to a better understanding of how to build the trust with each person in the team. The starting point has to be making the time available to have those conversations and not just the prerequisite ones at performance review time. These have to be built into an already packed schedule. This means we have to take the delegation process seriously.

If we are delegating properly, we are matching the task with the person's career path and development track. We are having a discussion where we sell the value of the task, as part of their personal development process, as opposed to a hospital pass of something, bothersome and unpleasant. It means having them set the plan, the relevant milestones and we just monitor the execution to make sure it is on track.

This conversation and follow up requires time and that is where best intentions are often sacrificed on the alter of expediency. We uphold in principle, but we allow all manner of competing priorities to push this down the list of things we need to be focused on. Eventually it just seeps away almost unnoticed.

We need to change our mindset, work habits, time scheduling or nothing will advance. Instead of ten years of experience we will just be repeating the same year ten times in a row. How easily does this happen? All too easily, in the busy life of a leader.

Earned trust is so valuable for the leader and there is a price to be paid to receive it. That is time and consideration. If we really value our people, then we will vote for them to be higher up in our priority list. Because of this higher attention escalation, the necessary conversations are held, the time is spent and repeated consistently. This consistency builds lasting trust.

Action Steps

1. Understand the difference between position power and gaining earned trust
2. Learn how to delegate properly
3. Check to see you are really communicating rather than imagining you are
4. Make time available to get to really know your team

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Selling dull stuff is, well, dull. We are supposed to be enthused about our widget but what if it doesn’t generate all that much enthusiasm in us?

Industrial products are rarely sexy. They tend to be very technical, specification heavy and chunky. They are normally being presented in a catalogue of products. The pricing, quality and the after sales service tends to be the differentiator with the rival suppliers. The salespeople presenting these often boring, utilitarian products, are also usually do so in a boring, functional manner. Not much pizzazz going on.

This flies in the face of what we know though about buyers buying us, buying our confidence and being injected with our belief in the product. We don’t have to present these types of products in a dull way. The features of the product are usually a mass of measurements. This can be dry as a subject for getting buyers excited. However what about the benefits of the product? This is where we should be able to shine in our presentations. Intellectually, we all know we don’t buy the product. We buy what the product will do for us. Describing that part of the occasion is where we can stand apart from our competitors. The problem is we forget about this bit and we just drone on and on about the spec.

Talking about the benefits of the product purchase are absolutely fundamental in sales. However, rather than just talking about the benefits of the product, we need to be outlining how the benefit can be applied in their company. Having a benefit and doing something with it are not the same thing. We need to be drawing out word pictures of how our product can help them in their business. Usually it is through better efficiencies around life of the product or better quality, leading to fewer maintenance issues. It might be the ease of use of our product when compared to others or the ease of instillation. Whatever it is, this is where we need to capture the attention of the buyer. By taking the discussion beyond the spec, to the integration into the customer’s systems, their staff’s daily interactions with the product, the their customers happiness with the finished item, then we can bring a dry subject alive.

Numbers lend themselves to comparisons very easily, so we can contrast our product with the alternatives. We can break the cost down, amortised over a long period of time. The lifetime of a lot of industrial products can be quite long, so long range number crunching works well. It has to be related back however, to today though. We need to provide context about how this long term saving will translate into financial benefits today. There may be some speed of delivery elements creating savings on inventory or storage costs. Improved quality deliverables may create benefits for the customer, which allow them to pass on savings and gain market share. Tax savings and investment costs amortization allowances may in fact save money. The key is to find things which can be applied to today’s bottom line. If there are less maintenance issues, then we can calculate the labour costs and down time savings that it brings. If it is easier to install, then we can talk about the diminished disruption to overall operations, the lesser need for technical specialists or the speed of installment leading to cost savings.

Finding creative ways to express these differences is one part of the equation and the other part is the way we present the information. Charts and graphs are basic but good visual clues for our buyer to see the difference for themselves. These days we can have video delivered via our iPads, which can tell the story of how great this will be for the buyer. Seeing is believing and it doesn’t have to be all spreadsheets, still photos and matrices. This is particularly so around marshaling evidence to prove what we are saying. Seeing the product installed and operating gives a better sense of reality to the buyer. Interviews with happy customers and them talking about the advantages is very compelling.

The humble blender became a viral social media sensation in the hands of some creativity. Blendtec, like many manufacturers, producers blenders. To demonstrate the toughness of their blender they hit upon the genius idea of shooting a video called “Will It Blend”. Twelve years ago they started blending mobile phones, iPads, glow sticks, hockey pucks and other unlikely items. The one on glow sticks got 12 million views on YouTube and the iPad video got 18 million views. Tom Dickson, the President, is dressed up in a lab coat, has the industrial glasses on and away he goes. Today they are still getting hundreds of thousand of views of their videos. Everyone else is just making blenders.

My point is industrial products don’t have to be boring in the hands of a skilled salesperson. Yes going through the spec is critical, but that is not enough. By the way, is that all that your salespeople are capable of doing? Are they fully boned up on describing the benefits to the buyer. Can they then take those benefits and integrate them into the client’s business and show how when applied they bring tremendous benefit to the client. Do they have visual evidence like Blentec has been using to create resonance with the buyer? If they don’t and your competitors salespeople are doing all of those things, then buckle up for a rocky ride.

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Speakers are under assault. Mobile phones tempt audiences to escape us to the internet and before you now it we have lost our audience to our message. Putting people to sleep by the way we deliver our talk is unforgiveable.

Normally we expect Japanese speakers to be boring, because their language is a monotone and so they apply the same formula when speaking in either Japanese or English. That is okay in a way, because it is a cultural thing. However, for foreigners there is no excuse. If you are giving your talk in a monotone, expect to lose your audience. Forty minutes of listening to some speaker’s monotone delivery is enough to make most people suicidal. Regardless of how gripping the topic, the grip of slumber proves more powerful and relentless.

This was me recently. I turned up at the appointed time for the talk, all full of vim and vigour, eagerly awaiting the unveiling of this troubling topic. The speaker came with a grand resume, a prince among princes on this topic. It wasn’t princely. He wasn’t even the jester. It was more like a lecture from the hooded hangman or the grim executioner.

My eye lids grew heavy as he droned on and on. Seated unwisely toward the front, I struggled to observe the common courtesies, as my eyes willed to close. It was excruciating. I was sitting there thinking, why is such a vital topic being garrotted here in full view of everyone, by the way he delivering this talk? What is it about this delivery that is driving me to sleep?

I think there were three factors at play in particular. The monotone itself is a noise we often refer to as white noise. Your refrigerator often gives off this low hum. It is there all the time. Well not your Japanese refrigerator, because the living spaces are are too small here to put up with that, so Japanese technology ensures they are a silent as the tomb. I mean your big western model, in your big kitchen, in your big house. The speaker’s monotone mimics this white noise that has no highs and lows to keep us interested. I don’t recommend you telling any speakers soon that their talk was as exciting as the white noise of your refrigerator, but you are certainly allowed to think that.

The refrigerator monotone also has the feature of being continuous. This was our speaker too. He just warbled away for the entire time with almost no pauses. Pattern interrupters like pauses are good for the brain, to keep audience attention on what you are talking about. They are like little warning buzzes that something has changed and we should pay attention to the speaker. Pauses are translators for us. We can take a moment to translate what was said into our own understanding. Continuous talking ensures each idea is drowned by the succeeding wave of the next idea.

There are no key words in a monotone. Every sentence has equal value and every word in a sentence is tremendously democratic and the same as every other word. I like democracy in political systems but not so keen on this in speeches. I want key words highlighted by voice modulation. I have just finished narrating the audio version of my next book Japan Business Mastery. I don’t have a great DJ style baritone voice. In fact, after 48 years of doing all that yelling, the kiai, in karate training, people tell me I have a rather husky voice. Sadly no one says “sexy husky voice”, they just nominate it is husky. Nevertheless, I don’t ask better qualified professionals to do it, because they won’t know which are the key words I want to hit harder than others. This isolating out particular words for attention, is what makes the talk more interesting. We are guiding the listener along a path we have predetermined about how they should think about what we are saying.

It was painful. Talks shouldn’t be painful should they. We go to be informed or persuaded or motivated or entertained and possibly all four if the speaker is really good. Check yourself by taping your delivery. Are you using voice modulation, pauses and punching out key words for emphasis? If you are not, then bring some pillows for the audience members, because that will wind up being your most valuable contribution to the proceedings.

Action Steps

1. Add voice modulation to your delivery. If you are Japanese, then add in strength or take it out or add speed or slow it down, for variety in your delivery.
2. Use pauses to help your audience process what you have said.
3. Hit key words you want to emphasise for your listeners, to draw them into your way of thinking

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As leaders in Japan, one of our biggest fears is ignorance. We may come up with a genius idea that is actually rubbish. The age, stage and power hierarchy here ensures no one wants to stand out by “speaking truth to power”. Subordinates learn quickly that taking personal responsibility for anything is a risky business. Better to make it a group decision, so that the blame evaporates and never settles on any one person in particular. There are plenty of parents of success in Japan and also plenty of orphans, when it comes to failure.

Take a look at what happened with the original Olympic Stadium design for Tokyo for 2020. It was almost impossible to locate anyone who was responsible. The current excitement about the toxicity and design of the Toyosu site for the new fish and vegetable markets is another textbook case study where no one seems responsible.

So the odds are stacked up against anyone reporting potential bad news to a powerful boss. In the Japanese context, it is much better to be a “Yes Man” and blend in with the office shrubbery as much as possible. As the boss though, we need people around us who can speak back to us and tell us we are not considering all the negative ramifications of our genius decision.

This sounds simple in theory. However, if you have built a career on getting things done, despite everyone around you telling you it can’t be done and then you go and do it, your ego gets pretty puffed up.

You become a powerful advocate for your own opinion, you are ace at debate, you can wrangle with the best of them to get your way. Hasn’t that been your formula for your massive success so far? Why change what is working? This is especially true in Japan, where you have to push like crazy to get anything new introduced or to change anything to make it better.

Here is where we run into trouble of our own making. We have browbeaten the troops reporting to us to genuflect when the genius boss is speaking, to doff their caps to our cleverness, to tug their forelocks in submission to our superiority.

Like Katanozaka san though, sometimes we don’t have full command of the situation or enough facts about the gemba（現場）or the on-site reality, to really know everything needed to make the best decision. If the people around us don’t feel the trust to speak up, without being decimated by our forceful personalities, then we will keep on building our ladder higher and higher, better and better up against the wrong wall.

So, when we hear hesitation or see doubt or sense reluctance on the part of those reporting to us, let’s not opt for a preemptory nuclear harpoon strike to wipe out any possible resistance to “Our Word”. Instead, let’s bite our tongue, put on our best inscrutable poker face, shut up and listen to what they have to say. Let’s draw them out without riposte, without immediate evaluation, without issuing the death penalty to their idea. Let’s tell them: “Thank you. This is an important consideration and I want to give the idea sufficient time to mull it over”.

The first few times you do this, it will probably kill you. Fast paced people like speed of execution – no loose ends, nothing left hanging, no untidiness. They pile up the workload until it almost crushes them. They are so time poor they can hardly get through their most high priority tasks for each day. In this environment, taking additional time to listen to subordinates seems like a waste of valuable time. This is especially the case, when there are so many highly urgent items which need our attention.

Listening to others is a new skill for most bosses, so it will take time to bed it down. The key is to slooooow down. To give our 100% concentration to the person in front of us. To really listen to them for a change. To switch off all the white noise in our minds that is interfering with good communications. We need to hear this person, if we want to hear from the others. Everyone is watching like a hawk to see what happens.

We have built up a reputation of not listening, of being the bulldozer, of pushing through regardless and of being oblivious to dissenting opinions. This will not get turned around in a day. This is the work of months of effort. This must become the new behaviour change we need to install, if we want to draw on the full power of all the opinions at our disposal. Here is the real crunch point – we have to become more humble about the validity of our own judgment and experience. Got it boss?

Action Steps

1. Check to see if you have surrounded yourself with “yes” men and women?
2. Are you the last to hear about bad news?
3. Are you constantly in bulldozer mode, on every topic?
4. Don’t respond immediately when you hear something you disagree with from subordinates
5. Become more humble about the validity of our own judgment and experience

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The sales process is a process with different phases and stages. The skilled salesperson knows how to navigate their way through these phases in the conversation with the buyer.

We have a defined sales cycle in our interactions with our clients. We build the trust, ask the key questions to understand need, present the solution, deal with pushback and ask for the business. Of course, there is the pre-meeting preparation and the post meeting follow up, but the actual sales call runs through this cycle. Between these key phases there are bridges we need to put in place to make the sales talk flow run smoothly. What do you do now? Do you have defined phases or is it looking like spaghetti, rather than a road map?

One of the key bridges is the very start of the conversation. In Japan this usually starts in the lobby or their office, as you wait for your buyer or when they enter the meeting room their staff have shown you to. Many Western countries have gone all modern and dispensed with business cards or meishi but what a gold mine they are in Japan. I usually receive the meishi English side up, facing me, because that is the polite format in Japan. I read the English side and then flip it over because the Japanese side will have better information. If the kanji for the name is a bit on the rare side, I will mention that and ask if their family comes from a particular region where that name is more common. This is handy because it shows them I can read Japanese, I know about Japan well enough to know their name is rare and it gets them talking. Or I might just ask them about the position they hold inside the company.

Japan is pretty good at small talk before we get into the main business. That is not how we do it in the West. I remember meeting a high powered, foreign President of a major multi national here recently, who had just arrived from the US for his Japan posting. I started with some small talk, got about five seconds into it when he announced, “Let’s get down to business”. I was fine with that but I was also thinking he was going to have a tough time in Japan, because he doesn’t understand the niceties of Japanese social interaction.

Having hopefully built up a convivial atmosphere with the buyer, we get into the sales conversation proper. Japanese salespeople won’t ask the buyer questions because it is considered rude to ask the buyer, aka GOD, questions. This means they go forth blindly delivering their pitch. We have 155 training modules in our line up, so how would I know which ones to focus on, if I didn’t ask some questions first? Pitching is a sure formula for rejection in my experience in Japan, compared to finding out what the buyer needs. So we need to get permission from the buyer to ask questions, as the next bridge in order to move the conversation forward.’

We do this by saying, “We did XYZ for ABC company. Maybe we could do the same for you. I am not sure, but in order for me to know if that is possible or not would you mind if I asked a few questions?”. Or, we could say, “I have never been to the American Congressional Library, but I imagine it with books running from floor to the ceiling five stories high. I have the same thing in my brain, regarding not books but solutions for client problems. We have such a huge line up. In order for me to select only the most relevant, pin point solutions for your issues, would you mind if I asked a few questions, so I can narrow down what I should talk about?”.

Having been able to ask our questions, we now make the decision for the client as to what they should buy. We only introduce those solutions and no more or we have the danger of overwhelming the client with so much detail, they can’t buy anything.

Before we get into the solution, we need to use a bridge to inform them that we can help them. We might say, “Thank you and now I understand clearly what you are looking for. The specification, quality and speed of delivery required are all with in our capability. Allow me to take you through the details”. Or, “Having listened to what you need, I have refined our range, down to the best solution to fit your needs. Please let me take you through it”. At the end of the solution presentation process of feature-benefit-application of the benefit- evidence, we go into a trial close, as a bridge to the next stage of the sales cycle. We say, ”So how does that sound so far?”. We are trying to flesh out any further questions, clarifications or objections.

When we face an objection such as “your price is too high”, we need a bridge to be put in place before we attempt to answer it. We should always smile sweetly and say, “Thank you. May I ask why you say that?”. And then shut up, add nothing more, make no interventions, just sit there in silence until they answer us, even if we have to wait until hell freezes over.

At the end of our explanation dealing with their concerns, hesitations and objections, we just say, “So how does that sound, have I answered all of your concerns?”. We want to know if there are any hidden objections or sticking points preventing the deal from going ahead. If there are none, then we can just say, “Shall we go ahead?”. This is not pushy and is especially useful in Japan, where sales are more low powered, rather than like the high powered American versions.

As we move through the different phases of the sale call, we need to link the phases together and this is why we need to have our bridges ready to go.

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There are so many competitors for our audience’s attention today. The last thing we need are “own goals” by letting the slide deck or the video steal our thunder. We must be the dominator on stage not the dominated.

There is no question visuals are super powerful in presentations. This can range from your eye contact, body language and gestures all the way up to actual live fireworks. Think about sporting presentations where they make heavy use of visuals to stir emotions. The half time show is full of music, fireworks, action. The team scores a goal and the big screens are zeroing in on the action that just occurred. The boxers are introduced as they enter the arena and fireworks are exploding behind them, like they are modern day messiahs here to save the masses. You might not think of it this way, but this is what you are competing with today, as the lines get blurred between how events are presented.

There you stand, with just your slide deck advancer in your hand. You are facing an audience fully tooled up on the most realistic computer games, viral videos, light show events and TikTok quick cut video action. You are thinking your information quality will carry the day, even though you speak in a monotone, are deadly boring most of the time and embolden us with all the passion of road kill. Sad to say, but none of this ever worked well and it certainly doesn’t work today.

The supreme, unquestionable, highly regarded quality of your information has zero significance if no one is paying attention to what you are saying. In this Age of Distraction, audiences are leaping on to their phones at the first sign of tedium. Even when binge watching their favourite television series, they have the implement of destruction - their phone - at the ready to take up and multi task.

The question today is how to integrate all of this cool stuff into our presentations without it overwhelming us, the presenter. Slide shows are an ever present danger, as the audience loses their connection with us and are absorbed by what is up on the screen. The worst thing you can do is hand out the slide deck beforehand, because you are on slide two and they are on page eighteen. The disconnect with what you are saying becomes close to total at this point.

Videos can be very good for presenting things in an attractive manner. I was watching a video at a presentation recently and the supporting video was very slick. It managed to capture the action, the drama, the excitement in a way that formed a positive impression. This is the key word though – impression. It doesn’t last. We have our attention monopolised for a short period of time and then we are back to Total Distraction HQ.

What I notice with most presenters who are using video is they let the video run wild and they don’t attempt to control it. By this I mean, they just play the video, assuming they can get it to work, which is rarely the case on the first go. We should have our verbal intro for the video and our verbal outro for after. We shouldn’t just let our audience watch the video as if every aspect has the same value. We want to be hitting key messages in that video, in the same way that we hit key words in our sentences to create greater emphasis for our messages.

The video will have one scene or a couple of scenes which help us with our messaging and rather than just running the video, we want to focus our audience’s attention right there. We need to set that up. For example, “In this video please look for the scene with the interview with our Chief Scientist. What she has to say is fascinating and may change your perspective entirely”. When we hear a set up like that, we are now in a heightened state of anticipation. We are wondering what is she going to say that will change my perspective?

Once the video is over, we need to wrap a bow around the key messages and refer back to the evidence we presented in the video to back up our point of view on the subject. For example, “What I like about the message in that video is that we can control our future, if we choose to take that route”. This sentence would be referring back to your key message from your talk, so that the whole thing is congruent. This is how we control the video, rather than what has become the norm – the video controls the speaker or it is just fluff, that has no lasting impact and everyone has forgotten it within the next thirty seconds. The ultimate presentation put down – “all style and no substance”!!!

My biggest pet peeve is the company President relinquishing the opportunity to win fans supports and acknowledgement, through presentation skills by squandering the speaking time by playing a corporate propaganda video. They are not skilled in public speaking, so they are running away, avoiding the speaking role. If I see a President doing this, I immediately mark them and their company down in my estimation. The President has to be the chief evangelist for the enterprise, not a miserable coward hiding behind the skirts of the video.

As presenters, we have to ensure the focus is fully on us and that the audience is completely riveted to what we are saying. The Age of Distraction is also the Age of Destruction for Presenters. We need to control the visual elements, so that they are always our servant and never our master.

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We cannot stop remembering the past. We cannot stop thinking about the future. We learn from the past, good and bad and we prepare for the future, before it arrives. These are survival mechanisms the species has mastered. We can strip out the worry bits of those two activities and then life looks a lot different.

Motivational quotes are everywhere and they remind us of useful things we already know, but have forgotten. Two recent messages struck me with their introspective power. Both are by recognised thought leaders. One was a distinguished academic, psychologist and philosopher. The other was a distinguished psychologist and holocaust survivor. Their conclusions are profound and achieved through different experiences and understandings of the human psyche.

William James (1842-1910) taught at Harvard and has been called “the father of American psychology”. He was a leader in the idea that we could control our lives through our mind. He said, “The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be”.

This was a breakthrough notion at that time. The prevailing idea had been that God’s will, chance, fate or luck determined your life.

Victor Frankl (1905-1997) a Nazi concentration camp inmate, survived the holocaust and subsequently wrote a fascinating book called, “Man’s Search For Meaning”. Through his personal experience of horrendous torment he found, “Everything can be taken from a man…but the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”.

Given we have this mental power to control how we think, then why is it we are so poor at it? We find ourselves replaying the same old movie in our mind, on a pitiful endless loop, of some past humiliation, insult, degradation or unfairness that we have suffered. If we can control our thoughts, then why can’t we hit the pause button on that movie and keep it from polluting our present life?

We don’t muck around either, do we. Not only have we unleashed the horrid past to continue to haunt us like a zombie crypt debutant, we invite the future apocalypse into our today as well. We imagine all of the things that will go horribly wrong in the future. We attack our optimism muscle with thoughts of future doom and gloom, thereby disabling it. We can’t seem to turn these thoughts off either.

Real freedom is being able to recognise that while we can’t completely turn these ugly musings off, we can neutralise them. You might ask, can we separate worry from reminiscence and from voodoo divination? How do we do that?

Let’s use two of Dale Carnegie’s stress management principles. Let’s live in ”day tight” compartments. Think of each day like an air-tight container into which nothing can enter. We need to concentrate on shutting out just the worry component, not trying to block the complete recollection or prospect.

We observe our memories, relive the pain, but firmly tell ourselves that was the past: “I am not going go back to that time ever again”. We can see our pain point in our mind’s eye, but we don’t have to attach ourselves to it or embrace it, as if an Aussie saltwater crocodile has gripped us in a death roll.

This is similar to meditation techniques, where you observe your breath cycle, but you don’t attach your mind to it – you just note it and let your mind move on.

Our control and therefore real freedom, is over the amount of worry we ascribe to the memory or the foreboding. Regarding the past, we can determine to cooperate with the inevitable. Face the fact that “yes, it happened”, knowing we can’t change that. Having done so, now let’s switch our thoughts away from that memory to something much more pleasant or successful in the interim. Let’s switch out our debilitating thought, with a much more positive memory.

For the future, we should prepare for it, but again not attach the worry emotion to it. Let’s view it this way: what is the worst that can happen? Having contemplated that prospect, we mentally accept that this is inevitable and will happen. Mentally, we prepare for the worst. Finally, we get our brain working on how we can improve on the worst? We switch from mental incapacitation and paralysis, to producing possible solutions and alternatives. We move from negative to positive. We do this by controlling how we think about the issues.

Disasters past and disasters in the future have no meaning for what we need to do today. We can’t stop these thoughts coming into our mind. Our brain recalls things which went horribly wrong to help us not repeat them. We look into the future to be better prepared for the unknown, by imagining it now, so that we are better armed to deal with it when and if it arrives. All good practices, The big difference is we need to work on stripping out the worry components. Recall, learn and look forward, prepare, but don’t add in the worry flavouring.

Action Steps

1. Recall but quickly swap the message to something more positive.
2. Visualise the future issue as a possibility, but plan a 100 ways to defeat it.
3. Cure the worry virus because this is where our real freedom is located.
4. Time is spelt LIFE, so we need to decide how we are going to lead it, rather than having it happen to us

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In sales we can defeat ourselves, because our way of thinking isn’t positive enough. Consequently, we don’t challenge the status quo and we accept our lot, which usually doesn’t amount to much. There is a better way

There are two players in this mental game of sales. The buyer and the seller and they are playing with entirely different strategies. For the buyer, the idea of a salesperson symbolises risk. Can they trust this person? Their experience and a variety of media images, have coalesced to ensure buyers are always sceptical about people trying to sell them stuff. As we say, “We all love to buy, but none of us want to be sold”.

That is why all that American style hard sell, tricky closes, tie downs etc., fall flat on their face here in Japan. I enjoy watching Grant Cardone’s sales videos but that aggressive style of selling will never work here with Japanese clients. Buyers everywhere are cautious when it comes to dealing with salespeople, but ever more so in this country.

Risk aversion is super powerful in Japan. This is not the country of declaring bankruptcy then making a stunning comeback with your next company. This is “fail once then you disappear forever”. The credibility is gone and with so are you. At this point, there are no second chances in Japan. This applies inside companies too. The sizes of the salary packages for Japanese executives would seem a joke in America. This means that all the way down the line the rewards are not that huge. The salaries are good, but not spectacular. The upside of taking risks is small and the downside huge, so the clear lesson in Japan is “don’t take risks”.

Again, by definition dealing with a new supplier is risky. The unknown in Japan is fearsome. The tried and trusted are always preferred over the unfamiliar and untested. This latter variety of salesperson is us though – the untested, the new seller. We are always going to be unknown to the buyers at the start. So as salespeople we begin below the waterline and have to work our way up. We have to demonstrate to the buyer that we can be trusted. We can do this by employing referrals from satisfied customers, starting small with some demonstrations, small tests, trial periods, free samples, limited orders etc. We need to establish a track record that reduces the fears of the buyer about us making any mistakes.

The mental game on the seller’s part is about confidence. We are all mainly failing in sales. We don’t get every order. We don’t get every appointment. We get rejected more often than when we get an agreement on a deal. Now Japan is a country of face. Losing face is a big deal here socially, so everyone is hell bent to make sure they don’t get themselves into situations where they will lose face.

Asking for the order may mean you lose face if they say no. Ergo, don’t ask for the order. Just leave the end of the sales call vague and don’t try and close the deal. Walking up to strangers at a networking event and introducing yourself may result in your being rejected and losing face, so better to only talk to the people you already know. The fact you don’t meet many new people is fine because you didn’t lose face.

Not asking the buyer any questions and just launching straight into your pitch is fine, because you won’t lose face. The fact that you are flying blind and have no idea if anything in your pitch is relevant or interesting to the buyer is better than being rejected and losing face. The buyer is God in Japan, so better not to annoy God with any questions. The upshot of all of this in Japan is that salespeople are very strong with existing buyers and very weak regarding getting new clients. We hear this all the time from company Presidents engaging us to teach sales. They cannot get their sales teams to focus on expanding the size of the business by finding new buyers. They don’t want to do cold calling because of the difficulties associated with at. They don’t like networking, because of the difficulties associated with that too. They don’t ask their existing buyers for referrals because they don’t want to lose face in case the customer says no. The Japanese world in sales is small.

So when we put these two mental games together, where the supreme sceptic meets the terrifically timid, not much happens. We can’t do too much about the sceptic, but we can do a lot with the timid. We can give them the means to break out and become much more professional in their sales life. They are woefully undertrained and so are wandering around clueless, just aping what their seniors have been doing. Here is the bad news. The seniors are also clueless, so it is sad cycle of despair in sales in Japan.

Action Steps

1. Mentally place yourself in the mind of the buyer with all their fears about salespeople
2. Definitely ask God, the buyer, for permission to ask questions before you present any solutions. All you have to know is how.
3. If the buyer says NO, we don’t lose face because the buyer isn’t rejecting us, just our offer, at this time, in this construct, with these terms, in this budget cycle.

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We often see presenters elevated up on stage or positioned at the front of the room, flanked by or under a screen, and protected from the audience by a rostrum. In Japan standing above your seated audience requires an apology for doing so at the start of the speech. This is a very hierarchy conscious society, so implying your superiority to your audience, through your physical positioning has to be wound back immediately. We add to this feeling by driving the slide deck, playing around with the lighting, using a microphone and speaking in a knowledgeable, commanding voice. All of these devices place a barrier between the speaker and the attendees of the talk.

Is that what we want though – a barrier to our audience? If we want the audience to buy what we are selling, we want to have total access to the participants. Believe my statistics, follow my suggestions, take action on my ideas are typical outcomes we want to achieve. Getting people to come with us necessitates persuasion and having appeal. The less barriers between us and them, the better.

A useful approach is to speak conversationally with our audience, as if we were all intimates of long standing, where the trust had been built up over the years and where the simpatico is flowing. It also lends itself to sharing information like confidences, that only the specially initiated and conspiratorial are made privy to. We are letting you into special data and insights, that only those in the room can know.

This requires a switch from speaking at an audience to speaking with an audience. We call out the names of audience members we know or have just met, to build that feeling of connection between speaker and participants. “Suzuki san and I were chatting a moment ago and she made an interesting observation on the subject”, “I am glad my old friend Tanaka san is with us today, because I consider him a great model for what I am proposing”, “Obayashi san and I were speaking during the networking before lunch and she mentioned that there was some new data on this topic”. As soon as we do this, the people we are referring to feel three meters tall, because their name was mentioned in a positive, supporting way. We also break through the mental barrier between speaker and audience by including the audience members into our speech.

The tone we apply moves from oratory to more of a chatting over the backyard fence style. It is much more inclusive, convivial, endearing and conversational. We still pick out key words for emphasis by either putting the power in or pulling it out, we use pattern interrupters like speeding up or slowing down our speaking speed. A conversational monotone is still a sleep inducer. We need to avoid that. We still use gestures and we will increase the frequency of inclusive gestures. What would be an inclusive gesture? The stylised wrapping your arms around your collective audience is a good one, as if you were drawing them in toward you. Pointing to the audience with your arm outstretched and the palm up is a non-threating way of engaging your audience. Pointing fingers at members of your audience is aggressive and not recommended. Our eye contact at six seconds for each person, has enough balance to make it inclusive without it becoming invasive.

Talking about ourselves, sometimes in a self disparaging manner, reduces the hierarchy feeling between us and them. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a master of this. He has a very elite background at Eton and Oxford, but makes fun of himself in his public speeches. Some journalists insist the ruffled hair and disheveled clothing are props to better humanise him for consumption by non-elite audiences. Depending on the audience, he sometimes makes a show of being flustered and disorganised for effect. This positions him more effectively as an “everyman” with his audience, rather than as a distant upper class Brahman.

Not taking yourself too seriously is always good advice, if you want to connect with your audience no matter how brainy, powerful, superior you may see yourself relative to the assembled punters. Just don’t overdo it, because then it becomes sensed as manipulative and fake. A little humour at your own expense goes a long way. Yes we can be serious about our topic, without being distant and standoffish. Getting the balance of gravitas and congeniality is the key and being chatty but highly valuable and informative is the sweet spot.

Action Steps

1. Mentally switch the scene to a chat over the backyard fence, rather than in a big five star hotel’s ballroom

2. Where possible integrate some of the audience members into your speech to strike that personal connection

3. Make the speaking tone, gestures and eye contact conspiratorial

4. Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself

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Change happens slowly in Japan. Getting more women into leadership positions requires a lot of other moving parts to kick in. One of them is changing the mindset of male line managers regarding who to select to go to company training.

Discrimination against women in business in Japan takes many forms. Previous Pime Minister Abe talked about targets for women in leadership positions in companies but not much has changed. In fact, he significantly lowered the targets after barely getting started on the campaign. I am a Rotarian in Japan and it is male bastion still. Rotary is a vast international organisation with the purpose of connecting diverse professions together, to build better networks and to contribute to the community.

In Japan, the majority of rotary clubs do not have women members. My own was the same until a few years ago. Every year since I joined in 2002, we have had internal debates about accepting females into our club. The “no women” faction basically aged and passed on.

Of course, there were no regulations stating that women could not join, but the reality was women could never pass the selection protocol because of their gender. Happily that era has now passed and we now have some female members.

Who are these men in Rotary. They are businessmen ranging from small local business owners to the mightiest captains of industry. My club is full of the latter. In Japan, Rotary just adds another layer to those male connections built up at school and University.

Rotary around the world continues to grow in memberships but not in Japan. Up until 2000, Japan was leading the world in recruiting new members and since then has spiraled down. Since opening the doors up to women in business, it has finally begun to turn around.

Facing a steadily declining membership, did the captains of industry embrace the reality and accept women to stem the haemorrhaging of the numbers. No, they hung in there as long as possible to avoid it.

I feel that we are finally getting somewhere in Japanese business. My club is very large, rich, conservative, powerful and the average age of our members is around 70. If even my club members could finally accept the requirement to have women, then this reflects broader social change and the better acceptance of women in business in Japan. These guys are running Japan’s biggest corporations, so one hopes that progress here means there will be progress inside their companies.

Today, we see our corporate training classes composed of about 70% men and 30% women. Where are the rest of the women? They are not selected for training, because their company’s Middle Management team is still basically a male only club. How can we get women into leadership positions if we don’t train them so that they can rise through the company hierarchy? The classes should be 50/50 to reflect the population at large.

There are lot’s of diversity trainings going on, but for the most part the wrong people are being focused on. Of course, giving women more training is a great idea, but we need to train their male bosses as well. Whenever we discuss diversity training with Japanese clients, they are wholly focused on up-skilling the women employees. When we suggest that is fine, but a more holistic solution means bringing the men into the picture and better educating them about how to lead their women staff, we find we are still plumbing a new idea here. Leading and managing are different - managing means supervising the processes within the company. Leading means setting the strategy, supervising the processes within the company and it means building the people. “People” here includes women. Leadership in Japan needs men to think in these terms, because, like my Rotary Club, long term decline is guaranteed unless changes are made.

We won’t see women meeting the Japanese Government’s original leadership target, unless we get the male bosses to change first. We can skill up the women as much as we like, but their male bosses are the ones who recommend them for promotion, increased responsibilities and training. Like my Rotary, there are no regulations preventing women from being considered, but magically the male staff get the nod more often than the women when deciding who to invest in.

We are literally running out of young people, we are an aging society, we need women to be actively involved in business. Let’s start with male Middle Management and bring forth the changes Japan business needs in order for the country to continue to succeed in the future.

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We rush about chasing deals. We nail one down and race off hunting for the next one. Sometimes we need to switch from hunter to farmer and see if there is more to that first deal. We need to keep an eye on the satisfaction the buyer has with the first deal, to see if we can cross sell, upsell or get a referral.

The sales agreement is followed by the delivery of the product or service. In some cases they are immediate and in others there is a time delay. It is often the case that after the agreement to purchase has been achieved, we move on to the next deal and a new client or opportunity. In the prospecting phase we can become extremely busy running around town beating the bushes and trying to conjure up some revenues to meet our targets. The delivery of the product or service is usually done by someone in the back office, down at the factory, an agent or a contractor and not by the salesperson.

Schedules get booked up and there is the danger we have not made a sufficient effort to get ourselves into the diary of the buyer, after they have received the goods or service. We may have moved on to the next deals and are fully preoccupied with them. We have received our commission and are happy. Bad move.

We should without fail, always arrange to see the buyer after delivery. We want to know a number of things. If it was a physical product, was it in the format and at the quality standard that they expected. Better to know this earlier rather than later, because then we can fix it immediately. In Japan, speed is key and there are so many interlocking pieces in business here. Storage costs are high, so everyone gets by with minimum stock and expect regular top ups, as the business demand increases. Those down the line in the food chain becoming very irate when they have promised something to their own buyers and we cannot deliver it because of some logistical mess or quality issues. We need to be there on the spot to rectify the situation and quickly.

We also need to be there to get feedback on the degree of satisfaction in play. We promise a lot as salespeople and we can be very sold on what we are selling, but sometimes the buyers are less enthusiastic. We want know to what extent they are still sold on the product. In some cases, it will be because there is the reorder prospect and in others a chance to cross sell or upsell.

The best time to talk about any of these things is upon delivery, when the client has had a chance to gauge the reality, against what we told them. If the two coalesce, then we are in a good position to talk further business. Japan likes to test the seller. Often, we are given a smallish order, to see how we perform. Everyone is concerned about mistakes or problems and their risk aversion meter is always finely calibrated in this country. If we pass the test, then there is the possibility of more business. The next time there will be a slightly larger order. This keeps repeating itself, if we show we are able to provide a consistent, reliable level of service to the buyer.

Similarly the client may have many needs, some of which they didn’t mention in the first meeting. Something may have happened in the market or in the business since that first meeting or they may just be waiting to see how much they can trust us. Fortunately, we are sitting in the meeting room across from the buyer or online to find out if there is a greater need. If we are still chasing down new buyers, we may be missing this chance to build a deeper relationship with this specific buyer.

We have a matrix we use in our sale’s training for account development. Across the bottom we attach the name of each client for that column. Down the left side we list the name of each product we deal with for each row. We place an A for products or services we currently supply, a B for items which have high probability or interest the buyer and a C for those with less scope for success. What is always horrifying, is how many additional opportunities exist to further sell to the buyer, which we do not realise. We get stuck in a rut and the client pigeonholes us into a rut with only a few possibilities, when there are actually many more chances to become a key partner for that firm.

This is how hard it is, “I am very pleased to hear you are so happy with our service. May I ask you if there are other needs you currently have, with which we may be able to assist you?” The trouble is we don’t take the time to seize the opportunity of a satisfied customer, to ask for more business when there is a heightened state of happiness on their part.

This is also the time to ask for a referral. “Do you know anyone…” is a disaster of a question, because if we leave it too broad and wide ranging, they have to process the entire known universe and it is too much for them. We need to narrow it down. For example, “thinking of your golf group, can you think of someone who would also benefit from the solution you are enjoying today?”. This is much tighter and easier to answer as they see the faces of the members of the group in their mind.

Busy is good, but sometimes we become too desperate and too busy to close the next deals that we neglect the money left of the table from further business or from great referrals to new business.

Action Steps

1. Always schedule in time for the buyer after they have received the product or service – get yourself into their diary
2. If there are issues, fix them immediately so we don’t burn their supply chain
3. Before we go to see them, create the matrix of what we currently supply and look at what we could supply, that they need
4. Ask for the referral in a way that narrows down the suspects to a workable group that they can picture in their mind’s eye

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If we don’t grab their attention and interest, then our message is lost to them as they head off to the internet.

“The good is the enemy of the great” is a clever saying and very true. In presenting terms we can have people who are competent but not even close to maximising their potential. They are sitting there in the lukewarm bath, never experiencing or understanding the joys of an extra ten degrees of heat. In presenting terms, turning your inner thermometer up ten degrees when facing an audience has a tremendous impact.

Our presenter was intelligent, well read, well researched and had good content. The presentation was workman like. It got done. The content was covered. The points were made, the slides were run through, the questions got handled. And then….

This is the point. There was nothing. It wasn’t retained in the audience’s mind. There wasn’t that feeling of WOW. It just dribbled out and ended, disappearing into the void with all of mankind’s other mediocre speeches. What was missing? Where was that ten degrees of heat which was never applied?

The opening was flat. It just started. The level of voice strength of the speaker, chatting with the attendees before the talk and the start of their actual talk, was at the same strength. The body language was at the same calibration for before and after the start. It was if the speech was just a continuation of the dialogue that had been going on prior to the kick off.

Everyone has a full brain when they walk in to hear us talk. We have to get out the crow bar and jemmy our way in there to be heard. That means the first words out of our mouth have to signal the talk has now begun, pay attention, listen up, cease and desist what you have been doing prior. We have to clearly draw a line for the audience to get them to concentrate on what we are saying. We only have a few seconds to capture their attention so they will grant us their permission allow us to hold their attention.

We cannot leave such a vital intervention to chance. We must design it carefully. The words have to be laden with hooks to keep them interested and with us. We might lure the audience into our story, using word pictures to capture their imagination. We want them to mentally see the scene we are painting. We could hit them with a stunning statistic that baffles the brain and make it sit up and take note. It might be a quotation from a famous person to add credibility to the point we are making. We need to plan for cut through.

Part of that planning needs to involve how we are going to marshal our physical resources particularly our eyes, voice, gestures, posture and positioning. Voice is where we start, because that is a powerful tool to break into the consciousness of the audience. By lifting the volume up, we force people to stop whatever it is they are doing and listen to us. When we add in a gesture to back up the voice the overall impact is strong. We cannot use eye power with the whole audience at the same time and have any impact so we select one person around the middle, then we give them both barrels of eye contact, for around six seconds. We just keep repeating this as we work our way through the whole audience. If it is a huge crowd we keep doing the same thing and at a certain distance, everyone sitting around the intended recipient of our eye power thinks we are looking at them anyway. We can physically move closer to our audience. When we do that, we use our standing height above a seated audience, to tower over them and add more power to our physical presence.

If we can get the start going well, then all we have to do is maintain that throughout the talk. We will add in vocal range when we are talking, to keep our audience in Japan from going to sleep. We can uses pauses for emphasis and to build anticipation. The key is to get a good start and then maintain the energy. Our speaker started small, stayed small and finished small. The whole thing was muted, flat, unremarkable and infinitely forgettable. Don’t be one of those speakers.

Action Steps

1. Understand that the audience is almost comatose when you get up to speak
2. Remember we are competing with miniscule attention spans and lots of distraction today
3. Look for a WOW opening to grab the attention of the audience
4. Marshall all our weapons – eyes, voice, body language, gestures, posture, positioning
5. A good start is easier to continue than trying to build up the power gradually

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Japan has a very efficient education system around the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. There was an effort to bridge the creativity gap with other countries but that was abandoned. Where are we with the gap between what industry needs and what the education system is producing?

Japanese education includes exciting things like adults screaming abuse, using threatening words, kids mouthing slogans at mass rallies and making over $2 million in a week.

We know that Japan has a well established escalator system for work and education. Enter on the correct ground floor and with the passing of time and effort, you get out at the top. Get accepted into the right elementary school and you will get into the right middle school, the right high school and then the right university. You graduate and get a job at the right company and then over decades of grind work your way up to the top.

Japan still loves rote learning and parents will pay cram schools to get their kids fully tuned up and on to the education escalator. I was watching a programme on television about a week long training camp for aspirant future captains of industry. The programme focused on 6th year elementary students trying to get into the all important Middle School of their choice. They had their hachimaki (headbands), a Japanese symbol of resolute martial spirit and determination. They lived in small groups, working hard all day taking tests and doing their homework together at night.

The televised scenes showed their adult instructors yelling at them to get serious or get out. Their insufficient efforts drew harsh rebukes and extended tirades. If you were not matching the regime’s expectations, you were bluntly told to get serious or leave now. You are twelve years old.

The amazing thing was there were 2600 kids on this training camp. The organisers were also adept at psychological indoctrination using mass rally techniques of getting everyone to come together outside on the assembly grounds, for some good old fashioned chanting of slogans and thrusting of fists into the air.

This was a $2.3 million programme for the week, which is not a bad earner. This is on top of the regular monthly fees the parents already pay to cram schools throughout the year, to get Michi Chan or Taro Kun on to the right escalator.

A few things struck me when watching the show. This reminded me of karate training with my Japanese masters. A rain of criticism every class was the order of the day in the Dojo. It also occurred to me that Japan loves this type of hell fire right of passage. One of my team sent her son on this very camp and she was happy that they were dealing out lot’s of tough love. Japan is famous for companies sending their errant staff to the adult equivalent of this training camp, meeting out humiliation and abuse in large doses.

You could argue that given how the older generation decries what a bunch of molly coddled, over indulged, spoilt brats the younger generation have become, they need a bit of toughening up.

Another thing that got my attention was the focus on rote learning and exam technique. This is the standard educational approach in Japan right through to starting University classes. At University, unless you are trying for very specific careers like medicine, the elite bureaucracy or some job that requires you to pass a national exam, then the next four years are a type of Club Med for undergraduates. I know because I did my Master’s Degree at a famous Japanese University and witnessed this luxurious life of undergrad student leisure.

Getting into a University will become even less of a grind, as the declining youth population means fewer and fewer barriers to entry, as institutions go into a death struggle for survival. So the ease of graduating will soon be matched by the ease of entry.

Japan’s experiment with the yutori kyoiku (relaxed education) approach didn’t last long. The original idea was get away from rote learning and exam technique and try to help students to analyse, to think, to tap into their creative attributes. The first dismal results for Japan, from standardised international tests and yutori kyoiku was out on the trash heap. If the object was to foster creativity and innovation, you have to wonder why they used the usual standardised tests as their ROI measure?

The innovation issue hasn’t gone away though. In the internet age, when anything you want to know can be found through a search engine, how relevant is rote learning and exam technique for the future. How much longer can a varsity system of floundering entry requirements and day care for adolescents continue? We all know we need more innovation and creativity in companies. Where is this going to come from?

There are a lot of public and private sector vested interests in keeping the current system moving forward ever nudging irrelevancy, so don’t expect change soon. The sting in the tail will be the decreasing quality of our new company recruits. They won’t have much creativity after the system has had its way with them and their rote learning abilities won’t be of much use either. If we think about the work skills, knowledge and abilities we will demand of our employees in the next twenty years, we can be absolutely sure the current Japanese system of education won’t be producing it.

Japanese companies have never heavily relied on academic institutions for educating their staff. With lifetime employment, investing in training people made economic sense because you would reap the rewards. With greater job mobility on the horizon however, this social contract between staff and company will be broken. Young people, who will be in short supply due to demographic changes, will become like baseball free agents. They will rapidly discover they are able to swap teams for a better deal.

The “lost decade”, gutted in-company education. Training budgets were cut and many were never resurrected. Instead they relied on OJT (on the job training) and so the investment on skilling up staff never occurred. This is sustainable for a limited period of time and that point was reached long ago.

So where are we up to? The companies aren’t training their staff as comprehensively as they once did. The staff themselves will find themselves being lured by recruiters to move on to greener pastures.

I believe the educational construct in Japan basically has its ladder up against the wrong wall. What will become of this country? What will we need to do to prepare ourselves for this brave new world? Are we thinking about these prospects?

If we haven’t spared a thought for this grim future of work, then now is a good time to take another look at assumptions, strategies, plans and targets. Those preparing now, will win in this coming war for talent. Game on!

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We usually think in terms of cultural differences with the West, when we are dealing with this unique country, Japan. In fact, personality style differences of the buyer are much more important in business. Cultural factors form a base and on top of that are the idiosyncratic differences between Japanese buyers and ourselves. This becomes very key in communication terms. We won’t be changing our personality style or that of the buyer any time soon, but we can learn to vary our communication style.

For example, imagine a horizontal axis. On the far left are people we would understand are low in assertion terms. They do not state their opinion openly, they keep a low profile, speak quietly and they are spending much of their time watching others doing, rather than doing themselves. The right side of the axis are people who are highly assertive. They state their opinion with vigor and seem to have a strong opinion on everything. They can be pushy, loud and aggressive. When we meet someone for the first time, we can pretty much pick where they fall on this horizontal axis.

Now picture a vertical axis cutting through the horizontal axis. On the top of the axis are individuals with a strong people focus. They are very much interested in helping others, they are concerned with how people feel. They often refer to the importance of people issues when making decisions or choosing between alternatives. At the other end, the bottom of that axis are people who are totally outcome, result, KPI focused. They don’t care that much about how the people feel. They care more for the results. They are totally focused on the numbers and getting the numbers is all that counts.

If the buyer is in the high end of assertion and outcome driven we call them a Driver personality type. This style and the other styles transcend their Japanese cultural traits. They are much more direct than other Japanese. They are often the founder/owner of their own business. They are “time is money” types, who don’t care much about having as cup of tea with you. They want to get straight down to business, because they are always time poor and super busy. They are quick decision makers.

When we are communicating with this type of person, we need to raise our voice loudness levels and pump up our energy levels in our body language. We can get straight to the point with them, telling them what they should do and the three good reasons that it makes sense. They are interested in how you can deliver results for them and little else. They don’t want a relationship with you, they don’t want a cup of tea with you, they want outcomes. They will make a decision on the spot without consulting anyone and will then want to move on. This cuts through a lot of typical time wasting here to get to a consensus on the way to making a decision in Japan. The down side is they will just say no and that is it, there is no going back to revisit the decision.

Their opposite number drives them nuts. The low in assertion/people orientated style are called Amiables – a sort of everyman type. As the name suggests they want to have a cup of tea and get to know you before they will be happy to get into a business relationship with you. They are people who speak quietly, display small amounts of energy or body language and who like to listen rather than do all the talking. They are slow to make a decision, because they need to make sure everyone is happy with what is going to happen. They are often the glue on the organization, going around to those who got sunburnt from the Driver types in the meeting, to make sure they are okay. Drop your voice and energy when you speak with them and emphasise how people will feel really good about the decision you are asking them to take.

The other assertive personality style is the Expressive who is similar to the driver, but has a greater people orientation. They tell jokes, smile a lot, have a lot of energy, like to party. They are often salespeople, trainers, actors. They like being around people and they love the macro, big picture. They grab the marker pen and are brainstorming on the whiteboard in a flash. They are thinking about the future, the vision, the great things that are to come.

Increase your energy when with them and expect to be invited to parties, dinners and events. They hate worrying about petty details and just about all detail qualifies as petty for them. The typical salesperson hates filling out the CRM after the sale’s call, even though the marketing department is tonguing for the detail and data. Talk big picture with them and spare them the data and evidence – they don’t have much interest.

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There is an old saying about lies, damn lies and statistics. An often misquoted statistic in the presenting world is that 55% of your impression on an audience is based on how you are dressed. Some coaches are advising on this basis and it is only partially true. Professor Mehrabian’s research at UCLA did nominate that particular percentage, but he did so with an important caveat. When what we are saying is not congruent or matching with the way we are saying it, then the audience gets distracted and starts focusing on how you are dressed 55% of the time. When he published that research there were no uber powerful thermonuclear distractors like we have today, in the form of smart phones. These instruments of presenter attention destruction are rapidly connecting us with the internet and whisking us away from the speaker.

If we are doing our job properly as speakers we will not be losing our audience. One of my team attended a presentation I gave recently and she reported to me that the audience members were listening to me all the way through. That is what I thought too, because the entire speech had me focused like a hawk on my audience, to make sure I was holding their attention. I don’t mention this to say what a smarty pants I am, but just to highlight how difficult it has become for all of us to hold an audience today.

My style of presenting is extremely high energy. My karate training background has taught me how to harness my “ki” or “chi” and channel it to the audience. I still have pretty good tonal variety so I can really work on keeping the audience with me. The downside of all of this is that I generate a lot of heat. Often when we are presenting on stage there will be spotlights trained on us and these can make us feel very hot as well. When I am getting dressed that day,

I always make sure of a couple of things for my presentation. A white shirt is an absolute must. I love my blue business shirts, but what I found was the heat generates sweat around the neck area, especially when wearing a tie. That lovely light blue shirt can become two tone. The collar becomes wet and changes to a darker blue. This is distracting for the audience who are sitting there saying to themselves, “Oh look at that, he has a two tone shirt now!”.

The other thing I pay careful attention to is never doing any presenting unless I am wearing a jacket. There are probably few things as unattractive as a speaker wearing only a shirt, lifting up their arm to reveal a very sweaty armpit area, that runs right down the side of their body. Most unappealing and again very distracting to an audience. I keep my jacket on, buttoned up, the whole time like a suit of armour. I know that my shirt is soaked during the speech, because of all the heat I am generating. It goes without saying, that an ill fitting suit creates a poor impression. The way the collar of the jacket sits on the neck tells you everything. If there is a wide gap between the two, this creates a sense of pattern interrupt and your audience gets distracted by it. Also save your bright coloured jackets for a party. A bright red jacket works well for a magician, but not so great for a speaker. Always look for ways to make your words conspicuous, rather than what you are wearing.

Sometimes we are asked to be a speaker on a panel. This can be tricky. We are usually seated up on stage in front of the audience, so there is nothing separating us from the viewers. When men cross their legs, if they don’t know what they are doing, we get a very unfortunate close up of their hairy ankles, shins and calf muscles. Short socks work when you are standing, but are a danger when you sit. I always wear long socks right up to the knee, to spare my audience the brutality of my hairy legs.

I am quite daring when it comes to wearing bright ties. I leave them at home though when I am presenting and select something a bit more muted. Such a bright colour sitting right next to your face is bound to be an unwanted competitor for the attention of your audience. I do like pocket squares, but I make sure they are also very discreet. A puffed up large pocket square may be a dandy’s delight, but like a bright tie, it sets up competition for the attention of the audience. Be careful with cufflinks too. I have some very bright colours in my line up, but I go for the less flagrant when I am presenting.

One of my pet peeves in Japan are the number of guys here who wear their tie, such that there is a gap between the top of the knot and the top button of the shirt collar. They allow it to loosen off and the gap appears without their knowledge and again this is distracting for the viewers. You also come across looking like a kid, who can’t dress himself properly.

I also purposely shorten the length of my ties when I am presenting. Men’s dress rules say the tie should only extend to a point midway down your pant’s belt. What I find though is that the closed button of a single breasted suit always has an opening between that button and the bottom of the front of the jacket. The consequence is a tie worn at the correct length, will actually be peaking out from under the jacket, again distracting my audience. By making it a bit too short the protrusion problem is lessened. Again, I never take off my jacket, so my major tie length faux pas is hidden away.

The shine on my shoes should be mirror like. Standing up on stage everyone can see your scuffed, down at heel, miserable excuse for shoes. This says “slob”, “poor quality control” or “poor self awareness” pretty clearly. It is not helpful for supporting a professional image. The belt should match the shoes so brown for brown and black for black. Pretty simple right, so how could you mess that up? Yet, I see guys with a brown belt and black shoes. This says you are “clueless” to your audience, so if you can’t even get this right, why should we believe anything else you have to say.

I always place the nametag holder I am given by the organisers on the table where I am sitting or on the lectern. I don’t wear them because they are usually plastic and as I move, they catch the lights focused on stage. Without knowing it, you are sending out Morse Code signals every time you move, as the plastic flashes the audience.

I have only referred to men in this piece on dressing for presenting, but many of the same things, for the most apart, apply for ladies too. I don’t have the guts to do a specific commentary on how ladies should dress when presenting. My only hint would be don’t confuse fashion outcomes with presenting outcomes. Make the focus your face, rather than the clothes. Don’t dress in any way which draws the audience away from looking at your face. Our face is the most powerful tool we have. It is much stronger than whatever is on the screen and our voice. Don’t allow anything to compete with it.

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There are many things which impact an entrepreneurs success.

Usually, when we think about how to succeed in our own business, we favour things like sufficient cash flow and capital. This is absolutely true, but this is a product of decisions we have already taken. We need to focus on the core drivers of the company's success. There will be certain businesses where technology alone makes it work, but these are rare. For the rest of us to be successful, we need three critical skills: the ability to master our time, to clone ourselves and to be persuasive.

Time

How we spend our time is the most high value resource we have. More than money, it makes or breaks our business. Poor time control leads to inefficiency, wasted efforts, stress and missed opportunities. Entrepreneurs are geniuses at trying to do too much. This means they are run ragged with time demands and no good solutions.

This has to be turned around and time gotten under firm control. Start with a simple audit of where you allocate your time now. Create a spreadsheet and track your time usage in 30 minute blocks for a week. Brace yourself for a huge shock. Next compile a list of what needs to be done by you and rank the items in order of importance. Compare the time audit reality with your prioritised task list of what you should be doing. You can’t be bothered doing this? Wake up! When you do this analysis, the gap between where you are now and where you need to be will be massive.

Take your list and this mantra: “I can’t do everything on this list everyday but I can do the most important thing”. Each day take that list and re-work the order, deciding the number one priority for your business and complete that. Next, you take number two and work on that, etc. If something crops up, well change the priority order, but stick to the discipline of doing the highest value item first.

Being so busy is a result of not having trusted people around us to whom we can delegate. We must get leverage through our team. But we don’t. We cannot find the time to develop them, so we are stuck like a rat on the treadmill. Don’t be that rat. Don’t let projects stagnate, things fall through the cracks or important work not get started. Also don’t get carted off to hospital with angina, a stroke or ulcers.

Getting a better grip on your time will create space to spend on training your key people. Don’t fluff the delegation process, because you are clueless on how to do it. Don’t just dump stuff on people, expecting them to magically get it and somehow be able to come back with excellent work. Stop dreaming, it won’t happen.

Have a meeting with the delegatee, where you explain the task in terms of how this is designed to help them grow and succeed in the business. Talk in terms of their interests not yours. Help them to lead the design of how it should be done, have them take ownership and then monitor the milestones to make sure they are on track. Praise them on the way through, not just at the end and have a celebration when they complete the task.

Inspire. Investors, potential new staff, valuable existing staff, clients, all need your persuasive ability to impress and keep them happy. If you are an unclear, unimpressive speaker, it is hard to get people to believe in you and follow you. You can be a tyrant, but let me know how that is working out for you? Honey does better than vinegar, when it comes to communicating with people. You will never work it out on your own. Get the necessary speaking training and stop kidding yourself.

These days there is no excuse to not be persuasive. There is plenty of knowledge and experience available about what works best. All we have to do is make the time investment needed and we can avail ourselves of all of this applied wisdom and knowledge. I recommend the High impact Presentations course – the Rolls Royce of presentation training. Do this and you will join the elite levels of persuasion power in two days.

Master time, grow the leverage capacity throughout your team and learn how to inspire people. Get on to it.

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Understanding the basics of Japanese business requires we have to know about nemawashi and what it means for us.

Nemawashi is a very important word in Japanese. It is made up of two words “ne” which means root and “mawashi” which means to wrap around. Or wrapping up the root. A good translation however is “groundwork”, usually associated with a decision or a meeting. In Japan they can move 15-20 meters trees from one location to another. They dig down, cut the tap root, bind up the root ball, get a big crane, put the whole tree on a truck and transplant it to another place. Quite amazing.

That nemawashi represents preparation before the tree gets moved. In business the same things apply. We want a certain decision to be taken so we prepare to influence the direction that decision will take. We might be dealing with a client or within our company. Japan doesn’t leave anything to chance. Prior to the meeting, you meet with the other people who are going to attend the meeting and you try to get their agreement with what you propose. In this way, the decision is taken before anyone gets in the room. The meeting itself is just there to formally approve what has been decided beforehand.

In a Western context, we would make the decision in the room. Everyone would turn up expecting that there will a discussion, some debate and final decision will be reached during that meeting. In the Japanese case, they will already have made the decision, so if you want to influence the decision you have to start early. It is no good leaving it until the meeting itself, because that will be too late and the decision will have already been taken.

If it is a client company, you need to work with your internal champion to get the decision makers to agree with what you want to happen. Usually the decision you want is that the client uses your product or service. As an outsider you won’t be in the meeting, but you have to help your champion to be persuasive with everyone when doing the groundwork or nemawashi. Give them the data, the evidence, the testimonials, whatever it takes to make the case solid when presenting it to the people who will be in the meeting. Don’t leave it too late, because it takes time to get around everyone and have those discussions before the meeting is held.

Yes, absolutely they are. This is why you have to prepare your champion to be effective making the argument in your favour. They can get the meetings, but they need your help to be persuasive. The quality of the preparation has a big impact on the final result of course. You need to get them to nominate who is in the meeting and get an idea of what will encourage them to be in agreement with the decision you want. Your champion should have a game plan for each person and that should be put together with your help.

If you understand nemawashi represents the idea of preparation, then be well prepared. As pointed out, don’t leave this process to the last moment. You need to give yourself time to allow the nemawashi system to work in your favour. You also need to anticipate the arguments of the other side and head those arguments off at the pass. You are working through your champion, so the preparation becomes even more important in these cases. Does it mean you will always prevail. No, you will win some and lose some, but you will place yourself in the best possible situation to get a win. If you had no idea about nemawashi you can probably begin to understand why the decision you wanted went against you. From now on though become part of the Japanese decision-making process and exert influence from within.

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Today we are going to look at the proper use of visuals when we are presenting. Many people ask us at Dale Carnegie, what should I do with preparing my slide deck for my key note presentation? What’s too much? What’s too little? What’s the best way to make this work for me?

Here’s some guidelines for using visuals. Sometimes less is definitely best. On a screen, try to avoid paragraphs. Try to avoid sentences. If you can, use single words. Single words can be very, very powerful. Just show one word or even just one number and then you can talk to the number, or you can talk to that word. Or use just a photograph or a simple visual and you talk to the visual. Bullet points are also minimalist and good.

By the way, you don’t have to crowd the screen with stuff that we can read fir ourselves. What you really want is for the audience to be focused on you, the presenter and not what’s on the screen. This is very critical. We don’t want the screen competing with us, so the less you have up there the better.

I believe that the two second rule is a key rule. If you are putting something up on screen and an audience cannot see that and understand that within two seconds, it’s probably too complicated. Strip it back until you can get the point immediately.

The six by six rule means less is best. Six words on a line. Six lines on a screen. Then six words across each line. Again, keeping it very minimalist.

With fonts, try to use 44 font size for the title, and 32 for the text. In terms of font types, sans serif fonts like Arial are very easy to read. Where as serif fonts like Times, Times Roman, which have got a lot of additional fancy work, can be distracting.

Be very, very, very sparing with using all uppercase. It’s actually screaming at your audience; it’s shouting at your audience when you use strong uppercase like that. You can use it. But use it strategically. For visibility, be careful about the overuse of underline. Yes, you can use underline but use it sparingly. Bold, yes you can use bold, but the same thing, use it occasionally. Italics, well very rarely use italics. It’s not so easy to read. You can use them, but use them modestly.

With transitions, sometimes it’s good to reveal one concept at a time. Because there is only one idea on the screen you can talk to that and you are not competing with a lot of words on the screen. Sometimes maybe have all the content up on the screen at one time, so people can read it for themselves as you go through it. Just be aware of the point of the difference in the usage.

Pictures are great. Pictures have a lot of visual appeal and as we say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And a nice photograph of something that’s relevant, of people, a book or picture or whatever. People can look at that and in two seconds they’ve got it. Now they’re ready for your explanation about the relevancy of this picture to your talk today.

Bar graphs make it easy to compare items. When you want to compare different variables, bar graphs are very good for that. Line charts are great to show change over time. You can compare two or three items over time and it is very easy to see that one’s up, that one’s down, that one is flat. Pie charts are fantastic for showing parts of a whole. What’s the share of something? As long as there’s not too many up on screen at once, then a pie chart works well. This is usually the big fail with a lot of presentations. They put up way too many pie charts at the same time. Avoid doing that.

Colors are tricky and you rarely see people using them well. Colors like black, blue, green - they work very well on a screen. They’re the best colors. Stay away from oranges and greys and particularly red. So for establishing some contrast, black and blue work together well as a contrast. Green and black also work well together as a contrast. They’re good colors to mix and match on the screen: black and blue, green and black. Red however can be hard to see, so use it sparingly.

Apply these simple guidelines when you use visuals and you will avoid the most common mistakes which we regularly see in presentations. When it comes to presenting very few get it right, so you can go straight to the top by just having a better understanding of what to do and what not to do.

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The playbook on how to deal with difficult people wasn’t anywhere in sight throughout our entire schooling. When we went to work this playbook was also missing from the induction training and from every other piece of training we have ever received.

Sadly, not everyone is like us – wonderful, charming, amusing, attractive. Despite our best efforts to be a role model of perfection, setting them a good example, others persist in being a major pain. Here are 12 selective tips on negotiating with the difficult amongst us.

1. Have a positive attitude

Sounds like a motherhood statement but deciding to see the interaction as a learning experience in the real laboratory of life, as a means to enhance our win-win inter-personal skills, changes the starting point of the discussion in our favour.

1. Meet on mutual ground

Try to meet, rather than engage in a protracted email war or discuss complex issues over the phone. Face to face is best and preferably on neutral ground for both of you. Away from the workspace is often best, such as over coffee or lunch, away from the office.

1. Clearly define and agree on the issue

Sometimes we are arguing about different things under the same banner. By defining the issue in commonly understood words, we are a long way toward achieving better clarity about what is at stake. If the issue is a biggy, then break it down into bits that can be dealt with one by one, in concrete detail.

1. Do your homework

Start by taking the other person’s situation and building the argument from their perspective. This often opens up gaps in our information or assumptions we are drawing, based on no particular facts. If it is a negotiation, decide what is our BATNA – the best alternative to a negotiated agreement or our walk away position. Also determine what we can accept, what we can live with and what would be an ideal outcome.

1. Take an honest inventory of yourself

Be more self-aware of aspects of your personality and style which may help or hinder interactions. Nominate your “hot buttons”, which if they get pushed, triggers an explosion inside you and decide not to allow yourself to react that way. Watch your language and tone, as these usually go straight to the default mode in arguing and you probably don’t want to go there.

1. Look for shared interests

Conflict has a way of magnifying perceived differences and minimizing similarities, so look for common goals and desired outcomes. There may be a common objective but the disagreement is often around the best path toward achieving it. Focusing on the common goal and the desired future, keeps the conversation moving forward.

1. Deal with facts, not emotions

In sport we say play the ball not the opponent. So we should focus on the issue not the messenger. Maintaining a goal oriented rational approach may be difficult, especially when the ego gets in play, but try and de-personalize the conflict and separate the issues from the personalities involved. Instead of being defensive, ask clarifying questions that get them talking and you listening.

1. Be honest

Be honest and transparent about what is important to you and why. Clearly state your goals, issues and objectives so the other side can grasp where you are coming from. Don’t assume it is obvious, because it probably isn’t. If only common sense was more common!

1. Present alternatives and provide evidence

Create options and alternatives demonstrating your willingness to compromise. Frame options taking into consideration their interests and back up your plans with evidence.

1. Be an expert communicator

Be clear, be clear, be clear. Ask questions, paraphrase for understanding and always check for their understanding of what you are saying. Miscommunication is often the major culprit in conflict.

1. End on a good note

If there is a follow-on action involved, shake on it, agree the specific actions steps and who is accountable for what, by when and how.

1. Enjoy the process

Reflect and learn from every intraction. Have your own criteria to evaluate the process and solution then write it down as a record for future reference. See your own growth being aided by understanding and learning from different points of view.

Tricky personalities and difficult people will never just conveniently go away. Instead, we need to be better prepared in dealing with them. We can keep repeating the same procedures and wonder why we never get a better result or we change our approach. Einstein’s definition of being crazy by the way, was to keep doing the same things but expect a different result. Don’t go crazy - these practical tips will help us on the journey to a less stressful and more rewarding future.

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Emperors and fishmongers. The opposite end of the social spectrum, but in Japan, I discovered the levels of formality in meetings was unnervingly similar.

Formality in Japan is linked very closely to what is perceived as being polite. European countries may feel more familiar with Japanese style formality, but for countries like the US, Australia, Canada etc., this level of formality is not the usual. There is a sense of formality here in Japan that is unexpected and sometimes hard to fathom for most foreigners.

The most formal meeting I have ever attended in Japan was when I met the current Emperor in his palace. When every new Ambassador arrives in Japan, they go to the palace to present their credentials. This was the case with Australian Ambassador John McCarthy, while I was Country Head for Austrade at the Embassy. The Ambassadors don’t go to the palace on their own. They have their entourage of senior officials from the Embassy with them and I was in that group. There is a special waiting room for you at Tokyo Station and then you are taken by horse drawn carriage with a mounted escort to the palace. A senior Japanese Cabinet member attends you, in our case, the Minister of State for Financial Services was Heizo Takenaka.

There are numerous points of protocol when greeting the Emperor – how you walk, stand, move, speak, sit etc. Formal beyond words is how I would describe the atmosphere. The second most formal meeting I have been to in Japan was with some fishmongers in Osaka. I was introducing Australian Ambassador Dr. Ashton Calvert to various importers dealing with Australia. This seafood business was a large one and a big customer of Australian produce.

They had the entire echelon of senior management turn out for the meeting with the Ambassador, it was a very stiff affair, a complete ceremony in itself. The formality was quite breathtaking. I never expected that fishmongers could be that formal, but it was a very serious affair, because of the “above God” status of the visiting Ambassador.

There are levels of politeness here with the accompanying formality. Even simple things like how you sit. I had an embarrassing experience when I was attending a senior Australian government official making the rounds of calls in Osaka. The Governor of Osaka was unavailable that day for the meeting, so we met the Vice-Governor.

Picture this scene. The Vice Governor is sitting ramrod straight in his chair, with a 10 centimeter gap between his spine and the back of the chair. Roman patrician style – very formal and upright. My Aussie VIP visitor by contrast, was sitting there with his legs kicked out in front of him, lounging back in his chair, like he was on his couch at home watching the footy. The contrast in informality and formality was stunning. The formality-politeness construct comes straight into play here. Is lounging around in a formal meeting polite in a Japanese context? Was my VIP showing any respect for the Vice-Governor? I don’t think so. After the meeting, I tried to breach the subject of required formality in Japan with my visitor in a subtle way, but I failed. The cognition gap was too big to straddle.

When we are in business, always think that Japan is more formal. When you go into the meeting room, there are these massive big chairs with solid wooden arm rests. These are big units and must weight about 50 kilos. They are also set at quite long distances across the room, so you are quite separated from the other side. It is very, very hard to build up any rapport when you are sitting that far apart in such a formal atmosphere.

If you are a training business like we are, you want to show things to the buyer. Well you just can’t do it at that distance, so you have to get up and go sit closer. Of course you have to apologise for breaking protocol to do that, but otherwise you have no chance of introducing your solution with any impact. Now a Japanese visitor is unlikely to ever attempt to alter the seating arrangement, which is why being a foreigner is an advantage sometimes in business in Japan.

We can break through the formality, but you have to know when it is appropriate and when it is not. We are dealing with Presidents of companies or very senior people and it is great chance to go straight to the top and get them interested in what we can do for them. In the typical Japanese setting among Japanese, they are going to find that hard to do, because of all the formality attached to the meeting.

We are in this room as a sign of respect. They have lots of other meeting rooms which are a lot less formal and where you can do business across the table more easily. The formality of the meeting room reflects the degree of politeness being shown to the visitor. Because of your rank you go into the big, formal, impersonal, almost impossible to do any business meeting room But it is a strong sign of polite respect and we should be extremely appreciative of that indicator.

So what happens when we flip it around and you are receiving visitors – what degree of respect are you showing them? Do you walk them out to the elevators? In Japan that is part of being polite, showing respect. Now in some cases you may not rank that degree of respect, so it is sayonara at the door.

Japan’s politeness is linked to formality and thoughtfulness. Japanese are very, very thoughtful. Australia, where I grew up, is so much more easygoing, informal and casual, so sometimes it is hard to get your head around Japanese formality. The thoughtfulness thing is also surprising too.

As an example, my wife’s friend invited us to the wedding of her daughter. The family is super wealthy and they could have had an extravaganza of a wedding, inviting all the heavy hitter business contacts as well and making it a big affair. Instead, it was about 100 people and they were all close friends and relatives. My wife who is Japanese surmised that the reason we were invited was because her friend wanted to introduce us to our own neighbor.

Our neighbor, like my wife’s friend was in the Takarazuka troupe, which is super famous here in Japan and they are all female entertainers, acting, singing and dancing. Our neighbour has gone on to become a major Japanese actress, very famous and a big, big celebrity. Her house is a huge fortress and we have never even laid eyes on her. When you do the call to introduce yourself to your neighbours, you get the maid in her case and that is it. So finally we had a chance to meet her and that was through the thoughtfulness of my wife’s friend to do that.

What are you doing to be thoughtful in business with your clients? What can you do for them? When you go into the meetings, be more formal than normal – it will be seen as polite. Australia is probably the casual capital of the universe. That is fine in Australia but Japan is different. How you sit, stand, walk, move, speak were all determined very rigorously in samurai days and many of those attributes have trickled down to today, as acceptable, polite behaviour.

All of this flies out the window however when you go out drinking together. It is extremely informal, but that is the correct environment for that activity and Japan doesn’t mix it together. The problem with a lot of informal countries like my own, is we tend to want to mix them together, to be informal when we should be trying to be formal. Don’t mix them up in Japan.

If you say “no” I want to do it my way, this is how I do it in my country, I am not going to be Japanese about this, then good luck with that approach. Let me know how that is working out for you! I wouldn’t recommend that. I suggest you try to be seen as polite in a Japanese context and that means being a lot more formal that normally would be the case in a business setting in your own country.

By the way, you will never be Japanese. Trust me. You will never be considered Japanese. But you will be considered polite from their point of view, their reference point, their cultural context. We have to be conscious of that and maybe up the formality levels a bit to fit in, at least during working hours. After work we are all champions of informality, so we have that part down already.

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Storytelling by the speaker combined with audience participation is a winner. We shouldn’t go crazy and over do it of course, but we definitely should use this technique.

Whenever I am in the USA, I love watching the different television preachers in action. I am not looking for salvation particularly, but I am looking for hints on how to work an audience. Now obviously competing with their promises on how to get to heaven is going to be difficult, but we can see some things that work which we can use in business for ourselves.

They are master storytellers, usually using Bible incidents to make a point in the here and now. The parables in the Bible are all mini-episodes, which teach a point about success. As speakers, we have a topic to address, a key message we want communicate and the platform to do so. How can we add stories to our talk which will bolster the point we are making? The best stories are the ones people can see in their mind’s eye. It is a bit like reading a novel, after you have seen the video series or the movie based on the book. You can easily picture the scenes, the situation, the characters, the backdrops, etc.

This is what we should be looking to create. Short descriptions of incidents that inform a certain course of action. There should be people involved, preferably people they know already. We want locations they can imagine. We weave our point into these stories and draw conclusions for the audience on what course they should take.

For example, if we wanted people to think about the importance of keeping key staff, we could tell a story like this one:

“The “top gun” sales guy gets the call from the big boss and is ushered into the plush Presidential office. There he encounters the spacious room’s dark paneled walls, the impressive hardbound books on the shelves, the massive mahogany desk, the expensive paintings, the carefully coiffed secretary - all the accoutrements of power and success. Top gun had met his annual sales quota in just two weeks and was expecting the accolades deserving from such an achievement. The discussion however was on lowering his commission rate, because he was making more money than the President. Ross Perot left IBM and went on to create Electronic Data Systems and became a billionaire. We want to make sure we create reward systems that keep our top talent and we as leaders need to take our egos out of the equation”.

Probably everyone has seen a movie scene with this type of décor or they could easily imagine it. Now I could have just suggested the punch line – “throttle back on our egos, amply reward our stars and keep our top talent” but the lead up sets the scene for the audience and makes it more powerful.

I could have ramped it up even more by engaging the audience with some showmanship by then saying, “Bosses in the room, if you don’t want to lose your top talent, say “no way”. Now I would say this, while cupping my hand to my ear, to draw out some responses. If it wasn’t energetic enough, I could continue by saying, “Ah, I didn’t catch that?” again, cupping my hand to my ear fishing for a response. After they answer “no way”, I could say, “That’s right! I am with you, I don’t want to lose any of my key people either! Now let me give you some ideas on how we can achieve that”,

So we put it all together: “The “top gun” sales guy gets the call from the big boss and is ushered into the plush Presidential office. There he encounters the spacious room’s dark paneled walls, the impressive hardbound books on the shelves, the massive mahogany desk, the expensive paintings, the carefully coiffed secretary - all the accoutrements of power and success. Top gun had met his annual sales quota in just two weeks and was expecting the accolades deserving from such an achievement. The discussion however was on lowering his commission rate, because he was making more money than the President. Ross Perot left IBM and went on to create Electronic Data Systems and became a billionaire. We want to make sure we create reward systems that keep our top talent and we as leaders need to take our egos out of the equation. Bosses in the room, if you don’t want to lose your top talent, say “no way”. Ah, I didn’t catch that? That’s right! I am with you, I don’t want to lose any of my key people either! Now let me give you some ideas on how we can achieve that”.

This is a simple example of combining storytelling, with a bit of showmanship. We need to use this in moderation though or it can quickly feel manipulative. It will however lift the energy in the audience and grab their attention, as you download your key points. Try adding some stories into your next presentation and see where you can add in some showmanship as well, to engage with the audience members. Let’s become more memorable as presenters, but in a good way!!!

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The classic half-time locker room Churchillian oratory from the coach, whipping the team into a frenzy for the coming onslaught is now gathering dust in Hollywood’s archives. Today’s most successful coaches are masters of human psychology, combining insight with superb communication skills. What about leaders in business? Conferences, off-sites, retreats are supplying substantial income for sports coaches, as they induct business folk into the mysteries of motivation. Everyone heads back to work feeling fired up, but they often fail to adopt what they have been told, because they were not clear on how to do it.

I originally came to Japan in 1979 to study karate, have competed internationally and have been a national coach for Australia representing my country. In my experience, the Japanese model of sports leadership is antiquated, excelling in only one area - “gaman” (perseverance). The Japanese really know how to gaman. They do love technology, so lots of equipment in sports training, but the leadership soft skills are still underdeveloped.

No great proliferation of sports coaches becoming gurus on leadership for business audiences here. Japan’s feudal militaristic regimes for leadership spill over into business from the domestic sports world. University “club” members know that age seniority, group dominance, rigid hierarchy and the suppression of the individual are the key leadership lessons learnt at varsity. Not a sparkling sport’s blueprint for leadership in the modern world of business.

In 1988, I attended a luncheon speech by John Ribot, the CEO of the new Brisbane Broncos rugby league football club. He had been a top player and was launching this new club, which today is a powerhouse. By that time, I had been a karate instructor for 17 years, had studied under Japanese karate masters for 4 years in Brisbane and had studied in Japan for 6 years. I was a National Level 2 Coach, graduated from the Australia Coaching Council programme and thought I knew about motivating and coaching people.

John Ribot said something at that luncheon which stunned me. He was contrasting the old style rugby coaching technology with the more psychology based approach. He made the point that in the modern era, leaders coach each player individually and the big rah rah rally style was gone. He gave an example where one player would be reminded of his big salary package and that he better perform or else! In the case of another player, the coach just said, “it's a beautiful day to play football, go out there and enjoy yourself”. Absolutely no pressure placed on that player.

The lesson for business in Japan is to train our leaders to motivate our teams, one person at a time, based on what that person finds motivational. Sounds obvious when you say it, but how many of us have any experience of being led that way or in leading others? Normally the leaders do whatever they want and we have to fit in with it. They are often “Driver” personality types, where the key philosophy is “my way or the highway”.

Motivating others requires a good understanding of the interests and aspirations of that person.

Communication skills and time invested in getting to know that person are critical. In a time-poor world however, of doing more, faster with less, we are skipping steps and rushing toward the finish line. We just don’t invest enough time in knowing our people. How many business leaders can you think of who are really great communicators or motivators? What about yourself?

Let’s all pause, reflect and commit to improve. We need to build business success through our people, individual by individual and the time to start is right now.

Action Steps

1. Reduce the amount of mass broadcast communications with the team and add in more one-on-one opportunities
2. Get to know the team better so you can understand their interests and aspirations
3. Find out what motivates them and work off that base
4. Improve communications skills by having better awareness of others

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All of the sales text books tell us, use case studies with clients who have been successful, to sell the next client. Case studies are great for gaining credibility with potential cients, so it all makes so much sense. If only it was that easy to do in Japan.

Getting client cooperation to create sale’s case studies in Japan is tough. Japanese companies are very careful about how much information they let outside of the firm. What can we do, to get around this problem?

We can create two types of case studies – the verbal and the print variety. The format can vary but if we think about how time poor everyone is today, clarity and brevity are virtues in both cases. We should start with the outcome, the result. Why begin at the end? We want to keep people reading or listening, so we need to break through all of the competing distractions and grab their attention. Extolling the wonderful and extensive outcomes of your solution gets them interested to see if the same pixie dust magic can be sprinkled on their enterprise. We are also showing our credibility. The outcome must be a relevant example that the potential buyer of your services or product can mentally extrapolate to themselves in order to have real meaning.

After dangling the goodies in front of the client, we now talk about the issue we solved. This is best delivered in the form of a story. Just going into the mechanics of the issue is boring and not likely to motivate the listener. If we can describe the people involved and the pain the issue was causing, we can start to ignite the listener’s emotional connection with the story. We can say things like, “The pressure from our client’s senior management had been intense. From last spring the section manager Shimada san was so stressed by the pressure for delivering the results on time, that he was developing an ulcer in his stomach. He even started to take time off to go to hospital. His whole team were worried because they felt they would not be able to get their piece of the project done in time. They saw a potential big loss of face because their colleagues would feel they had let the rest of the company down. They were all working hard but were concerned they were getting nowhere”. Now we have put some flesh on the bone. We have counted the human cost of failure. This is much easier to identify with than numbers in a spreadsheet cell coming up short. We have introduced a situation the buyer can mentally visualize in their own frame of reference.

Next we describe the solution we provided to fix this gap. This is the “how we did it” part of the story and again it shouldn’t be a simple mechanical telling of how things happened. We need to combine the solution description with the impact it had on individual members of the team. We talk about the features of the solution, but we have to link those to the benefits we delivered to the company, how they took those benefits and applied them. We can say something like this, “The XYZ software we installed used a combination of our big data and artificial intelligence capability to isolate out the critical steps to meet the deadline. We saved hundreds of hours of team time and the additional efficiency actually delivered the project pitch perfect and ahead of the deadline. Shimada san could finally stop his ulcer medication and the team were regarded as the heroes of the hour. We were invited to the celebration dinner and what a phenomenal night of major partying that was. Everyone was ecstatic with what we had done together and they really thanked us for saving them”.

Even if you cannot reveal the client’s name, get these type of rich episodes into print and in front of potential clients during meetings. There is the dry rendition version – let’s all avoid that one. Instead use storytelling to emotionally involve the listener. If you do, then the story brings the key points alive and makes the buyer identify with the scenario in a way that they care what happened. This is powerful and we do not do enough good storytelling in our sales work.

The irony is we are all dripping in rich and valuable detail, have plenty of scope to do this, but we don’t pull all the parts together. Find your hero stories. Collect the details and turn them into tales that burst with applied benefits gushing forth from the feature nitty gritty details of the solution. But remember to make it memorable through your storytelling skills.

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Engaging our audience is one of the prerequisites for having persuasion power. Smart people sometimes make simple errors which diminishes their ability to get their messages accepted.

Lawyers in Japan are an elite group. Senior lawyers are the elite of the super elite. When I landed in Tokyo on April 1st, 1979, Tokyo was completely different city than what it is today. A low rise, rambling, conurbation maze of small streets and ugly grey buildings, long stained by air pollution. Like the city itself, many things were a surprise back then, including Japanese lawyers. In those days, the pass rate of the Japan bar exam was one point four percent and the average time it took after University graduation, to pass the bar exam was seven years. With the launch of many new law schools in Japan and changes to the system, the bar exam pass rate has now climbed to thirty nine percent. So if you meet a senior Japanese lawyer, they will be part of the older cohort of the super, super elite. I was expecting a lot from these super lawyers, yet in some respects I was severely disappointed.

I attended a legal symposium, involving these super elite Japanese lawyers and some invited international lawyers coming in from outside of Japan. The whole affair was conducted in English, and the level spoken by the Japanese attendees was very high. It was impressive. These are very smart people, often playing a key role in resolving international disputes and enabling international commerce. In the Japan group, all had their legal practices and additionally also lectured at leading Japanese Universities, on different aspects of the law.

Yet, the communication skills on offer were incongruent with their elite educations and high societal status. I can never resolve how intelligent people can manage to stand up in front of an audience and position themselves such that they fully ignore one third of their audience. We were seated in a theatre style arrangement with raised seating. A fairly wide room, it obviously functions as one of the main lecture theatres. As professional legal educators they are all are used to speaking to large groups of students and so could be expected to speak to the whole group, rather than just those seated to their right. This is not a tricky skill, but there was obviously no self-awareness, so you have to conclude this is how it is every time they give a lecture, be it in English or Japanese.

So here is a hint to ourselves. Whenever we are standing before an audience, always make sure we position our feet such that they are facing ninety degrees directly forward and just turn our necks and upper body, when we want to involve each side of the room in eye contact.

Actually there wasn’t any real eye contact underway either. Speaking to everyone and nobody at the same time, is a common lack of professionalism in many speakers in Japan. In normal everyday conversations, making continuous direct eye contact can be too confronting for the normal societal standards of human interaction here. From a young age, Japanese people are taught to look at the throat, chin, and forehead of their interlocutor, rather than their eyes.

When we are speaking to an audience though, we are in a different role now and have different requirements. Winning the audience over to us, getting them to listen carefully to what we are saying and drawing them in to our point of view, are all aided when we use eye contact.

In the whole symposium, I don’t think I saw anyone using eye contact properly. We don’t want to bore a hole in the eyes of our audience though. That is why we seek to hold eye contact for around six seconds, before we move our gaze and make eye contact with another member of the audience. When we do this, we really engage our audience. Those on the receiving end of the eye contact feel as if we are talking directly to them, as if there was no one else in the room. This is a powerful connector.

In typical Japanese fashion, the main speakers were allotted a table to sit behind, decorated with a microphone stand. In this seated position, out came the sheets of the speech transcript to be read to us in a monotone voice. Extremely painful and ineffective. One guest speaker from overseas however was very modern, reading from his iPad. He even used voice intonation when reading, to stress certain words. The same scenario – same seat, same microphone, reading the speech, but what a difference this made. By spotlighting key words in each sentence, the speech came alive. We should be doing the same thing when it is our turn to speak.

Now as a native speaker of English and a truly senior international expert in the law, I wondered why this speaker had to read the speech at all? He could have stood and delivered that speech, without notes and in a more professional manner, fully utilising all the tools at his disposal. We should be more brave I was thinking to myself.

We must always keep in mind one key advantage we have over our audience. Only we know what we are going to say. If we forget something or if we deviate off topic slightly, well, only we know that. So whenever possible we should stand and deliver, no safety net, in full gaze of the audience without notes and use our eye contact to draw everyone into our message.

The last part of the day was devoted to panel discussions. Notes don’t work in these situations and everyone did a splendid job of speaking about complex legal matters in English off the cuff. A couple of things to keep in mind for ourselves, if ever we are engaged in a similar panel discussion. Learn how to use the microphone correctly, so we can be heard clearly. I notice, so many people don’t speak across the mesh of the microphone properly, so they are not getting completely picked up by the audio technology.

Another thing to be careful of is eye contact. The speakers on these panels religiously devoted their looking lines to the panel members, ignoring their audience completely, as they answered questions or offered comments. No, no, no! When we receive the question or are asked to comment, we should be addressing the panel members as well as the audience. We should be using our eye contact to convince the audience of what we are projecting, by appealing directly to them.

What often happens though is the speaker will exclusively look back at the moderator who asked the question, instead of engaging as many people as possible in the room. This applies to any opportunity we may have for doing the Q&A. Look at the questioner initially for the first six seconds of the answer only. Then branch out and engage as many of the audience members as you can, with six seconds of eye contact, as you make your answer.

These are highly educated, super elite people in Japan and yet they make these fundamental presentation errors. So it tells us that being well educated and being in a prestigious job, does not automatically anoint us with the magic fairy dust of successful public speaking professionalism we all need. Remember, these are our personal and professional brands we are holding out there for all to see. To bolster your brand, get the training, because today is the age of persuasion power and we must master this skill if we want to be fully successful. Connecting with our audience is one of the key business skills we need to add to our repertoire when presenting.

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Conflict with bosses can often be a fundamental difference in personality types. These differences are usually reflected in communication styles which don’t match. If we know these things about others, bosses we can more easily deal with the differences.

Are you the engagement survey assassin carving up your boss or are you the victim having to explain to senior management why your team’s scores are so dismal? Naturally, the very top bosses rarely ever get surveyed, so they can be totally bolshie about your low scores. Research informs us that Japan is a bastion of bad feelings and unhappiness, leading the world in low scores. Even taking out the “Japan bias” of conservative scoring, the results here are still pretty miserable. We also know from the research that the biggest factor in lack of team engagement with the ideals, direction and aspirations of the organization is the lousy relationship staff have with their boss.

Good communication skills are often in short supply with bosses and this leads to unhappiness. It is not that bosses can’t talk, in fact often they talk and talk and talk. It is the way they speak and the thinking behind the words that are inflaming their subordinates. Bosses can be limited by their own preferred scope and style. The latter may hit the target with those who are more like them, but leaves the rest of the troops underwhelmed, uninspired, and unhappy.

Bosses are often oblivious to the idea of diversity. I don’t mean diversity as mainly considered in Japan, which is usually about lack of inclusion of women in the workplace. Diversity here means variations amongst the team in terms of communication preferences. There are lots of tools for determining this stuff ranging from the exotic - blood type, Chinese zodiac (both very popular in Japan), Western astrology, to the more scientific - DiSC, Myers Briggs, etc. If you don’t happen to carry this stuff around in your pocket, here are two decisions to determine the best communication style.

Picture a horizontal scale of assertion, low on the left and high on the right. Assertion here means to what extent you have a strong opinion on things, state that opinion, speak very forthrightly, confidently, often loudly. Add a vertical scale, where the top has high people orientation and the bottom high task. A ”people orientation” signifies care and attention to people around you, how they feel - the classic “people person”. Task orientation is about outcomes, results, KPIs, getting the job done (regardless!).

We now have four hints to guide our communication. The top right quadrant combines both assertion and a people orientation. Often salespeople, actors, trainers fall into this group – they like people and they are looking to influence those around them. Don’t focus the conversation on gritty detail, move to discussions about big picture issues.

Their diagonal opposite loves detail, proof, data and statistics to three decimal places. Talk in terms of micro detail with this crowd, often accountants, technical people, scientists, lawyers. The outcomes type in the lower quadrant on the right is assertive and task driven. Often company founders and scary CEOs, with a strong “time is money” mantra. Don’t beat around the bush or waste their time. Be direct, confident, succinct – they won’t mind. Their opposite quadrant are the non-assertive, people oriented, sensitive types. Modest, shy, usually the glue behind the scenes mopping up the damage caused by their diagonal opposite. Taking time, speaking softly, talking about how people will feel about things, attracts this group.

We can quickly tell who is which style, by carefully listening to what they say and how they say it. Mirror their style and our communication improves. We like people who are like us, so communicate in their preferred style, eliminating barriers. The boss may not be difficult after all, just different. Bosses and subordinates can very quickly become “multi (style) lingual” and much more effective in their communication. Life gets better when we can get on the other person’s wavelength and surf that wave together.

Action Steps

1. Develop 4 different speaking styles- Driver (high assertion, high task), Amiable (low assertion, high people), Expressive (high assertion, high people), Analytical (low assertion, high task)
2. Mirror the person you are speaking with to break down barriers
3. Don’t be offended by people having a different style to you
4. Don’t try to correct people who have a different style to you

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Understanding why people don’t buy immediately after your brilliant presentation in Japan is a critical component of success here. Aggressive American style wrangling with the buyer just won’t work here. We need to understand the limitations facing the person we are meeting and how the company decision making structure works.

In Japan, this “We will get back to you” response is often the result at the second meeting with the client. In the first meeting, the salesperson is establishing trust and credibility. They are trying to identify if they can actually be of assistance to the client or not. There will be permission sought to ask questions to better understand the buyer’s needs. In the second meeting, the proposal is presented, objections are dealt with and the seller tries to gain a client agreement to buy. Actually this is all fantasy and not what usually happens.

In reality, the Japanese salesperson gets straight into their pitch and starts bombarding the client with all the nitty gritty details and features of the product or service. They get to the end and then wonder why the client doesn’t buy and all they hear is “we will get back to you”. In this case, the clients are using this answer to get rid of dud salespeople.

Sadly, even if you are a pro and were following a proven sale’s process, where you did all the necessary questioning steps, you will still often get this response of “we will get back to you” in Japan. This is usually thought to be because we have not gotten enough clarity during the questioning process. Sometimes we have misunderstood the client or they have not been clear enough themselves. It could be that there was a hidden objection they are reluctant to share with us and we have failed to address that concern, so no purchase can be made. There is also another Japan specific reason, which I will cover shortly.

What do we do about this pushback? We can certainly accept that they do need to think about it and we need to set the date for the followup meeting right there on the spot. The formula from sales training guru Victor Antonio, where we don’t accept that simple headline answer and we dig deeper, is a typical American approach. Victor says to the client, “when someone tells me they need to think about it, they means one of two things - they are not interested or are interested, but not sure. Which is it?”. He says if they say interested but not sure, then we should question further about whether the purchase is a fit, whether the functionality is all there or not, or is it a question of finance?

The idea being that if the problem is anyone of his three reasons, we should drill down further in order to understand how to handle it. If it is not a fit, why not? If the functionality is not there, what is missing and can we overcome that issue? If it is the money, then we look at how we might arrange the payment terms to allow them to make it in this budget cycle or spread it out over a few cycles.

In a Japanese buyer context, this line of questioning would be considered very aggressive and obnoxious. The buyer isn’t King in Japan – the buyer is God and it is not the place of pipsqueak salespeople to question God as to why they need to think about it. The group decision-making process in Japan almost ensures they really do need to think about it - together. The person receiving the sales call may be on board and may have been satisfied with the proposal, but they are rarely the sole decision maker. Inside the company, the buying decision will impact on various sections and the views and concerns of those groups need to be smoothed off, before anyone can make a final affirmative decision. This process is called “nemawashi” or groundwork and makes a lot of sense.

Trying to pressure the buyer during the sale’s call is meaningless, because that person still has to gain the internal alignment of the group on the next steps. It would make more sense if the seller instead addressed the issue of pushback toward the other internal parties who potentially may have a problem with the decision to buy. In this case, rather than asking the person in front of us these aggressive questions, we could ask about some of the other players involved.

For example, “Sometimes there are concerns from other interested parties about the appropriateness of the fit between our solution and your company’s needs. Do you foresee any internal concerns in this area? What about functionality – do you anticipate any difficulties with the functionality of our solution from within the other sections involved? What about the finance aspect, do you expect any resistance to what has been proposed?”.

In this way we can indirectly ask the buyer about the concerns without appearing to be questioning what they have just told us about they need to think about it. We can also take the opportunity to again provide antidotes to any concerns, because our interlocutor will be “our voice” during the inside meetings where the proposal will be discussed. We need to lead the witness, so to speak, to prepare for internal pushback. So when you hear “we will get back to you” and you know you have done a good job of understanding the client’s needs and your proposal will help their business, just relax. Still definitely make that appointment for the follow-up meeting right there and then. Get into their schedule, but don’t keep pushing or you will hurt the trust you are trying to create.

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You have genius within you, as yet untapped and never before displayed. You have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in business. You have witnessed folly, fun and the fantastic. Your collection of experiences is a tremendous resource for stories in your presentations. Gripping material worthy of a movie or a book abounds and just perfect for your next presentation. Let’s look for opportunities to employ these stories and not waste this premium material.

It is ironic how talkative we are on some subjects, but how lost we are when it comes to giving public talks. If you were asked by friends about that awesome holiday trip to Italy, you could probably go on for hours quite comfortably telling us about the food, the sights, the locations you went to and what you saw there. That romantic boat trip on Lake Como, the earrings you bought during your Murano glass factory visit in Venezia, that huge Florentine steak you had in Firenze, the dip in the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the colour of the sea in the Blue Grotto near Capri – you could go on at length about all of these adventures because they came from your experiences. So what have you been doing at work all these years in your profession? Haven’t you accumulated a host of experiences there too? Didn’t you have ups and downs at work, when projects went well and when they combusted? Haven’t you worked with colleagues who were rock stars and others who were idiots?

Going straight to the slide deck composition stage for creating your presentation is a big mistake. Go to your experiences first. What was the best deal you ever did? What was the most successful project you ever completed? What was the most disastrous deal you ever did? What was the train wreck project from hell you were responsible for? Where have you seen people succeed and what did they do to be successful. Who have you seen digging a hole for themselves and then just keep digging?

In our lives, we have harvested a lot of experiences, which we can use in our presentations. If we were better organized, we might have had the forethought to keep notes, so it would be easier to refer to them when we are looking for material. Well, well there is a hint right there – keep notes from now. You can just jot down in your Evernote or something similar, the key points you will want to recall later in a talk. Never allow a disaster to go unrecorded again, yours or someone elses.

Storytelling is not some Hollywood script writer level requirement for speakers. It is just telling our stories from real life, the lives of people we have observed. We can also share and acknowledge incidents from authors who have captured their experiences on paper, but in our own words. We just have to be observant and be able to see a good connection between a point we are making in our presentation and an example where we can relate it as a story.

We know with planning our talk we should start with the conclusion of our talk first, boiled down to its very essence. We then pick up the main points we are going to use to illustrate why our viewpoint or our conclusion is correct. We then design the opening. We need this to grab people’s attention, amidst the mad, mad world they live in, which seems to permanently distract them.

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Rage, blind rage destroys relationships and intercompany teamwork. We are all working around with super sort fuses today, impatient, irritated and volatile. Today let’s look at how we can head this type of disaster off at the pass and keep the focus on the rivals and destroying them rather than each other.

“All of our problems walk on two legs and talk back”. I can’t recall when I first came across this expression, but it is true isn’t it. Most business problems can be fixed with more capital, technological breakthroughs, greater efficiencies, patience and time. People problems though are much trickier.

An after work drinks session erupts into an alcohol fueled shouting match between two colleagues that doesn’t end there. The hostilities continue and now the entire work atmosphere is polluted with the bubbling bile between them.

The discussion about next year’s budget allocation turns nasty, as two strong willed leaders start a very public stoush aiming for some advantage over the other. Frosty relations prevail between these two silos within the firm thereafter and everyone is involved.

An innocuous remark by a colleague causes offense and now the boss has to deal with complaints about, “I can’t work with Taro anymore, you should fire him”.

Rather than trying to sort out the incidents, the rivalries, the perceived insults etc., wouldn’t it be better if these didn’t arise in the first place. We are all adults – although sometimes you have to wonder about that! Why can’t individuals take more responsibility for their own actions and reactions, instead of wasting valuable time and energy on intramural feuding. We should be concentrating on beating up our business rivals not each other.

Why do these problems arise in the first place? When you think about it, people have not been taught any methodology to control their emotions. We had better fix that - here are 6 actions for when you feel you are getting emotionally charged.

1. Get cerebral. Collect your thoughts and note your emotions. Draft a note or an email, really telling the offending party how it really is and why they are an idiot. Don’t miss anything, make sure you give it to them right between the eyes. Don’t fill in the name in the email address section when writing it and don’t send it. Writing it will get all the anger out, so you can relax now that is done.

2. Ask for input. Run the situation by someone impartial and ask for honest input. We can often fail to see the woods for the trees when we are too deep in the situation. A third party dose of reality can be helpful to improve our perspective on the issue at hand. Even if it doesn’t, just sharing the burden with others gives us some relief.

3. Get physical . No don’t punch them out, but get yourself out of there. Take a power walk or go the gym and burn that anger off baby.

4. Look at the situation from their point of view. Think about what you would do if you were under all the pressure they are under or you had to deal with what is facing them. Think about what you said and how that contributed to the escalation of hostilities. Are we each perfect? No and the sooner we remember that the better. It will help us to separate our ego from the details of the issue or argument.

5. Sleep on it. Review your “I’m angry” notes or email in the morning. Think about all the more important tasks you have that require you at your best and most energetic. Decide if this is just a total waste of your valuable time or not? If it is, then let it go and work on some concrete projects that will positively advance your business.

6. Pick your battles. . Make a balanced, strategic judgment about whether this is worth getting emotionally charged about? Should you metaphorically duke it out with them or is it best to just take the high ground and move on?

So when things become highly volatile, don’t spontaneously combust. Pause and run through this list- like an adult!

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Mistakes are either great learning exercises or catastrophes damaging the trust in the brand. Step one is getting people to admit they made a mistake. Finding out about a major mistake when it is too late is every bosses nightmare. You have the authority, the power the money to fix it, but that window has closed out.

Sometimes things go wrong. Mistakes are made, errors pop up, best laid plans are laid low. Stuff happens. How we deal with these incidents makes the big difference. Some societies are legalistic, litigious and phalanxes of lawyers are lined up telling us to deny everything. Japan isn’t one of those cases, so we expect a different way of doing things here and admitting blame is accepted, as long as it is handled appropriately.

Troublesome word “appropriately”. It is a bit like “common sense” which often proves to be very uncommon. What we may think is appropriate isn’t shared by others. This is where things get murky in the service sector world. When things go wrong what is the appropriate response by both parties? The aggrieved client can completely lose it and let go with both verbal barrels, tearing strips off the offending service provider.

Given nearly thirty percent of the Japanese population is over sixty five these days, we can all look forward to various short fuse jichans or granddads exploding with rage, when some level of service is not delivered at the “appropriate” level. Those long Japanese life spans, combined with ever shortening tempers and easy irritation from other people creates an explosive service sector cocktail.

A friend of mine was lamenting some poor service provision in the IT area. The project was nine months late and when it did finally come on line it didn’t work properly at all. We all know that everything in IT takes longer than promised and always costs more than expected, but at least it is supposed to work. There can be many reasons for this. The brief may have been unclear, the execution could have been the problem, there may be extenuating circumstances, maybe it was basic incompetence?

When I was working at one of the retail banks here a very, very large amount of money had been carted out to sea on a barge and set on fire, in the form of a new internal operating platform not working well at all. It was launched then immediately scrapped. The autopsy of why it didn’t work, became one of those failure orphans, where there was no one responsible. No one lost their job and no lessons were learnt. It was like it never happened, everyone involved suddenly had collective amnesia and it was quietly swept under a rug and forgotten.

Anyway, back to my friend who was rather perplexed by the reaction of the IT service provider, who was not at all responsive. Magically, the perpetrator of this grief managed to switch the tables around and blame my friend for being the problem. Now this reaction is puzzling? Why would you take that path?

Not answering the plaintive emails, texts and phone calls gets aggrieved people worked up. They feel slighted and frustrated at the same time. So lesson number one is make yourself easy to reach to solve the problems. Is your name there on your website to be contacted, if people have an issue with your service and they want to complain directly to the boss? In my experience, our Japanese staff are all ninjas at hiding trouble from the boss, so always expect to be the last to know what has occurred, usually until it is absolutely too late.

Also don’t be mealy-mouthed about the problem. If you didn't deliver from the buyer’s point of view, then admit it, because the beauty or otherwise is in the eye of the beholder here. Perception is the key and that is to say the perception of the client. There is money involved obviously, but there is something much more valuable involved and that is trust.

If you want to try and wriggle your way out of your responsibilities, as was the case on this occasion, then expect bigger ramifications down the road. My friend is very well connected and will not be speaking highly of the services of this provider to any and all who will listen. That will become an invisible cost line in the P&L, where revenues are being negatively impacted by reputation damage. You cannot necessarily see it, but you can be assured it will be there.

I am reminded of another case, where a very “sharp” businessman I know has quite a big following on the Internet. Various people who feel they have been duped, have created some scintillating reading on the internet, whenever you Google his name. When people are looking to do business with you, this type of prominent, smelly baggage will hurt you forever.

It is surprising how some people don’t take any responsibility for poor service. My son had a bowl of sauce spilt all over him at a ramen shop in the Azabu Juban recently. The waitress was Asian, not Japanese. To everyone’s astonishment she did nothing, just stood there looking quizzical, seemingly wondering to herself “now how did that happen?” No apology, no frantic provision of towels to soak up the sauce, absolutely nothing.

The Japanese manager was busy apologising, eventually providing the towels and wiping up the catastrophe. The guilty party just went back to grilling some meat like nothing had happened. Maybe she didn’t speak Japanese or English or was just stupid? Who knows what was going on inside her mind?

Luckily for her, it wasn’t some short tempered jichan she spilt the sauce over, as I am sure she would have been given a severe tongue lashing, the manager would have been given a good serve too and it would have turned into quite a public imbroglio. When departing, only the manager came outside to bow and apologise at the door. Where was the errant staff member, who should have been standing there looking contrite and sorry for the kerfuffle?

The point here is we all know that things will go wrong and yet how well have we trained our staff to take responsibility for their mistakes? This young woman had been given no guidance at all and yet here she is working in a retail food environment, where accidents are bound to happen. She may be part of that foreign, low pay, hourly “trainee” brigade that will increasingly be called upon to staff Japan’s restaurants, shops and retail outlets, but so what? They still need to be trained and prepared to work in one of the most demanding retail environments in the world, where standards are high and forgiveness is low.

This is a good time to take another look at what we are doing in our companies to prepare ourselves and our staff for mistakes, incidents, accidents, chaos and trouble. We can’t rely on people’s common sense or their capacity to take “appropriate” action. We need to tell them clearly the WHY of what we are doing. We need to explain our VALUES and we need to train them on how to respond to trouble, as viewed through the eyes of the aggrieved client. We also have to keep telling them because even though we may get sick of saying it, they need to hear it all the time for it to sink in. If we can’t get this right and our competitors can, then we are in deep trouble.

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Most of the presentations we listen to are a tour de force of data and less than fascinating facts. Yet the rest of our lives are overflowing with dialogue. Today we will look at what we can do with dialogue to make our talks more interesting and impressive.

Normally when we give presentations, they tend to be pretty dry affairs. We marshal the facts, relate what happened, tell stories perhaps but in a one dimensional way. We are relating what happened, but are not making any attempt to bring it alive. However, what do we seek when we are looking for entertainment or education – we are looking for dialogue. Our television dramas, movies, novels, biographies are all using dialogue to good effect. We should include snippets of dialogue in our talks too.

Now we are not writing a screenplay, which is mainly dialogue, but that doesn’t mean we can’t drip a little bit in here or there in our talk to illustrate a point and bring it to life. We are taking the role of the narrator telling our audience what happened and then including the conversation we were hearing from the person we are featuring in the talk. We do this in normal conversation when we say, “she said that ‘it was preposterous idea and I will never have it mentioned under my roof again for as long as I live’”. We may even be telling this incident mimicking the style of the speech of the main protagonist, especially if they speak a dialect or with a heavy accent.

Why not do the same thing in our talks, to make our key point stronger? Let me give an example of something that happened to me in 2010 in Miami. I was attending my first Dale Carnegie International Convention and hardly knew anyone there. In the evenings there would be various parties to attend and on this particular occasion I had the honour of meeting Dale Carnegie’s daughter Donna Dale Carnegie and she introduced me to Mike.

Now Mike stood out in that crowd of Dale Carnegie people, because he had a long ponytail and was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It turned out that Mike was the contractor who did all the stage audio sound etc., for the Convention and had been doing it for years.

“I always finish my year with the Dale Carnegie convention because you hold it in early December”, he told me. He also got me attention when he said, “I really like your organisation”. Being new to the Dale Carnegie world I was curious, so I asked him why he said that. He whispered to me in a conspiratorial fashion, “The things that people are saying out in front of stage and what they are doing behind the stage are the same”.

I asked what he meant by that. He continued, “Well I do a lot of these same types of events and we are all hooked up on the mics, so we can hear what is going on behind stage, as well as out on stage. There are plenty of folks who say one thing to the audience, but carry on quite the opposite off stage. I found in years of dealing with Dale Carnegie people they are genuine and they live the principles they espouse and I like that”.

In this example I have just modeled here, I am reproducing a conversation I had in Miami in 2010 and am using the point to say Dale Carnegie is great and the things we do are great, etc. This story is being used as evidence to get the listener to agree that Dale Carnegie is indeed great. I could say all of the same things and relate that story, just telling the details of what happened. However, when I include the dialogue, it brings the whole thing to life. People in the audience can picture a guy in a Hawaiian shirt, with a long ponytail, whispering this information to me. I can even cup my ear, as if I was listening to him, when he told me that secret part. They can hear his voice as I relate the story, which makes it more credible.

This requires a bit more work to do in the planning but not that much. After all, this is something that happened to you. It was an incident where you were told something by the main character in the story. All you have to do is tell what happened in their voice, rather than your own voice. If you do this you can take your storytelling to a much higher level. Let’s give it a go and add another string to our bow of storytelling expertise.

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We are running out of young people in Japan. Covid has slowed down some major structural changes which must happen. The implications of staff shortages are dynamic for Japan. Let’s explore some of these in today’s show.

There is a great Simon Sinek video floating around about how companies say employees are important, but don’t really act like it. He lines up the typical CEO hit list of growth, shareholder value, customers and in fourth place, employees. He notes that even if you elevate customers to number one, employees still come in second in importance. Richard Branson is also a powerful advocate for putting employees first before all else. It makes sense. We want motivated, enthusiastic staff engaging with our customers and going the extra mile.

In many ways, Japan has long had a different order to Anglo-Saxon corporate philosophy. Workers first, then customers and shareholders last. Can we learn anything from Japan’s corporate traditions on how to put workers first?

This system worked fine in an environment of lifetime employment, low growth protected by interlocking shareholdings and price fixing through the dango or cartel system. The foreign ownership of Japanese company shares and the expansion of so many businesses outside of japan has changed things and put more pressure on showing revenue returns. The customer has remained a constant in all of this change though, because culturally, the buyers have very high expectations that must be met.

We can’t rely on importing the Japanese nenkojoretsu system of steady escalator career advancement based on seniority and age. Many Japanese companies still have this system, but today talent is in short supply. In a global economy, awash with disruptive and competitive technologies, waiting for the best and brightest to become older in order to be given their leadership shot is an opportunity cost you don’t want to pay.

These old style Japanese companies often still focus on OJT (on the job training) and technical training alone, for developing the talent base of their people. That is a slow burn into oblivion, when your competitors are laser focused on quality world class training to improve their people’s performance.

Technology makes such a big difference today. President Sugihara of Oracle Japan made the point in a speech to the American Chamber, that rather than thinking that technological efficiencies will cause people to lose jobs, it will instead increase the productivity of the whole existing workforce.

In the past, with a worker surplus, there was no company impetus to work hard to keep people. Japanese risk aversion preferences also kept people in jobs they didn’t really enjoy, because they were scared of having no job and of having a tough time finding a new one. Mid-career entry rarely occurred in the bigger firms.

After the Lehman Shock, Japanese companies moved to creating a lower risk work environment by employing more and more people part-time. The thinking was, if the economy tanks again, it will be easier to fire these part-timers than regular employees. This was seen as a positive, a stable buffer against future unknowns.

The economics of this has led to a decline in consumer spending, the inability of part-time working men to find wives and start families or move into better paying work. The Japanese government was stepping in to force companies to change. They are looking to end the discrimination between the wages and conditions of permanent and non-permanent staff, restrict the use of fixed term contracts and prevent successive renewals of fixed term contracts. In other words, remove the labor liquidity attraction of using part-time workers in preference to full time staff. Covid has put all of this on hold, but it will start again because it has to.

The demographics of less and less young people coming into the workforce will mean labor shortages. Women re-entering the workforce and older workers continuing on working will be preferred to the perceived social disruption of having immigrants come in substantial numbers. The uninvited mass migrations to European countries are seen as a negative example by most Japanese and will make the whole immigration argument harder to promote.

Retaining staff will become harder. Recruiters will have a field day, searching for talent to lift them out of their current firm and place them elsewhere. Automatically, this worker shortage will swing the pendulum to placing workers first above shareholder value and customers. However, we are not going back to the cushy old days of “who cares about shareholder value and corporate performance”, but people will be again at the forefront of company business plans.

Do we have a middle management skillset able to retain our most talented people? Have we replaced the elevation by age and stage with performance evaluations which identify, inspire and mobilise the talent. Do we have the right training in place which will actually lift staff productivity. The soft skills are where the big gains will come from, as we better lead our teams, engage them, motivate them and keep them. This time around, the workers can more easily vote with their feet and leave. Are we ready for the revolution?

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Having a buying need and doing something about it can often be quite disparate ideas. There are many things we would all like to do in business to grow our companies. The constraints are usually money and people. The lack of resources holds us back and so we persevere, always hoping that somehow, we will be able to bridge that gap between where we are now and where we want to be.

At the CEO level, we are always focused on the strategy for the company and the future goals. This is something that occupies a lot of thinking time. Once you get below that level, the intensity drops off. The CFO is thinking about this quarter or this year. Worried about the finances, the cash flow, the ability to find the funds to invest, the analyst reports, etc.

If we are talking about line managers, they are concerned with meeting their targets and keeping their good people and getting rid of the not so good people. HR has a very curious take on all of this. Basically, they don’t care all that much. They have a functional role here in Japan and are the rule police. Sometimes they have to respond to internal demands and go and source resources in the form of people or training, but generally they are passive.

When the buyer is looking at the gap between where they are now and where they want to be and they judge it is pretty close, they don’t feel any urgency or need to buy. They will have certain drivers pushing them along in their role in the business, but this gap perception component is key in selling to buyers. If we can’t show that the opportunity cost of no action is too high, then they are not inspired to do anything. Doing nothing or doing what you have always done are the easiest decisions for any buyer.

They are always time poor and a purchase decision usually comes wrapped in other tasks that will need attention, as a consequence of making that buying decision. Not buying isn’t always about the money. Often it can be hesitancy around the Pandora’s Box of extra workload this buying decision will trigger. It could be the lack of resources to make the most of the benefits of the purchase and this is what is also holding them back.

We have to draw out the implications of taking no action, of doing nothing. When and how do we do that? In the questioning stage, we can draw attention to the size of the gap. Now if we say “that is a pretty big gap you have there and you should fix that”, they doubt us. We are salespeople, so the buyer is always mentally dismissing everything we say as fluffy sales talk. We need them to tell us the gap is big and needs attention. Also that it needs attention right now.

When we are discussing the Should Be question - where they want to be in the future we need to add a little question to this process. We ask where they want to be and then we follow up their answer by asking them, “What happens if you can’t get there fast enough?”. It is not useful to ask them what happens if they cannot get there, because as far as they are concerned, they can get there by themselves. No, instead we draw their attention to the speed factor. No one ever gets there as fast as they want, so it automatic opens up the idea of a gap that needs addressing. Also the current speed they are traveling at, will always be their maximum speed, so we are there to help them speed things up.

When we are asking about the Barrier Question along the lines of “if you know where you are now and you know where you want to be, why aren’t you there yet”, we have another chance to emphasise that they need our help to achieve their goals. We find out what is the obstacle holding them back and then we ask the gap widener - “What happens if you cannot clear that obstacle?” Again we are trying to demonstrate that maybe they cannot do it all by themselves or do it fast enough and they need us in that equation to make it work. When we ask about the personal payoff for them if we are successful, after their answer we need to get them to reflect on the downside for them personally if it doesn’t happen or happen fast enough. We ask, “so if the targets are not met, what does that mean for you personally?”. In Japan, buyers rarely ever attach any personal gain to success and will talk in general terms of the group. In this case, we need to reference what will it means to the team if the goals are not met? It is the same idea but just asked in a different way.

If we try to point out these aspects which won’t work we won’t be believed. We have to get them to tell us it won’t work, under their own steam, at the current pace, with the current resources and investment. Once we get them thinking about that gap we can start suggesting when we present the solution that we are the cure for all their ills. We have the ability to help them get where they want to be faster and more smoothly.

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Positivity in life is electric and it can impact others very quickly. Our mindset and energy output are engines driven on the fuel of enthusiasm. In this week’s show we take a look at why being enthusiastic is so important.

Enthusiasm of the seller for the product or service to the buyer”. What are we doing when we are speaking? We are selling! “Hang on a minute there Greg. I am a professional, I am not a car or vacuum cleaner salesman”, you might be saying to yourself. That sort of self talk is dated and dangerous. Make no mistake, we are all in sales, regardless of whether our business card has salesperson written on it or not.

When I speak with lawyers what are they complaining about? How important and how hard it is for them to gain new clients. They are out there selling themselves to clients to choose their firm rather than the rival company. The same with accountants, doctors, dentists, architects, engineers, etc. All of the professions are facing the same hurdle. How do they appeal to buyers and how do they differentiate themselves from everyone else, when they also have the same skill sets, experience and brainpower on offer.

So if we are up at the podium, out there on stage, standing up in the room to speak, we are selling. Firstly, we are selling our personal brand. Depending on how good a job we do, this will sell the company brand. We humans are a curious bunch really. If we hear a speaker and they are impressive, we carry that feeling across to the whole firm. Likewise, if they are a dud, we conclude they are all duds down there. So don’t miss it - personal and professional brands matter.

The next thing we are selling is our message, the conclusion we have reached, the insight we have gained. We have prepared our talk with some points we believe are true and important and we are there to share them with the audience. One issue though is our level of commitment to the audience and the message.

I was at a talk once being given by a senior guy who was very well known around town, a long-timer in Tokyo, a published author and an accepted authority in his field. The expectation of something really great was in the mind of everyone in the audience. The speaker did give his talk, in the allotted time, on the designated subject. However he left his enthusiasm in a parcel on the bus seat by mistake. He spoke with no passion about his subject, no enthusiasm for his area of expertise and no interest in the punters who had made the effort to hear him. It was really shocking and I have totally doubted his supposed expertise ever since.

Of course, we have to a strong base in the subject matter. In fact we should be subject matter experts if we are going to get up in front of people and talk. There is another person I know here who is trying to develop a business as a coach, has a stylish stylist and is trying to get speaking spots on an area of certain expertise. The only problem is that he is not an expert at all on the subject he has chosen to speak about. This can only end in tears, however beautifully outfitted and coiffured he may be, but still tears, because there just isn’t enough expert content there to back up what he is saying.

Given we have the expertise to speak on the subject and given that we realise we are selling ourselves, our company and our message to the audience, then we need to add the magic ingredient of enthusiasm. The way to be enthusiastic is to speak on a subject or an aspect of a subject, which lights your inner fire. Inside your profession there are bound to aspects which you feel very strongly about, so talk about those and your enthusiasm will naturally emerge.

Relive things that happened in your experience that has become a foundation of your belief in what you are telling the audience. Tell the story of what happened to you and how it impacted your views. Talk about the lessons, the trials, tribulations, the highs and the lows. Your feeling for these stages of the tale will shine through and the audience will be right there beside you. When you relive the whole journey, the good, the bad, the mediocre, the inner passion you have for what happened, will burn forth and captivate your audience.

In the retelling use all the resources at your disposal to bring that belief to the fore. Use your eye contact to engage the audience, voice modulation to add crescendos and lulls where appropriate, gestures to cut through audience distraction and grab their attention.

By combining our belief in our message, with an enthusiastic delivery, we will carry the audience with us, along the journey of belief that we have trod already based on our real world, hard won experiences. That combination is unbeatable.

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The brain when triggered by fight or flight impulses, releases adrenalin into the larger muscle groups. It also fires up the brain and the mouth, but not always in the right order. Today we look at how to control the chemical surges that can get leaders into serious trouble.

Our cave dwelling ancestor past is still with us today. Rather than sabre tooth tigers though, we are reacting to anyone who argues with us or seeks to deny us what we want. The chemical cocktail in our bodies ignites passion, anger, mouth-before-brain outbursts, cursing, putdowns, sharp rebukes and killer comebacks. Being fleet of foot, our reactions saved us from being lunch for predators, but today that same nifty speed can get us into big trouble with those around us.

Common sense is not common. Crystal clear communication goes unheard. The obvious is not obvious. There are no shortages of things in our leader world, which can set off a chemical chain reaction, pumping adrenalin into us, that we can come to regret. The six-step devastation cycle plays out like this: Event, Interpretation, Emotional Response, Physical Response, Attitude Response and Effect. Event triggers can be mistakes; stupidity; something said, overheard or reported; irritating interactions with others or a business crisis.

Our speed is astounding. We react in a nanosecond, but we regret at leisure. Once the adrenalin kicks in, we are off. So, to maintain control we need to stop the chain reaction before it ignites. You normally imagine that leaders are there because they are in control and can therefore be trusted. Someone who can’t control their own emotions, isn’t usually someone we want running anything, let alone big corporations worth very large sums.

I was amazed to see one of the captains of industry a hostage to his adrenalin. His curriculum vitae was perfect, a prince of the first water. Yet he would explode with instant, white-hot rage when he didn’t get the results he wanted and would viciously tear strips off the offending patsy. I quickly learnt to sit to his right or left at the end of the long meeting room table, where it was hard to be seen by him. I had observed that the poor saps who sat directly opposite him, got it between the eyes, both barrels, every time. I am sure we all have our war stories of demented leaders who couldn’t control their emotions and maybe sometimes, in extremis, we have joined them ourselves.

How do we keep the adrenalin in check, when we are tormented by people who don’t do what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it or how they are supposed to do it? Here are some steps we can take:

1. Recognise it is anger and that it is chemically fuelled. When we know we have set off a chain reaction and the chemicals in the body have now kicked in, we better understand that we have to take action to seize control back from the adrenaline.

2. Suspend judgment, because we may not have enough facts yet. We may have been told a version of events and there may be certain circumstances that would change our view. Before exploding, seek more data and insight – this will also help us to cool down a bit and hopefully not explode.

3. Don’t attack the other person. None of us are perfect, so keep that in mind before we set forth with a sustained tirade about their shortcomings. Remember every person we meet is carrying a heavy load in their lives, which we don’t know about, so who are we to assume we could do any better in their circumstances.

4. Before we launch forth, inject a pause, followed by a cushion. A cushion is a short sentence that acts as an adrenalin breaker to allow us to regain control. We might say something innocuous such as, “Well this issue is an important one”. We neither agree nor disagree when using this statement, but we buy valuable time to remember to ask more about the problem background, rather than immediately verbally lacerating our interlocutor.

5. Walk away. If you feel uncontrollable molten lava about to start erupting out of your mouth, just say “excuse me” and add some physical and temporal distance to enhance your perspective on the lava flow trigger. As ancient wisdom says, when faced with a killer issue, how we react is the real problem we need to solve.

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Sales is easy if you know what you are doing. It is a flow, where each step intersects with the previous one and is a build toward a “yes”. Once we get to the final stages of the sales cycle, we have to really be on our game. The wrong move, the wrong communication, the wrong timing and the deal is lost.

Finding clients is an art and so is building trust and credibility that you can help them solve their business problems. We might be very charming when we first meet the client, sending out a competency vibe that the client relates to. They are open to our inquiries into the current state of their business, where the gaps are located and the urgency of filling those gaps. So far so good.

We are now working off a trust base sufficiently large enough to allow the client to pull back the velvet curtain and reveal all the difficulties and problem nuances they are actually facing, as opposed to that pristine image the marketing and PR departments have been publicly propagating. Dragging out the dirty laundry for outsiders to see, is not something clients are going to do if the trust has not been established. So good job and well done getting to that point in the sales cycle.

Presumably you are skilled and have refrained from suggesting any possible solutions, until you have done a proper job of digging deeply into the real issues facing the client. You have not leapt in with your off the shelf product or service, the one size fits all, cure all snake oil. No, you are a pro.

You have been asking well designed questions, which have been helping the client come to their own conclusion that what you have is the solution to their needs. And the real beauty of this skill set is that the client, as yet, doesn’t even know what you have ready so you can help them. Your questions have guided their thinking about the types of solutions they will need and hey presto, your solution is a perfect match.

Now we come to the unveiling, the drum roll, as the solution is presented. This is the time for capitalizing on all the good work that has been put in beforehand. We cannot get to this point and then blow it with a mediocre solution presentation. We can’t start by only ploughing straight into the details, the guts of the solution, the spec, colour, size, weight, dimensions, timing, guarantees etc. These are all plebian features, dross, mere detail compared to what we should be presenting in its entirety.

Firstly, we need to have our capability statement ready to go. In this statement we clearly explain that we have exactly what the client needs and we have the capacity to deliver it. There is a big caveat though. If we don’t actually have it, then we should state that plainly, honestly, down the cheap, lukewarm, bitter green tea and get out of there pronto. Trying to slam the square peg into the round hole simply because you have invested all this time with this client and you need an outcome to meet your quota is stupid. If this is not a match, then they are not a client and any efforts to force it are totally wasted. Get going off to the next client, who will be a match and spend your time there instead.

If they are in fact a match, we communicate our capability statement to show that we can in fact help them. We do match our spec with what they need and we do go through the key features. But we don’t just stop there, like the vast majority of amateur salespeople. We take each of those key features and we illustrate how these features bring benefits to the client. We don’t just stop there either, we keep going, we keep climbing higher up the value chain.

We take that benefit and then we explain how that benefit when applied in their business will help them to succeed. Now clients are always doubtful about what they hear from salespeople, so there is always going to be some residual scepticism. They have been burnt in the past by idiot salespeople, so we have to deal with that poisonous legacy. After extolling the virtues of the application of the benefits of the features of our solution, we bring forth hard evidence of where this has worked elsewhere.

This is the package we need to be delivering when we get to solution presentation time. Then to test the waters to see if we have left anything out, failed to explain everything fully, we ask a trial close question. This might be something as gentle as “how does that sound so far?” This is low pressure and designed to draw out doubts, problems, additional information they may not have shared as yet. We want to hunt down any possible objections to buying from us at this stage, so that we can get a deal done today.

When we are talking about all of these features, benefits and applications we should be weaving these together in a story. Storytelling is easy for the client to remember and fleshes out the key points in a way that is most readily accessible. Talk about a particular client in a similar situation and describe the who, what, where, when and how of that case. The more vivid we can make the word pictures in the telling, the more compelling is the story we are sharing.

When we put all of this together, the client’s “yes” decision is made that much easier for them. That must be our object and we use our sale’s skills to ensure we create the best possible outcome for the client. This is not about getting a single sale, this effort is totally aimed at getting the reorders. The pro understands the difference and wants to build a lifetime partnership with the buyer. This is what we must be thinking when we get to the solution presentation stage.

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Owning the room is doable with an audience of one hundred people but much more challenging when there are five thousand people in an auditorium. Today we look at how to own the huge room.

This is what caught my attention lately: Japan’s disease control center has been hit by cyberattacks amid virus

A key disease control center in Japan in the fight against the virus experienced a huge surge in cyberattacks in 2020 with the figure quadrupling to around five point three million from around one point two million. Many of the attacks originated from Russia and China. The monthly average in 2019 of one hundred thousand leapt to four hundred and forty thousand in 2020.

Most of the attacks were phising emails. Lately an increasing number have been EMOTET malware which steals the content of past emails and attempts to dupe email readers into thinking they have received replies from people and organisations they know.

The chances of this happening and happening regularly are remote for most of us. The happening regularly part is the key, because when you are dealing at this scale, you need to get practice to really master the big stage. Nevertheless, in case you find yourself in front of a very large audience, here are a few hints on how to adjust to the increased size of the event.

Get there early and go and sit in some of the most far flung locations. It might be the last row at the back or the rear seats on the elevated third tier of the venue. What you will notice, is that anyone on stage is quite small at that distance. You realize you will seem like a peanut to audience members seated at the far extremes and so you need to “big up” your presentation to suit the tyranny of distance.

The stage area is usually quite long and wide in big venues, but you need to be investigating the front of the stage. Often there is an orchestra pit or a defined space between the front row of seats and the stage itself. You will be standing very close to the apron of the stage, so that you can be more easily seen by your audience. The thing is to try not to fall off the stage when you are presenting. That is why you need to check it out beforehand, so that you know how far is far enough forward. You may laugh, but once you are into it and your eyes are searching for faces up on the third tier at the back, you are not looking down where you are walking anymore. Often those stages are curved and not in a straight line and so it is easy to forget that and down you go.

Definitely go for the pin microphone, so that you hands will be left free for gestures. These gestures will have to become much larger than anything you have been used to before. Remember you are a peanut waving your arms around to those in the cheap seats at the back. This means go for double handed gestures as much as possible, to fill up more of the stage with your presence.

Normally when we hold our hands out, palm up toward an audience in a sign that says “you can trust what I an saying”, the arms will be within the bounds of the sides of our body. On the big stage those hands will be almost drawing a straight line across your body so the hands are super widely spread. If you are raising your hand to indicate something high, like a number, usually it would be slightly above head height. Not this time. You need to raise your hand as high as possible above your head to have any impact.

Don’t overdo it, but get your audience involved by asking them to raise their hands if they have had this or that experience. Pick something which is fairly common, so as many hands will go up as possible. This is using crowd dynamics and crowd psychology. When a huge number of people do that same thing, at the same time, it infects the entire audience with that energy and agreement. You will also get a huge energy boost as their energy connects with you on stage. That is a serious high. Trust me, when any audience leans in toward you, it is electric and at scale. What an incredible feeling. It is like a drug and you want more of it. I don’t know how rock stars calm down after having hours of that amount of monster energy directed at them.

The other thing is having your ki or chi marshaled for the task. Ki or chi is the intrinsic energy we possess and it is most famously seen in martial arts like aikido and taichi. When you are on stage, you have to try and push your energy, your ki, to the very back wall of the hall. You have to mentally project your energy that distance. Your voice helps with this task. You have to be directing your voice all the way to the last rows of seats. I don’t mean yelling, because you are set up with a microphone and if you start yelling you will only distort the sound. What it means is push your voice strength to the back walls.

Your eyes also come into play here. You need to be breaking the audience up into a baseball diamond. Left, center, right field, inner field and outer field. These six sectors have to be worked hard by your eye contact to be picking out individuals and looking straight at their faces. Now if your eyesight isn’t up to the task, don’t worry. Only you will know that the person you are directing your gaze to is a blurry outline in the crowd. The act of looking straight into the eyes of audience members means that at a certain distance, the twenty people seated around that person, all believe it is them you are looking at. In this way, you can engage with many more people, no matter how far away they are seated.

Normally I am not keen on having speakers wandering around the stage when presenting. You have seen this I am sure. The speaker is nervous and they are going up and down, up and down, up and down, the whole time they are speaking, totally detracting and distracting from their key message.

I want you to use the left, center and right sides of the stage. However walk slowly to the extreme edges, stop, settle and talk to the audience on that side. Walk back to the center and talk to those located in the center seating, then walk to the right and do the same for that side of the venue. Keep repeating this walk and stop, settle process throughout your talk. For those in the front row, definitely don’t forget to look at them, because you are so close and can have the greatest impact with that group because they feel your presence most immediately. Don’t fall off the stage unless you want to make it a really spectacularly memorable speech.

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Running a business in Japan is not for the faint hearted. Plenty of big companies with deep pockets have failed here. There are plenty who have succeeded though. Let’s pull back the velvet curtain and get real on leading a business here in Japan.

Running your own business is challenging anywhere, but Japan adds a bit of spice to the broth. According to official statistics, seventy percent of Japanese companies are unprofitable. Business seems pretty simple at one level – constantly seek to increase revenues and reduce or hold down costs. To increase revenues you can find more customers, more repeater customers and raise prices.

Raising prices in Japan gets tough, when you are in the churning wash of decades of deflation and when there are always lots and lots of competitors. When the consumption tax was raised the last two times, the economy immediately took a hit, which indicates the price sensitivity of the populace.

The usual way of differentiating yourself and justifying higher prices is through the added value you provide. Naturally, there is a major sales and marketing effort required to get that value message out. Both options in Japan however come with high price tags.

By the way, whenever we do training as part of a global arrangement, we always get push back on the pricing in Japan, especially when the yen is converted to other currencies. Why overseas head office staff would imagine that pricing here should be the same as at home is a mystery, but that is often the expectation. The cost structures here in Tokyo for wages and rents are high relative to other countries and the prices reflect that.

I refer these global partners back to their own local operation’s wage and rent bills in Tokyo. I point out these are nothing like what they are costing at home, so why expect global pricing to be uniform? In general, fixed costs as a percentage of revenue are high in Tokyo and it is a struggle to get them down.

Unlike other Western countries, where salespeople are prepared to work on a one hundred percent commission basis, very few Japanese staff are attracted by that option. Again this opportunity to move wage costs away from fixed to variable is less available here. This means there must be a base salary plus bonus or commission arrangement and the base will be relatively high. Especially if you are a foreign operation, as you need to attract potential employees. When were a start-up in 2007, we had to pay our sales staff close to double the norm, to get them to work for us. That hurt but we had no choice. By the way, add another fifteen percent to your wages bill for all the various social insurance and pension costs.

Of course, if you are a prestigious mega corporation, encapsulated by a powerful brand, this attracting staff challenge may not be such an issue. If you are a Small Medium Enterprise (SME) then attracting people becomes more competitive. If your team needs to speak some reasonable level of English, then the wage bill goes up immediately.

There is also a limited supply of Japanese who want to work in an international environment and that number is declining rapidly, as less and less young people go overseas to study. We are currently in the midst of a real turning point regarding the internationalisation of the younger generation. The young don’t want to learn English and they don’t want to live overseas, because everything is so wonderful here in Japan and it is safe. In the future, they are going to become almost impossible to hire for SMEs, as we are simply outbid by bigger companies.

Marketing in Japan, especially in Tokyo is a remorseless pit into which you have to throw lots of money. Print ads and content marketing driven advertorial

are very expensive here and the local publishers have plenty of Japanese companies able and willing to pay, so trying to cut a deal is fraught.

Television predominates with fifteen second ads, so even if you can afford the big money involved, your appeal to buyers in that time is microscopic. On-line banner ads are not inexpensive. Pay per click keyword search ads and Facebook ads are also not cheap and can burn through cash at an alarming rate. Few Japanese are using LinkedIn as yet, so it mainly targeting a foreign audience at this point. PR is a viable option for brand awareness, but you get what you pay for. SMEs can rarely pony up the type of money required to get the PR agency’s “A Team”, so don’t expect any particular marketing magic from the “D Team”.

Japanese websites are often the complete antithesis of the Zen like western approach. Garish colours and packed screen real estate are very common here. So what do you do, go Zen or go Garish? Do you have the cash to pay for a Japanese language copywriter or do you do it internally to save money? Are your team members any good at it? Your SEO has to be fined tuned to push yourself forward in the page rankings and you need people who know what they are doing, as DIY is cheaper, but a lot harder. These resources may be in-house or on contract, but they still push up the wage’s bill.

Networking in Japan is different to Western countries in that few Japanese go to these events all that willing to meet new people. Sound promising? The meeting charges are also expensive as well so if your team are really getting out there, the costs can be significant for what is really a shotgun marketing effort.

It sounds crazy, but the usual style is that someone you know introduces you to someone they know. This is acceptable, if quite limited in scope. Bounding up to complete strangers and introducing yourself is possible, but the reactions are often mild shock, blank stares and some resistance. This negative response is applied to Japanese as well as foreign staff. “Working the room” hasn’t quite made it here yet as a concept.

Cold, as opposed to warm approaches are also tricky. Sending a direct mail piece to someone unknown goes straight in the bin. Any email from an unknown entity similarly gets deleted unread. You can cold call here but you really need to know the person’s name. If you don’t, you will usually get blocked at the entry point, promised that your message will get passed on and a return call offered – if they are interested. You will never hear back from them.

There is always the issue of what you are offering may work overseas, but it won’t work here. If you bring global statistics, then there had better be a Japanese component of the survey or the whole thing is just dismissed as irrelevant. That means you have to pay to run the same survey here, to show the significance of your findings for the Japanese market. This costs money. Testimonials from overseas companies, super brands or otherwise, are also invalid by definition. You need a local track record to be credible and skepticism reigns without relief.

Disasters, especially earthquakes are a constant prospect and all of us living in Tokyo know we are overdue for “The Big One”. After the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear core meltdown in Fukushima a few years ago, our training business ground to a halt with four months of no cash flow. Who wants to do training, when you are having large numbers of major aftershocks every single day for months. Covid hasn’t been any fun either, as companies have cancelled their scheduled training. We all know it is important, but it is at moments like these, we really understand the importance of cash flow in a business. This was a painful period for many businesses to get enough cash to keep going and in fact many disappeared as a direct result.

The good news is that in Japan you do get paid by clients. Also, Japanese companies prefer the devil they know, so if you supply value, then you can expect repeat business. Staff are hardworking and diligent. People are honest, neat, polite and things work here, also there is fantastic infrastructure.

There are large numbers of foreign corporates with businesses here, who are more open than a lot of domestic companies to your approach. There are English language magazines aimed at these expatriate leaders, which because of the limited market, cost a fraction of the Japanese mainstream media. There are many foreign Chambers of Commerce, business associations and study groups here, so there are many networking opportunities where you can actually “work the room”.

The rule of law applies here and legal disputes that have to go to court are few and far between. Like anywhere, there are criminal gangs (yakuza) extorting businesses, but they tend to leave foreigners alone and prefer exploiting the locals, as it is a lot easier.

Because of Japan’s extremely strict immigration and refugee policies, there are very few ethnic or religious groups who are likely to cause Japan much trouble. The biggest non-Japanese ethnic group are Koreans. The majority were born here after the war, their grandparents being brought in during the war years as forced labour. There are some foreigners here illegally overstaying their visas, but they are keeping a very low profile, because the Japanese government deports them once found.

Japan is still the third largest economy in the world. The main leisure activities here really, for the majority of the populace, is to shop and eat. Many foreign companies have done well here, they have found the formula for success but few have done that rapidly. Long-term planning, patience, grit and sustainability take on different dimensions here in Japan.

All in all, Japan is a land of opportunity. Progress just comes more slowly here and with great difficulty, but if you stick it out, then it will come. There are plenty of foreigners who have made a success of their businesses here. Adopt some samurai style “grit” and keep going.

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Getting an objection from a buyer is a joy. Getting nothing is a pain. At least when they object, they are displaying some level of interest to know more. Many salespeople fear objections, but when you know what you are doing, trust me, you welcome them.

This is what caught my attention lately: Legal action against Line is being considered. Line is a popular messaging app in Japan and I am a user too. It has eight-six million users in Japan and over seven hundred million worldwide. The Personal Information Protection Commission will consider legal action against Line Corp after user’s data was left accessible at a Chinese affiliate. It is alleged that Chinese engineers in Shanghai accessed Japanese users’ data without consent. The personal information protection law obliges companies to gain users consent when they transfer their info to entities in a foreign country.

Line is used in various administrative services. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and communications announced it would stop using the Line service and request local governments to investigate their usage status.

Buyers should buy and not quibble, hesitate or question. That at least is what salespeople hope for. That may happen, but the frequency is not high and you certainly wouldn’t want to be banking your career arc on the odds of that occurring. The reality is we want buyers to object. If we don’t get an commitment to buy right then and there, the next best case is they give us an objection. No objection then no sale.

If we are giving our presentation and at the end the buyer doesn’t have any objections but are also not ready to purchase then we are in trouble. In the sales call we have to get the buyer excited. We also need to have them mentally commit to implementing or consuming whatever it is we are selling. That triggers a future state where they have to anticipate that certain things need to happen. This future state throws up questions. If they are a non-buyer then there is no trigger to go into anticipation of potential problems.

We are all raised to be risk averse. Watch carefully when you cross the road. Don’t dive into the river before you check what is under the surface. Don’t sign contracts without reading the fine print. Our parents do their best to ensure our survival and a big part of that effort is to make sure we avoid doing risky things. This carries over into our role as the buyer. We have to anticipate issues which may arise in the future and make sure they are covered off at the point of purchase. This is the due diligence of business.

Now if we have no intention to make a purchase there is no point wasting any energy on the due diligence component. The buyer will just sit there, listen inertly and then end the meeting. Everyone is time poor today, so we will not invest that valuable resource in things which are going nowhere. Such as talking with a salesperson who has nothing of interest for us.

When we get an objection, it indicates interest. Getting very poor questions is also another warning signal. If the sale is expensive or complex then we want a lot of questions. We know that those questions are the buyer running through a mental checklist to make sure they can buy. If the issues are dealt with then, it is a deal. No mental checklist and no questions means no sale.

Sometimes the person we are presenting to may not be the final decision maker. This is usually the case in Japan. There will be various stakeholders scattered around the company who have to agree. We will never get to meet them or will not even be aware of many of them, but they are there and they have to say yes. The famous ringi system of affixing their hanko or stamp to the recommendation to purchase is typical of big companies. They need to coordinate across divisions and sections. They value having a common understanding of what is going to happen. Your stamp on the document and it is usually a physical document, indicates you are aware of this and you agree that this project can move forward from the point of view of your area of responsibility.

The person sitting across from us is a catcher of data and information to relay to others within the system. They will not have many objections, because they are probably not going to be the end user. They may not have enough information to know what risks should be taken care of in this sales presentation stage. We had a meeting with a financial institution recently and the size of the deal was 10x. that means the scope of the solution was probably ten times what they were expecting. The investment amount was in line with that scope and also 10 x what they probably expected.

At the end of the meeting, I noted to my colleague that they didn’t have enough objections. If the scope was that much bigger than they were initially thinking there should have been more issues raised. Our interlocutor was a catcher of information not a decision maker. We need to get together with the decision makers and go through this idea for them again. We need to get some solid objections if we are going to make this sale.

No objections is a bad sign. We haven't shown enough value or time urgency to inspire then to take our offer seriously. So contrary to what we salespeople all want, which is a sale with no objections, in fact we need them to make the sale. Remember our objective is not to make the sale, it is to get the reorders and to do that the buyer has to be 100% convinced this is the best thing to help them build their business. We need to partner with the buyer because we bring so much value to them. To establish that fact we have to show that we are providing more value than we are asking for in terms of their investment in our product or service. The way to do that is run through their mental checklist of potential problems and cross them all off so that there are no longer any barriers to making a buy and continue to by decision.

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Presenting exposes a lot about us to our listeners. In this modern age it is more and more important that we can be professionals when we present. Knowledge is power in the presenting stakes, so the safest course is to develop the skill rather than bumbling along like a loser.

This is what caught my attention lately: Religious institutions have been suffering during the pandemic. Japan has more temples and shrines than convenience stores. Total revenues fell to around two hundred and seventy billion yen or two point four eight billion dollars in 2020 compared to three hundred and fifty billion yen or three point two billion dollars in 2015

Many of the approximately seventy seven thousand temples in Japan don’t have enough local patrons to support them. Typically around 150 supporter are needed to keep the temple open Ninety percent of funerals in Japan are Buddhist ceremonies. The costs can be anywhere between one million yen and two million yen, that is between ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars.

In 2017 the average number of mourners at a funeral is sixty four and those aged over sixty five accounted for a record high of twenty eight point seven percent.

We don’t get the chance to do so many public presentations in business, so it becomes a hard skill set to build or maintain. The internal presentations we give at work tend to be very mundane. Often we are just reporting on the numbers and why they aren’t where they are supposed to be or where we to date are with the project. These are normally rather informal affairs and we are not in highly persuade mode when we give them. We should be clear and concise, but we probably don’t really get out of first gear as a presenter.

Obviously, giving public talks is a lot more pressure than the internal weekly team meeting report. We need to be operating at a much higher level and the complexity index is much, much higher. This translates into pressure and often comes with a big dose of self-doubt. This is called the imposter syndrome. Should I be the one talking on this subject? What if they have questions I can’t answer? What if they don’t like it or me? What if I underperform as a presenter? What if I white out and forget what I want to say? The scenes of potential disasters are played out in our minds, as we talk ourselves into a panic.

How do we stop that negative self-talk and get a more positive view on our potential to do a really first class, impressive, professional job? It is not a level playing field. We need to realize that the world of business presenters is full of people who are quite hopeless and boring, so the audience has been trained to expect very, very little. We don’t have to be a super star, we just need to be competent and we will automatically stand out from the crowd of losers murdering their presentations out there everyday.

What does competent look like? It means we are well prepared. This doesn’t mean we have fifty slides in the slide deck ready to rumble. It means we have thought about our talk in the context of who will be in the audience and what level of expert knowledge they have of the subject, so that we know at what level to pitch our talk.

It means we have designed it by starting from the key punch line we will deliver in the initial close and then we have worked backwards to select the “chapters” that will bring home that point we have selected. We have seized upon an opening that will grab the attention of our increasingly attention deficit audience They are all armed with their mobile phones, ready to escape from the speaker at any hint of unprofessionalism or potential boredom.

It means we will have rehearsed the talk at least three times, to make sure it flows well and fits the time slot we have been allocated. We will make sure the slides are supporting us, not hogging all the attention and upstaging us. They will be so clear that our audience can deduce the key point of each slide in two seconds, because of how we are presenting the information. The slides provide us with the navigation of the speech, so we don’t have to worry about what comes next. We also have our talking points in front of us, if we need to refer to them as a backup, reducing our stress levels.

It means we are not head down the whole time, reading from the printout or the laptop screen. We are eyes up and looking at some of the members of our audience. We are looking precisely at those who are either nodding approvingly or at least have a neutral expression on their face. This builds our confidence on the way through the speech. We are avoiding anyone who looks obstreperous, negative, hostile or angry. We do this to keep our mental equilibrium under control and positive throughout the talk. We keep all of our doubts, fears, insecurities and worries to ourselves as a secret. We definitely don’t show any of these to our audience. We are fully committed to the idea that the “show must go on”, no matter what unexpected things may occur during our speaking time.

Those whom we have chosen to look at, are getting about six seconds of total eye contact concentration each time, as we make our points. We then move on to the next person and keep repeating this as we build a one-to-one feeling with members of our audience. They feel we are speaking directly to them and this is powerful. We are backing up our eye contact with our gestures, voice modulation and pauses. This helps to drive home the key points we want to make. We are purposely asking rhetorical questions to keep everyone engaged. In terms of pure volume, we are speaking about 40% louder than normal. This projects our voice for clarity and at the same time our confidence. Audiences buy speaker confidence and we are keeping ourselves busy selling it to them.

We are using our first close we developed as we go into Q & A and we are confidently prepared for their questions. We are confident because we have built up reserve power through our study of the subject. We have kicked off Q & A, by publicly stating how many minutes we have for questions. We do this to give ourselves a dignified retreat, a smooth way of departing the talk if we need to, in case things get out of control and a bit too hot.

We know how to cushion any salvos, thinly disguised as questions, that might come our way. A cushion is a general statement that doesn’t agree with or disagree with, what has been mentioned in the question. This cushion buys us crucial thinking time before we have to respond. We end the talk with our final close, to make sure our key message is resonating with the audience. This is purposely designed to be the last thing they hear, as they walk out the door.

“We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan” is an old saw and still true. The key to success in building self-belief as a speaker is to be really well prepared and thoroughly rehearsed. When you make the time to fully prepare before the talk, to become ready, you head off all potential disasters and meltdowns that might otherwise occur. This is how to build self-belief – hard work, detailed preparation and lots of practice before you give the talk.

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As a species, we like to dominate rather than be dominated, which is why we are trashing the planet so vigorously. Given we like to be the boss, robots are not going to get very far whipping us up into a state of extreme engagement with the Vision and Mission statements. We need the human touch and we still have got a long way to go just getting on with each other.

Here is what caught my attention lately: The pandemic is widening the economic gap in Japan. Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic may have widened the gap between the nation’s rich and poor.

The Isetan department store saw strong sales of jewelry. The primary customers were wealthy regulars and the so-called new rich, including young managers of information technology firms and YouTubers who increased their earnings by taking advantage of the pandemic.

Sales of luxury import cars priced over ten million yen were brisk. Sales totaled twenty two thousand, seven hundred and twelve units in 2020 surpassing the level seen the year before.

The 225-issue Nikkei stock average went above the thirty thousand line for the first time in twenty years.

Nomura Research Institute estimates the number of wealthy households, defined as those that hold net financial assets of more than one hundred million yen totaled one point three three million in 2019

The number of regular employees rose three hundred and sixty thousand in 2020 from a year earlier but that of nonregular workers dropped seven hundred and fifty thousand.

Basically your job is toast. There is a machine or there will soon be a machine that can do it faster, better and cheaper than you. Our skill set didn’t change much from the start of agriculture 12,000 years ago until the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century. This last 150 years has been busy. We have created a weapon that can destroy our race. Who thought we would be that stupid? Fifty years ago we didn’t believe machine translation of our complex language skills would get very far. Certainly it was expected that there would never be non-human intervention simultaneous translation. Also, fortunately, machines can’t pivot or anticipate (well except for IBM’s Deep Blue against Garry Kasparov in 1997).

Driving cars and trucks requires us, because it is such a delicate, detailed and difficult set of tasks. What a ridiculous idea to imagine replacing those cantankerous, aging Japanese taxi drivers and punch perm truckers here in Tokyo with a self-driving, self-navigating vehicles. Internet of Things Komatsu tractors ploughing rice fields by themselves, nah, never happen. Apocalypse Now style “death from the air” requires top gun pilots and gum chewing gunners, doesn’t it. Killing each other can’t be delegated to drones. Robot vacuum cleaners, programmable pets, hotty droid receptionists, nimble stair climbing machines, adult men (many with passports) waving light sticks at holograph vocalists (Hatsune Miku) – not possible right?

So what do you tell your kid to do about a career? Where will they still be needed and not ditched by some circuit board on wheels? Actually, we are not so keen about handing over accountability to machines. Moral and ethical judgments, “the buck stops here” business decisions, hiring and firing employment protocols, creative brainstorming – there is a long list of actions which will always require people to be involved.

Today, we don’t follow people we don’t respect, regardless of where they sit on the organizational chart. We may genuflect in their general direction, because they have a pompous title, but we don’t commit our brain and blood to them. Machines are not going to get that leadership gig unless they are leading other machines - uh oh!. We need the human interaction, to hear stories, to share experiences, to be motivated, to aspire together against the rival firm, to set and follow our organisation’s Vision and Mission. We want empathy, collaboration, a sense of ownership, relationships.

Geoff Colvin in his book “Humans Are Underrated” references a recent Oxford Economics study asking employers which staff skills they will need the most over the next five to ten years. The answers were not a reading from the left brain hymn book of P&L and balance sheet analyses, portfolio planning, strategic assumptions, run rate calculations, etc. The top priorities were all right brain - relationship building, teaming, co-creativity, brainstorming, cultural sensitivity and the ability to manage diverse employees.

So if you are a whiz on the macros on spreadsheets, doing numeric based research – anything machine like, then start worrying. Henry Ford complained that every time he wanted a pair of human hands on his assembly line, he got “a brain attached”. Today, we want that brain that can feel as well as think. Being more machine like than machines is on a hiding to nothing.

We have to be good at being human and good in our interactions with other humans. Colvin noted, “being a great performer is becoming less about what you know and more about what you’re like”. Interestingly between 1990 and 2009 empathy scores for US college students have declined by nearly 15%. From the trend of these scores we seem to be educating people toward the wrong direction.

Here is the challenge for typical males CEO driver types, who are assertive and task, not people, oriented: how to lead organisations where technical skill is being outsourced to bots and the value of human interaction has become more critical to the success of the organisation?. Do you ignore it or do you decide to change? How do you change?

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The sale waits for no man. Either you make that sale or your competitor does. If it is a non-starter then start moving on to the next prospect. Life is Latin for TIME. That is all we have, so in sales we have to get moving and keep moving and moving.

Here is what caught my attention lately: Average land prices have fallen for first time in six years. Land in all categories, including residential and industrial, has fallen zero point five percent from a year earlier as of January First, compared with a one point four percent rise a year earlier. Land prices across all categories in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya slipped zero point seven percent from the previous year. Commercial land prices nationwide fell zero point eight percent for the first decline in seven years. Commercial land prices in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya fell one point three percent.

Also, the Job-securing rate for graduates has fallen in Japan. The number of students securing a job informal offers as of Feb 1st fell for the first time in ten years. The figure of eighty-nine point five percent was down two point eight percent from a year before.

We get lazy. We start cutting corners. We get off our game. We chill, cruise and take the foot off the pedal. Sales is demanding and a life of constant pressure. The temptation is when we get to a certain level of success we think well, we have done enough. We can justify that coffee break, that longer lunch, coming in late after the first mid-morning appointment and heading home early after the last early afternoon appointment. This is not how the pro thinks. We want have it scheduled in our diary to get big and get back to basics.

That means getting our hustle on, getting our motivation going, setting out sights higher. We have to have a showdown with “average is good enough” self talk. We need to make sure we are doing the basics like a demon on fire. Accept there is a rhythm danger to our sales work. We have to become regularly irregular. That means we have to be looking for every chance to break out of a rhythm. We need to be sparky, itchy, irritated with constancy.

The pipeline tells no lies. It is either looking good or it is looking bad. That pipeline will determine the amount of business we can do in any given quarter and in any year. We need good basics in play to stuff that pipeline full of qualified clients. I love the sales expression “whose got my money”. It means, who is my ideal buyer, who is ready to buy right now? I should be sifting, hunting and corralling those buyers who have my money. I should be shelving those who don’t, because time is the main currency of a sales life. How you spend it makes all the difference between major success and mediocre.

There are basics in sales we quickly try to short circuit. We are fooling ourselves. We need to have time allocation every day for prospecting. In the process of doing that, we should be polishing our pitch until it is tight and has a massive hook attached to it. Ums and ahs don’t have any place in our explanation of who we are, what we do and why we are calling you. Getting to the decision-maker in Japan is nasty. Everyone you speak with is over qualified to say “no” and few can say “I will transfer you through”. We have to be well schooled in cold calling techniques to be successful in sales in Japan and most salespeople here in this regard are sad, sad, sad.

We need to be parsimonious with the words to explain all of that. We need to be eloquent with the explanation of the hook, as to why the person answering the phone should bother to connect us with the line manager we wish to speak with.

Every industry needs a specific hook, based on the pain points of that business. The pitch is canned and not canned at the same time. It has some common elements which are the best composed explanation of who we are, etc. The why you should care part, needs to be specific to that industry, the sector, the market, the firm in question at this point in time. In training, it needs to be said out loud over and over again, before it is unleashed on the client. It has to come out like honey dripping from the corners of your mouth, it is so smooth.

This same crisp summation of wonder is what we trot out at networking events. When people are making their first kinesthetic contact with your meishi or business card and trying to fathom what it is you do, you helpfully jump in and concisely explain how you are saving mankind. If they have got your money, you will set up an appointment to meet right there and then. If they don’t, and don’t seem to know anyone who has your money, then you politely disengage and go back to the hunt for an actual buyer.

We need to treat every lead coming in from our website, be it from an SEO enquiry or a paid click though from our ads like it was on fire. If we don’t get in touch with that potential buyer right now, the lead will combust further and become a burnt, unrecognisable cinder. Soon it will be too cold and too feeble to sustain the follow up call required. Maybe the system at the office has to be rearranged, to improve the response time down to 5 minutes or less, but it needs to be done. Those leads go cold so quickly, it is scary. Someone has to speak to that client at that moment. A salesperson would be best but at least get someone talking with them to make contact and get some basic information.

We have to fight complacency. The enemy of great is good. So no being satisfied with good is allowed! Don’t forget our sale’s pro basics need constant work, permanent polishing, endless eagerness. Like that Rick Ross rap song, our sale’s mantra has to be, “Everyday I’m hustlin, everyday I’m hustlin”. That is what we have to do to be successful!

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Practice makes Perfect except when presenting. Why? Because as businesspeople, we just don’t get enough speaking opportunities to become really excellent. Repetition is key and with it frequency. Today we look at the problem and what we can do about it.

The usual frequency for most people for giving formal presentations is once in a blue moon. In other words, we don’t do so many in a year. This presents a problem, because as we know, repetition is key to learning and improvement. If we were giving formal presentations 50 weeks a year, we would see remarkable improvements as we honed our craft. In business though, this rarely presents itself as an opportunity. We may be lucky to give two or three presentations in a 12 month period. In this case, how can we improve our skills?

The obvious method is to proactively increase the frequency. Instead of hanging around waiting for someone to invite you to speak, you need to get out there and beat the bushes for opportunities to present. There are many organizations who are constantly on the look out for speakers. Rotary Clubs need speakers every week. Chambers of Commerce need a constant flow of speakers as well. There are innumerable interest groups who would love to have someone come and speak on an interesting and relevant topic.

This throws up the issue of what to speak about. There will be a natural alignment between your own areas of experience, expertise and knowledge and popular demand, which will determine the types of subjects you will be able to speak upon. If these areas are such that there is a common interest in this subject, you will find there will be groups who will be interested in having you speak. The trick is to let them know you exist as a speaker.

This is where you need to be strategic. Investigate what sorts of groups exist in your area who regularly feature speakers. Make a matrix between the subject areas they cover and your own range of interests and capabilities. If there is a match, then contact them and ask if they are looking for future speakers. The person tasked with finding speakers will be very happy to hear from you, because they usually have a difficult job finding good speakers.

If you are an unknown quantity, then there may be some hesitancy about taking a punt on you as their designated speaker. A simple way to demonstrate your ability is to do speeches on relevant subjects, video them and put them up on YouTube and your website. You don’t need a live audience for these speeches and it is quite sufficient enough for people to see if you have the goods or not, when they are considering you as their potential speaker. The videos don’t have to be “War and Peace” either. Short videos will suffice to demonstrate your expertise.

Once you get a chance to do a formal presentation, to a live audience, make sure you get it on video. The audience laughing at some humour during the speech, applauding, asking questions, etc., all adds to the atmosphere and makes the video a type of show reel for yourself, to demonstrate your goods. You can point the event organizers to the videos, to give them an idea of your ability. Remember your main competition are the totally hopeless and those devoid of any clue whatsoever about public speaking to business audiences.

When the speech is set, use your social media to blast out information about the speech. The number of people who see the posting and the number who can turn up are going to be vastly different. Don’t worry, the fact that many people see you are a public speaker, talking on these various subjects, will alert people to the fact that they can ask you to speak for them too.

After the speech you post the video to a link to your website so that people can see you in action. If you have the technical capability, you can turn a 30 minute speech into 5 or 6 videos through editing of the original. A speech has a number of points you will cover and each of these can be lifted out into a separate video.

So you finish up with the complete speech and then a video for each of the sections of the speech. Again blast all of these out on social media and on to your website for maximum exposure. With all of this content floating around you start to become a known face and people will start contacting you. We get into a virtuous cycle here where success breeds success. Consequently, our frequency of practice goes right up and we solidify our learnings and improvements. In short order, we will be joining the ranks of those in the most professional speaker groups. This is really great for personal and company brands and that is what we want.

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Japan doesn’t appreciate embarrassing truths. The temptation to be right can be overwhelming to Western business people and is a fatal mistake in Japan. This is a land founded on harmony and truth gets sacrificed on that alter every day. Today we look at how to navigate our way through this mine field.

You have to tell people how it is or you will lose power and authority. If you swallow what you want to say, you will diminish yourself. If you avoid hard conversations, you will have less influence. You need to tell them exactly how you are feeling. This was the tenor of the advice coming from a communication “guru”. While listening to this, I thought this is absolutely going to fail in Japan, if not every where.

This guru is appealing to an American audience, so there is the temptation to just dismiss this as typical excess. There was however an earlier icon of communication skills named Dale Carnegie. An American from (show me, don’t tell me) Missouri, who started training (brusque and brash) New Yorkers in 1912. Despite being from the mid-West and teaching in the apocryphal rude capital of the universe, Dale Carnegie concluded that direct hard talk would fail. Both men appealing to the same audience, but approaching the subject from diametrically opposing stances.

Dale Carnegie’s human relations principles work well not only in Japan, they work well everywhere. So rather than trying to ardently assert our rights, telling others how we feel and gaining power through strength of will, let’s try some proven methodologies that actually work.

Don’t criticize, condemn or complain

The guru gave the example of someone keeping you waiting, suggesting you “respectfully” tell them how you feel about that. Dale Carnegie realised there was no point. Even if you are polite, people become defensive and are irritated to be reminded that they are less than perfect. You might think you have politely schooled them, but all you have done is create a barrier. So much for your power over them! They were late, you can’t get the time back, so you just have to accept others are not as reliable as you are and move on.

Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person

Rather than “speak the truth” about their selfish tardiness, making yourself feel superior and ruining the relationship in the process, Dale Carnegie suggested we reflect on our own failings first. Are we perfect? No, we fail all the time and so do others. We can talk about our own inadequacies, how we had a problem making an important meeting and how we realized we needed to become better organised. In this way, we can reference the problem, but allow the other person to save face. Calling attention to other’s mistakes indirectly makes sense. Speaking the truth may sound noble and brave, but it doesn’t help in a world driven by human emotions. You can get the point across without rubbing it in.

Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view

When we are fixated on what we want, with having power relative to others, we become inwardly focused. The goal of successful human relations is to be liked and trusted. Selfishness won’t get you there. They are massively late, so what? Are they doing this to annoy us, to punish us, to irritate us? No, there are bound to be any number of things happening in their world which we don’t know about, so let’s not be too hasty to apply “our rights” to the situation.

Begin with praise and honest appreciation

Rather than launching into the witch hunt of the “crimes’ of the other person, zeroing in on the hard talk topics, build the relationship with praise. Not fake, apple polishing, sycophantic praise. Rather, genuine reflections on their good points, backed up with concrete evidence or examples. We build trust and cooperation not barriers this way.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves

Few people listen today. Tied up in themselves, in having power or status, they are all about them. They interrupt others when they are talking, they try to display their cleverness by finishing other people’s sentences, they one-up others to be dominant. People however want to be acknowledged, to be heard and our job is to get them talking about themselves. In the process we improve our mutual understanding, we discover points of similarity and shared interests – all powerful bonding agents like a type of human relations super glue.

Forget about being powerful through winning at hard talk. People will willingly cooperate with you, if you apply these principles. The ideas are easy to understand, but not so easy to apply. We need a correct kokorogamae （心構え）– true intention – and we need practice.

Action steps

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
3. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view
4. Begin with praise and honest appreciation
5. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves

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Jan Carlzon wrote a fascinating book called Moments of Truth on how to maintain the trust in your brand, through the many changing touchpoints the company has with the consumer. Today we look at what happens when we get it wrong and the damage is does to our brand.

You really appreciate the importance of brand, when you see it being trashed. Companies spend millions over decades constructing the right brand image with clients. Brands are there to decrease the buyer’s sense of risk. A brand carries a promise of consistent service at a certain level. Now that level can be set very low, like some low cost airlines, where “cheap and cheerful” is the brand promise. Another little gem from some industries is “all care and no responsibility”. At the opposite end are the major Hotel chains. They have global footprints and they want clients to use them whereever they are in the world. They want to be trusted that they can deliver the same level of high quality. There are plenty of competitors around, so the pressure is on to protect the brand.

When you encounter a trusted brand trash their brand promise, it makes you sit up and take notice. The plane from Haneda to Taipei was delayed because of weather conditions, we sat on the runway for 90 minutes waiting to take off and so I finally arrived at the Taipei Westin Hotel at 6.00pm. At the check-in was told there were no rooms ready. Okay. That set off a warning buzzer in my head because the check out time for the Hotel is 12.00 noon.

Things happen though, so maybe there is some reason for this lack of expected service, but doubt has begun to arise in my mind about this Hotel’s management team. I asked when a room will become available. The second buzzer goes off immediately, when the young lady checking me in, tells me she doesn’t know. How could they not know that information, when there is a lobby full of punters like me, all frustrated about not having their room available?

My immediate thought is that this hotel is obviously not being run very well. I ask her for the name of the General Manager. This is where it gets very interesting. Her response - stone motherless silence. Not one word in reply. Nothing! Now we have identified there is a serious training and leadership issue with the way this Hotel is being run. I am the client speaking to the staff member and waiting for a reply, but absolutely none is forthcoming. Unthinkable. So I asked again. More total silence. I elevated the volume of my request to try and illicit a response. More pure silence. This low level of client service has now morphed across to the ridiculous zone.

I keep going and I finally get an inaudible name offered up. I ask to hear it again but louder because I can’t catch it. We go through this slapstick three times until we can now identify the name “Andrew”. Great, so what is Andrew’s last name? More pure silence. We are now back to where we started. The client is asking the staff for information and cooperation and they are not getting either. I repeat this process a few more times, digging for the surname and we finally get a whispered “Zou”. Andrew Zou. Finally. So what am I thinking now? Wow, this Andrew Zou character is a lousy General Manager, because his staff are so poorly trained.

There is no room ready for me and no indication of when it will be ready, so in that great Aussie tradition, I head for the bar. I tell them I am going to be in the bar and when my room is ready please let me know. Did they contact me as promised? No, I asked the barman go find out what is the status of my room. Another brand promise destroyed right there. A full two hours later after waiting in the bar, I am in my room.

While I was waiting in the bar, I went on to the Westin site to try and find their headquarters, to complain about the service here in Taipei. I had a lot of trouble finding who to contact, but did manage to send an email into the system. An answer came back the next day, helpfully telling me I should talk to the staff in the hotel about the service. While in the bar, I rang the Hotel switchboard and ask to speak with Andrew Zou. He had gone home already. How about the Duty Manager? He was busy and will call me back on my cell phone. I never did get that call back from Andrew Zou or the Duty Manager. I did get a note from the person in charge of rooms and an email from the Duty manager the next day. Was I satisfied? No, I wanted to hear from the General Manager.

Any number of things can go wrong with the delivery of a product or service. We all understand that. The problems arise when our client facing team members are not properly trained in how to deal with these issues. Hotels have guest complaints all the time, so they should be absolute gold medal winning, total geniuses at dealing with them. This would have to be a key area of training in that industry. The poor training is a direct result of poor leadership. If the leaders are working well, then the staff service levels will be working well.

That evening there were a large number of guests in the same boat as I was – no room and no information. The Westin brand is global and I have stayed in a number of their properties in Asia. The Taipei property was killing their global brand and that is an expensive thing in the world of cut-throat competition amongst leading Hotels.

From this experience, I realized that I need to be very vigilant about the service levels in my own company. Are we fully geared up for trouble, should it arise? How do we protect the brand across 220 locations worldwide? Can people get to me easily if there is a problem? Are we doing enough training in client complaint handling? The Westin Taipei leadership did a poor job. We should go back a take a long hard look at our own operations. We may be incorrectly assuming things are working, when they may not be functioning properly. We have to protect the brand at every touch point with the clients. That is the job of the leadership team, starting with the boss.

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How much is enough data in a presentation? How much is too much? Generally speaking, most presenters have a problem with too much, rather than too little information. Your slide deck is brimming over with goodness. And you just can’t bring yourself to trim it down. After all the effort you went to assembling that tour de force, you want to get it all out there in the public arena. You have spent hours on the gathering of the detail and making the slides, so you are very heavily invested in the process. You want to show the power of your thought leadership, your intellect, your insights, your experience.

Here is the danger though. We kill our audience with kindness. The kindness of throwing the entire assembly at them. They are now being buffeted by the strong winds of new data, new information, new insights, one after another. The last one is killed by the succeeding one, and it in turn is killed by the next one. We go into massive overload of the visual senses and the memory banks are being broken through, like a raging river spilling its banks. Are we self aware about what we are doing? No, we are caught up in data mania, where more is better. We can’t thow that graph out because it took a lot to create it. We need to have that extra bullet point, even though it is not adding any extra dimension to the presentation.

We have forgotten our purpose of doing the presentation and are now firmly fixated on the mechanics, the logistics, the content and not the outcomes we want. There are different key purposes with a presentation: to entertain, to inform, to persuade. The majority of business presentations should be to persuade but are often underperforming and are only hitting the inform button. This is because the presenter hasn’t realised that with the same effort and drawing on the same data resource, they can move up the scale and be highly persuasive. Data, data, data just doesn’t work though

At the end of the session the audience is shredded. They cannot remember any of the information because there was way too much. They cannot remember the key message, because there were too many key messages. They walk out of there shaking their heads saying “what hit me?”. Was this a success? Did we convert anyone to our way of thinking? Did they leave with any valuable takeaways so that they feel some value from attending? Or did they leave dazed and diminished?

So as presenters, we have to be like Mari Kondo with her housekeeping advice - keep only the bits we love and throw the rest out. We have to make some hard choices about what goes up on that screen and what remains relegated to the depths of the slide deck reserve bench. We have to winnow out the key messages and whittle them down to one central message. We need to take that key message and assemble a flotilla of support with evidence, proof, data, comment, etc., to support it.

We need a good structure to carry the presentation. A blockbuster opening to grab attention. A limited number of key points we can make in the time allotted. Strong supporting data and evidence to back up the key points. We need to design powerful close number one as we finish the presentation and also a powerful close number two, for after the Q&A.

We have to keep the presentation itself short and snappy, rather than long and laborious. We want to leave them tonguing for more rather than leaving them feeling sated or saturated.

We want them to get our key message and have it firmly planted in their brain, so they get it, remember it and believe it. That is different to stuffing the fire hose down their throats and hitting the faucet to turn it on full bore. But this is often what we do, when we lead with data. Always remember when it comes to presenting, less is more baby! You can always flesh out the points more in the Q&A and after the talk, for those most interested in the topic. We want to impress the audience not bury them under detail. Getting the balance is the presenters skill and art and that is why there are so few presenters who are any good. Plenty of room at the top folks, so come and join!

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“Born to lead” is nonsense. Many things shaped that person in order for them to achieve credibility with others. Of course, we can become a “leader” as part of our company designated hierarchy. We sit somewhere in an organizational chart above others, with various reporting lines elevating us above the hoi polloi. We know many people with that august title of “leader”, who we would never willingly follow in a million years – pompous, tiresome, incompetent jerks!

Can we become someone who others will follow when all the paraphernalia of leadership pomp and circumstance has been stripped away? At work the definition of a leader is fairly narrow: they manage processes and build people. There is leadership more broadly embraced outside of work – parent groups, hobbies, volunteer organisations. Often these non-work related positions become the sordid playgrounds of amateur politicians. People who cannot command respect at work, but who have the spare time and energy to manipulate organisations. They seize power and laud it over others. The rest of us tolerate their maniacal fantasies, because we are too busy working to contest with them.

How do we become a better leader, whom others willingly wish to follow? Even being the obvious best at something isn’t enough to get others to want to follow you. They may defer to our technical excellence and superior knowledge, but they remain skeptical observers.

The starting point is critical. If your desire for leadership is driven by personal aggrandisement and ego, where all good things must flow to you, this force of will factor is not attractive. Good leadership is differentiated by the followers desire to want to follow, when there is no coercion, structure or impetus to do so. We gravitate to these leaders because of how they make us feel.

Effective leaders are good with people. There are some key principles they embody, which make us like and trust them. This is not artful manipulation, where they fake these principles in a cunning way. That approach exists and will ultimately be revealed as hypocrisy. What we are talking about here is having correct kokorogamae (心構え) - true intentions.

Talk in terms of the other person’s interests

We are often so wrapped up in our selfishness, we become the center of our world and want others to serve us. The better leader talks about our interests in a way that fosters close alignment and agreement.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves

Bossy people often love to brag. Instead, build the trust by focusing your conversation on them not you. As you stop dominating and start listening, you uncover areas of shared desires, values, interests and experiences which are magnetic in their properties and bind us more closely together.

Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely

“Sincerely” – not fake praise or manipulation. Having listened to them, we discover their abilities, capacities and strengths. By linking those excellent attributes to a shared bigger picture, we help others to feel part of something worthwhile.

Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view

Often we are egocentric - it always about me, me, me. Having listened, we uncover the context behind their beliefs and arrive at a greater appreciation for their views and positions. We can more easily get on each other’s wavelengths. When this happens, we become more mutually simpatico, supportive and powerfully bonded.

Ask questions instead of giving direct orders

The inclusive, humble promotion of self-discovery unleashes powerful forces that encapsulates our shared direction. We become the catalyst for their self-belief. We all want to be around people who make us feel good about our better selves and with whom we share common goals.

People will willingly follow us when we apply these principles. We must sincerely switch from a “me” focus to an “our” focus. Change our approach and we change our results.

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“I would be able to sell a lot more except for all the extraneous, external factors over which I have zero control”. Actually, you have never heard this line of argument before from a salesperson. This is because this statement is an honest appraisal of what they see as the problem, but they don’t express it that way. This comes from not having sufficient self-awareness to realize this is what they are actually saying, by way of excuse, for not being more successful in sales. Instead they bitch about the boss, the market, industry changes, currency movements, the sales materials, the pricing and everything else but their pathetic sales ability.

There are excellent training courses both classroom and on-line, for becoming better at sales. Bookstores and on-line retailers have a cornucopia of books on how to become a more successful salesperson. The internet is clogged with free information about selling. YouTube is brimming with sales modules, lessons, examples of what to do as a professional. Sales gurus tour the globe sprinkling pixie dust on the faithful to transform them into sales powerhouses. Yet, salespeople are constantly whining about all the reasons holding them back over which they have absolutely no control.

Are they accessing all the good information available to become better? No. They are not bothering, because they don’t see any correlation between their lack of an internal motivation to study to become better and their non-realization of sales success. They are too busy looking outward for the problems holding them back to see that the issues are all internal. Why is that?

People wind up in sales by accident. The turnover of salespeople is very high because it is a metrics based game. The numbers tell against you when you are failing and in short order you disappear. Fresh bodies are then brought into the meat grinder. If they enter in a rising market, they may last for a while but then when times get tough, they are let go and replaced by the next squad and so it continues.

The companies invest nothing, preferring the law of the jungle to sort out who stays and who goes. The salespeople thrash around trying to find ways to stay afloat, without ever taking a professional stance to the job because they don’t see themselves as having a career in sales. For them, this is a necessary bridging job between work they want to do. The ineptitude continues and at scale, through generations of salespeople.

This is salespeople swimming in a fog engulfed lake. They are swimming hard but have no idea what they are supposed to be doing or where they are supposed to be going.

Time for this to end. Salespeople have more than enough resources to self-educate themselves about the finer points of sales. Here is how complicated this is: learn how to ask the client questions about what they need; listen carefully to the answers; tell them you either have a relevant solution or that you don’t; if you do, provide explanations that justify the trade off between the value you bring and the price you charge; supply it and follow up.

This is what they do instead: tell the client all the details about the product or service without having any clue as to whether this is what they need or not; if they don’t have what the buyer needs, then try to force the square peg into the round hole and give them what you have any way, even if it doesn’t really fit; burn that client and move on to the next buyer. All the while, continue to whine about the boss, the market, industry changes, currency movements, the sales materials, the pricing and everything else but their lack of sales ability. They repeat this pattern until they get fired.

Instead, let’s take responsibility for the results. Let’s study, apply the knowledge, keep studying, keep applying, without pause. There has never been a better time to be in sales, because there is so much rich education material available about how to become a true professional. No more excuses baby, get to it.

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Suddenly you hear your name being called upon and you are being requested to make a few remarks. Uh oh. No preparation, no warning and no escape. What do you do? Extemporaneous speaking is one of the most difficult tasks for a presenter. It could be during an internal meeting, a session with the big bosses in attendance or at a public venue. One moment you are nice and comfy, sitting there in your chair, taking a mild interest in the proceedings going on around you and next you are the main event.

Usually the time between your name being called and you actually being handed the microphone can be counted in milliseconds. By the time you have heaved yourself out of your chair, your brain has well and truly started to panic. A mental whiteout is probably fully underway and your face is going red, because of all the blood pressure of the moment.

Here are a couple of things we can do in this situation. Firstly, take a realistic look at the task at hand. The length of your talk will not be expected to be long. If you are a seasoned speaker, you could get up and wax lyrical for an hour without a problem. For everyone else, we are talking two to three minutes. Now two to three minutes seems rather short, except when you are suddenly thrust in front of a sea of expectant eyes of an audience.

Once upon a time, I completely forgot my next sentence and discovered the pain of prolonged time. I was asked to give a brief talk and chose to speak in Mandarin to a crowd of around a thousand people, when I was Consul General in Osaka. It was a special event for the departing Chinese Consul General Li, who was heading to New York. Actually, I was going okay but I paused to allow some applause to die down – this turned out to be a major error on my part.

I found when you suddenly go blank, a single microphone stand doesn’t provide much cover, up on a very big stage, with all the lights on you and everyone staring at you. That 30 seconds or so of silence, where I was totally lost and unable to recall what came next, seemed like a lifetime. So I know that two to three minutes can appear really daunting when suddenly called upon to speak.

Begin by thanking whoever unceremoniously dragged you up the podium for the chance to say a few words. Try and smile at them, through gritted teeth if you have to. You have to say something, so take the occasion and put your comments into some form of context.

You can use the concept of time as your ally. For example, this is where we were, this is where we are today and this is where we are going in the future. This past, present, future construct will work for just about any occasion and any subject. That is the type of ready to go format you need to be able to call upon when you don’t have much preparation time up your sleeve.

Another good construct is macro and micro. Talk about the big picture issues related to the occasion, then talk about some of the micro issues. This is useful for putting the event into a frame you can speak about easily. There is always a big and small picture related to any topic. Again, this construct travels easily across occasions and events.

We can use the weather, the location, the season or the time of the day as a theme. We can put this event into any of those contexts rather easily. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a long presentation.

We can talk about people that everyone would know, who are related to the event. They might be present or absent. We can make a few positive remarks about our host. Then we can thank everyone for their attention, wish them our best and get off the stage.

Let me give you a real life example. I was at an event for Ikebana International, sitting there calmly minding my own business, when I heard the speaker suddenly call me up to the stage to say a few words. I had the time from standing up to walk to the podium to compose myself about what on earth I would say. At the extreme outside that time gap was probably 10 seconds. I was going to need to speak in Japanese, so that just added another level of excitement to the challenge. It had been raining that day, so I miraculously dreamed up a water related analogy.

I began by thanking the host for allowing me to say a few words, although I secretly I wasn’t so happy about being put on the spot. I mentioned that the stems of the Australian cut flowers that were being exhibited that day, contained water and soil from Australia, as they had just arrived that morning by air. I said that as a result here in Japan we had a little bit of Australia present and each of these flowers were like a floral ambassador linking the two countries together. I then wished everyone all the best for the event and got out of the firing line pronto. Probably not an award winning talk, but good enough for that occasion, with that amount of notice. And that is the point. You need to be able to say something reasonable rather than remarkable to complete your sudden duties.

So always have a couple of simple constructs up your sleeve if you are suddenly asked to speak without warning. Don’t just turn up thinking you can be an audience member and can switch off or these days start immersing yourself in your phone screen. Imagine you were suddenly singled out for action and have your construct ready to go just in case.

You may not be called upon, but everyone around you will be impressed that you could get up there and speak without warning. The degree of difficulty here is triple back flip with pike sort of dimension and everyone knows it. They are all thinking what a nightmare it would have been, had it been them up there in the firing line. You will be surprised how much a difference that little bit of preparation will make to coming across as professional, rather than uming and ahing your way through a total shambles of a talk. Your personal brand will become golden for the sake of a bit of forward planning. Now that would be worth it don’t you think.

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The hero’s journey is for the very, very few. I did it my way, I slaved away in a garret and got to the top, I realised the American dream – all good stuff, but an illusion for most. The reality is there are more of us who need the cooperation of others, than those who can succeed despite others. The age of the “one” has been taken over by the age of the “many”. Hero teams are more powerful than individual heroes.

The problem is although we may need the cooperation of others, we are not that good at getting it. We limit our scope through two key areas – how we communicate and how we react. We like what we like and we find affinity with those who like similar things. We like to speak in a certain way and we click with others who speak the same way. It might be a shared accent, denoting a similar background, and we are all pretty good at spotting the subtleties of dialect. That is okay, but it still doesn’t help us to go far enough. You might share a common accent, but that doesn't mean you get on with everyone from back home

Reflecting the preferences of others is a much more effective way of building trust and cooperation. Does this mean being two faced and manipulative? No, it means being flexible and other focused rather than me, me, me focused.

When we are speaking with others we notice the way they prefer to communicate. It will vary from very low energy to high output - softly spoken to plain loud. Neither side likes the other much. The loud person can’t hear the softly spoken person and feels annoyed, because they have to struggle to hear what they are saying. The softly spoken person is quietly upset, because they don’t like people who are loud and aggressive.

The key here is to adjust ourselves to suit the situation and the other person, if we want to gain their cooperation. If you say, “well I am me, I have my rights and they should adjust themselves to how I like it”, then let me know how that is working out for you?

We will need to increase our energy and volume when we speak with high output people. We may feel like we are screaming, but on their scale all we are doing is communicating normally. The opposite applies, when we have to drop the volume and the strength. We may feel like we are whispering and it is killing us, but the counterparty feels very comfortable chatting with you.

Some individuals are really detail oriented, they are constantly seeking data, proof, evidence about what they are being told. When we interact with this group, we notice the micro focus immediately and so we need to start adding a lot more detail to our explanations or recommendations. We may feel this is too nitty gritty and frankly, massive overkill, but that is not how they see it. For them this is absolutely normal and unremarkable.

The opposite preference is for big picture discussions. Don’t worry about the details, the practicality, the roll out - we will get to that later. They want to plot the future direction in broad brush terms. For detail orientated people this is painful, because everything seems fluffy and unrealistic. Don’t fight it – encourage them to go big and go with them. Put up some crazy ideas (judged crazy from your evidence based thinking point of view) of your own and don’t feel guilty. They will welcome all crazy ideas, including yours.

When we hear something we don’t like, we often react first and think later. Bad approach! Instead, bite your tongue and hear them out – don’t jump in over the top of them with your counter idea, critique or cutting comment. Try ear, brain, mouth rather than ear, mouth, brain as an order of approach. Use a “cushion”, a sentence that is neither for nor against what they are saying. It is a neutral statement, used to simply break our usual pattern of too rapid intervention. It gives us crucial time to think about what we want to say and how we are going to say it.

Before we comment or attempt to criticise them, we instead ask them why they think that or why they say that. While they are providing some background and context around their position, we are able to bypass our immediate chemical reaction and reach deeper down to our calmer second or even third, considered response. When we do speak we may even accept their position because the context made sense or be able to suggest a counter position. We can do this in a calm way, that doesn’t lead to an argument and bad feelings.

These two actions on our part will build the trust and establish the lines of communication required to convince other to help us on our own hero team journey. Speak in a reflective manner and don’t react immediately to what you are hearing. You may think this is killing you, because it is so different to how you normally operate, but if you want to be effective with all types of people, this is the secret – adjust yourself first.

Newtonian physics says for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Fine, but we don’t want that – we want a different and improved reaction, so let’s change our own angle of approach with others, so that we get a much better response.

Action Steps

1. Be flexible and be focused on those with whom you are communicating:

2. If they are micro, you go micro

3. If they are macro, you go macro
4. If they are fast paced, then speed up

5. If they are moderate in pace, then slow down

6. When you hear something you don’t like use ear, brain, mouth

7. Before you reply, use a cushion to give yourself time to craft your response

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The object of a sale is to exchange a good or a service for money. The degree to which that money can exceed the variable and fixed costs associated with delivering it, determines the success and longevity of the company. We all know that nothing happens in business without a sale. If that is the case then salespeople have a critical role to produce as much revenue as possible for the firm. There are prices set for goods and services. Goods are tangible items and plotting the costs and the margin of profit are relatively straight forward. Buy low and sell high is an old business maxim. Services are more difficult to price because they are intangibles. In both cases, the value proposition of the price against what is being delivered, is the communication piece that salespeople have to master in order to be successful.

Imagine my surprise, as an expert in sales training, when I meet salespeople who have not spent even one second trying to master the bridging of the gap between value and cost. Sitting in the audience at a speaker event, next to a thirtyish Japanese sale’s guy, I was astounded by a few things he said as we discussed selling over lunch. I was interested in hearing what his sales process was. He didn’t really understand my question because he had no defined process. He had been selling for this firm for seven years so he was an experienced salesperson.

He contacts a lead, gets an appointment, shows up and explains the service and submits a quote, he told me. Really? On the blank side of meal menu, I mapped out the elements of the sales process for him. Prepare for the meeting and focus your intention on one thing – getting the re-order, not just the solitary sale. Build trust through establishing rapport. Create interest by asking extremely well designed questions to understand the client’s needs. Now tell the client whether we can help them or not and if we can, explain the how of our solution. There may be points of insufficient clarity, concerns, hesitations or downright objections to what we are proposing. We need to deal with those before we proceed to ask for the order, and then we do the follow up to deliver the service or good.

He was impressed by this structural approach to the sales call, as he should have been, because he was certainly doing it the hard way. Having a roadmap makes the whole process much easier for both buyer and seller. I then asked him what does he do when the buyer says, “too expensive”. His answer had me reeling. With a cherubic mien, he told me he offered to “drop the price”. Incredulous, I asked “by how much do you usually drop it?”. He quoted 20% as the number. There were four other sales people in his team and if that is how they roll over there, then that is an expensive first response to client pushback on pricing.

Here is the snapper – do you know what is happening inside your team? Are they also dropping the price immediately as their first counter to an objection on the money? If they are then there is a huge amount of firm success and longevity being strewn on the ground here. What a waste.

He was an experienced guy, but that was the best he could come up with. Why would that be? He didn’t have any other knowledge about how to deal with that type of situation. Do you think price comes up fairly regularly in sales conversations with buyers? Of course it does, so how could this continue like this, as if it were acceptable. That is the point, in Japan, these types of low levels of sales professionalism are the norm and not the exception. It is tolerated because everyone is the same – equally sad and hopeless.

He should have said, “why do you say that” when told it was too expensive? Was the price objection genuine, a ruse, sport negotiation, time bound, or irrelevant because they haven’t seen enough value yet to understand the price point? There will be one highest priority element in the too expensive objection. It might be the actual volume of cash involved, budget allocation timings, internal competing project competition concerns, etc. Which one is it – we need to know.

I have been told “too expensive”, which I recognise is a short form summary of a host of reasons for not proceeding. When I questioned the why, it was a “budget issue”. Now as sale’s professionals we have to dig deeper, “why is it a budget issue?”. “Because that number will exceed our budget allocation for that quarter”.

That means it is not too expensive after all. It is just too expensive if paid in one quarter, but fully capable of purchase if the payments are split across quarters. Except you would never know that, if your response was to drop your price by 20%. Would you be willing to help the client out and split the payments across quarters? I would guess you would prefer that to having to drop your price.

The moral of this story is to take a very detailed look at what your salespeople are doing. Don’t confuse seven years of sales experience with one year of experience seven times. Also, don’t imagine that they have a process, that they know how to explain the value or to deal with objections. Based on what we see in our sales training classes and talking with clients, in Japan, the chances of that being the case are very, very, very low.

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Questions in general are powerful tools for speakers. They bring focus to key points we want to get across. They are particularly useful in getting our audience engaged. They also have danger within them. Knowing when to use questions and what types of questions to use are things which must be worked out in the planning of the presentation and shouldn’t be done on the fly. If you want to get yourself into trouble then ask the wrong question, at the wrong time, in the wrong way and brace yourself for the reaction.

There is a cadence to any talk or presentation and in the planning phase we can break the delivery down to five minute blocks. It doesn’t have to be five, it could be four or six, but five minutes is a long enough time to go deep with a thought, idea or imparting some information without losing the concentration of the audience.

Actually, audience concentration spans are a nightmare today. They have become so short and everyone has become addicted to multitasking. Even if they are enjoying the presentation, they are scrolling through their screens right in front of you anyway, without any hint of shame. This is the new normal folks. We will face this problem forever and we are never going back to the good old days of people politely listening to us right through our presentations.

This is why we need to be switching up the presentation every five minutes or so, to keep the audience intrigued with what we are presenting. This is where great information or insights really help. The audience access to something new or valuable will pry them away from their phone screens for a few minutes longer. We will need to be using the full range of our vocal delivery skills to keep them with us. Any hint of a monotone delivery and the hand held screens will light up and be blazing throughout the room.

Questions are an additional assist to break through the competing focus for audience attention. By simply asking a well constructed question we can grab audience attention. Even a simple question can work. If I suddenly asked you, “What month were you born in?”, you will return your attention to me from wherever you were straying. In our talk, we may have been waffling along taking about some pressing issue or downloading some precious data, losing our listeners in the process. However, when we lob in a question, we magically get all eyes back on us. We have now gotten the audience thinking about the point we have raised.

The downside with asking questions though is people in the audience want to answer them. They see the question as a great opportunity for them to intervene in the proceedings. They may have a counterview and enjoy the chance to debate with us. They may have their own personal agenda and this break in the traffic is perfect for them to weigh in with what they think. They may even get into debates amongst themselves and exclude us entirely. Within no time at all, the proceedings have been hijacked and we are no longer in control of the agenda.

This is where rhetorical questions are so handy. They give us the ability to capture the mental attention of our audience on the topic we are discussing, get them engaged, but we maintain control. A rhetorical question and a real question are identical. The audience cannot distinguish one from the other. This is good, because we can keep them guessing. What we want them thinking about is whether this is a question they have to answer and are they ready to do that or is this a rhetorical question and all they have to do is listen? The difference between the two is the timing of the break before our next contribution. If we stop there and invite answers then they know it is time to speak up. If we leave a pregnant pause, but then answer the question or add to it, then they know they are not being required to contribute.

The key point here is to design the questions into the talk at the start. In those five minute blocks we need to have little attractions to keep interest. They might be powerful visuals, great storytelling, vocal range for effect or rhetorical questions. The key is to have variety planned from the start. In a 40 minute speech, apart from the opening and the closings, there are going to be 5-6 chances to grab strong attention. At the start we can use vocal range and visuals but as we get to the middle and toward the end, we need to bring in the bigger guns as people’s concentration begins to fade out.

We can’t flog the audience with a series of rhetorical questions and wear them down. We can maybe get in two or maximum three in a forty minute presentation. Any activity we repeat with our audience gets boring very fast. Anything that smacks of manipulation absolutely gets the wrong response.

There is a fine line to be walked here. We do want to control the agenda, the debate, the timing, the attention of the listeners, without appearing controlling. Sprinkling a couple of well constructed rhetorical questions into our presentation will help us to maintain interest. We need to defeat our screen based, social media and internet addictive attention rivals. Get used to this, because this is the future for all of us as presenters and we have to lift our game to make sure we are in a position to have a powerful influence with our audiences. The alternative is speaker oblivion.

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We love acronyms! Our workplaces are thriving with them such that we can hold extended conversations composed entirely of seemingly impenetrable codes. They are handy though and this one R.E.AL. is short and serviceable to describe best practice leadership attributes. It always good to have evidence around pontification. This summary of the great and the good tendencies amongst leaders is based on research we did in the USA, on what respondents thought leaders needed to do to be more successful. REAL is composed of these key elements – Reliable, Empathetic, Aspirational and Learner.

“Reliable” is an obvious choice and though much upheld in principle, tends to break down in practice. “Managing upwards” is a buzzword for describing how to deal with one’s boss. It used to be called “sucking up to the boss” to get ahead. Climbing the greasy pole meant taking all the glory for yourself, Teflon-like blaming others for mistakes and stepping on the bodies of your staff, to elevate your own brilliant career.

Reliable however is an attribute that leads to trust only when the staff observe that what is said is actually done, that promises are kept and that their own personal development is being given a high priority. “What is in it for me” is a common human frailty. Bosses who keep this in mind when making sure the organisation and individual goals of their staff are aligned, get more loyalty and more accomplished. Misunderstandings arise, usually traced back to poor communication. More work need by bosses!

“Empathetic” is closely linked to listening skills. Taking the viewpoint of the other person is difficult if we don’t know what that viewpoint is. The Japanese expression kuki wo yomu or summing up the real situation, is a great phrase to explain emphathy. What is being said is important but more often, what isn’t being said is where all the insight is buried.

Busy bosses though don’t have much time to get below the surface calm of the workplace. Some don’t care – just get me the numbers – or else! Using our position power works up to a point but we miss out on a lot of creative potential as the opportunity cost. If we want to know what is really going on and what people are really thinking, we have to spend time and work at it. Expressing we actually do care is also another orphan amongst communication skills. Successful bosses have good awareness and confidence to communicate they really do care about their people.

“Aspirational” reflects ideas about grasping the bigger picture. Hovering above the melee of the everyday to see the vision to be realised on the far horizon. It means communicating beyond this quarter’s goals and placing each individual’s role in terms of their contribution to the bigger goal. The framed glass protects the vision statement, ceremoniously hung on the wall. While it may not fade in the sunlight, it fades in the collective memory. No one can recite it, let along live it, so it is as meaningful as the flower arrangement on the reception desk. Pleasant enough idea but ephemeral. The leader has to inject the ideas and concepts involved into terms that resonate with each person individually. This takes time, which is why so few organisations get any return on their investment in their vision statement.

“Learning” gets nods of approval but many executives have had one year of experience thirty times rather than thirty years of experience. Their views are still locked away in a mental vault, for which they have lost the key. Too busy to learn. Busy, busy working in their business, rather than on their business. They are up to date on Facebook but way behind where the industry is headed and where their company needs to go. Well informed yet ignorant, because they lack perspective and acuity. If we aren’t prepared to permanently kill our darlings, our favoured ideas and concepts, we must be prepared to risk falling behind, trampled by our competitors.

REAL, another acronym heaven dweller, is easy to remember and that at least is a start to actually realising its power. We know all of these things – we just forget or get too busy to do them. Let’s change that.

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Proof, data, evidence, facts alone are not enough in selling. The first thing a buyer buys is us. We have to stand out amongst our competitor rabble. We have to bring enormous energy and belief to what we sell to convince the buyer that they should buy from us. Today, we will delve into how we do that.

Often in business, we will hear a sales presentation and receive a lot of information from the seller, but we are not really clear on what is their point of view on this purchase. When we are selling, we don’t think we need to state our point of view when it is a product, because there will invariably be quite a lot of features which can be talked about. The problem with that is features by themselves are not persuasive enough. None of us buy features, because we are all too busy buying the benefits of the features. It also might be a service. The client wants to know what difference our service will make for their business growth. It is an intangible too, so the purchase decision really rides on the client buying an image of what success will look like. This is where having a clear point of view kicks in.

We have to tell the buyer how great our solution is. We shouldn’t be thinking all I have to do is present the detail and the client will buy what I am selling. If only it was that easy. Instead, we need to be telling them that this is the greatest thing on the planet.

Technically oriented people are particularly prone to understatement. They believe that the data sells itself. This is because often they are very logical types. They didn’t get the email which explained that we all buy on emotion and justify with logic. They need to state their point of view on how great they think this piece of technology or intellectual property or whatever is. If we want the client to get our message, we have to stand firmly behind what we are suggesting. Don’t make the buyer do all the work – tell them this is the greatest whatever.

If we believe there is some imminent change approaching the current state of the market, we should mention that and predict what we think the likely ramifications will be. We may be proven completely incorrect but that doesn’t matter. At that point in time, the buyer will leave the meeeting knowing that you stand for something and there is an internal logic holding that construct together. It may eventually go in a different direction, but there are always so many mitigating factors, so it is hard to be held to your incorrect prediction. The key is you give the client the sense that you stand for something and are not just wishy washy and uncommitted. Better to be proven wrong, than immediately dismissed as someone who can’t commit to anything and just supplies raw data.

We want belief to be demonstrated by our salesperson and when they have a point of view backed up with a solid structure supporting their proposition, we see that as professional. We may or may not like or agree with what is being said, but we respect the intellect, facts, proof and the delivery. We should never rely on the slide deck or the slick video to do the selling for us. We need to use our voice and body language to show our enthusiasm for our point of view. This is critical because we are more likely to follow your line of reasoning, if you show your 100% commitment to it.

The structure is simple. First, we ask questions to understand what the buyer needs. We then suggest our solution and explain our point of view, spending time supplying data, examples, facts, testimonials, stories which are the evidence for this point of view. It is all beautifully connected together. We finish by restating our central proposition and call for the buyer to agree with this and support that point of view by making a purchase. We now go into the client questioning process and we marshal even more evidence to support what we are saying, this time in the face of buyers who put up alternative ideas or totally opposite opinions. In the final close, we again state our view and call for the buyer to make a commitment.

If we want to be remembered amongst a frothy sea of sellers, then we need to have a point of view. If we want clients to support our product or service we need to sell them our point of view on why they should buy it. We need to back all of this up with proof, passion, enthusiasm and belief. If we do this then we will be successful as a business partner with the buyer

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Pizazz is one of those unusual words, that sounds kind of cool, but is a bit vague. In presenting terms, we are really looking at being more interesting and engaging and doing that in a sparky, non-anticipatory way. Droning on when presenting is a pretty strong norm for many people. They talk at us, not with us. They are lifeless and low energy. This may be fine for having a cup of tea with your friends, but if you want to present, then you have to switch it up.

A workman like, by the numbers, presentation is fundamentally boring. A recent presenter did a painting by numbers job with his effort. The talk had completed the exercise in the allotted time and he had spoken about a number of key points. The delivery was wooden though, the voice tone was flat, the whole thing was a lifeless shambles really. The snapper though is that the speaker represents his organization to the world at large and he did a poor job when up on the podium.

When you are in a high profile role, like being the CEO, then you simply have to perform. Never forget we judge your whole organisation on you. If you are mediocre, we assume everyone is the same. We don’t say, well that guy or gal was the exception. The rest of the crew are all dynamite. Nope, we say they are all duds down there.

So engaging your audience is a requirement. This is easy to say, but not so easy to do. Energy is a key component of this process. Somehow, we all know that enthusiasm is contagious, but miraculously manage to forget this, when we start speaking in front of groups. The “low energy” insult became a trademark of President Trump when disparaging his political opponents, like Jeb Bush.

It is cutting, because it implies you don’t have what it takes to be a leader. Whether you agree with Trump or not, the point is valid. If the leader is low energy, we somehow doubt they can do the job properly. We don’t get to meet that many CEOs or politicians in person, so we draw our conclusions from seeing them on television, in videos or at public presentations. Remember we are all on show when presenting.

The podium is one area of difficulty, but with the prevalence of YouTube videos and business social media, presenters are starting to really branch out. This was brought back to me not so long ago, when I saw a video on LinkedIn of someone I know and the delivery was fundamentally funereal. The whole atmosphere was dark, bleak, lifeless. This guy is a smart guy and if we read the transcript, we would think what he had to say was valuable. The voice however was a monotone funereal, the energy was totally insignificant and the whole exercise was absolutely dreary, not at all motivational.

Sadly, the message while actually pretty good, was just destroyed, totally killed by his poor delivery. Now if you are going to put yourself out there, especially in the crowded rough and tumble byways of the YouTube video world and broadcast social media, then you have to step it up. There are so many windows to the world now and everyone can see us. Once upon a time, you could be fairly hapless and only a few poor souls would know. Not anymore. This is where the pizazz idea comes in.

If you want your message to cut through the white noise of a squillion other presenters, then you need to have an attitude that says, “I want to stand out and be heard”. Casey Neistat did that with video blogging. There were plenty of other well established video bloggers out there, but he brought a movie style approach to his vlogging. He would set the camera up, so that it recorded him entering the room, for example. A simple but very effective film idea. All the other vloggers were one dimensional – they were pointing the camera at themselves, as they held it at arm’s length. He made a small change that set him apart. He brought some movie making style pizazz to the exercise and the rest of us are happy he did that. Now it is much more interesting for us the viewer.

Gary Vaynerchuk did that with his Daily Vee vlog. He combined reality television style presentation, with motivation and information. Nobody had done that before. He created some pizazz and is getting close to three million subscribers for his show. He gets a lot of work speaking, sells his books and gets business for his digital agency off the back of his notoriety. All he did was make a small innovation in a crowded space, so he could stand out and he has been incredibly successful doing that.

This then has to be the mantra. Set yourself apart when presenting. If you want to move into video, then you really need to compete. This is not just you presenting while being recorded. Yes, you can do that, but if you are going to blast yourself around the world via video on social media, then add pizazz to the mix and make it interesting. Be that little bit unexpected, have something that differentiates you from the pack.

You don’t have to be handsome, beautiful, deep bass DJ voiced or tall. You just have to be interesting, engaging and relevant. Use voice modulation, tell stories, speak with, not at your audience and bring your full energy to the task.

Okay, let’s all go back to the drawing board. Let’s stop doing what we have always done and think about how we could add some pizazz to our presentations and start experimenting, to find what works best for each of us.

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Projects are too common. Because of this we take them for granted, seeing them as part of everyday work, but we don’t approach them properly. We usually gather the team together and then dive straight into the details of the project, without really applying a professional approach. We certainly don’t apply as much planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade straight into the mechanics of the execution. Why is that? Poor leadership and lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as the team launches forth rocking and rolling with no strategy and little expertise.

Often, there is no existing documented planning process in place. This can be rather ironic because often the projects are repeated or very similar projects are undertaken. Templates and structure are missing so everyone just wings it, making it up as they go along, re-inventing the wheel.

The goals of the project are often vague. This is a lack of direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the work. The project leader has to push back and manage upwards, seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project and then make sure everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.

Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project, denying it success. The project begins with vague boundaries around what is to be done. In quick order, either external parties or the team themselves, become like Emus and are attracted by bright shiny objects. Very quickly the additional tasks multiply but the time frame and the resources committed to the project do not change. This never ends well.

The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines and follow-up is weak or non-existent. Well, when you are having fun and winging it, you are super busy getting on with the actual work, so no strategy needed. Later things go wrong because timelines were not clear nor properly planned. The resources do not turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover or resolve.

You quickly find that people, rather than logistics, are the trickiest part of project leadership. All the coolest project management software and sophisticated systems in the world won’t save you from people problems. You may not have been able to match the project team resource with the skill sets required and you have to make do with what you have. There may be incompatible working styles in the team and you are now also chief psychologist, in addition to team project leader, spending a lot of time and energy dealing with staff or division conflicts.

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Tricky area in sales, showmanship. The word has a certain odor about it that reeks of fake, duplicity, con game, spruker, carnival barker, etc. Yet, like storytelling, this is an important part of the sales professional’s repertoire. Clients are card carrying members of the Great Guild Of Skeptics. They are highly doubtful about salespeople’s claims. We need to bring some powerful persuasion techniques to the fore.

Just making a statement is not going to do it. “This widget will improve your revenue by 15%”, is a statement whose veracity buyers question or worse, just ignore as fluff from salespeople. Having a need and doing something about it, are not the same thing for buyers. Everyone would welcome a 15% increase in revenues, but that doesn’t mean clients are going to take up our widget to enjoy the gain.

They have to be convinced and how do we convince them? We might offer a trial or a demonstration. We might marshal testimonials from satisfied buyers. We might provide data from independent studies, that back up our claims and assertions. All good stuff, but how do we make sure we can break through the wall of disinterest, doubt and distraction. This is where showmanship comes in.

This isn’t making up information to snow the buyer or doing a bait and switch, between what they think they are getting and what we actually deliver. This means using our communication skills to highlight the key points that will persuade the buyer, that what we are offering will help them and is in their best interests. What we say has to be true, but we don’t need to say it in a flat, lifeless, mundane or boring way.

When we offer to sell something, it has a cost associated with it. There is a difference between cost and price though, which may not be apparent to the buyer. They use the terms interchangeably. We as sales professionals should never use either word if possible. We should be talking about the investment. If price as a term comes up, we need to show the difference between price, a one time exchange and cost, which is a long term calculation.

If you buy something today with a cheaper price, how do you judge the value when you have to keep replacing it, because of some fault or defect? The real cost is the money you paid, plus the time you have lost, plus the opportunity cost of not being able to do something more beneficial with your lost time, plus the transportation impost required to go back and get a new one, plus the frustration and stress incurred. Now we salespeople know this, but are we communicating this to the buyer in an effective manner? Are we using showmanship to pile on the elements of the real costs of making a mistake by buying our competitor’s item, because it seems cheaper than ours?

Showmanship would involve using persuasive word pictures to draw out the scene of the client becoming frustrated when the cheaper model broke down, destroying the moment at hand or the lost opportunity it should have provided. It would include talking about having to lug the item back to where it was purchased and then wasting valuable time hanging around to get served.

Maybe describing the annoyance of having to line up to take a number or sit on a hard, uncomfortable bench or getting tired legs, because you have to stand. It would mean describing the opportunity cost of how that irreplaceable time was being spent on a totally unnecessary, useless task, at the expense of higher priority, more valuable items. We should be raising pertinent questions about how costly their time and focus are and mention the complete irritation of the interruption to their day.

Showmanship may involve the use of mathematics to reduce a cost down to a comparison where the purchase amount isn’t that substantial, when amortised over time. The price consideration is in the now, but the cost can be strung out across years. This makes the additional cost of our widget seem reasonable and more convincing as a wise decision. If our purchase price is three times the competitors, but because of the value we provide, the financial returns will be better by ten times when measured over the next five years, then the original price objection becomes weaker in the mind of the buyer. Clients can understand investing for the future, but we have to use the right word pictures to draw that out, so that it is pertinent and relevant to the buyer.

A favourite example of showmanship is the car tyre puncture repair story. This is used to illustrate to salespeople the importance of showmanship, when explaining choices of action versus no-action to clients. As mentioned before having a need to buy and buying are not always well paired together in the mind of the client. The example of the gas stand is used, where the service attendant notices the front left hand tyre of the car has a slow leak and offers to fix the puncture in 10 minutes. The client refuses the offer, because they are in a hurry and drive off.

The same scenario is used again, but this time the attendant employs some word pictures and showmanship. Now let me make a very key point here. In the case of your own product or service, the example must be a true and not some fiction dreamed up by the sales manager to con clients to get more sales.

So the attendant says:

“Mr. Customer, I notice your front left hand tyre has a slow leak. We can repair that puncture in 10 minutes”.

The client refuses, because they are too busy to spend the ten minutes repairing the leaking tyre. At this point the attendant doesn’t simply let the buyer leave, but says instead:

“Previously, we had another customer here with the same issue – a slow leak in their tyre. Unfortunately they were also too busy to fix it. We saw a report later on the nightly news about a terrible accident.

Apparently that same car tyre blew out while they were on the highway. It caused the car to flip and roll over three times. We saw the tangled mess of what was left of the car from the television station’s helicopter video. It was total tragedy.

The television reporter said the whole family of four, including the two young kids, died in that accident. When we heard that, we all felt really bad, because we didn’t get them to fix the leak when we had the chance.

We could have prevented that accident…. It will take us ten minutes to fix your puncture, let’s do it now, so we will all feel a lot better and safer”.

I don’t know if that example is an urban myth, but it does illustrate to us the importance of helping the buyer to see the full ramifications of the decisions they are going to take, both positive and negative. Notice the use of very emotive language to drive home the cost of no action. The tone is subdued but still powerful. We need to be looking for ways in which we can contrast the plus of using our solution, against the minus of doing nothing or using our competitor’s solution.

Think about what you sell and what are some ways you can illustrate to the buyer that there are opportunity costs to not buying from you and buying now. Look for powerful word pictures to draw this out for the buyer. This is showmanship and we must become masters of communicating value to the client.

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Zen study is a way to strip out all of the non-essentials in life. The noise, the distraction, the things that are not so important. People sit around concentrating on their breath cycle or one word or any number of other methods to quiet the mind. They are seeking to get more clarity about themselves and what are their real priorities. As presenters, this is a good metaphor for when we are in front of people speaking.

You would think with all those thousands of years of Zen in Japan, in art, in design, in temples, gardens, in history etc., that the Japanese people would be legends of simplicity and clarity when presenting. Not true! Presenting as an idea only came to Japan around 160 years ago. Fukuzawa Yukichi who founded Keio University and who graces the 10,000 yen bank note, launched public speaking in Japan in the Meiji period. There is still an enzetsukan or speech hall preserved on the grounds of Keio University, where presumably the first public speeches were given.

Western society plumbs the wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome, parliaments allowing debate and Hollywood for models on speech giving. Japan has no traditional home grown role model. If the authorities needed you to know anything in old japan, a notice board would have it written there for you. No shogunal oratory from the castle walls to the assembled masses. No Mel Gibson Braveheart style speeches before vanquishing the foe in battle. Japan bypassed all of that until Fukuzawa Yukichi decided this was another area of modernization that needed implementation in Japan, like wearing ties, boots, hats and petticoats.

Of course there were no slide decks in those days, but Japan certainly was an early adopter of the technology for giving presentations – the overhead projector, the slide projector, the modern light weight projector, large screen monitors, electronic pointers, etc. Any venue you go to in Japan will be bristling with cool tech gear.

Interestingly, the content on the speaker’s screen will also be bristling. There will be 10 graphs on the one page, lurid diagrams employing 6 or more vivid colours, numerous lines of text so small you could use it for an optometrist’s eyesight test chart. Where has the zen gone?

To be an effective presenter, we don’t need any tech or screens or props or gizmos. We can just speak to the audience and enjoy being the full focus of their attention. As a result of this visual conflagration, many speakers are competing for attention with what is being displayed on the screen. Company representatives love to play the video of their firm or product or service. They can be quite slick, the joy of the marketing department. They are the pit into which a chunk of money was thrown for the production company, directors, designers, film and sound crew, talents and innumerable others who all got a slice of the pie.

The question to ask though is does this video actually assist the speaker to make the key point under consideration. Often they are like eye candy, but are not on point to the main argument. Unless it strongly reinforces your message dump it. It will only be competition for you the speaker and it will suck up valuable time which could be spent better with you as the main focus.

I saw Ken Done, a well known Australian artist, give a talk in Japan many years ago. He has a very unique visual painting style. He moved around from behind the lectern, stood next to it and just spoke about his art to the audience. It was very engaging because it was so intimate. The Japanese audience loved it. There was only one source of stimulation for the audience and that was Ken Done. This is what we want – to be the center of our audience’s world for the next thirty or forty minutes.

Don’t use a slide deck unless there is something in that content and presentation on screen which really helps bring home your argument. If it is for information purposes, then that will work well. If you are there to persuade, then you will be so much more powerful if all the attention is concentrated on one point and that point needs to be you.

In this case we have stripped away all the visual noise, so we have to fill the void with word pictures. We need to transport the audience to a place where they can see what we are talking about, in their mind’s eye. If you have ever read the novel after seeing the movie, you find yourself transported visually to the scenes from the movie, as you read the novel’s pages. This is the same idea. We have to usher the audience to a place, time and situation that we are describing in words, in such a way that visually they can imagine it.

We don’t always have to have slides or visuals. We are the message, so let’s manufacture the situation so that we are the center piece of the proceedings and all eyes and ears are on us, totally focused on every word we say. We need to Zen our way to speaking and presenting success!

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Projects have been around for a long time of course and in the modern era we have accumulated a vast amount of best practice on how to manage them. It isn’t usually that we don’t know what to do, it is that we don’t actually do it. We get into trouble when we just leap in and dig straight into the logistical entrails, without giving enough thought to a macro 360 degree view of what is involved. We see this tendency all the time. Any group of people given a project task go straight into the gruesome detail. In project planning, a pinch of planning goes an extremely long way. Having a common and clear set of rules helps to ensure we are all approaching the project in the same vein.

Here are ten rules for ensuring that what needs to get done is completed on time and to expectations.

1. Mind our business. Keep our eye on the ball, especially defining what is inside and outside the project scope. This often changes mid-steam so we need to be nimble and adjust accordingly.
2. Know the customer’s requirements. Double check you have properly understood the detail, document it and keep checking against that documented record, especially if there are changes needed.
3. Plan well. The plan will cover the scope, schedule, cost, approach etc. Involve task owners to gain buy-in and apply a strong reality check to what you have created. Strangely, the planning value comes from the creation process and not just the project outcome. It forces some hard thinking, tough prioritisations, player commitments, clear controls, smooth coordination and cooperation. Basically, the things at which most companies are usually rubbish.
4. Build a great team with strong ownership. Motivation of the team is critical, so we need total clarity around the WHY, trust, communication, sufficient resources and mutually agreed deadlines.
5. Track progress. Frequent reviews, wide visibility, broad communication and clear goals are needed. There are hard and soft aspects to most projects, so ensure we don’t overlook the soft skills needed to succeed.
6. Use baseline controls. These are the fundamental building blocks against which we steer the project forward and against which we alter course when needed.
7. Write it, share it, save it. Here is the Holy Grail of project management – write it down - if it isn’t written down it doesn’t exist. Document procedures, plans, evolving designs. Baseline controls are compared against the preserved records. Repeatable projects especially need this record, to which are added the fresh set of insights and learnings of the current project.
8. Test it. Jumping into new territories with both feet can be high risk. Better to develop test cases early to help with understanding and verification of what is required to succeed. Resources and time are the most often underestimated elements, so an early testing helps to flush out the gaps.
9. Ensure customer satisfaction. Make the customer’s real needs the prism through which everything is viewed. Undetected changes in customer requirements or not focusing on the customer’s business needs can in fact blow up in our face.
10. Be pro-active. Be proactive in applying these principles and in identifying and solving problems as they arise. Review and search for problems, knowing there are people dedicated to hiding issues. Vigilance is a virtue we all need to practice when working on projects, especially anticipating trouble before it arises or becomes too explosive.
11. Stop the same old, same old and take a fresh look at your methodology for approaching projects. It seems so simple, but it can simply go wrong so easily. You might be surprised at how loose and inefficient your current methodology is. We can always do better and these ten rules will help us on that journey.

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Great service is so fleeting and illusive. You encounter it and then like the morning mist, the next minute it is gone. One company representative is so spectacularly helpful and then next one is seemingly possessed by evil spirits and demonic. As companies how do we get the angels inside our staff to engage with the clients, rather than having reputation destroying devils intrude. Good service, consistently delivered, is no accident and so it has to be made to occur. How can we do that?

Jan Carlzon many years ago published a tremendous guide to customer service. He had the job of turning around SAS airlines and captured that experience in his book “Moments Of Truth”. Carlson’s insights flooded back to me when I checked into a hotel in Singapore.

By the way, the drive in from Changi Airport is a credit to the Singaporean Government, who spend millions every year to develop and maintain their landscaped, leafy, green, tropical thoroughfares. This is smart. You are already in a pleasant mood just getting into town. While going through the check-in process at the hotel, a waiter from the adjoining restaurant approached me bearing an ice-cold glass of freshly squeezed juice. Singapore is very humid and trust me, after a long flight, that ice cold beverage went down very well. I thought this is really well thought through customer service by this Hotel.

One of Carlzon’s observations about customer service however was the importance of consistency of delivery. For example, visualise the telephone receptionist answering your call in a pleasant, helpful manner and you are uplifted by your exposure to the brand. The next staff member receiving the transferred call however, is grumpy, disinterested and unfriendly. Instantly, your mood and positive impression plummet. You are suddenly irritated by this company, who have just damaged their brand by their lack of an ability to sustain good service across only two consecutive touch points with the customer. How do you feel when you are given the run around from department to department?

So back to my story. As I get to my room, in good spirits after unexpectedly receiving my ice-cold juice, I find out the television isn’t working. After a forensic search for the cause, including a few harsh words with the television controller, I discover the power is not on. There is a card slot next to the door that initiates the power supply to the room. Actually, I discovered the same system in the elevator, when I unsuccessfully tried to select my floor. Yes, I worked it all out eventually, but the thought occurred to me that the pleasant, busy young woman checking me into the hotel, failed to mention these two salient facts to me. Sustainability of good service has to be the goal if you want to protect or grow your brand.

Let me mention a customer service breakdown I particularly dislike here in Japan. When you call just about any organization here, you get a very flat voice answering the phone saying in Japanese ,“XYZ company here”. You ask to speak with that very excellent and impressive member of staff, Ms. Suzuki whom you met recently. The flat uninterested voice tells you that she “is not at her desk right now” and then you are abandoned to stone cold motherless silence.

The “may I take down your name and phone number so that she can call you back” bit is rarely offered. Instead, you are left hanging on the phone. The inference of the silence is that if Ms. Suzuki is not around, that is your problem buddy and you should call back later, rather than expect a return call. Again, to Carlzon’s point, these inconsistencies of customer service directly damage the brand. In this example, when I had previously met Ms. Suzuki, I was impressed by her and consequently I had a good impression of the whole organisation. I was projecting that positive vibe to the entire company. The person taking the call has just put that positive image of the brand to the sword.

When you are the leader of your company, you presume that everyone “gets it” about representing the brand and that the whole team delivers consistent levels of service. You expect that your whole team is supporting the marketing department’s efforts to create an excellent image of the organization. After all, you have been spending truckloads of money on that marketing effort, haven’t you?

But are all the staff supporting the effort to build the brand? Perhaps they have forgotten what you have said about consistent customer service in the past or they are a new hire or a part-timer who didn’t get properly briefed.

I heard one of my recent hires in the sales team answering the phone with an unhelpful tone in his voice. He actually sounded like he was angry. He was in his fifties, so no boy, but obviously that had been his standard, ugly phone manner throughout his entire working life. A perpetual brand killer, client alienating, reputation destroyer right there. We have an open plan office, so I could hear this. If you are encased in the dark wood paneled corner executive crib with a tremendous view, then maybe you will never know what is going on in the engine room and therefore be unable to do anything about it.

Leaders, we should all sit down and draw the spider’s web of how customers interact with us and who they interact with. We should expect that nobody on our team gets it about the preservation of the brand and determine that we have to tell them all again, again and again.

So how about this for a starter for educating our staff to do a better job protecting and enhancing the brand:

1. Answer the phone with a pleasant, happy voice. Be helpful and offer your name first, so the customer won’t be embarrassed that they didn’t recognise your voice. It also gives the caller confidence that a real person is going to take care of their needs.
2. If you take the call and the person they are calling isn’t there, proactively offer to ensure they get a call back as soon as possible and guarantee you will get their message through to them.
3. End with thanking them for their call and again leave your name, in case there is anything further the caller may need.

First impressions count, but so do all the follow-up impressions, if we want to build a sustainable, consistent positive image with our customers. Consistency of good experiences doesn’t happen automatically. We have to look again at all of our touch points with our customers and ensure that everyone in the team understands their place in maintaining the excellent brand we have built up.

Action Steps

1. Draw your spiders web of client touch points and identify who needs training, including non-regular staff.
2. Design the experience you want the client to have and train everyone around the content.
3. Look at your systems for moving or transitioning the client through the organization, to make sure the client experience is consistently good.
4. Always check to see what you think is happening is actually the case.

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I have often thought there are so many lessons from the martial arts for our businesses. Here are my musings after 50 years of training in traditional Shitoryu Karate.

Stepping on to the floor

The dojo is the ultimate equalizer. Whether you arrived by chauffeur driven Roller or took Shanks’s mare, once you step on to that dojo floor only your ability and character separates you from everyone else. You have had all of your wealth, privileges, educational background, society status, connections stripped away and you are left alone to rise or fall based on your own abilities.

In business, we forget this primary lesson and allow people to accrue titles, status and power unattributed to their abilities. We need to see beyond the spin and politics and ensure that people’s real abilities are recognized and rewarded.

Starting

The class begins with a short meditation interval. This is designed to focus the mind and separate the day from what is to come. Next everyone is bowing toward the front. The front of the class represents all who came before us. We are not here today based solely on what we have done. Others were here before us building the art and the organization. By bowing we acknowledge the continuum and our responsibility to keep it going. Now we bow to the teachers, respecting their knowledge and their devotion. Finally, we bow to each other expressing our solidarity as fellow travelers on a journey of self-discovery.

How do we start the work day? Is there a chorei or morning gathering of the work group, to get everyone aligned and focused on the WHY we are there. In our office we review one of the Dale Carnegie Principles each day. We then share our scheduled meetings, our highest goals for the day, end with a motivational quote and a final rousing call to all do our best (ganbarimashoo!).

Stretching

We warm-up our minds and our bodies by going through a set routine to stretch our muscles to be able to operate at the highest possible levels of performance.

If you are a sales team, are you beginning your day with role play practice and coaching or are you just practicising on the client?

Basics

We repeat the same drills over and over, every class, every year, forever. We are seeking purity of form and perfection of execution. We are aiming for absolute efficiency and economy of movement. We are preparing ourselves for a Zen state where we can react without pre-thought.

A large amount of our work is routine, but can we improve the systems, the execution to bring in greater efficiencies and achieve higher productivity?

Sparring

There are two formats. Prearranged sparring dictates what is coming and the order in which it comes. Free sparring is one hundred percent spontaneous, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of ploy and counter ploy. At a high level, this is like playing a full chess match in under one minute, but using our physical techniques with total body commitment.

When we compete in the marketplace are we a speedboat or an oil tanker? Are we nimble, adaptive, on purpose and aware of market changes? Are we thinking steps ahead of the opposition, anticipating their moves and constantly outflanking them, applying our brains and speed over their brawn?

Kata

These are full power set pieces, representing a battle against multiple opponents. The forms are fixed and the aim is perfection. The form is set and so we can release the mind into a Zen state enabling us to go beyond the form.

Are we able to keep reproducing execution pieces of our work that are perfected? Can we refine our actions for the maximum effectiveness? Can we eliminate mistakes, defects and rework entirely at all levels in the organisation?

Strengthening and warming down

Strength training is there to build the physical power and our mental perseverance. We do a final stretch to reduce stiffness and muscle pain by reducing lactic acid build up in the muscles.

Are our training methodologies making us stronger than our rivals in the marketplace? Are we allocating sufficient time to grow our people? Are we seeing outcomes from the training time invested?

Finish

We repeat the bowing and this time we add our Values. We voice carefully chosen words which represent the value system of our dojo, (Effort, Patience, Moderation, Respect). These are the last things setting into our minds, before we go back to our normal routines.

How do we end the workday? Do we set up for the next day by reviewing what we did today, what we achieved and what we need to work on tomorrow? Do we reflect on the quality of our performance and think about ways to do better?

The system of the martial arts hasn’t changed all that much over the many centuries and for a very simple reason. It works. How about your company? Are you perfecting your systems for the ages?

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Sales is a tough enough job without having additional complications. Clients can be very demanding, often we depend on logistics departments and production divisions, to get the purchase to the buyer. We can’t control the quality, but we have total responsibility, as far as the client is concerned. There is the constant pressure of producing revenue results, with bosses always pushing hard on the numbers.

If we are successful and we are doing well, you would think that life would be good. Fat chance of that. We know the emotional roller coaster that is the sales life and you are only ever as good as your last deal. Perhaps with a little bit of success should come some respite from the turmoil of hitting the numbers. I hate to break this to you, but no such luck!

Our sales colleagues, by definition, cannot all be equally successful. The Pareto Principle says that the top 20% of salespeople will account for 80% of the revenue numbers and commissions. So that means the other 80% of the team are scrambling around for the remaining 20% of the sales. People come into sales from different backgrounds, with different levels of experience, with degrees of motivation and they join at different points in the annual results cycle. This means that some will be in the top group, a chunk will be in the middle and the rest are at the bottom.

In the West, the usual way sales teams are managed is based on the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest. Those who can’t cut it are cut loose. Those who can continue to produce get to stay. If they can survive a couple of recessions, they may even be moved up into management positions. This means that those at the bottom are basically on their own. This should spur them on to greater efforts to move up the sales ranks and to strike for the top position in the sales results table. Yet often this doesn’t happen.

In Japan, most salespeople are on a salary and bonus structure, rather than salary and commission. Almost nobody is on 100% commission arrangements and nobody wants that type of sales structure. This means the financial ambition or necessity to get ahead in sales is not as strong as we see in the West. Often the base salaries are large by foreign standards and so people can live on the base.

In some cases, there can be pushback against the top salespeople, by those failing, because the successful are making everyone else look bad. Snide comments can be made, negative inferences drawn and a host of other petty signals that says “we don’t like you”. This is driven by spite, jealousy and envy. This is their “the way to build the tallest building in town is to tear down all the taller buildings” approach to greatness.

In a small sales team this can be very uncomfortable. There is a degree of mutual cooperation involved in sales teams and this is usually where the disputes arise. Who owns the client, who owns the deal, and how is the revenue commission going to be split up?

If the sales politicians in the firm get going, they can really do damage to the morale of the organisation. These people are usually excellent at whining, gathering whiners together and hosting whine parties. They use their energy to pull down those who are successful, instead of trying to become a success themselves.

When you are the top performer or if you are in the top ranks, you can feel you have become a target. Instead of just worrying about getting sales done, you now have to waste precious energy walking around on egg shells, to avoid criticism from your colleagues. This is all kept below the radar, so the boss is often unaware of what is really going on. However, in many cases they don’t care anyway. They are looking for numbers and they don’t want to have to deal with personalities and sales soap operas in the office.

If the bosses are any good, they would be sorting out the toxic few, but often they don’t. The top salespeople are razor focused on serving clients and doing all the hard yards needed to get the sale, so they are not politically minded. The whole mess gets made worse because in a declining demographic, many organisations are looking at their salesperson retain strategies. They do this because they know they cannot easily recruit enough salespeople replacements. This means the internal war goes on for much longer that it should. We lose sight of the external competition and fight amongst ourselves.

Bosses, hear me, sack the toxic! If you don’t, you will find the whole organisation will start failing as the wrong culture takes command. If you are one of the top salespeople, insulate and isolate yourself from the whiners. They don’t work as hard or as long, so there is plenty of opportunity to get to the work, without having to engage with them much. Winners start early and concentrate on their Golden Time between 9.00am-5.00pm on speaking with clients, not idiots in the office.

This Golden Time is reserved for client meetings and to create more business. All of the administrivia needs to be fitted in around those hours. Writing proposals, holding sales meetings, collecting data, putting together sales information, recording activities in the CRM, etc., are what happens outside of Golden Time. These days, thanks to technology, this can be done remotely.

Keep the time in the office with losers to an absolute minimum and protect yourself from their influence. Remember, you are superman or superwoman and they are kryptonite.

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My eyes are slowly closing. I am sitting in the front row but I am struggling to stay awake. There is something about this presentation that is not working. I thought, it must be me. I must be tired. Later however I realized the problem. I was being lulled into sleep by the monotone delivery of the presenter. Now there was no excuse for this, because the language was English. We know that Japanese is a monotone language, so you can sort of understand that this is going to lull you to sleep, unless the presenter is on their game.

The brand by the way is spectacularly gorgeous. This is seriously high profile, a name that everyone knows and respects. The name alone triggers images that are all first class. The slides and videos he presented were all high quality and professional. These people have money and they know everything about marketing very high end products. They have been doing it for a very long time too and they do it globally.

Our speaker had all of this powerful support going for him, yet the actual presentation was coma inducing. Why was that? The brand is a passion brand, but there was no speaker passion. The brand is a great story, but the storytelling was bad. The delivery was wooden. Measured, calm, considered but wooden. The person delivering it comes from a country, language and culture that is flamboyant, exuberant, intense, bombastic, enthusiastic, passionate. He showed none of these traits.

Fortunately for the firm, despite his lifeless delivery, the brand is so powerful it can survive his attempts to murder it. But what a wasted opportunity. It is not as if this brand doesn’t have sexy competitors. There are many and they are also appealing to high status, rich, exclusive, well healed clients. He needed to stand out amongst a very intensely contested field, infecting that audience that evening with his passion and belief in the brand. He is their guy in Japan, so that is his job, every time, everywhere.

It was a good audience too. These are people who appreciate a good brand, who are influencers, who can spread the message. No one will bother though because they were not receiving any energy from this talk. This is the danger when we have a strong brand supporting us that we can become complacent. We imagine we don’t have to do much because the brand sells itself. The marketing department’s glossy photos and slick videos are enough.

Not true. Brands are being recreated every single day. When the product is consumed that is a brand defining moment. If the brand promise is not delivered when the product or service is consumed, then the brand is that much lessened. If this continues, then the brand will disappear, vanquished by its better performing competitors. The brand doesn’t have to be consumed to define the brand though. We as representatives of the brand, are influencing the quality perception of the brand every time we present. If we give a really average performance then the audience will start to doubt the quality claims of the marketing department about this brand. Never forget, we judge the entire organisation on you and how you come across.

If our man in Japan had given a high energy presentation, extolling the virtues of the brand, that would have been consistent with the positioning of the brand. If you are representing a funeral home however, that would not be appropriate. So obviously we need to be congruent. This brand case though would be a great platform for enthusiastic storytelling and verbal passion for the brand. Where were the gripping stories of high drama and intrigue, as they duked it out with their competitors across the globe and over the decades? Where were the human dimension stories of the customers who were famous fans. This is a glamour business and yet there was so little glitter or glamour presented in his talk. The product styling is seriously beautiful, but we heard nothing about the design team. We got no insider account of some of the legendary tales from the past. It was flat.

There was little to no energy being transmitted to the audience. When we speak we have to radiate that energy to the listeners. We need to invigorate them. We do this through our voice and our body language. It is an inside out process, where the internal belief is so powerful, it explodes out to the audience. They see we are convinced, we are believers and they become believers too.

It is interesting that we have a client company we do training for and the external image of the brand is over the top. Yet the people who work there are very muted, very low key. The contrast is quite jarring because it goes against what we would expect. This means that if we are running a dynamic brand we had better be hiring dynamic people. Our speaker was not dynamic at all. He put me to sleep. No brand consistency on his part and that is just not allowed.

Let’s raise our energy levels up when promoting our company in a public presentation. Make sure our voice is using all the range of highs and lows to get full tonal variety. No monotone delivery please. We need to punch out hard certain key words and phrases, like the crescendos in classical music. We need our body language to be backing this up, our gestures in sync with what we are saying. We need to lift the energy of the audience through our personal power. None of this happened that evening. The brand will survive him, but the brand elevation opportunity over the competition was totally missed. If he keeps doing this dull dog stuff, over time, it will be to the brand’s detriment. Obviously the leaders of his organisation have no clue about any of this. How could that be?

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Sport is a popular source of inspiration for corporate leadership. Coaches attend off-sites and make good money telling business executives how to be better people motivators. Sports journalist Simon Kuper made an interesting observation in his column in the Financial Times about famous football coaches falling into decline, supplanted by younger, more innovative rivals. These superstar coaches were the original innovators, but then they ran out of gas. Well, not all of them. Almost as an aside, he flagged the difference between the shorter longevity of the flash in the pan “innovators” and those more hardy types who excelled at “people management”.

This is an interesting observation because often we surge through our careers based on our ideas, innovation or technical expertise. We are thrusters, shining like comets across the evening skies. In Kuper’s article, the age of forty was singled out as the pivot point. The planets start to align and leadership hopefuls begin their move to the very top. In my native Australia, historically, you were not thought to be a real man until you reached the age of forty. At that point you were considered to have amassed the knowledge, experience as well as the physical strength.

Kuper notes that at this age of forty, when you get the big promotion or the shot at a significant job, you have probably expended all of the your innovator ammo just getting there and now it is all downhill. That doesn’t sound too hopeful does it. What does this mean for those who have risen in the organisation based on their technical knowledge or the strength of their ideas? They are thinking that now they make that all important swing up to the top job. According to Kuper instead they cross that ominous forty threshold and can look forward to nothing further than creeping decline? Are the leader’s ideas now escaping the muse and thinkers block has set in like a black mist? As a side note, the age of forty is also considered the danger year for men (akudoshi) in Japanese culture. Okay, you have been warned!

A lot of firms value those corporate hard skills over soft skills. The culture is geared that way and so are the promotions. Somewhere along the line however the soft skills become more important in practice, but often there is not the organisational recognition that this is the case. Being the smartest technical person in the room is fine but not much help necessarily, in leading other mere mortals. That was our boss’s era. They knew every part of the job, had the experience and deep knowledge of the complexities. Actually they had all the answers.

Organisations today are more complex because business itself has become more technology driven and so more complex. Firms favour those who are collaborative and who can provide leadership and accountability at all levels. Leading without authority is the marker for those who will be able to keep rising. Companies are screaming out for insights into how to beat the competition. One single boss cannot know everything today. Companies need to have good teamwork to combine strengths to outplay their rivals That means work gets done more collectively today, so a different skill set is needed. More ideas are called upon, more viewpoints required, more synergy than what can be achieved by a couple of lone wolf superstars.

Getting the best ideas out of everyone in the team, ensuring clear, concise communication and a culture of going the extra mile in the plan execution are not driven from the hard skills toolbox. The technician often stays the technician because they are not skilled at dealing with and motivating the people in their teams. The higher we climb in organisations the more our leader’s soft skills are required. This is where the gaps arise between the hard skill and soft skill proponents. Being the best technician runs its race at some point, as we are overtaken by internal rivals, who are able to marshal the power of the entire team through their people and communication skills. What about the rest of our work life, if we can’t master those key skills? We need to be able to substitute “I do it all” with “we do it all together”. That is very hard to do if you have been successful at being the best you can be, operating as an individual.

Okay, you might argue that you are really great at your technical skill set. The key question however is does anyone in the team care? Actually, they don’t. They want to be understood, to be supported, to be helped to rise in their own careers. That is a change from the “I know it all, so follow me” leadership model of the past. If we want to gain altitude in our careers, we need the communication and motivational soft skills of the top leaders.

Like the most successful sports coaches, we have to learn how to become excellent people leaders. The best sports coaches know their athletes in amazing detail and they coach to that person, rather than to the group. Who knew that there was a time limit on our innovation ability. When we get to forty, we have to understand the clock is ticking. If we haven’t done it already, then we need to start working on our people management capability big time. We need to tap into the innovation potential of the whole team to get the leverage we need to keep moving ever upward.

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Cold calling always creates a debate amongst the sales community. Some say it has seen it’s day, others defend it as part of the sales resource bank for getting leads. I don’t think anyone suggests it has a high rate of success. Yet, there are occasions when we need to call someone we have never spoken to before and who has never heard of us. Why would we be doing that? We may have spun the spider into action.

The spider is a metaphor for when you have success with a client in one industry or industry sector and you believe you can have success with other similar companies. Often the problems you discover from talking to one client are probably common for other companies in the same industry. Say you are talking to a Five star hotel and they have a problem with turnover. The chances are that many other Five star hotels have the same issue. If you have a solution that fixes the problem for this client of yours, then why not help out the other hotels suffering the same problem. So, like a spider with its web, you branch out to the other hotels and bring them into your ecosystem of solutions.

Or, you may have run out of leads. Maybe your marketing efforts are not proving very fruitful and the lead flow is a bit dismal. There are a number of industry and association directories which list the key people in those organisations. You know who you want to speak with and that is a great starting point for making a cold call.

Now there are many difficulties with cold calling, so let’s deal with the most problematic. This is when you only have a company name and want to talk to a decision-maker. You are not even sure of which section you need. You are forced to navigate your way through the company’s phone system. In Japan, the task of taking incoming calls is allocated to the lowest person on the totem pole. Usually, the youngest, newest female in the administration section.

Her job is to get rid of pesky salespeople. Which are the pesky ones? They are all those salespeople who are cold calling the company trying to waste the time of her bosses. She knows she will get scolded if she makes that transfer to her boss and the boss doesn’t like it. In this case, we need a really powerful credibility statement that will be a hook to get us transferred to the boss. We cannot be vague. We need to be authoritative, commanding and confident in our voice quality.

We need to create the impression that if she doesn’t transfer this call right now, then the company is really going to miss out on something that will fundamentally change their business. When you have that spider’s web of insight, you are able to pin point the pain point of their business and that can be a great door opener for us.

Even when we know the name of the person, we can get ourselves into trouble. I was coaching a Japanese salesperson recently and asked where was the breakdown point in her sales approach. She mentioned cold calling and being unable to engage with the decision maker. I suggested some role play to get an idea of her approach. Shock, horror, gasp. It was horrible. She began her conversation with the weakest, most lacking in confidence voice you can imagine. A voice that was begging for relegation to the garbage heap of failed cold callers. I was sitting there thinking, “no wonder you can’t get through”.

We need to consider the psychology of the youngest female answering the phone. In their company she is a nobody. She has no great knowledge of the boss’s business, because she is so many layers removed. When a call comes in and sounds timid and lacking in conviction, then it is an open invitation to get rid of them.

However, an unknown caller might also be a good buddy of the boss, an important client, someone the boss just met or some big shot from another firm. She can only judge that by how they speak with her. If she is talked to like a junior and told to get the boss on the line right now, she will probably make that transfer.

Probably the call will be transferred to the boss’s assistant, so that is always a fail safe action for a very junior person in the company. They have relinquished all responsibility at that point and they can go back to stamping documents or whatever.

When we get to the assistant, we need that credibility statement to be on fire. It has to be a well designed strong hook, to convince them that we should speak to the boss. The impression is if we don’t, then the company will be missing out on a fantastic game changing, really rocking it opportunity.

We need some key points about who we are, why we are calling, what we have found from hearing the needs of similar companies and the excellent results we achieved for those companies. We then suggest that, “maybe we could do the same for your company, so please transfer me now, so I can explain how we do that”. This has to be delivered in a silky smooth massively confident way, with no voice hesitations, stumbles or umming and ahhing.

Action Steps

1. Look for spider opportunities to parlay your knowledge from one client to a potential client
2. Study industry or association directories for target clients you can serve and for whom you have a great solution
3. Prepare your credibility statement as a hook to get the person taking the call to transfer you to the boss.
4. If you know the person’s name, then ask for it with all the authority of the boss’s best buddy and be rather brusque in your manner, implying you are not there to take any nonsense from underlings

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When you are on the executive floor, the carpet is thick, the mood is quiet and the décor is sumptuous. It is a world removed from the scramble going on floors below. Maybe you are in your own President’s office, shielded from the fray outside the door. The further you place yourself away from the troops the harder it is to influence the mood of the team. Of course, you have direct reports overseeing the work and they too should be mood makers in their own right. There is something very powerful though when the boss is also the mood maker.

I visited President Nambu of Pasona at his office a number of years ago and I was super impressed. To get to see him, I had to walk past a large open plan workspace, in the center of which was a raised platform. This housed all the senior executives at their desks. I had to then walk on through the shokudo or cafeteria to get to Nambu san’s office. I was curious, so I asked him about all these snakes and ladders to get to see him. He said he wanted the executives to be in an open plan environment and visible. He wanted people to see him too as he entered and exited his office, again to be visible. When you run such a huge company as he does, it is easy to become disconnected from the troops. He took physical steps to overcome that possibility.

We can’t be a mood maker in the machine if we hide ourselves away. Even if we are physically removed from the troops for whatever reason, we need to make an effort to be seen. Tom Peters and Bob Waterman chronicled the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) philosophy in their book In Search Of Excellence. They were advocating that the leader leave their office and wander around to where the troops are and engage with them in their workspace. Find out what they are doing, how the team mood is and look for places to have influence.

In Japan, we have the traditional chorei or morning get together. The Ritz Carlton has taken that idea to a great height. I spent a week on their course in Washington DC studying their management methods. They have a highly dispersed workforce scattered around the globe. So how do they wed the whole thing together so that the customer service philosophy is the same, no matter where you stay with them anywhere in the world? They have their principles of service and everyday, everywhere, at every shift they review the code. They make the code the mood maker.

The Ritz Carlton have a template to run the meeting and everyone takes their turn as the leader. The day I joined the morning meeting of the executive leadership team, the CEO was there and yet one of the lower ranked crew was taking the lead to run us all through the rituals. This was done everyday, so again the core philosophy was being driven by the top and was being supported with the high visibility of the CEO participating everyday he was in town.

I adopted this for the Shinsei Retail Bank when I was there and I came up with our banking version of core customer principles. We all took part including all the leaders. We did it in every branch location, exactly the same way, every morning. This was the leadership group leading the charge and everyone was aware of it. This made a tremendous impact on creating a new culture of client focus in the team.

In Dale Carnegie Training Japan we have the thirty Dale Carnegie human relations and thirty stress management principles as the core. The morning meeting is done everyday as long as two people are in the office or online – that is the rule. It is run by a different leader by turn, but where possible always with me participating. We have an open plan arrangement in the office so I can tap the mood of the team all day long.

Now that we are working from home and online, I can check the vibe of the team every morning. I also use the morning “Daily Dale” ritual to rev up the troops. I don’t pontificate everyday, because it loses its power, but I try to do it quite regularly. No matter how I feel that day at work, I have to project energy, passion, commitment to the team. I have to infect them with my enthusiasm for the work. I have to keep reminding everyone of the WHY. I don’t believe we can ever overcommunicate the WHY to the team.

So get with the troops and infect them with your passion and commitment to the cause. If it is not a cause yet, then make it one. As leaders we have to be the key mood maker no matter what our particular mood may be on any given day. We must always be little Mr. or Ms Sunshine!

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It sounds so obvious that we should have structures for doing our project planning. Projects are part and parcel of the fabric of work life and they constantly arise. It is surprising though that so many teams are busily working away with no structure whatsoever. The project team jumps straight into arranging the details of the project, without giving any thought to how the project should be approached in a holistic manner. Think about your own experience? Can you rattle off a structure for how projects should be planned, because you have always done it that way in the past? Probably not! I was the same. In one of my previous organisations, we actually completed a lot of projects and yet we never did anything apart from some very basic planning. We didn’t even think of them as projects – we just saw these activities as work. We would have done a lot better, if we had done some simple planning.

So let’s all get better organised. There are eight steps we can consider when we begin working on a project. Let’s assume that the team has been created, hopefully a great match up between resident skill sets and the tasks required to successfully complete the project. Even if you don’t have all the bases covered through your team, a good structure will help to overcome many of the gaps.

Step 1: Define what is the “should be”. This is the project scope and must be in harmony with the project creator’s vision. What will success look like to the project client? If we don’t have a clear idea of what we are supposed to achieve then trouble is close by. Often though, the project goals are vague and very “big picture”. We need to push hard at this point to attain greater clarity about the end result we need to produce. Are we asking the right questions? If we are inheriting a project objective, we need to make sure what we are being asked to deliver.

Step 2: Analyse where we are with the “as is”. This is our current reality, our circumstances at the start of the project. What is the situation in our broader work demands, beside this new initiative? What resources and time frames have we been given? Do we have experience with this type of project? Do we know what we don’t know?

Step 3: We need to set our goals for the project. With no clear goals, firmly attached limpet like to the project, we will see drift and time wastage. The larger goal is a construct of a series of smaller goals, all coalescing into the final output. SMART is a well-known useful acronym for thinking about how to create the goals in the first place – a 5 point checklist for us to make use of. Are the goals Specific in terms of processes and resources? Are they Measurable, allowing us objective data to gauge progress? Are the goals Attainable, something the team can be motivated to pursue? Are the goals Relevant to the vision of the project sponsors or are we heading off course? Finally, are they Time-Specific with clear deadlines and milestones with which the check our progress?

Step 4: Have we chosen the right “action steps”? In order to achieve the goals we have set, there must be priorities established and flowing from that, the action steps developed. We need to clearly set the requirements of the job, noting who will do which tasks and how the tasks should be completed. We also have to plan for how the individual work pieces will synchronise and emerge as a coherent progression that arrives at the desired outcomes. We must also think about how we will need to communicate the results on the way through and again at the end. Often, we forget the all important communication piece, because we are too busy all tied with the actual doing!

Step 5: What are the costs? People, money and time are the usual resources we are normally short of when trying to do projects. We need to estimate how much of each we will need and do this at the start.

Step 6: Timetables are key to checking progress. Clear deadlines, well communicated and understood will be broken out into stages throughout the project. We set them at the beginning. As we move forward, we need to check against the completion of work, compared to the original time estimate to understand our progress. When we do this, we enable ourselves to make studied adjustments, in a holistic fashion, rather than having panic set in.

Step 7: Implementation of the plan necessitates that everyone in the team understands their role, the specific goals, the timelines and the WHY we are doing this. This WHY part is often just assumed and not actually communicated. “Of course everyone knows why we are doing this”. Well I wouldn’t be too hasty to assume that – check there is real understanding and you may be surprised to find out you were too optimistic!

Step 8: Upon completion we need to celebrate, then go back and check the reality against what we presumed would occur. This is a vital learning step often neglected, which if we miss it ensures we keep re-inventing the project wheel. This is where we seize best practice, refine our internal procedures, record them and set ourselves up for future success.

It is time consuming to do this and after the project everyone is usually tired and worrying about their next project. This is such a valuable part of the project structure though, because it produces templates, checklists and insights that make the next project that much easier to do. It also helps when there is a change in the composition of the group and the corporate memory is no longer available to you.

This eight step progression is not a complex process, but it will save a lot of panic, late-nights, wasted efforts and stress, if we go through it from the start. We can do it the hard way or the easy way, so let’s choose the structured way and make life a bit easier for ourselves.

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When we are haggling over the price with the buyer and they say, “this price is too high”, “that is out of our budget”, “we can’t afford it at that level, can’t you drop the price”, “we never pay that much”, “we can get it for less”, etc., we are in a bind. We want the sale, we want to make our sales targets, so we immediately go into discount mode. This is a big negotiating mistake.

I heard this exact case from a Japanese sales guy recently. We happened to be seated next to each other at a business function. I started chatting with him about how he does his sales. He had been selling for his firm for 7 years and looked to be in the mid thirties age bracket. In other words, he was an experienced sales guy. When I asked him what he does when his buyers say the price is too high, he replied that he immediately drops the price by 20%. I nearly had a heart attack. If I was his sales manager, I would have to be physically restrained from throttling him on the spot.

No, no, no. Don’t fold on the price pushback. What we should be doing is defending our price. We never do that by arguing with the buyer. We don’t do that by force of will either. These ideas both sound preposterous, but amazingly this is what some salespeople actually do. Instead, we try to better understand the client’s situation. Often salespeople stop asking questions at this critical juncture and instead go into high energy “tell and sell mode”. They keep telling all the good reasons why the buyer should pay the requested price. This won’t work.

Firstly, don’t start your response by arguing with the client. Instead agree with them. We can say, “You are right and I understand it is a considerable investment”. We do this to make sure the client is still listening to us. If we disagree with them, they stop listening to us and start thinking about all the reasons their “too high” statement is correct. They mentally get ready for hand-to-hand combat mode to fight with us. We don’t want that response from the buyer. Rather, we disarm them by not arguing or disagreeing.

While we have their attention, we have to transition and question the buyer as to why they made that comment. We say very sweetly and softly lowering our voice tone, combined with a touch of real curiosity, “You just mentioned the price was too high. May I ask you why you say that?”. We avoid arguing and Instead of us having to justify the price, we now need to switch the pressure back to them, to justify what they just said. We call this tossing back the porcupine, after they threw it to us. It is a rather spiky, uncomfortable thing to hold, so we don’t want to be the one holding it.

Here is a very, very, very important point, so don’t miss it, please listen up. After you ask that question, DO NOT SPEAK. Use 100% concentration to listen to the buyer. Don’t interject. Don’t cut them off. Don’t add one more word. Shut up. Now the buyer has to justify why that price won’t work.

In this process of further explanation by the buyer, we pick up very valuable insights into the client’s situation. Armed with more data and insight, we may be able to come up with a flexible solution that is a win-win for both of us.

We may in fact discount the price. We might give them longer payment terms or structure the payments across two quarterly budget periods. We may offer the discount on the basis of a volume purchase.

All of this sounds simple enough, but when salespeople hear “the price is too high” they go blank and forget the basics. Don’t argue with the client. Question the client and keep questioning. If they segue off on to some unrelated subject area, then bring them back. If they digress, don’t go with them, bring them back to the core discussion. If they keep hitting you with vagaries, don’t accept them. Keep digging, digging, digging.

This is the job of the salesperson, to serve the client and that means to clearly understand the client’s situation. The only way to do that is to ask questions and you cannot release the buyer from this quest. It is not to be annoying, pigheaded, stubborn or inflexible. Quite the opposite. We are here to solve the client’s problem and we have to do that in an arrangement, that is a win-win for both of us.

Action Steps

1. Defend the price point, even if you will lose some business
2. Make sure that the price point/value equation is clear to both the salesperson and the buyer
3. Understand once you discount the price, you are now locked in for that number or an even worse one
4. Don’t argue with the client, instead ask well designed questions to understand what is driving their resistance

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Pricing is usually set by the boss and salespeople are just there to get out and sell at that designation. The provenance of that price point can be quite varied. In some cases, there is a careful calculation involved. It determines the necessary return to cover direct and indirect costs, plus make a specified margin of profit. In other cases, a moist index finger is lofted skyward and a price magically appears. The services industry, in particular, has a lot of skyward finger waggling going on. The trouble though is salespeople are not convinced by any price setting methodology.

They only believe in the reality of the market . The way they know the reality is the degree of pushback they get from clients, when they are trying to sell. It is also a function of the nerve of the organization to defend the price point, when there is the threat of no deal. If the boss tells the salespeople to “go out there and sell” at that price point and then the boss folds immediately, every time there is buyer resistance, then the salespeople’s belief in the validity of that price point is precisely zero. The bosses have to hold their nerve and hold the line.

When you have no belief in the value backing up that price point, your ability to sell at that rate is simply squashed. You default to discounting to get a small piece of something, rather than a very large piece of nothing. Now the boss is cranky because you are undervaluing the brand and the company’s market positioning. So around and around we go on the merry-go-round of price setting.

The crunch point is the sales price negotiation with the buyer. If you have gotten into the death spiral of last minute discounting, in order to move the product or service, you have now trained the buyer to extract the biggest possible discount every time. When ever I have been sucked into price discounting with Japanese buyers it is like quicksand. You can’t get out and are stuck now at that price point or lower.

I sometimes get asked to make an unbudgeted purchase by a salesperson calling me. The discount they are offering from the normal price can be significant. As the buyer, I then counteroffer a third to a half of their already lowest proffered price. Why am I doing that? This is called “decimation negotiating”. I am testing their nerve to see how desperate they are. I want to know how low I can push them down. Is that mean spirited on my part? Well they called me, not the other way around. I also teach negotiating, so as an instructor, I want to see how good they are? Do they do anything interesting in the negotiating process? I usually do buy from them and I usually get a very good price. Good for me, bad for them.

Now, as your sales instructor, I advise that if you are the seller, then don’t accept their ridiculous number. If you feel you are now in the decimation negotiating arena, give them an ultimatum on price and a very, very short fixed time to take it or leave it. In the meantime, call tons of other potential buyers. If you have not built up a solid pipeline for your sales, then you are always going to be vulnerable to price decimation.

If you discount once, then imagine that by telling the Japanese buyer this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a spectacularly rare alignment of the planets, which will never happen again in their lifetime, a never to be repeated offer, you are kidding yourself. The Japanese buyer doesn't hear any of that. What they hear is, I get it for this smaller amount this time. They think “I can probably push harder next time and maybe I will get it for even less”.

Don’t miss this. In Japan, as soon as you drop the price, you are now locked into that price point with that client forever. It is not impossible to go higher but it is very, very hard to pull that one off. You have to be ready to drop the buyer entirely, to restore your price point validation.

The equation here isn’t just with the buyer, it is with the salespeople as well. By dropping the price we tell them that this is all this is worth and they believe it. They cannot push the price back up, because they don’t see it at that level either. Now we have the buyer and the seller, in furious agreement, that the price is a fiction. The company leadership has to intervene and say “burn that buyer if they won’t accept this price”. Be prepared to lose their business. If we do that, then the salespeople will get religion about the pricing validity.

We will continue in Part Two on how to deal with price attacks from buyers.

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We can speak to a group. Then there is another level, where we try to totally captivate our audience. What makes the difference? The content could even be the same, but in the hands of one person it is dry and delivered in a boring manner. Someone else can take the same basic materials and really bring it to life. We see this with music. The same lyrics, but with a different arrangement and something magical happens. This new version becomes a smash hit. Speeches are similar. A boring rendition is given a delivery make over and suddenly has the audience sitting on the edge of their seats fully enthralled. I am sure we would all vote for the enthralling version, so how to do we do that?

The quality of the argument we are going to present is important. We definitely need to design two powerful closes, one for the end of the speech and an extra one for after the Q&A. It sounds counterintuitive, but we should start from the close when designing the talk. We work hard to clearly define what is the most compelling message we want to leave with our audience. Only then do we start to work backwards, structuring the rest of the speech from that point.

Once we know what will really resonate with the audience, we begin gathering evidence to back that assertion up. We have to remember that broad statements are too easy to make. This is the Era of Cynicism, “fake news”, so the listener will need a lot of convincing.

We now do a rough sketch of the key points and attach the supporting evidence. In a thirty minute speech, there won’t be so much time, so we might get through three or four of these key points and that is it. We must make sure that the evidence is super, super strong. We need really compelling proof, in order to build solid credibility for our argument.

The next stage is vital, especially in this Age of Distraction. We have to wrangle a dynamite blockbuster opening. We have to compete with all the things running through the minds of our audience. The things they were doing before they got to the venue and all the things they have to do after this speech. The hand held device is a modern day siren call. It so silkily diverts their attention away from us, as they check email and social media.

We have to smash through all that obstruction. We sweep all before us and clear a path so that the audience will actually hear our message. The first words out of our mouth had better be super compelling. If not, we will lose the battle for people’s modern miniscule attention spans. We need to carefully design what that will be, because it won’t happen by itself.

We want our visuals on screen to be clear and instantly comprehendible within two seconds. It used to be ten seconds, but now we are down to just two, so really take a cold hard look at what you are putting up on screen. If it is taking the viewer longer than two seconds, then the slides are too dense.

Let’s keep the colours to an absolute maximum of three. Photos are great with maybe just one word of text added or just kept as they are. This intrigues our audience to learn more. We can then talk to the point we want to make. If we use graphs, we should have only one per screen wherever possible. If we are going to use video, it had better be short and really, really hot. The transition from slide deck to video, back to slide deck must be seamless, so none of that tech fail we often see on display.

Every five minutes we need to be switching the energy levels right up, to keep our audience going with us. This is key because they flag. Classical music has its lulls and crescendos and so should we. Naturally, we have tonal variety right throughout the talk, but we need to be hitting some key messages very hard, around that five minute interval. This should be synchronised with some powerful visuals on screen, to further drive home the point. This is not a result of chance, good fortune or fortuitous accident. We need to plan for this massive impact on the audience. We structure the presentation so that this brings all the vocal and visual elements together, in a powerful, distinct, one in a million way.

We are meticulously sprinkling stories throughout the speech to highlight the evidence for our key points. Data by itself is fundamentally dull, but stories fleshing out the data, should be scintillating. These will be full of visual stimulation, using word pictures to conjure mental pictures in the minds of our audience. We bring physical locations to life, describe vivid colours, talk about the season, mix in people they may know and importantly, explain the why of the story. In this way we take our listeners on a magical journey, where they see the scene playing out in their own mind’s eye. It is a bit like reading a novel, after having seen the movie. As you read it, you can mentally imagine the scenes you saw previously on screen. This is exactly the powerful effect we are going for.

Our final close, after the Q&A, has to go off with a real bang and not a whimper. We want a powerful strong call to action. The final few words must finish on an intense, uplifting upswing. Many speakers let that very last sentence just sputter and peter out. Remember, we want to muster the audience to our cause. We want them to leave dyed in the wool supporters. We want them getting a florid forehead tattoo with our name on it. Okay, I was getting a bit carried away there. That is probably too much, but you get the idea.

We need great structure, unassailable evidence, clear visuals, gripping stories, pacing, energy, passion and 100% belief in the value of our presentation. The delivery is going to rock because we make it rock through rehearsal after rehearsal. We keep going until we have refined the whole thing into a symphonic triumph. We need to be thinking to create raving fans in our audience, right from the start, when we construct our talk. Begin with captivation in mind.

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Projects are simply too common. Because of this we take them for granted, seeing them as part of our everyday work, but we don’t approach them properly.

We certainly don’t apply as much planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade boldly straight into the mechanics of the execution. Why is that? Poor leadership and a lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as the team launches forth rocking and rolling forward with no strategy and little expertise.

Often, there is no existing documented planning process in place. This can be rather ironic because often the projects are repeated or very similar projects are undertaken.

The goals of the project are often too vague. This is a lack of direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the work. The project leader has to push back and manage upwards, seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project. They then need to make sure everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.

Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project. The project begins with vague boundaries around what is to be done. In quick order, either external parties or the team members themselves, become like Australian Emus, a very curious fowl and are attracted by bright, shiny objects. Very rapidly the additional tasks seem to multiply like amoeba, but the time frame and the resources committed to the project are in the deep freeze. This never ends well.

The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines and follow-up is weak or non-existent. Things go wrong because timelines were not clear nor properly planned. The resources do not turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover or resolve.

There may also be incompatible working styles in the team or difficult personalities involved. You have to become the chief psychologist, in addition to team project leader. You find yourself now spending a lot of time and energy dealing with personal feuds or internecine division conflicts.

The start of the project may be exciting, but over time other tasks start to impede on this project and compete for your people’s time. Their motivation starts to slide. You have to rally them constantly to be enthusiastic and committed to the successful completion of the project.

Sadly, this is when you discover your personal communication and persuasion skills are totally rubbish. You are the leader but you are getting nowhere with the team. This becomes magnified when there are critical issues of internal and external cooperation required.

People not completing their tasks on time unleashes issues around trust, commitment and reliability. Their excuses are never in short supply. This type of creativity is not especially helpful, because your boss won’t be accepting any excuses from you, as project leader. Herding cats seems easier.

Because you have never been trained on how to delegate properly, you either don’t do it at all or you give it your best shot, but it fails and you wind up doing most of the work. This would be fine if you had nothing else to do and could devote your time to just this one project. Distressingly, the organisation has bigger plans for you. These involve you working a whole slather of other tasks to be done as well.

The answer to these various nightmares is fairly simple. Train people properly on how to lead projects or get the training for yourself. Projects are always going to appear on the horizon so invest once to cover this issue off completely. We should aim to develop our own organisation’s best practice methodology for doing them. This would be developed through long periods of hands on experience and constantly updated, to reflect the innovation discoveries made along the journey. Transferring the learning from one project to the next won’t happen by itself. It needs a specified system to ensure it happens. Do you have one of these?

Here is the right checklist for handling projects:

1. define scope
2. devise plan
3. implement
4. monitor/modify/keep checking
5. get closure/evaluate and finally
6. celebrate

This seems simple enough. However, for each of these steps we need a trained project head. Someone very highly skilled in leading people. Someone technical, who is ace on creating macros in spreadsheets isn’t going to cut it as the leader, because the skill sets are different. Everyone is looking for the tools for project management, but the people management bit is the real nub.

Action Steps

1. Don’t treat projects lightly
2. Capture the best practices and create a project management template
3. Clearly explain the WHY of the project
4. Be highly vigilant about scope creep
5. Carefully design the implementation strategy for the project
6. Ensure the project leader has been given leadership training

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Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets. In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in tune with the client’s best interests. We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer’s needs. We know that by asking well designed questions, we can possibly come up with an insight that triggers a “we hadn’t thought of that” or “we haven’t planned for that” reaction at best. At worst, at least they know whether we have a solution for them or not. Under pressure though, salespeople can temporarily become deaf toward the buyer.

Even assuming they are smart enough to ask questions in the first place, they may fall over when it comes to carefully listening to the buyer’s answers. They can hear some buyer white noise in the background while they are thinking about their own interests. They are self absorbed and are not plumbing the depths of what the client is trying to achieve. In fact, they are ignoring the hints and nuances in the sales conversation. Well then, what are they doing? They are fixated on their own needs, their own target achievement, their own big bonus and their job security.

The client may have outlined what they had in mind at this stage, but that won’t scratch because the salesperson needs a bigger sale to make target. They need to expand what the client wants, regardless of whether the client needs that solution or not. Upselling and cross selling are legitimate aspects of sales, but the purpose has to be very clear. It is not about making the salesperson more money. It is serving the client in a deeper way.

The client may not have the full view of what is possible, because they will never know the seller’s lineup of solutions as well as the salesperson. They will also not have had deep conversations with their competitors. They won’t have been allowed behind the velvet curtain, to see what their competitors are doing and how they are doing it. They will not have had a broad exposure to what other firms and industries are doing in terms of best practice.

This is the value of the salesperson, because they are constantly doing all of these things. They are like butterflies, skipping from one sweetly fragranced flower to the next. They are collectors of stories, problems, breakthroughs, successes and can connect many, many dots together. In this sense, they can see possibilities the client may not know exists or may not have thought of. This is where the cross-sell and the up-sell add value, because the salesperson can expand the client’s world and help them to become more successful. That is a long way from ramping up the number value of the sale, to make target.

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Sometimes you see a confident presenter really bomb.  It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, the contrast is vast.  If they are totally hopeless as their default mode as a speaker and they bomb, well that is understandable.  But a competent presenter bombing shouldn’t occur.  It did and I was wondering what did I just see?  Where did our speaker go wrong? 

Comedians have this same problem – no one laughs at their jokes and there is not much camouflage for them to hide behind, when all they have is a microphone stand on a stage.  Being in the limelight, at the podium, on stage, up on the dais is a high pressure location.  When you are revealed to everyone as a flop, all your desperate attempts to refloat the Titanic make the whole thing seem even more preposterous, pointless and pathetic.

In this case, there wasn’t even a good recognition that things were rapidly going south.  It was only at the end, when it was too late to do anything about it, that the speaker realised he had bombed completely.  The tepid applause reaction at the end was a give away.  The stunning lack of questions a more immediate one.  The whole apparatus of the talk collapsed in on itself, under the weight of its own immense ineptitude.

The key issues were a misreading of the audience and an astounding arrogance.  The audience had been lured to the venue with bold promises of goodness and light.  The content just wasn’t good enough to back up the advertising and the audience spotted the gaping gap straight away.  They were there for answers.  There weren’t any and they knew it. 

The arrogance was an assumption about the speaker’s credibility being sufficient to justify the content of the presentation.  When we emphasise our many years in business, we are aiming for increased credibility, linked back to our stupendous track record.  We have stood the test of time etc.  Our speaker had not properly prepared the presentation.  He gave it a “once over lightly” treatment, because of his supreme confidence in his ability to deliver any talk.  He was a very good speaker and a highly competent presenter.  He thought his previous track record stood for itself. The only problem was the content of this talk was rubbish.

We all tread a fine line with the longevity thing.  Track record, sustained over many, many years is a credible thing for the audience.  The main concern is that the whole affair may be perceived as dusty and dated.  We are always being fed the new and greatest, latest best thing.  Business fad books come and come and come.  The old ones are taken out the back and quietly disappeared, shredded in fact. 

When we talk about the good olde days, we like it because we were there, but the audience only cares about what is relevant for them.  We have to be skilled to make it feel fresh again, new and connected to their current business reality.  Plato is olde but still gets quoted all of the time, so olde doesn’t have to be irrelevant.

Our speaker failed in that regard.  I said arrogance and this is the bit that hurts.  Our pride in our track record can make us blind to the fact that people don’t really care all that much.  We like strolling down memory lane, but so what? We arrogantly assume that what we did was important.  Wrong.  Where is the direct and useful link to the audience’s current problem right now?  We have to keep building that vibrant connection.  Our successes in the past help us to prepare for our future.  Our failures in the past, help us to prepare for our future.  We can draw from both to create content that resonates with our audience.

This is the skillset needed in a business presentation.  Getting the audience need properly understood, suspending what we like to talk about and instead focusing on what the audience is keen to know about is our task.  If we fail to get that balance right, we can come across as dated and dull.  This is what happened to our speaker.  He delivered a brilliant, heartfelt rendition of his past glories and achievements, without effectively connecting to the audience’s concerns of today.

I am getting older too, so I took copious notes from this speech on what not to do, if I am ever tempted to talk at length about my good olde days.  I think we should all avoid that temptation too.  Concentrate on your audience and you can’t go wrong.

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We can control 100% of our attitude.  Yes, but often we don’t.  There are few things we can be 100% in control of and our attitude would have to rank at the top of things we really need to control.  So you would think we would all be absolutely brilliant in this area.  We aren’t and so why do we have resultant problems? 

Part of the issue can be allowing past failures to sap our mental fortitude.  We mentally re-run the movie in our minds of failures, lost arguments, things we regret or events we actually don’t want to remember, but we do anyway.  No amount of self-discipline seems to work in shielding us from the past.  We seem drawn to flashbacks and re-living the painful past episodes where we fell short or failed.

We are really creative too.  We don’t just allow the past to wipe out our positive attitude, we inject future potential troubles in there as well.  We project forward and start imagining all sorts of failures and issues we will suffer, before they ever even happen or arrive.  French philosopher Michel de Montaigne is often quoted in this regard, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened”. Painfully, he made that observation six hundred years ago, so we haven’t improved much have we.

The combination of past dismal realities and future bleak possibilities can be a powerful mix to drag us into a downward spiral, where the world seems sombre, dark and we are hopeless.  No matter how many self-affirmations we do or how positive we try to make ourselves, these prior and future fears can weigh us down.

What can we do about it?  Try to “live in day tight compartments”.  This means we focus 100% of our energy and attention on what is facing us today and don’t allow the past and possible undetermined futures, to impinge on our attitude. 

Here is the crucial mental shift we have to make – don’t try to block out what happened in the past – we can’t.  Instead though, we can recall it, but not dwell on it or worry about it.  There is the crucial difference – acknowledge it happened, but don’t worry about the past - we can’t go back and change it.  Yes, it was painful or annoying or humiliating, but it is gone now and we should leave it there.  Keep the focus totally on today, on what we can control and concentrate our energy and efforts there.

The same applies to the future.  Of course, we should consider what will happen in the future – hopefully we will be spending quite a bit of time there.  Again, there is considering the future and preparing for it, but not worrying about it.  This difference is huge.  Plan for it, but don’t allow it to cause worry.  Again, flick the switch and look at what is right in front of you right now and work on that.  Yes, random thoughts and fears about the future will wander into our consciousness, so write them down and capture the issues.   Then be proactive, call them out and work on ameliorating them, but don’t worry yourself about them.

When we think about controlling today, what we read and who speak with, will have a distinct impact on our attitude.  Again, be proactive, find positive information in newspapers, magazines, books, articles, social media posts etc., and read that as your priority.  Be aware of current events, but skip the grubby details on everything ugly and negative.  That actually means skipping most of the news on television, because you can’t control what is coming up next.  At least with written text, on-line or off-line, you can control your intake.  Let’s be very, very picky about what we feed into our minds.

People are the other biggie.  Really reduce the contact and influence of negative people as much as is physically possible.  Avoid whiners, complainers and negative mindset types with every fibre in your body. You may be forced into close proximity with negative people due to where you work, but keep that exposure to a minimum.  See them as kryptonite and avoid all unnecessary contact.  Rather, seek out people who are positive, upbeat and spend time with them.  There are fewer of this variety, but they are around and so soak up and contribute to their positive vibe.  Look for organisations where the positive congregate and join those groups.

The past, the future and the negative can erode our positive attitude, so as a priority let’s organise our life to deal with these issues.  When we do that, life gets easier, better and happier.  “It is all in the mind” is old wisdom, but still true!

Actions Steps

1. Accept past memories but don’t worry about them
2. Accept certain things might happen in the future, prepare for them, but don’t worry about them
3. Avoid all forms of negativity
4. Search out positive environments and people and spend time there

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Sales is one of the few things in business you can measure accurately and immediately.  Are you getting greater efficiencies from your internal systems?  Is the marketing working?  Are our team becoming more skillful?  Are our leaders effective? These are topics which are super important but also devilish to measure.  Sales however is straightforward – how much did you sell?  Therefore, there is no wiggle room and the pressure on salespeople is enormous.  There are deadlines for sales and there are accurate measures in place tracking everything.  What was the revenue return relative to the ratio of the salesperson’s total costs.  For every yen the salesperson costs, how much do they generate in net revenue return.  Are they yielding a 3:1 return or is the ratio at 7:1 or better?

Because of all of this pressure, salespeople have become absolute masters of excuse making.  Having to justify your existence every month creates a tremendous amount of creativity in the excuse field.  When you ask salespeople what is holding them back from achieving higher levels of performance, a surprising number of the reasons given are not related to sales activities.  External factors are listed up very readily.  The organisation needs to be better staffed, the product needs improvement, after sales service is holding us back, the strategy needs more work, the market is shifting, my sales manager is clueless, etc.

Many of the problems are located outside the sphere of influence of the salesperson, yet they continue to dwell on these factors as holding them back from achieving their targets. This is a substantial lack of self-awareness.  If a salesperson is really doing their job, they ignore all of the external factors they cannot control and instead focus on developing the skills they need to succeed.

What would those skills be?  Knowing your product and the value it generates inside out is a given.  Yet this is where a lot of salespeople check out.  They know the details of the features of what they are selling, but they don’t plumb the depths of the benefits of those features.  Now the benefits have to be in context.  Where does this benefit help the client in the competitive marketplace in which they are operating?  How will this give the buyer a differentiable advantage vis-a-vis rivals?  Where will it save money, raise productivity, speed up processes, eliminate waste, etc.

Where is the market moving toward and what does the client need to be doing today, to anticipate and properly prepare for the changes which are coming.  This requires study of the client’s situation and industry. Not knowing the client’s world relegates salespeople to proposing transactional sales solutions rather than achieving partnership status. 

The salesperson who can provide insights such that the client thinks to themselves, “we hadn’t thought about that” or “we haven’t properly prepared for that” is doing a fantastic job of providing value to the buyer. 

Asking well designed questions is an absolute must, but so many salespeople troop into the sales call woefully underprepared.  They wing it from start to finish and wonder why they are not seeing any business.  The preparation for the sales call is so much easier today because of our access to instant information.  Yet, salespeople are not applying themselves to learn about the buyer and their industry before the call.  You can’t be the font of insight, if you don’t study beforehand.  This is a lack of awareness about what the real role of the salesperson is.  Blarney, smooth talk, verbal gymnastics, bamboozling clients are all pointless froth.  The real core ability is to understand where you can be helpful to solve the client’s problem.  You can’t change the external factors at play, but you can control the internal factors like your own abilities in the sales process.  The famous gridiron coach Vince Lombardy talked about the key in football was mastery of the basics, which he summarised as “blocking and tackling”.  Asking brilliant questions and presenting the value of our solution are the equivalent skills in selling.

Like Lombardi’s training philosophy, the basics are always current and mastery of the basics is mandatory.  Yet, so many salespeople don’t even know what the basics are or if they do, they don’t invest the time to master them.  Self-awareness of your skill deficiencies is the first step to fixing them and dwelling on external elements you cannot control is self-delusion.  Self-delusion doesn’t pay particularly well, so let’s give that a miss and instead work on grasping the reality for the client.  If we understand that then we will be able to correctly match our solution with the buyer’s need.  Lot’s of good things happen when we can do that.

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Education can be a barrier to intelligence sometimes.  This is often the case with people educated in very hard skill disciplines.  They are asked to absorb vast amounts of complex information and to follow strict procedural structures.  The rote learning aspect becomes paramount.  This is fine and will get you graduated out of varsity and into the real world.  With so much invested in technical knowledge, initially, other skill sets are not fully appreciated enough.

Soft skills, such as communication, are not highly valued.  The thinking is that this is rather fluffy stuff.  Serious people are knowledgeable about deep technical subjects and how they transmit that knowledge isn’t all that important.  “Engineers understand engineers, so you don’t need good presenting skills”, is the type of logic you will hear from these failed communicators.  The quality of the data or the advice is considered to the key thing, not the delivery.  Anyway the delivery bit to them smacks of conmen, carnival barkers and dodgy sales types who talked you into buying that timeshare you never use, while you were relaxing on holiday.

I was reminded of this recently when talking with a very highly technically skilled executive.  I have actually seen this person present and he has vast amounts of data at his ready command.  He is steady, reliable and a bit dull.  Normally being a bit dull mightn’t be a problem, except in his profession the competition for advice is fierce.  He isn’t the only one running around with tons of great data.  Gathering potential clients together and giving them a snapshot into how brainy you are is a great prospecting tool in his profession.  You would think that intelligent people would be able to work out that the delivery of all that brainpower was a competitive edge.  An edge that needs to be really finely honed, maintained and if possible extended.

In the course of our conversation, I was suggesting that he could do some presentation training and this would help him stand tall amongst the weeds.  There was a need, but only a low recognition of the advantage that this would give him relative to others, who also run similar events and claim they have big brains too.  This is a common blindspot for technical professionals.  They conflate having the knowledge and big brains with being automatically awarded the business by clients.

Today, across all industries, buyers are much better educated and informed.  They have access to global information, at a speed unimagined in decades part.  “We will gather our big brains together and the clients will come” did work for the longest time but not anymore.  Today, all professionals have to be highly knowledgeable and persuasive.  The persuasive part requirement hasn’t been universally grasped by the technical expert punters as yet.

Our reluctant hero asked me what the presentation training would cost and then proceeded to tell me it was too expensive.  This was shocking to me.  His profession has no hesitation in charging vast sums to clients, because they see the cost through the prism of the value they provide.  The actual amount of money was a peanut, in fact, yet he was reluctant to invest in himself to become a dominant player.  I am sure if there had been a global conference on his key technical subject matter, he would have headed off without hesitation and spent a considerably larger sum to attend the event.

I was shocked, not because of the peanut money involved, but because of his inability to grab the chance to become well recognized as THE expert in his field.  Participants continue to leave his current presentations lukewarm.  There is no major differentiation between him and his equally technically capable rivals. Potential clients are not salivating at the prospect of working with him.  They are not highly motivated to sign him up as their advisor.  They are still guarded and unsure.  He could switch that whole thing around easily by investing in himself to extend his abilities. 

Are you like this too?  Are you in denial about the reality, that in this better informed world, stocked with your competitors, you need all aspects of your skill set working for you?  Brains, experience and the ability to communicate to potential clients are fundamental to the new order of business. 

You have built it, but we won’t come because we are going to the other guy who invested in himself and became a fully rounded professional.  That “expensive” peanut is costing my friend and others like him a lot of money, but they haven’t worked it out yet.  Don’t be like them.  Invest in yourself and learn how to work every audience into the passionate belief that they need you and your services and they need them right now.

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“We all have possibilities we don’t know about.  We can do things we don’t even dream we can do”.  This quote from one of the pioneers of the self-help movement, Dale Carnegie, marked a major change in how people thought about the future.  Up until the 1920s, fate and God’s will were the more common explanations for what would become of us.  Psychology research in the USA began to drive the idea that we could control our futures to a much greater degree than we thought, by controlling our thoughts. Not so remarkable today, but this was a brand new idea back then.  The problem though is we still haven’t quite found the escape velocity to blast us out of our self-limiting beliefs about ourselves.

The decline in available well paying jobs following on from the Lehman Shock on September 15, 2008 had a broad impact around the globe.  China’s ability to become the factory of the world, has meant that many manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the developed nations.  The recently discovered danger to global supply chains, from over-reliance on China, may wind this back but it will take some time to set a rebalance.  Recent research is telling us that workers are not transitioning seamlessly from one declining industry into other growth sectors. 

In Japan, companies found the banks wanted their loaned umbrellas back, at the first spot of rain after the Lehman collapse and so became fixated on having large reserves of cash and minimum borrowings.  This has proven fortuitous for many companies in order to weather the economic disruptions brought on by Covid-19. 

Even in better economic times, despite profits rising, wages did not rise. To overcome the rigidity in the labor pool mobility here, part-time jobs grew enormously, offering no great stability and no great pay for the workers involved.  This trend to keeping people as part-timers was partially being reversed, as the war for talent kicked off again, but Covid-19 put a pause on that.

Also, because of the economic disruptions Covid-19 has caused to a broad swath of industries, many full time workers have now lost their jobs.  For the survivors, the fear of being restructured out of your company if you are part of the aging baby boomer cohort, but with prospect of additional decades of life expectancy (which have not been funded), is causing concerns.  For young students graduating and looking for a job, many doors have suddenly closed.  We face a very uncertain future.

Looking back, Covid-19 has sunk the entire world in the space of just a few short weeks.  Health prospects both personal and economic have been shredded.  Government mishandling of the spread of the virus has killed thousands.  Many loyal staff have been cast off and flung into a world of unemployment.  It looks grim and with no end in sight.

In such a scary world, the idea of challenging the new doesn’t look so attractive.  We may have had the benefit of decades of the self-improvement industry pushing us all to be better and do better, but the reality is we are not purpose bent on discovering our unheralded possibilities.  Instead we are searching for security in a very insecure world.  We have gone back to looking outside for solutions, such as a magic bullet vaccine being released, rather than trying to discover what lies inside ourselves. 

We are now privy to previously unthinkable, instant, vast, global, information 24/7, but we don’t feel much better for it.  We all carry immense computing power in our hands, but we feel more stressed.  Belief in fate and God’s will have not made particular comebacks as alternate explanations of where we are today, but belief in our own possibilities is also flagging.

In these dark times, we need to re-immerse ourselves in the world of possibility, to re-read ancient and modern wisdom about our potential.  We need to find that escape velocity to project ourselves beyond Covid-19.  If we keep doing the same things, in the same way, we will keep getting the same results.  Einstein defined insanity as repeating the same things but expecting a different outcome.  So staying in place, but expecting to do better is basically a crazy idea.  The problem is how do you find the strength to move forward, especially in this highly uncertain, dangerous and challenging world. 

Dale Carnegie came up with an answer that works.  Through experimentation, observation and adaption he found ways of challenging people, using bite sized pieces, that would gradually expand their word but not blow it up.  The process involved taking practical ideas and getting people to act on them immediately.  It also involved providing feedback that was only positive and encouraged people to keep pushing forward.  That process became known as the Dale Carnegie Course. 

Like so many people, when I took the course, I was kicking myself for not having taken it when I was much younger.  Eventually, we will all emerge from this current situation.  Are we going to get busy then or shall we get busy working on ourselves now?  We can do things we haven’t dreamt are possible, but we don’t have to work it all out by ourselves.  We can follow what already works and get the benefit of all that kaizen built up over ten decades.  If we want to grow, we need a proven method and this Dale Carnegie course definitely works.  If mankind ever needed a course like this, then this is the time.

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Everyone hates to be rejected, but not many people have this as a fundamental aspect of their work.  We ask colleagues for help and they assist, we ask our bosses for advice and they provide it.  Buyers though are different.  They can easily find a million reasons not to buy and unashamedly tell us “no”.  The rejection itself is not so much the problem, but how we respond to and deal with the rejection.

In Japan, the two areas our clients seek special attention in sales training for their team are around understanding the client’s needs and asking for the order or closing, as it is commonly referred to in sales parlance. 

The poor questioning skills are a result of salespeople wanting to tell the buyer many things about the features, but not bothering to ask well designed questions to uncover their client's needs.  This alone explains why buyers say “no”.  If we don’t properly understand what they need, then how do we suggest solutions that make sense and motivate the buyer to action? 

The two problems are closely linked.  Even assuming that the questions are well designed and that the solution selected is professionally conveyed to the buyer, they may still say no.  This is because the buyer’s hesitations have not been properly addressed.  There was something unsatisfactory in what they heard from the salesperson and they are not convinced this is the right solution.

This is why a “no” will certainly be forthcoming, especially from Japanese buyers.  Risk aversion is a fundamental part of Japan and buyers observe this in distinct detail.  They would rather give up on something better, if they thought there was a possibility their decision might bring some stain on their record. 

Failure is hard to recover from in Japan.  There are no second chances here. People have learnt the best way to avoid failing is to take as few decisions as possible.  Especially any decisions which can be traced back to you.  Best to have a group decision, so the blame can be spread around and no one loses their job.  Actually that works like a charm here, so no one wants to buck the system

Having given the sales presentation, many salespeople in Japan simply don’t ask for the order.  They get to the end of their spiel and they just leave it there.  The buyer is not asked for a decision, it is left vague on purpose, so that if it is a “no” then that will not have to be dealt with directly.  The Japanese language is genius for having circles within circles of subtle obfuscation

The end result is a “no” but nobody ever has to say it or hear it.  To get a sale happening, the buyer has to do all the work here in Japan, because the salespeople don’t want commit, to take the plunge and ask for the order.  If they get a “no”, their feelings of self worth are impacted, they feel depressed, that they are failing.  Not doing fully competent work or being highly productive, yet keeping you job is a pretty safe bet in most Japanese companies.  The level of productivity amongst white collar workers is dismally low. Collective responsibility helps because it lessens the impact of personal inability to reach targets or make deadlines.

Sales though is totally crystal clear about success and failure.  It is very hard to argue with numbers – you either made the target or you didn’t.  Sales is also a numbers game.  You are not going to hit a homerun every time, so the number of times becomes important. 

You will have certain ratios of success that apply right through the sales value chain and the only way to increase your sales, is to improve these ratios.  You have to up the ante, regarding the volume of activity.  This sounds easy, but it isn’t when you are feeling depressed, insecure and plummeting in confidence. 

The key is to see sales in a different way.  The increased volume of activity will even out the rejections.  The way you think about rejection has to change.  Rejection isn’t about you personally.  Buyers don’t care that much about salespeople as people.  They are rejecting your offer.  As it is made today.  In this part of the budget process.  At this point in the economic cycle.  In this current construction.  At this price, with these terms.  We haven’t shown enough value yet, to get a “yes’.

As these aspects change, the answer can go from a “yes” to a “no” and from a “no” to a “yes”.  That decision is irrelevant of the salesperson and how the buyer feels about them.   These are macro and micro factors which can impact the decision one way or another.  The answer is to see more people.  In that way you can have a better chance of meeting a buyer for whom all the stars align and they can say “yes”. 

At the same time, you need to keep working on getting better, at showing more value.  You need to harden up and become tougher.  Whatever you are selling, you always need to remember your AFTOS mantra: “ask for the order stupid”.  Never say no for the buyer and understand that “no” is never “no” or forever.

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When you see someone do a very good presentation, your faith in public speaking humanity is restored.  There are so many poor examples of people killing their personal and professional brands with poor public speaking skills, it is refreshing to see talks done well.  It is not that hard really, if you know what you are doing and if you rehearse and practice.  This is where the majority of lousy, boring and uninspiring speakers trip up.  They don’t rehearse or practice. Instead, they just unload on their poor unsuspecting audience.  Here is a pro hint.  Never practice on your audience!

The global CEO of a major pharma company jetted into town recently and spoke at a chamber of commerce event.  The presentation was well structured and flowed in a way that was easy to follow.  The slides were professional and clear.  He spoke fluently, wasn’t reading from any script and instead was talking about the key points up on screen.  When we got to Q&A, he repeated the question, so that everyone could hear it and then answered it.  He did that while addressing the entire audience, rather than just speaking to the inquirer.  When he did not have the information referred to in a question, he admitted it straight up, without trying to fudge it.  This is not an admission of weakness, rather it builds trust and credibility.

I doubt he did any rehearsal for that audience, because it was a stump speech he has given so many times he was entirely comfortable with the content.  Could he have done better?  Yes, he could have added more stories into the presentation.  A few vignettes from the exciting world of white lab coats, where they were developing new medicines to save humanity, would have been good.  He could have delivered it with a bit more passion.  It was professional, but it came across as a stump speech.  He was supremely comfortable delivering it and that is one issue we have to be alert to.  When we are too comfortable, we can sometimes slip ourselves into cruise control mode.  We should keep upping the ante each occasion, to try and see how much further we can push ourselves as presenters.

Another function I attended was an industry awards event and the main VIP guest made some remarks before announcing the winners.  Humour is very, very hard to get right.  For every professional comedian we see on television, there are thousands waiting tables and trying to break into the industry. When you see humour done well by a public speaker, you are impressed. 

You need to have material that is funny for a start.  Then you have to be able to deliver it so that people laugh.  This sounds easy, but as professional comedians know, the timing of the delivery is key.  So are the pauses and the weighting of certain key words.  It has to be delivered fluently, so no ums and ahs, no hesitations, no mangling of words.  Getting the facial expressions to match what is being said is also tricky.

Our humorous VIP was delivering some lines that he had used a number of times before, so he knew his material worked.  It is always good when big shots are self depreciating.  We can more easily identify with them, when they don’t come across as taking themselves too seriously.  “I am good and I know it”, doesn't work so well with the rest of us.  How do you become humorous as a speaker?

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Peter Drucker has this great quote. “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion and under performance. Everything else requires leadership”. That is a very profound and pithy observation by Drucker. In this modern day and age, why do we still encounter these three horsemen of the apocalypse of organizational dis-function? You would think we would be better organized by now. Each horseman signals its own raft of challenges, magnified even further when operating in Japan.

Friction is a tricky one in Japan for foreign bosses, because so often it is subterranean. Power struggles, factions, proxies, turf, ego all come into play here but not so overtly that they are easy to spot. Influence is achieved through access to key people and decisions, more often than over the bodies of enemies. Apart from when bosses discipline subordinates, screaming abuse at colleagues isn’t acceptable in Japan. The problem here is getting the issues out on the table for resolution, more than anything else.

The age old remedy of out of office discussions is usually where the boss finds out what is really going on, as opposed to what was thought to be happening. Presuming you are able to achieve such a worthy goal, that is only half the battle, now what do you do about it.

The typical boss technique of getting two people in a room and then commanding them to sort it out may work in the West, but it won’t work here. Rather, we need to really dig out the issues and manage the resolution process. In particular, we need to pay careful attention to those spurious “yes” statements, which in Japan indicate I heard you, but that doesn’t mean I agree with you.

This ensures that the follow up is critically important to make sure that the solution is actually executed and everyone is doing what they said they would do.

Confusion is usually the result of unclear processes and unclear communication. The Japanese language is a big culprit, because in the hands of native speakers it is genius at leaving things muscularly vague. Having a process and having a common understanding of the process is not the same thing. In the same vein, common sense is not common and the unaccounted for action is often the project success killer. Now, you might believe that we should move directly from A to B, but that doesn’t guarantee that others will share that same view. They might think a little detour to Q is more appropriate. So, we need to spell out the process, in detail and we need to check for understanding. Expecting the next logical step to be logical to everyone else is too bold a step. Specifying, micro-managing the detail, checking back (ad nausium) are often the minimum requirements.

Underperformance is usually a factor of skill or motivation gaps. Skill gaps can generally be closed through providing quality training, mentoring and coaching. Motivation though is a lot harder subject. This is often a systemic problem, starting at the top. The senior leaders determine the culture of the organization. If the atmosphere is to defer to seniority by rank and age, then don’t expect too much innovation occurring anytime soon. If middle management only understand the two hammers of “what” and “how” and don’t have “why” in their explanation toolbox, expect employee passive compliance. It boils down to “why be creative, when you don’t care?”.

Latching on to the “why care” drivers is critical, if we want to move forward and succeed in the market. The latter by the way, is brimming with competitors. Three things drive engagement: firstly, the relationship with the immediate supervisor – so trust, and communication are paramount. Secondly, the belief by those at the bottom that those at the top actually know what they are doing. This definitely requires middle management to cascade down the top group’s “why”. Thirdly, pride in the organization necessitates a one-team approach, rather than a self-obsessed, internally oriented, power struggle capital of the universe approach. This is why we talk about leadership at all levels – we need the alignment and agreement on why we are doing it, what it is we need to do, how we need to do it and what success looks like.

As Drucker points out leaders need to lead, but often in Japan they just rotate through positions in large organisations every couple of years. They never take any significant decisions. They avoid as many initiatives as possible and by keeping their heads down, they anticipate a cushy retirement. This is why we love working in Japan – never a dull moment here.

Action Steps

1. Carefully investigate the causes behind issues between staff
2. Get agreement to correct the problem and then keep checking that what was agreed gets done
3. Communicate more often and more regularly the same key messages, don’t imagine people get it with just one pass by
4. Keep hammering away at the WHY

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Bullying, humiliation, ridiculous stretch targets, rubbish goods, stress, shame – a toxic cocktail often suffered in the sales environment.  We often get into sales by accident.  There are not many varsity business courses in sales.  There is sales training available, provided by companies like ourselves, but often this is not offered by the employer. 

The assumption is you look after yourself.  We won’t invest in you and what’s more, we will fire you, if you can’t make your numbers.  “Churn em and burn em” is the dominant ethos.  The successful salespeople ride the favourable market conditions through until the inevitable downturn.  If they survive that experience, they often wind up being the sales manager.  Battlefield commands come on the back of your officer being removed by HQ or by the enemy.

There is a high turnover rate in sales both when people fail or succeed.  In either case, you are out the door and off to somewhere else.  The survivors who don’t want to move on the greener pastures, often become the bosses. They continue the toxic culture regardless of how stupid it is, because that is all they know.  It worked for them, so it is supposed to work for you.

The client in all of this is the “mark”, to be harvested, to have their cash extracted and then abandoned to their own devices thereafter.  Often in bad sales organisations, area salespeople have to cover big territories. This is because they can only hit that one market once.  They are selling a lie.  Their product is not matched by good quality relative to the high price they charge.  They have to scarper with the cash and get out of Dodge.  They are like sharks, which have to keep swimming around in order to breathe.

Who decided it would be like this?  Not the salesperson.  They join a company and then discover the disconnect between the cost and the value, between the public rhetoric and the internal reality.  By this time they have already left their previous job and are treading water to make commission and not drown in debt.  They are always just one week from financial oblivion, so they have to keep dancing while the music is playing.  The sale’s evil ethos is the company’s making and this is where the blame should lie.

Bad sales organisations are inevitably run by bad sales managers.  The reason is simple – “birds of a feather, flock together”.  Good sales managers don’t want and don’t need to be involved in a business where they have to survive by fleecing the buyers.  They see a bigger better picture.  They have ability and talent and a war chest of funds to offer them choices. 

There is an old Japanese saying that prescribes “the fish rots from the head”.  Consequently your company’s bad sales boss, environment, culture and sales ethos stinks.  If you are a “good” person in sales, swimming in a toxic cocktail of sales hell, then get out of there.  You are not in a position to reform that business or the management.  It didn’t get that way by accident.  Now you may not be able to move immediately, but for the sake of your health and mental well-being, don’t put up with crap from idiots.  As soon as you can, move on. 

In the interim, strenuously begin educating yourself.  There are tons of books, free videos and podcasts on how to do a better job serving clients.  Access them.  Feed your mind with the positive, because for sure you are being killed by the negative environment surrounding you.  If you have the funds, then get yourself into some professional sales training.  By whatever ethical means, make yourself more skillful and valuable. 

I often refer to the word kokorogamae in sales, which I translate as our “true intentions”.  Don’t let any toxic environment or people corrupt your true intentions.  We should have a very clear guiding principle, a light on the hill and that should be to serve the best interests of the customer.  That means we have their success as the catalyst for our own success.  If we make them successful, we will get reorders, a steady stream of work and we will be earning good commissions, building up our financial security.  Money elicits options.

This is not instant and means creating a different type of client relationship with a longer sales cycle.  The share of wallet increases over time when there is a good track record and strong trust. The lifetime value of the customer becomes an integral part of the equation.  This type of sales environment only exists in companies with a correct kokorogamae.  If your company is not like that, then do not become a lifer pirate, get out of there and save your career, health and mental well being.

Action Steps

1. Decide that your time in this toxic environment must come to an end
2. Study sales diligently while you are organising your great escape
3. Make your kokorogamae a clear vote in favour of serving the client

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You want to promote your business or organisation, so that you can be more successful. A genius idea pops up amongst the brain trust over a few drinks after work – why don’t we enter the Business Awards? Someone has to win don’t they, so the odds are fair. Anyway, there is no downside is there? True but there can be, if you don’t fully think this through. I don’t mean the requirement for polishing the application or assembling the data in support of the claims being made. I am talking about seizing defeat from the jaws of victory on the winner’s dais.

When you win, you are invited up on to stage. The cameras are rolling, the lights are flooding the arena and the music is pumping. You are pumping too, baby. It quickly occurs to you that hammering the booze on the table to instill some bonhomie amongst the troops was a good idea at the time, but now you need to pull yourself together. You fight your way to the stage, negotiating your way through the labyrinth of socially distanced round tables.

Before you know it, you and the team have assembled on stage to receive the ovation from the crowd. In a moment, the MC announces you are about to be handed the cool looking trophy from the key VIP guest of the evening. The crowd now goes quiet as you draw up to the stand microphone of the stage grasping the prize in your hand. A thousand eyes are fixed on you, awaiting your acceptance speech. You fluff it.

A ragged series of ums and ahs are punctuated by disoriented rambling highlighting no cohesion of thoughts, concepts or ideas. You are now sweating bullets. Multiple beads of perspiration start to run down your face, your pulse is surging, you realize this is a disaster and mentally start looking for the exit.

Thanks to you, all the tuxedoed dandies present have enjoyed their modern day Colosseum bread and circuses moment. Once the victim has been disposed of by public humiliation, everyone just returns to their table chatter. You are not forgotten though. You are now outed as an incompetent, who can’t string three words together. Your tenuous reputation is shredded and the trophy somehow feels less weighty and magnificent in your grasp.

You recall having seen this before haven’t you. Underprepared speakers making a complete hash of it. Don’t try and wing it. Think ahead and be properly tooled up. There are some key basics you cannot neglect. Under no circumstances mention you are nervous to the audience, even if you worry you are about to pass out and faint. Fall full flat out on your face, but don’t apologise for your lack of preparation for this speech. Don’t begin by bringing up your totally bereft skill set in giving speeches. The audience can see that for themselves. Don’t try to make nervous jokes to release the tension you are feeling in the moment. You are clearly pathetic, not funny.

Begin where you should. Thank the chief VIP, the Chamber or Business Association and the judges for awarding you this magnificent trophy and great honour. Congratulate your vanquished opponents with great generosity extolling their virtues and achievements. Next take this opportunity to promote your organisation. That is why you applied in the first place isn’t it? Give them your thoroughly rehearsed and well constructed elevator pitch on why what you do is vital to mankind and the future of the universe. This needs to be tight, taut, terrific with no fluff.

When you thank the people who have made this happen in the team, make a short personal remark about each. Taro who stayed late so many nights, catching the last train home to get the project completed on time. Megumi for her total dedication to the care of the clients. Daisuke for his rousing leadership of the sales team when things looked grim. Mari and her team of angels in the back office who somehow managed to hold the whole thing together through thick and thin.

Finally, thank your family and friends who have supported you. If you become emotional at this point, don’t worry, whip out your handy hanky, wipe your eyes and just keep going. We will love you for it.

Wrap it all up with a rousing call to action for the crowd. Encourage them to play a bigger game and maximise their potential here in this wonderful, exciting special country of Japan. Thank the organisers once again, wave the trophy high while moving away from the microphone stand, to signal you have finished. Now quietly call the team together to join you and the VIP, as you all pose for the photographers with the trophy. Then get off the stage, order the champagne, you are done!

Before the event you need to prep yourself. Think through the award presentation component of the evening. Thoroughly prepare what you want to say, rehearse it many times, time it to make sure it isn’t too long. One final piece of advice is to stay off the booze, until you actually win. Good luck!

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Sakaiya Taichi, well known author and futurist, made an interesting observation about the current trend of Japanese society. He referred to Japan’s current lack of yoku (desire), yume (dreams) and yaruki (guts). What does this mean for business and for our companies if we are staffed by young people without these three Ys? As leaders, how can we reverse this trend and produce more engaged teams? Is it too late already?

Diligence has a strong pedigree in japan. Retainers in samurai society were trained to be ready to die for their lord anywhere, anytime. In the pre-war period the majority of people lived in non-urban areas, where agriculture was the main pursuit. This required you to pull your own weight as part of a group effort. The harshest punishment was ostracism or murahachibu, which meant no cooperation from the group and possibly death the result.

In the post-war period, previous firebombing of cities and industrial centers meant Japan had to drag itself up from the ashes of defeat and a strong national unity formed around doing just that. As Japan’s GDP grew, salarymen would sacrifice their families for the company and proudly count off the leading economies Japan had surpassed, as collective notches on the belt of a resurgent Japan.

The 1985 Plaza Accord triggered the surge of the yen and the biggest global shopping spree possibly ever seen on this planet. Japan was coined Number One. The bubble burst, Japan went into decline and has been lurching along the bottom ever since. The Lehman Shock in 2008 and then the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear core meltdown in 2011 has underlined Japan’s continuing fragility. The social contract has been broken and companies now prefer to hire part-timers, to enjoy the greatest flexibility to respond to future downturns. Company profits are soaring but employee wages are not moving. Abenomics seems to have run out of gas. The roots of these three no Ys are not hard to find.

Demographics will create more pressure on companies to focus harder on recruiting and retaining their workers, as the supply of young workers steadily reduces. The stimulus to desire and dreaming of a better future will only arise because company leadership recognizes there is an issue in the first place. The expectation that this current generation will fit in like every preceding generation is Leadership Japan’s geriatric illusion.

The young will need a lot more conversations about their future prospects inside the company, than their current aging bosses ever received from their superiors. They want praise and feedback to give them the confidence to step up and take responsibility. The old style boss luxury of screaming at staff when they make a mistake will not long be available. The young will simply leave and get a job elsewhere.

Not delegating and thereby not enabling them to gain experience, so they can position themselves to step up into higher levels of authority, won’t cut it either. Disorganised, time mismanaging bosses who think it is “easier if I do it myself “ will find it is not easier, as they have to spend time and treasure to replace a more mobile workforce.

Coaching and mentoring skills are going to be going at a premium as leaders are sought out who can develop future leaders, retaining the best talent and leveraging the ideas, insights and innovations of those at the bottom – those closest to the action.

Apart from the obvious relationship with the immediate supervisor as a key driver of engagement in staff, the other two drivers are belief in the direction senior management are taking the company and pride in the organization. These last two are communication necessities. If current leaders think these are obvious truths, in no need of elucidation, then they are in for a sad business future, as the young depart in droves for competitors.

Take a good hard look at your middle managers and senior leaders – do they get it? Are they able to encourage the young to see a future with the firm and to not think they have to leave in order to advance in their career? Are they able to get across the key messages required? If they are not fully capable, we had better get busy re-training them for the brave new world just around the corner. Their Job One is to create a culture of yoku, yume and yaruki inside the organization.

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We have many images of negotiation thanks to the media. It could be movie scenes of tough negotiators or reports on political negotiations with lunatic led rogue states. Most of these representations however have very little relevance in the real world of business. A lot of the work done on negotiations focuses on “tactics”. This is completely understandable for any transactional based negotiations. Those are usually one off deals, where there is no great likelihood of any on-going relationship continuing between buyer and seller. This is false flag.

The aim of sales is not a sale. The aim is repeat orders. If you want to be permanently in 100% prospecting mode, then transactional selling is fine. That gets tiring and is tough, as you have to spend all of your time hunting because you can’t farm. Now there will be some cases with buyers, where that is how it rolls and there is not much you can do about it. The majority of salespeople though are trying to strike up a lifetime relationship with the buyer, so that the orders keep coming rain, hail or shine.

The style of negotiations for this business play are completely different to the one-off, transactional occasion. In this world “tactics” are only partially relevant. Going one up on the buyer, getting the better of them, isn’t sustainable in a continuing relationship. They remember what you did to them and they definitely don’t like it. They either dump you completely as the supplier or they even it up down the road. They don’t forget and they don’t forgive.

Technique has a role, in the sense that there are certain best practices in negotiating, which we should observe. The philosophical starting point though is key. What are we trying to do here, what is our purpose? Are we trying to build an on-going business relationship where we become the favoured supplier or are we after a one–off smash and grab deal? If you highly evaluate the lifetime value of the customer and this is your main consideration, then you will have a lot of commitment to win-win outcomes.

The consideration of the communication style of the buyer is another important negotiating consideration. How we communicate with the buyer will vary, that is, if we know what we are doing. Clueless salespeople will have one default mode – the way they personally like to communicate and that is all they have in their tool box.

Professionals understand that if the buyer is micro focused, we go with them on facts, detail, evidence, testimonials, proof etc. If they are the opposite, then we talk big picture and don’t get bogged down in the smaller details. We describe what future success looks like. If they are conservative, self-contained and skeptical, we drop the energy level to match theirs. We don’t force the pace, we spend time having a cup of tea to build the trust in the relationship. We mirror what they like. If the buyer is a “time is money” hard driving, take no prisoners type, then we don’t beat around the bush. We get straight down to business. In rapid fire, we lay out the three key reasons they should buy, we get their order and then get out of their office pronto.

With this analysis in mind, we prepare for the negotiation by analyzing the buyer’s perspective. We use what we know about them and their situation to build up a picture of what they will need from the deal we are negotiating. We match that with what we can provide and we amplify the value we bring to the equation. We now set out our BATNA – our “best alternative to a negotiated agreement”. This is our walk away position.

We have analysed the potential of this client, by looking at their lifetime value as a buyer. This can have a big impact on how we see the pricing. When negotiating with a big multi-national buyer, I had to take a painful hit on my pricing. I only agreed to this though, because the volume in the first year was very substantial and the understanding was that this would be repeated annually. Now, it may not become annual, who knows, but if it does, then this is a major feast of guaranteed farming that allows a better balance to all the other hunting required.

In another case, I “fired” the buyer because their pricing requirement was too low. There was no prospect of any on-going business and the volume was not attractive. When you believe you bring value, you enjoy inner confidence in your pricing. We all have our positioning in the market. If we want to maintain that, then we have to be prepared to reject low ball offers that damage our position and our brand. Hopefully you don’t have to do this too often, because you can convince other buyers to pay the full tariff.

In most cases, sales negotiating requires a holistic approach, rather than a “mechanical” tactics driven approach. Decide what type of relationship you want with the buyer. If it is win-win, then we are looking at trade offs for pricing against volume and repeat business. Leave all that tricky dicky negotiating palaver to the fantasy world of Hollywood movie scripts. Let’s negotiate in the real world.

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Speaking in front of others makes many people tongue tied and nervous. They struggle to get through a simple presentation, internally, in front of their colleagues. A public audience is something they would flee from, screaming and waving their hands in the air. Why is that? We all learn how to talk. The presentation is just a talk, so what is the big deal? Yet, it is a barrier to many people who have to navigate this impediment to move up through their careers. If you are in front of the big bosses and you can’t make a competent presentation, kiss your career aspirations goodbye baby. There is very little chance they are going to put you in charge of others. So, if you like what you are doing today, that will be just fine, because you will stay where you are right now for a long, long time.

If it is just talking, why do we have such tremor at the prospect. Most of us can talk to our friends, family and colleagues without any problem. In a presentation though, the stakes are raised. We are on show, we are singled out for attention, scrutiny and investigation. We become very internally focused. We are oblivious to our audience because all of our attention is on ourselves. All of the pressure is on us too and it is coming from within ourselves. Our self-talk is usually bad. Our self-regard goes negative too. We become plagued with self-doubt, and memories of failures, shortcomings, inadequacies and scalding derision.

Our current playbook is drawing on our failures from the past, not from our potential or even the small successes we have had. We go to grand scale immediately on the negative and obliterate the good bits from our memory. We recall that school play when we forgot our lines and everyone laughed at us. The time at University when our class presentation of our research paper was scoffed at and belittled by some of our bolshie classmates. That time in the results meeting, when the big boss berated us for our presentation skill deficit.

We are operating from a sense of scarcity of ability, rather than an abundance of opportunity. We have to switch these ideas around. “Fine buddy boy, but if I could do that, I would have done it already”. That is too true and the reason you haven’t done anything better to date, is because you don’t have any worthwhile information on what you can and should be doing. When we don’t know how to do something, we tend to shy away from it. We do this to protect our public image and our ego.

So we have placed ourselves in an internal contradiction where our fear drives our behaviour which never ends the fear. We need to recognise that cycle and to determine to break it. The brilliant thing today is that we are awash with so much information on how to give presentations. Shelves groan under the weight of worthy tomes on the subject. YouTube is bursting to seams with instructional videoes. Podcasts aplenty provide hints and tips. TED talks are readily available to see what others are doing and at a high level. Once upon a time, you had to be in the room or specially connected to see the best in action, but today you are a few clicks away from free access.

Start by studying. Learn the basics by attending entry level presentation courses. Switch your thinking about how to prepare for talks, by focusing on your rehearsal and not just your slide materials preparation. Leave your ego at the door and volunteer at every opportunity to present. Repetition is needed and after doing just five presentations, you will feel a lot more comfortable than you did for the first. After twenty, you will be relaxed. After fifty, you will be enjoying it. After five hundred, you will be in the top ranks of presenters.

When you know how to properly structure your talk, you can relax and just help the audience navigate through it. You will have the slides to support you, which are visual markers as to what comes next. Don’t try to memorise the content or you will blow yourself up.

I saw this with a speaker visiting from the USA. She had a grand resume and was going quite well, but she made the fatal error of trying to remember what she wanted to say for each slide, rather than just talking us through what was the point of the slide. She lost control of her breathing because of her mounting, self imposed pressure and actually had to stop the presentation. She eventually completed the task, but she was a mess at the end. Her credibility was torched.

Fear of public speaking is often a product of ignorance of what to do, fuelled by wishful thinking that you don’t need to do anything special, like studying the subject. When you get good information and apply it, then the fear fades and with practice comes skill. I know about this. I avoided speaking for decades because of my terror and fear. I finished my first public speech in 1983 in 8 minutes. Unfortunately, it was supposed to go for 25 minutes! Today, I have delivered over 500 public speeches and now teach people how to give presentations. The difference came about because I decided to study about how to do it, volunteered to give talks at every chance, got proper training from experts and put myself out there and had a go. The nerves piece disappeared once I slipped my attention from myself, to focus entirely on my audience.

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We can control 100% of our attitude. Yes, but often we don’t. There are few things we can be 100% in control of and our attitude would have to rank at the top of things we really need to control. So you would think we would all be brilliant in this area. We aren’t and so why do we have problems?

Part of the issue can be allowing past failures to sap our mental fortitude. We mentally re-run the movie in our minds of things we regret or events we actually don’t want to remember, but do anyway. No amount of self-discipline seems to work, shielding us from the past. We seem drawn to flashbacks and re-living the past episodes where we fell short or failed.

We are really creative too. We don’t just allow the past to wipe out our positive attitude, we inject the future in there as well. We project forward and start imagining all sorts of failures and issues we will suffer, before they ever even happen or arrive.

The combination of past realities and future possibilities can be a powerful mix to drag us into a downward spiral, where the world seems bleak, dark and we are hopeless. No matter how many self-affirmations we do or how positive we try to make ourselves, these prior and future fears weigh us down.

What can we do about it? Try to “live in day tight compartments”. This means we focus 100% of our energy and attention on what is facing us today and don’t allow the past and future to impinge on our attitude.

Here is the crucial mental shift we have to make – don’t try to block out what happened in the past – we can’t. Instead though, we can recall it but not worry about it. There is the crucial difference – acknowledge it happened, but don’t worry about the past - we can’t go back and change it. Keep the focus totally on today, on what we can control and concentrate our energy and efforts there.

The same applies to the future. Of course we should consider what will happen in the future – hopefully we will be spending quite a bit of time there. Again, there is considering the future and preparing for it, but not worrying about it. This difference is huge. Prepare for it, but don’t allow it to cause worry. Again flick the switch and look at what is right in front of you now and work on that. Yes, random thoughts about the future will wander into our consciousness, so write them down and capture the issues. Call them out and work on ameliorating them, but don’t worry about them.

When we think about controlling today, what we read and who speak with will have an impact on our attitude. Find positive information in newspapers, magazines, books, articles, Facebook and LinkedIn posts etc., and read that. Be aware of it, but skip the grubby details on everything ugly and negative. That actually means skipping most of the news on television, because you can’t control what is coming up next. At least with written text, on-line or off-line, you can control your intake. Let’s be very picky about what we feed into our minds.

People are the other biggie. Reduce the contact and influence of negative people as much as possible. Avoid whiners, complainers and negative mindset types as much as possible. You may be forced into close proximity with negative people due to where you work, but keep that exposure to a minimum. See them as radioactive and avoid all unnecessary contact. Find people who are positive, upbeat and spend time with them. There are fewer of this variety, but they are around and so soak up and contribute to their positive vibe. Look for organisations where the positive congregate and join the group.

The past, the future and the negative erode our positive attitude, so as a priority let’s organise our life to deal with these issues. When we do that, life gets easier, better and happier. “It is all in the mind” is old wisdom, but still true!

Actions Steps

1. Accept past memories but don’t worry about them
2. Accept certain things might happen in the future, prepare for them, but don’t worry about them
3. Avoid all forms of negativity
4. Search out positive environments and people and spend time there

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Time is of the essence. Patience is a virtue. Worthy aims but sometimes we mix these aspirations up in sales. We are not moving quickly enough and miss the chance. At other times , we are impatient and we force the issue when we should be more stoic and considered. We lose on both counts whenever we confuse what we should actually be doing.

Being too slow usually relates to making contact or following up, after making the initial contact. We meet people at an event, receive a bunch of meishi business cards and then we get sidetracked by something else. Usually a bright shiny object. Days float by and when we realize we haven’t followed up with the people we met, the best timing window has been missed.

There is an advantage in getting back to people we have had a preliminary conversation with fairly promptly, while the occasion is fresh in their mind. As the days drift by, the ease of giving us the bum’s rush increases. They can choose to ignore our contact attempt, be it phone or email. Or they are just genuinely busy, busy, busy and don’t get around to responding. We don’t know which is the case, but we usually assume the former.

Once upon a time, it was considered the height of rudeness to not return a phone call. In the early days of email everyone would reply. Not anymore. In Japan, trying to get through on the phone to people is always difficult, because they are always away from their desk and in a meeting. We are reduced to leaving a message. What does that look like at their end. Maybe a nothing, as the person taking the call chooses to do nothing, despite their promises to let them know we called. Maybe a scrap of paper is plunked down on their desk, scattered amongst a million other papers, soon to disappear from view and relevance.

If the contact is by email, then the tsunami of daily messages pushes our little missive down the chronological chain and we get buried in that great archive called “the unread lower reaches of the inbox”. We get ignored and now face the dilemma of how often to follow up. If we keep pushing we can become annoying. But at precisely which point is that – the second, third or fourth follow up?

Maybe the lack of a response is their subtle way of telling us they are not interested. It is easier to ignore supplicants, than directly telling them to buzz off. Maybe they are just busy – hard to know which is which. In my case I make it three times for follow-up. I always copy the previous email I sent into the new one, to show I reached out to you, but you have not responded.

Does it always work? No, but at least I feel I haven’t blotted my copy book by becoming a pushy pain. I have to be patent. I have to play the long game. This sounds easy, but there are weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual targets to meet. There is the ever present urgency of the now.

The other danger of patience is not to pair it with a good follow-up system. Today’s lack of response reflects today’s situation, but things change inside markets and companies. We tend though to keep moving. We hit up the next prospect and reignite the process all over again. Those who we met, who didn’t respond, now silently disappear into the morass of the daily grind and get quickly forgotten.

If it is a no or a non-response today and if we follow up in a month, their situation probably won’t have changed sufficiently, to yield us a better result. If we leave it for 12 months, there is the danger that our competitor has slipped in there and plumbed the perfect timing to make contact, because the prospect’s situation has changed. We need to be getting back to them somewhere in that 6-9 months zone.

Patience is having a good calendar system to flag that follow-up is needed and when it is needed. We need to be action oriented, but we need to do it in a patient fashion. Saying this sounds so smooth and easy, yet I know myself the discipline to have and maintain the systems to do this are extremely difficult. Especially in a busy life, hounded by targets, milestones and deadlines.

In sales we are enthralled by the now. What is happening today takes up all of our attention and time. We are adrenaline junkies, loving the thrill of the deal, the urgency of the action, the vibrant seizing of the moment. By comparison, storing things away for the “distant future” is a rather foreign, unattractive, boring idea.

So we need to be better organised to take quick action on the immediate follow-up. If we get no traction, we need to be really well disciplined to get back to the prospect and follow up. Easy to say, but hard to do. Regardless, we have to do better in these two areas if we want to be successful.

Remember, if we believe that what we are representing will help the client to grow their business, then we have a strong obligation to keep following up. In these circumstances, we should never be shy about re-contacting the customer. Yes, we are interrupting them, but we are doing it for all the right reasons and in their best interests. So let’s get out there and follow up!

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Don’t think of a pink elephant. Did you think of one when you read that sentence? It shows how easily we can we swayed by images. If I had said don’t think of the letters p-i-n-k-e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t, you would have been fabulously successful. What is the difference – both refer to the same prohibition? We are very much susceptible to images, yet we rarely use this facility when we are trying to have influence with those around us.

We think that force of will, desire, status, oratory, personal power, connections or wealth is how we can have influence with others. In various circumstances, some of these will work, but most are out of reach to the ordinary punter. What else can we do? Well we can “pink elephant” our way to greatness. We can incorporate images into our conversations to persuade others to follow our recommendations.

Getting others to follow our ideas is how we have influence and we have all heard that storytelling is a powerful vehicle for explaining recommendations to others. Like with joke telling though, most of us are pretty average at these skill sets. It sounds easy enough – just tell the joke and people laugh, tell the story and people will get in line behind you. Well we know that few are any good at telling jokes or stories. That is mainly down to a total lack of planning.

Professional comedians spend an enormous amount of time working on their content and then perfecting the timing and mastery of the delivery. If you ever watch Japanese rakugo comedians for example, you can really understand the work that goes into this line of enterprise. They sit on a cushion, usually hold a fan in their hand and that is it. Everything else is down to what they say and how they say it. They create multiple characters, locations, situations and dialogue out of thin air.

On our own part, we normally spend zero time working on our ability to have influence. We don’t craft our story content, nor do we practice the delivery over and over to have the best effect. We just blurt out of our mouth whatever it is we want and then get discouraged when no one could care less about what we want.

There is a simple formula that is a powerful engine for gaining influence. It works on the basis that a good idea is a good idea. The reason for that is because the rationale behind the idea is compelling. If your idea doesn’t engage the emotions and logic of the listener, they are unlikely to be convinced of it’s value. It is a subtle appraoach. Ramming our ideas down the throats of others is the usual way people approach conversion to their way of thinking. This widespread habit has spawned a public of doubters, skeptics, nay-sayers, trolls and haters. We have to recognize that this is our potential audience from the start.

So don’t tell people what you want up front. “I think we should hire more sales people right now, to expand the revenues”, you say fervently. The immediate reaction to this bold expense plan is to inspire everyone in earshot to get to work on coming up with the thousand good reasons that is nonsense and won’t work. Instead we need to build up some images in our story that lay things out in such a way that the audience leaps ahead of the story. We want them to arrive at their own conclusion, that we should hire more people to raise the revenue. By the time we get to our recommendation at the end of the story they are already there and wondering what took us so long to get to the obvious answer. This is called winning without battle, in this case a battle of wits and intellect.

The storytelling should have scenes the listener can see in their mind’s eye. We might say:

“Last Friday, I was up on the 44th floor of the headquarters in Akasaka having a coffee with Tanaka san from the CFO’s office, talking about how to achieve the President’s recently announced five year revenue targets.

Interestingly, she said that they had just finished a computer simulation analysis of the results from the last five years. They found that sales per salesperson were averaging around 40 million yen per year.

I was surprised to hear that even first year newbies like young Suzuki san in the sales team, more than covered their costs in the first year.

I always presumed those new hires were a cost to the company.

Tanaka san was busy getting ready for another presentation a little later that afternoon, so she walked me over to the gorgeous new dark wood paneled board room on the 47th floor.

She booted up her laptop and showed me this line graph on the big 65 inch monitor there, that each year the average increase in salesperson revenue was 50%. I didn’t know that by year three, the salespeople were really starting to pull in sizeable revenue numbers.

It was interesting to me that new hires cover their costs and that the real results get going in year three.

If we are going to meet our five year targets, we should hire more salespeople right now.

If we do that they won’t cost us anything this year and in three years time they will be producing the big numbers we need”.

Now that story required a little over one minute to tell. This is not a huge burden on the listener’s patience. I included people, locations, images they could identify with to make it real. At the very end, I made a call for action – “hire” and then finished off with the icing on the cake with the benefit of doing that action – “produce the big numbers we need”.

Don’t “free form” when trying to have influence. Carefully plan what you will say, practice it to get it concise and digestible for your audience. If you do that you will have people follow your recommendations and ideas and that is what we all want, isn’t it.

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We find it frustrating when we have good ideas or suggestions but all we receive is rejection or even worse criticism of our ideas. Part of it can be the culture of the organization. I was listening to some friend’s episodes about working life at a major global cosmetics brand, where the culture was purposely made combative. I laughed when I was told the Meeting Room was called the “Confrontation Room”. Actually it was a nervous laugh, because that is probably the last place I would want to work. Now I have been studying traditional Japanese Karate for the last 46 years, had a 20 year career as a competitor and so the “combative” part isn’t intimidating for me. What horrifies me is the damage that type of culture and thinking does to the potential of the organization.

I was assured that despite the toxic nature of that organization, it was still very successful and the Darwinian approach produced winners. This strikes me as a very ancient way of thinking and completely out of touch with the modern world. The presentation sessions for new projects and ideas in the Confrontation Room were brutal. Shredding people’s ideas publically was thought to be necessary to produce the most robust solutions. Maybe you or your own organization has a similar approach?

It might toughen up the survivors, but there would have been a lot of valuable ideas kept to themselves, so as not to invoke scorn. This is the issue – how do we get ideas out that can stimulate everyone’s thinking. When we savage someone’s contribution we cancel their idea creation ticket right there. My crazy, unworkable, ridiculous, stupid idea might be tweaked by you into something really valuable. Without my nutty offering though, you would not have seen the better possibility. This is the problem with ripping into people for not putting up perfect ideas from the start – they stop starting and remain silent instead.

Confusing the stages of the innovation process is harmful to individuals and organisations. There should be two distinct stages involved in creative idea creation. Green Light thinking is a metaphor for the traffic lights showing green, meaning to proceed. Red Light thinking means to stop. Generating ideas is what we do in the Green Light stage and evaluation is taken care of in the Red Light thinking stage. The important point is to not mix the stages together.

Critiquing ideas as they are being formed dampens the amount of involvement and contribution from everyone. Some people are fast and others are slow in how their processing of ideas. The more considered idea generators see the other contributor’s ideas being flayed alive and they deduce they should just park their idea. They wisely keep it to themselves because they don’t want to go through that. They often have the most valuable ideas because they are deep thinkers but their ideas never emerge.

We need as large a volume of ideas as possible in the Green Light stage. Time is always limited, but the object is to get the ideas out first, with no commentary. Allow people the full freedom to put their ideas forward. Once the ideas have been generated, we should share the content. This is where the magic of cross- pollination occurs and we see one idea trigger something unrelated. We need to guarantee the freedom though, to provide that spark, unworkable as it may be in and of itself. It has a different role – it is a catalyst for more creative boundaries to be stretched.

The Confrontation Room probably buried a lot of potentially breakthrough ideas in a silent grave. The bosses were happy that the imperfect ideas were vanquished at every stage. The issue there is who defines what is perfect? If it only the boss’s opinion, then we don’t need to waste other people’s time – the boss can generate perfect ideas alone.

Let’s forget mixing Green Light and Red Light thinking and give our team the advantage of creativity that is fully supported and nurtured. Let’s create a dominant culture which is inclusive and welcoming of everyone’s contribution. If we can do this we will win the innovation contest of who proceeds and who disappears in business.

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Pushy salespeople are very, very annoying. They try to bug you into buying and we really don’t like it. We may actually buy, but we don’t like them anymore and probably won’t become a repeat buyer. Fair enough, but what about when you are the salesperson? At what point should we give up on convincing the buyer that our solution is the best for them?

It often happens that we meet a potential buyer, we do our follow up and get a meeting. We listen carefully to what they want. We even try to leverage our experience and deliver some insights about relevant issues they haven’t thought about yet.

In all of this we are trying to tailor a solution to the needs of the buyer and to add value. We want to become a trusted partner for the client, however we are not looking to make a “sale”. We are looking to make a “re-sale”. We want to have a long-term relationship with our client. We want to help them trigger that “we haven’t prepared for that” realisation in their minds and that we are the solution.

Having made the presentation, listened carefully to what they want, we go back to the office and put together our proposal. We survey the broad range of possible solutions available, select from that treasure trove and painstakingly assemble a logical, pertinent and convincing roadmap for moving forward. This is when the problems start.

If possible, we meet the client again to present the solution. In some cases the client says, “email it to me”. With every once of strength in every fiber in our body we should resists this default to the modern convenience of email as the messenger. We must present it, in person and in a way that really clarifies what is written for the client. Even when we can do that, the client invariably says, “okay, we will study it”. This is when things can go silent.

We hear nothing, so after a week or so, we email a gentle nudge to the client. We could phone them except that today trying to get hold of busy decision-makers is fraught with difficulty. They are in permanent meetings or travelling. This is usually not some subtle avoidance tactic, “tell him I am in a meeting”. Rather it is part of the genuine plague of modern business life – numerous, endless meetings. Also today, nobody bothers to ring you back, so the cadence of communication can either really elongate or go very cold.

So our first email yields nothing. No response, no answer, absolutely zero, zilch. Buyers are so brazen these days, as business manners become more informal and the rules less defined. What do we do? One preventative idea with that previously mentioned first email is to create a thread. Go back to a previous email exchange pre-dating presenting the solution and copy that into this email, so the email trail is there. This implies, “hey, I have been emailing you, but you didn’t respond this time”, without saying it directly. This is the “guilt them into responding” tactic. If they still don’t respond, what do we do now?

Some clients may genuinely not be interested and prefer silence to end the discussion, rather than having to confront you with a “no”. Maybe the situation changed internally or maybe they went with your competitor? This happened about 12 months ago. I had a great meeting, the buyer was keen and we were looking good. Then radio silence. No response at all. I kept on following up but nothing. About a month ago, I met the new head of that company and then the penny dropped. My enthusiastic guy got killed in an internal power struggle and was being forced out of the company. My little problem lost all relevance and interest, but I had no idea. It was going on in secret, so the situation can change and hurt us, but often we can’t tell why. In other cases, they are just drowning in emails, spiced up with all their time being sucked into long meetings and frequent travel. They just don’t have the time to get to your questions.

The rule in sales is “don’t say no for the other guy”, but what are we looking at here? Which is it, “no interest” or “no time”? We don’t want to be relegated to the annoying, pushy sales guy or gal category for permanent disposal. We want to preserve our good reputation and personal brand, so we want to avoid becoming a pain. On the other hand, we may be not serving the client well, by giving up too early. Their problem still needs solving. This is the dilemma.

I believe, we should try once more. We should give them a call, knowing the chances of connecting are low to miserable. We might try phoning around 8.00am in the morning, before their gate keepers arrive, to improve our chances of catching them in person. If we fail to connect, we should absolutely leave a message on their answering service, even though we know they won’t call us back. Next we should send that email thread again and add to it, asking about the next steps, have they made a decision, what is the current status?

What if they still don’t respond? We are now into pushy salesperson territory. I recommend we wait for a week. If there is no response, then try to phone again and if that fails, leave a message and send a final email. In this last effort, say that we take their no response to mean they are not interested in our proposed solution for this problem, at this particular point in time. We look forward to catching up with them at some point in the future and remain ready to help them when they have an issue that needs solving.

We may have lost the battle, but we don’t want to lose the war by burning the relationship with the client by being pushy and becoming annoying. They are saying no to our offer – in this current format, at this point in time, in these business and organisational circumstances, at this price against the perceived value. They are not saying “no” to us personally. We need to come back and fight again another day. We need our good name preserved in the market place, when they talk about us to other potential buyers. We need them to feel comfortable to deal with us in the future. We have to play the long game.

Action Steps

1. Always try to present your proposal in person
2. Follow up by phone and email after presenting your proposal
3. If no response to the first follow-up, try again and keep adding to the email thread
4. If you can’t get through or get any response, send a final email but leave the door open to future business
5. Don’t take rejection personally – remember they are missing out on your solution, so they are hurting themselves by making such a big mistake

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Know Your Target

I was at a speech recently, given by a very prominent person, an extremely experienced speaker, to a very prestigious audience. It should have been a triumph, but it was a fizzer. There were two particular problems with the speech. One was it was set for 25 minutes but the speaker finished in 8 minutes. The second problem was that the most interesting part of the speech was not readily accessible for the audience. Both issues stemmed from a lack of homework before giving the speech. Given the experience of the speaker, I found this rather surprising, but it highlights that no matter how comfortable you are or how experienced you are, always do your homework before giving the talk.

Japan is a very formal country. If a speech is scheduled for 25 minutes, it has to last that long or otherwise it upsets the timetable. It creates a gap and organisers here in Japan are not renown for their flexibility and capacity to ad lib. It also sends a subtle negative message to the audience, that they are not worth preparing a 25 minute speech for. It comes off as being disrespectful and flippant.

I was sitting in audience the listening to the proceedings audience and was surprised to hear the speaker wrapping things up. Looking at my watch, I realised we were barely out of the blocks. Another audience member caught my eye, as we both realised this was coming to an abrupt and rather shocking end. He gave me a quizzical look that said “is this speaker serious?”. It certainly didn’t leave the right impression with the audience. They felt cheated and that they had not being respected enough, given how self important they are. This was the right crowd to win over too, so a real opportunity gone begging.

I have often been asked to speak to Japanese groups from 4.00-6.00pm. It is late in the day, when people are already tired from the morning and early afternoon sessions. The length of a two hour speech is taxing for an audience to stay connected with the subject and with the speaker. I wondered why they would want to put the audience through that ordeal? I asked, “Can’t we just make it an hour, tops?”. I was told, “Oh no, Dr. Story, it has to be two hours”. Listening to a foreigner speaking Japanese for such a long period is also tiring because of the extra concentration needed.

After doing a number of these long speeches, I eventually realised that I was the filler, between the end of their own programme and the party. The food and drinks were ready for a 6.00pm start and I needed to keep tap dancing until that time. If I had quit after an hour, the organisers would lose face, because people would be lost with what to do for that single unscheduled hour. If they were Aussies, they would just start the party earlier!

So before you speak, carefully check on how long they want you to occupy this part of the programme. The organisers usually have very little interest in the quality end of the experience. They just need the slot filled and you need to understand that is your role sunshine. Knowing this will help you in your preparation. You can structure the presentation to make it interesting over a two hour period. One way to do that is by employing visuals. I don’t mean detailed, heavy duty graphs and tables of statistics, like a lot of Japanese presenters seem to love. I mean photos with no words on them, which you then proceed to talk about.

Now our big name speaker in my example, actually had some really intriguing photos with him, but he hadn’t thought to put them on slides and show them to everyone. He just waved them in the air effortlessly and ineffectively.

It is not hard to ask the organisers if there is an opportunity to use a screen and a projector. Most venues in Japan have these types of equipment. Why that relatively simple task wasn’t checked on before the speech was a complete mystery to me. He could have really wowed his audience because the content of the photos was really dynamite. Waving the actual photos around from the podium isn’t quite as exciting, as projecting them up on a huge screen and then telling everyone the back story.

The point here is do your homework in Japan before you speak. Check on the logistics, the reasoning behind the schedule, the equipment availability at that venue for what you need. Who will be in my audience, what are they interested in, what is their knowledge of the subject, how can I impress them, will there be consecutive or simultaneous translation going on if you are doing it in English? No one prepares to fail, but we do fail to prepare, don’t we.

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The disappearance of Executive Assistants and Secretaries reflects the dominance of the keyboard and a DIY approach to work content creation by leaders. Once upon a time, the majority of boss content output was produced by others, a magical time of delegation ruling the world. The secretarial pool only lives in the memory of the few or has been briefly glimpsed in black and white movies. We replaced the system but as leaders have we really fully adjusted to the change?

We are more “efficient” because brigades of women (and they were all women), have been liberated from the boredom of typing out the boss’s work. Today the boss is the one typing content into a computer keyboard, usually destined to appear in an email, a word document, a powerpoint slide or a spreadsheet. The modern normalisation of the sheer volume of communication ensures the secretarial function is only going to be there for the very upper echelons of large organisations.

The DIY outcome has had a negative knock-on effect, where leaders who should be delegating, have gotten out of the habit and do work they should be delegating to their staff. The delegate muscle has atrophied and become flabby.

Find some handy blunt object and apply it vigorously to your head if you have ever said, “It will be faster if I do it myself”. We all do it, because we are lazy and disorganised. Lazy because we won’t make the effort to set ourselves up for long term success by developing our team members, so that they can step up and take on a higher role. Disorganised because our time management skills are poor and we are unable to schedule the necessary time for the delegation steps, which ultimately will make the process work so well. We are often too busy doing “today” to be able to consider “ultimately”.

Worse than that, we have dangerous self-talk such as, “delegation doesn’t work”. Well, we need to smell the coffee, it does work but not if we do it in some half-baked fashion, missing vital inputs and steps. We have the “don’t delegate enough” leader disease, but we are no longer noticing the symptoms because it has become the new normal to do it by yourself.

Let’s take a reality check here and see how we score on some simple questions:

1. Do you work out details others could handle?
2. Do you keep your hands on too many projects?
3. Do you find yourself rushing to meet deadlines?
4. Do you work longer hours than other managers and do so on a regular basis?
5. Do you spend your time doing tasks for others that they could do themselves?
6. Do you become involved in working on projects you thought you had given to others?

If we answered “Yes” to all or a majority of those questions, it is time to think carefully about what type of work future we want? Would we be better placed to be spending our days concentrating on doing high value tasks that only we can do? Do we want to stay right where we are now because the organization can’t promote us? They can’t move us because there is no logical successor to replace us and we are invaluable in the current role.

When we sit back and evaluate what we actually do all day, everyday, how much of our work-life is being spent on quality time and how much on low value tasks? If the high quality tasks are an infinitesimally small portion of our total work day, what does that tell us about our actual productivity and the potential we have to do a lot better?

Forest and trees get confused when we are too busy just doing. We need time for thinking, for imagining, for getting above the foliage canopy and glimpsing into the future. Our inability to delegate is holding us down in our careers or damaging our businesses. Without realising it, we have become the blocker to progress because we are too busy and too DIY oriented. It is time to reach for that blunt object and knock some sense into our heads about the importance of being able to delegate successfully.

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A LinkedIn post I read recorded how an American sales guy got off the booze and the client entertainment rat race. It got a lot of coverage and comment because it obviously struck a chord with many fellow salespeople. It got me thinking about the same conundrum for those of us selling in Japan.

This is a tricky issue here because, traditionally, so much client entertainment was involved. “I gave my liver for my company” is a common refrain amongst Japanese salespeople. The other one is “I gave up my weekends for golf with the client”. What about foreigners selling here? Do we have to donate our liver to the cause and get divorced, because we are never spending any time with the family?

There is a difference between bribing the buyer through entertainment and having a business relationship. I think we can provide a quality service and leave it at the professional level. You might be spending your evenings wining and dining the buyer, but every couple of years they rotate positions within the company and your guy has moved on.

Also, depending on the sector where you are working, your “guy”, could well be a “gal” these days and being taken out by you, may be of very little interest. Younger people value their private time more than previous generations and don’t necessarily want to be spending it with salespeople.

If we concentrate on providing a reliable and quality service, then we can make sales here. We can have a business relationship that doesn’t have to cross the boundaries of bribery to get the business. I have noticed some firms in Japan are applying a stricter compliance aspect to their dealing with vendors and typical client visit gifts are being refused. I visited Mazda recently and took some cookies for the people we were visiting and they politely, but very firmly, rejected receiving the gift. In the finance business, compliance rules are very strict and staff entertainment is very carefully monitored.

For many Japanese companies, the good old days of big expense accounts for staff have gone. When I was visiting Japan from Australia to sell in the 1980s and 1990s, I thought I was a really popular guy with my Japanese clients. Every visit, everyone wanted to take me out at night to restaurants and night clubs. We would have our sales meeting and they would say, “What are you doing tonight” and then the invitation would be extended. I was a slow learner. I eventually realized, rather than my considerable charm being the draw card , I was the excuse these guys needed to have a great night out on the town on the company’s dime.

Golf is also a killer here. The travelling distance to and from the course sucks up time. The game tee off isn’t until 9.00am after you had your obligatory coffee, then there is the hour for lunch, then the obligatory bath afterwards, then dinner together. There goes the whole day and night. Sadly, if you are a hacker like me, you hardly see anyone on the links anyway. You are hunting for your ball in the rough all the time. I found I only occasionally bumped into people in my party when we had the tee off or when doing the putting on the green. I thought “so much for the networking, relationship building opportunity!”. It is very hard to justify the time these days, given the demands of business. Yes, it is always pleasant to get out of the city and enjoy some nature, but can we really justify the time anymore.

Lunches are a good way to get to know people. Usually, they are booze free or are imbibed in very moderate amounts. The infamous Australian contribution to Tokyo culture, the B&B (Beefsteak and Burgundy Club) long luncheon monthly gathering on Fridays would be the exception. It may seem an anachronism in this modern age, but it still has diehard fans who keep it going. Usually though, we can get together with the client for a lunch and get to know each other a bit better. The check is often split these days, again because of compliance regulations. Breakfasts are not big with Japanese clients, usually because they are traveling long distances in the morning to get to work. Your 7.30am breakfast probably means for them a 5.30am departure from home to get there in time.

Rather than trying to buy business through entertainment, we can do very well here in Japan, if we concentrate on being the best at satisfying the buyer’s needs. Ultimately the person being entertained has to answer to their boss and the latter is all about results. Their interest in their staff ‘s good times being paid for by us is minimal.

Understand the client’s real needs, deliver value, follow up, do what you say you will and clients here will continue to do business with you. Your liver will thank you!

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Most talks and presentations we hear, we cannot recall. Why is that? We were there presumably because we had an interest. The presenter no doubt made an effort to share something of value with us. They probably spent hours on their presentation slides and were perhaps somewhat anxious about giving the presentation. So a lot of nervous energy was expended in the exercise, but with a zero result. If we can’t remember the content or the speaker, then it is hard to say it was a success, wouldn’t you say?

Part of the problem is the way people present their information in the first place. The slides are too dense and confusing. The delivery is done in a lethargic manner, devoid of passion, with zero body language backing up the key points. Sitting there listening, we catch that disease from the speaker very swiftly and suddenly we don’t have any passion for the exercise either. We hear a monotone voice droning on and on, like the humming white noise from your electrical appliances. The speaker may also be speaking too fast because they are nervous or may just be a serial mumbler, who is hard to catch.

The design of the talk may not flow well, so it is hard to make the mental move from understanding one point to understanding the next. The speaker may decide to improvise and sweep us all off on to a tangent, that has little to do with the main menu. We rarely make it back, because we have now lost interest in what they are saying and we are playing with our phone instead.

A recent presentation had elements of this. The speaker was quite a smart person, having built their business up from zero and is now winning large contracts from big players in Japan. The slides outlining the details of how the software worked were dismal. It was complex and disconnected. It was assaulted by numerous tangents of tangents, totally wrapped up in diversions. The delivery was lifeless and humdrum. There were no crescendos, no light and dark elements – no contrasts. It consisted mainly of a composite of calms and no storms and so didn’t spark as much interest as it should have.

If we want to elevate our good name above the rabble, we had better do a splendid job of being clear when presenting. Our slides should be in the ratio of one slide to one idea. The less on the screen the better. Let’s lead the charge for minimalism on screens. Let’s bring out our inner zen of nothingness. The screen and the slides are competitors with our face. We want people looking at us and glancing at the screen, not the other way around.

We want to use numbers. There are seven elements or five elements or three element of our main thesis, for example, and so we attach numbers to each. This is a simple, tried and true guidepost system to navigate the audience through the content. Don’t make the punters work hard to follow where we are going with this talk.

We should speak with passion, belief, commitment and enthusiasm about our subject. If you can’t do that, then please remain in the audience and don’t get up on a podium and try to talk to crowds. All you are doing is killing your personal brand and bringing no value to humanity. We want your energy, but we want it harnessed – it has to be controlled. We want some words being hit hard and some introduced gently – both are powerful mechanisms for emphasis. We want the energy, but we don’t want chaos, where all the words are jumbled together.

I was coaching an Indian businessman here on public speaking and in his initial speech, he spoke at breakneck speed for three minutes, with nary a pause nor a break and with a very heavy subcontinent accent. In fact, it was one massively long sentence, strung together without compunction or mercy and fully incomprehensible and forgettable. Introducing some concepts like having a clearer structure, slowing down, adding in pauses and highlighting some words over others for effect, had a miraculous impact on his final version. It was night and day.

Don’t mumble. Record yourself in rehearsal and be prepared for a shock. Yes that tinny, reedy, nasal, mumbling voice is really you. The lack of a rehearsal is the big error to catching problems, before you destroy your public reputation. Rehearse. Listen to how you sound before anyone else has to. Rehearse.

Speak to your key points and don’t read us the manuscript please. We all have email by the way, so you can send it to us, rather than read it to us. When you run through it numerous times before you are unleashed on your audience, you discover the right cadence of how to express the ideas best,

One run through though is a joke. You need to be doing this preparation multiple times, so that all the vocal bugs and defects are completely eliminated before the curtain goes up. By the way, regardless of how your voice sounds to you, don’t worry about it. All those born with television announcer voices are on television or radio and the rest of us are out in the real world, shaking it up, as best we can. If what you say is being delivered in a way that we can easily understand and if the content is interesting and valuable, then we will forgive your total lack of a superstar bass DJ voice.

Being clear when speaking is not such a big deal. People worry about it, but don’t do any work on it before having to speak. They then wonder why the whole thing fell in a heap. A few simple measures will make it perfectly clear to the audience. They will hear you and then the quality of the content will either resonate with them or not. Your chance of being remembered will go right up, if you just do a few things before you unleash yourself on your audience.

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Switching Your Mindset About Putting Things Off

We know we should do that project or piece of work but we resist. We may even be bold and get it into our To Do list, maybe even attach a high priority number to it, but still fail to start. Why? We are all pretty clever about avoiding pain and some projects have pain written all over them. Maybe we may have to think – gasp! Or maybe, it is going to require a lot of time and we feel too time poor to get into it. It could be it is complex and will require a lot of effort, sapping our strength for other competing easier projects. Hopefully, we are not just plain lazy, like Dilbert’s cartoon character “Wally” – a serial work avoider.

Our inner dialogue could also be an issue. We are talking ourselves out of doing the work because of what we are saying to ourselves about the prospect. Here are some ides on changing the inner conversation to slip the chains of procrastination and assist us to get the hard bits completed.

“I need to do it perfectly”

This is a great one in japan, because Japanese culture really emphasizes doing things correctly and has low tolerance for mistakes. We can say instead, “I will get this project started and give myself sufficient time to work on it, so it is done correctly”.

“I have to”

Our feelings of resistance increase whenever the words “have to” appear. We want to demonstrate our fierce independence by showing that project who is boss and reject that “have to” jive. Sadly we don’t start either, so all a bit self-defeating in the end. So let’s take back control and say instead “I choose to”.

“This project is overwhelming”

This is the “eat the elephant” or “eat the live frog” metaphor – we are put off by the size or difficulty of the task at hand. Our mind is doing a quick calculation about all the other things we have to do and one project sucking up all the time is not computing. Let’s change our focus from contemplating the project in it’s entirety and say to ourselves “Where is the best place to start”.

“I have no time for lunch”

Occasionally, this may happen, but if it is your regular excuse for not getting projects done, then we need to confront this head on. Change the language to yourself and say instead, “My work effectiveness will be much, much better after a break, so I will take lunch and then really get into it”.

Here are some more self defeating statements: “I’ll never get this finished”

The prospect of completion is so daunting we run up the white flag immediately. We can see an ocean of pain spreading out before us and we want to delay the onset. Rather, let’s talk ourselves into it, by noting, “I know once I get started, I will be on a roll”

“There is no way I can succeed”

This is another one of those “all or nothing” choices we make. If I can’t do it perfectly, better not to do it at all. Better to avoid failure and having to confront my inner demons by not starting. Switch gears and use a kaizenthought process, “I will give it my best shot, get it going and work on improving it along the way”.

“No one else is working as hard as me”

Being such a legend in the workplace, I deserve to be cut some slack around here. I can cruise for a bit, because I am more valuable than the rest of the crew. Hello - give me a break, pleeeeease! Look at it differently, “This is my chance to take a leadership role and encourage others to swallow their frog”.

“I don’t know where to begin”

A solid rock face wall is confronting and looking straight up, it is a long way to the top. Switch thoughts and say, “Get the hard part done and then the rest will be easy”.

“I hate this part of the job”

We know ourselves and we know our pain and pleasure points. Let’s combine them and think, “Once I finish this task, I will reward myself!”

Change our inner conversation and we change our productivity. Remember, time is limited and so we can’t do everything, but we can choose to do the most important thing every day. Let’s talk ourselves into it.

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Salespeople don't set the price of what they sell. This is usually an obscure outcome decided by someone else inside the machine. It might actually be an elaborate process, where multiple variables are carefully calibrated, mathematical formulae are applied and a price is arrived at. Or, it might be a slightly moist index finger boldly thrust skyward to come up with a number. The latter is often the case when arriving at pricing for services. Regardless, the salespersons task is to sell at that price. This is where we get into trouble.

Salespeople are total wimps when it comes to price. We have learnt that getting a sale is what counts and price is an obstacle in that process. If we are on a fixed salary and bonus or base salary and commission, the two usual cases in Japan, we get paid when we make a sale. Do we know the profit margin attached to each sale? Usually no and actually we don't often care either, as long as we get paid. We are just happy to (A) not get rejected by the buyer and (B) get a win, however small. Our self-esteem is totally tied up with getting sales, modest in size or otherwise.

The instinct of the salesperson then is to make the price as malleable as possible. Offering a discount seems to get the buyer in a good mood and more likely to give us a yes. This reduced price immediately impacts our commission and if we keep doing this, will also impact our bonus and job security, as we don't bring in enough revenue relative to the target.

The key problem is that the salespeople often don't believe in their own product or service. Because of this they can discount with gay abandon. This is a short-term gain for long-term pain. The ability to meet the price requirement is a critical piece of the salesperson’s skill set. Dropping the price may be easy, but we never build the skills to really succeed in this profession. It usually is a path to our removal by the sales manager, who understands we are unable to sell.

Amateur salespeople, when they don't believe in the price, start right off the bat with a discounted price. They say stupid things like, “normally the price is x but I am going to offer it to you for y”. Or, “if you buy two, I will drop the price by x”. The client hasn't even requested a discount, begun haggling, attempted to massage the ask and yet lo and behold, a miracle has just popped up without warning. This tactic may be misinterpreted by salespeople, who don’t know what they are doing, as building trust and a good relationship with the client. That is a false dawn of hope on the part of our intrepid hero or heroine.

Thanks to volunteering an unprompted price cut, the client now understands that your firm are a bunch of liars who say one thing, but do another. They also know you are a tricky bunch who are trying to snow buyers with your fiction pricing magic. They don't see the gratuitous lower price as a bargain. They see that as the starting point in a negotiation to drive the price even lower. By having a listed price and immediately offering a lesser price, the buyer feels you cannot be trusted because you cannot even defend what you say is the value of your offering.

By dropping the price so quickly, the whole question of perceived value is brought into fundamental disrepute. There is no fixed price for this sale and therefore no equivalent particular value attached to it either. We are now in the Wild West of selling, where there the only rule is the right of force and the buyer has the Gatling Gun and we have a water pistol.

The salesperson’s job is to pour on the value explanation and show why this pricing is fair and reasonable, fully justified and easily defensible. If they do need to meet the client’s restricted budget or need to allow the buyer to save face with their bosses, then any discounting should in the first instant be attached to volume purchases. If they buy more then the price can be adjusted. The amount reduced should be as smallish amount, as part of the first offer. Remember, we are now off the paved highway and are hacking our way through the dense brush of a negotiated agreement, where there are no maps, no signposts and no 5th Cavalry about to come to the rescue over the sand dunes.

If the price point is to be assaulted, then the reductions should be small and fought heroically all the way. Do not go for round number drops or large number drops, go down in dribs and drabs. The client will feel much better knowing that they got a legitimate discount against the usual price, because they extracted that right out of the salesperson’s hide, rather than the salesperson rolled over right from the get go. When that happens, they doubt everything about you and your company because your pricing seems bogus.

Never drop your price. Defend your price with value. Resist reductions all the way down and extract some form of quid pro quo against volume purchases. If you buckle, you will be destroying the brand, the brand positioning and the credibility of the firm. You may lose some sales. These are usually people who cannot afford you anyway. If you believe in the value of what you are selling don’t give in, defend, show value, fight, fight, fight.

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Getting up in front of people is confronting for a lot of speakers. Beady eyes are boring into you, a sea of serious faces is scary, the lights are painfully bright and the pressure feels intense. You start to doubt your preparation was sufficient for the occasion. You throw up the laptop lid and then try to mount the podium such that it provides a safety barrier between you and the great unwashed. You studiously avoid confronting eye contact, by staring down at your laptop screen or your notes. Or to leaven things up, you read the screen to the audience, presenting a nice view of the top of your head. If you have a partly bald pate, like some medieval monk, then that makes it all the more gripping. It doesn’t have to be so pathetic. In fact, you can “own the space and work the room”.

By properly designing your presentation in the first place, you can release yourself from the laptop. The main screen will be composed of little text and mainly images. These are images designed with the object of conveying the key points in two seconds. This means you are replacing text on a screen, with oral word pictures delivered by you. This is so much more powerful. The slide advancer technology is pretty good these days and this frees you from having to be physically chained to the laptop.

Now you can move to the audience. Depending on the size of the occasion, the approach will be different. Let’s assume a 30 person plus venue. You divide your audience space into six sectors, like a baseball diamond. Left, Middle, Right Field. You then cut it in half, so you have an Inner Field and an Outer Field. If the audience is smaller than 30 people, then you probably have just left, right, front and back to work with.

The point is to “work the room” by engaging with your entire audience. Make around six to eight seconds of eye contact with each individual, in all of those sectors. Do it randomly, unpredictably, to maintain interest. If you do it a predetermined order, the audience will leave you, because they are able to anticipate where your attention is focused. Once they know, they switch off and are easy prey to distractions, like their phone and the internet.

In a larger audience, one individual seated toward the back receives your eye contact but the twenty people sitting around them, all think you are making direct eye contact with them. In this way, you can continuously engage the entire group.

Don’t pace across the stage while talking. You see nervous speakers doing this and it becomes highly annoying, as they keep traipsing across the stage from left to right, left to right, left to right. Don’t do that. Here is Dr. Story’s Iron Rule: “Don’t talk and walk. Move in silence, land on a spot and then speak”.

Certainly move to the extremes of right and left of the stage. Make sure you engage with those seated on the side of the venue. From the center, walk across to the left and use your eye contact to connect with these audience members. Move back to the center and do the same with the center group, then repeat the process for those on the right. Then back to the center. I think you get the idea.

The key is pause speaking, move to a new position and then start speaking from there. Having a pause is a good thing in a speech. This gives you time to take up your new position and it allows the audience to digest what you just got through telling them.

There are also six speaking positions we should be using:

One, is the middle part of the stage, separated equally from the screen and the stage apron.

Two, in this center location, our chin should be held up at a ninety degree angle to the floor. This is the neutral position of having no particular emphasis attached to that location.

Three, if we want to make a macro point then back away from the audience, toward the rear of the stage, where you can be seen most widely.

Four, in this back of the stage location, hold your chin up at a slightly higher angle than ninety degrees.

Five, if you want to make a point of emphasis, then move to the front of the stage apron, as close as you can get to the audience.

Six, in this front of stage location, drop the angle of your chin down slightly to be less than ninety degrees.

By the way, be careful about going to the edge of the stage so you don’t fall off. Don’t laugh. I have almost done this a couple of times in my enthusiasm to get close to my audience, while trying to drive home a particular point. Falling off the stage will make you a memorable speaker, but it is not advisable.

If the stage area is smaller and the screen occupies a good portion of the real estate, then don’t walk in front of the screen, if there is a projector involved. In very short order, you become the screen and that is totally distracting for an audience. Now you would think this was such an obvious point. However, we have all seen speakers do it. They are not aware of the projector in front of them and they have lost the attention of their audience.

In this case, stand on the audience left side of the projector. We read from left to right, so we want people to look at our face first and then look at the screen. I would say that 80% of the time the room is set up for the speaker to stand on the opposite, the audience right side, so it is best to let the organizers know in advance where you want to stand.

We can still use our middle, back and front distances on the audience left side of the stage but we can’t use the audience right. That is unless you hit the “B” key on the laptop and black out the screen. In this case, you won’t be in the way of the light beam from the projector and you can move around freely. By the way, to bring the screen back up again, just press “W”.

Take control of your speaking environment. Do not rely on clueless people to set it up for you. Get it properly organized beforehand. The speaking spot is a physical environment. We don’t want to just turn up there like a spectator, we want to dominate it. Make sure you “own the space and work the room”. If you do, your audience will buy your message and they will remember you as a powerful and confident presenter – someone they would like to hear from again in the future. Remember, this is how you build your personal brand.

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Beginnings are important in business. It might be the start of a new calendar year, a new financial year or the launch of a new project or initiative. Often we get straight into the launch and problems arise. Those we didn’t anticipate are particularly annoying. We may not be able to eliminate all the issues associated with initiatives, but we can always do a better job in the pre-launch phase.

Here are three handy questions to contemplate in the early planning stage, as you toss around some ideas for the next big thing:

1. Are your team members ready?

Everyone is usually busy and many feel “I am busy enough already thank you very much!”. Their attitude to doing more may be negative and resistant. Just dropping another new project into their laps, may not garner the commitment we need to see the task completed, in the time frame and within the budget.

You personally may be highly motivated, mainly because it is your idea and you have a really strong grasp of the WHY behind the initiative. The rest of the team may just view this as more work, relegated to the same level of importance of all the other things they are already doing. Our communication skills become important at this point. We need to be persuasive around the vision we have of a better future for the team and the enterprise. We need to be clear what we are going to do and not going to do in this project – our mission needs to be defined and separated from the other work already underway.

There is a clear objective in your mind but does the team share the same clarity around what we are trying to achieve. Leader’s presumptions are often the killer of successful outcomes. The WHY and none of the when, where, what and how needs to be the starting point. “Of course they know the WHY”, are fatal words that can come back to haunt us when the project tanks and the outcomes are not achieved.

1. Are the team members willing to put in the time and effort?

“They get paid to be willing and able, don’t they?”. True, but that assumption and expectation are not enough. We want self-motivation, ownership, self-accountability, delegation and self-leadership. Staff will not automatically exhibit the behaviours that show a willingness to go the extra mile to get this done or the fortitude to keep going when things get tough. We need to anticipate that competing priorities will cloud the issues.

Staff will only step up because they have been convinced of the urgency and priority of these tasks. The big picture has been boiled down to some micro tasks that are prerequisites for successful outcomes. That requires arousing enthusiasm in the team to embrace change. Few people want to change, mainly because we are dug deep into our foxhole of our Comfort Zone. Enticing people to step out into the world of the new and risky, needs extra effort to communicate the better future. So we must dedicate the time to explain and also to check for understanding, buy-in and enthusiasm.

1. Are the team able to succeed?

Do they have the resources? Often, our busy time is the most valuable resource and we are miserly in providing it, because we are so overwhelmed by what we are trying to cover off. We mistake dumping for delegation and then wonder why things go wrong. We need to factor our leader time into the equation from the start and make staff access available.

Is there any special training to bolster skill sets to ensure the task gets completed correctly. Are the internal barriers to cooperation with other groups cleared in readiness? Are there any logistical elements like equipment or space that need to be proffered so the project glides along smoothly. Has decision-making power been pushed far enough down the line to make sure the team members are feeling empowered to run this themselves?

Picking apart failure is no fun and feels like a burden. Better to dedicate some time for hard thinking at the start, rather than hard thinking at the end about where everything went wrong.

Action Steps

1. Explain the WHY
2. Don’t presume - tell them
3. Communicate the better future
4. 1. Don’t confuse dumping with delegation

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Three woeful contributions from salespeople include "we have this widget", "you should have it?" and "we can discount the price". What a mess right there. Yet, left to their own devices, this is the type of nonsense salespeople say to clients. Serving the client's best interests is job one for salespeople, so why aren't they having a proper conversation with the buyer?

They are untrained, unprofessional and unskilled. What should they be saying? We don't have anything for the buyer, until we have some idea of what they need. Going through the detail of the latest release, model, new variation etc., is pointless. Yet out come the brochures, detailing the spec, trying to lure buyers with glossy photos and copywriting. This has its place, of course, but timing is everything. The buyer wants it in pink, but we don't know that. If we head off on a monologue about the wonder of our blue range, we are going to get nowhere - glossy photos or otherwise.

Ask the buyer about where they are now with their business and then where they want to be? The size of the gap tells the salesperson whether they are the one with the solution to closing that gap or not. If the gap is not so large, better to go and find a buyer who has the opposite situation. Don't waste anyone's time any further.

If there is a sizable gap, ask why they haven't filled it in themselves already. What an ace question! In this answer is the hint as to whether we have the magic answer to solve their problem. Listening to them, we may however discover that we don't have what they need. No need for wrestling the buyer to the ground and trying to force them to buy. Get out of there as fast as polite and go find someone who you can provide with a solution.

The next question in this escalation is about their why. There are usually four “whys”. There is the unit why, the division why, the company why and then their own personal why. Their personal why is the key driver of buyer behavior, as we are driven by our own best interests. Once we know what success means for them, then we have an idea of how to present the solution at a later stage.

Going through the details and then asking “do you want it” is not impressive as a means of getting the buyer to go for the purchase. Instead, having now understood what they need and having ascertained we can provide it, we now (and only now) introduce our product or service. We need to check a couple of things off before we go into solution explanation mode.

Who are we talking to? Is this the big picture, macro, company direction, vision realization driven CEO? Or are we talking to detail oriented people like the CFO and the technical buyers, who want three decimal places and all the micro analysis? Are they the user buyer, who is thinking about ease of application, after sales service, guarantees and hand holding if needed? Depending on where they sit in the company our explanation of the suitability of the solution for them will be different. Similarly the way we deliver the solution during our explanation will vary depending on their personality type. Are they a straight down to business or let's have a cup of tea buyer? Are they big picture or highly detail orientated?

Discounting is the cancer of sales. It is a brand killer, a symbol of low value, a slippery slide for which there is only one direction and that is down. The salesperson is like water. They find the path of least resistance and the antidote to price preservation is discounting, because it is easy. Salespeople are here to provide value. If there is a push for discounting it had better be related to volume purchases. The defense of the brand is critical and price preservation is needed if the organization is to stay in business. This is the salesperson' job - provide value.

There are budget limits, policies, stupidities, excuses, justifications a plenty as to why the price has to go down. Salespeople need to defend the price at all costs, including walking away. That is painful, especially with monthly targets and tonnes of pressure raining down on your head like shrapnel, but you have to stand your ground. Provide a better explanation of the value, do better research on where this solution can help the customer grow their business. Remember, if we can help the buyer to grow their business, then the product or service is essentially free. It is paid out of the growth, on the top line, not the bottom line.

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Every performance is better when practiced beforehand and presenting is no different. We don’t do it for a multitude of “good” reasons, none of which abrogate the need to make the time and put in the effort. We have the time, we just need to allocate it. We are putting ourselves out there when we present, so don’t miss it, there is a lot on the line. We need to ensure we are a triumph rather than a joke. The way to do that is to practice beforehand. How do we do that, what are some best practices to help us?

We cannot start with the slides, which is what most people do when putting their presentation together. Instead, we need to design the whole presentation first. We need to start with the close. Yes, we need to plan how will we finish the talk. What is the one key message we want to get across to our listeners.

Getting the whole thing down to one key point is no easy task, but the mental effort to do so will pay big rewards when it comes to ensuring clarity and getting the talk’s structure correct. When we distill that one point, it becomes the beacon on the hill around which to arrange the preparation of the data and the flow of the talk.

We now design the sections of the talk. What are the key points we will make and what is the evidence we will marshal to sustain the argument in the time allotted to us. These should flow together nicely, like in a good novel. Each part leads seamlessly into the next.

We are also going to be introducing personal stories of our successes and failures and those from highly regarded experts, to flesh out the points we want to make. Stories are easy to understand and remember, so don’t make our audience work hard, give them the information in story form for maximum effect. So each section has some key point, supporting data, told in a story format.

Finally, we design the opening – how can we break through all the competition for the mind space of our audience. How can we grab their complete attention? How to get them away from those addictive mobile devices, hidden under the table? We need to design how we will us our voice at the start in particular. How much volume will we need to gain control of the room?

We should avoid reading the presentation. We are going to be aiming at talking to points on the slides or in bullets format in our text or recalled from memory. This is free form folks, no harness and no safety net, so it needs practice. What may sound great as text, can sound a bit stilted when spoken out loud. This is important, we must “voice” the presentation. We can’t just mentally run it through our mind, as a personal exercise.

Using a mirror, video camera or a coach are good ideas, to get feedback on how we are coming cross both visually and verbally. The coach may be a colleague, family member or a professional. If a colleague or a family member only ask for two pieces of feedback – “what am I doing that is good?” and “what can I do to make it better?”. Untrained coaches are quick to tell you everything that is wrong – in great mind numbing detail. They will kill your confidence early, so don’t allow that to happen, give them some guidance.

Every five minutes we need a change of tempo to keep our audience interested. We need to switch our energy or speed up or down. We need to hit or soften key words. These crescendos and lulls are not left to random chance, this is all preplanned for maximum effect. We need to hear it out aloud to understand how it will sound to our audience.

We can’t be too strong all the time or we will wear down our audience and lose them. Alternatively, if we are too soft, they are lured away by the internet and are soon gone from us.

There is no one there, but we must involve eye contact with all in our imaginary audience. We practice looking to the left, center or right, also close and far. We also need to practice the congruency of our gestures with our words. Match a powerful gesture with a point you want to drive home, to give it strength.

Expect to do a number of rehearsals, not just one. We need to a full rehearsal from start to finish, at least three times. Now if it is a thirty minute talk, the time soon adds up, so we have to plan for that. Separately, we also need to work particularly hard on just the opening and close. The first impression and last impression decide our impact.

Don’t forget to practice the Q&A. Remember, the audience can ask us anything, no matter how rude, off topic, irrelevant or impertinent, so we have to be ready to go. We can go from hero to zero quick smart, if we don’t practice answering difficult questions before we go live.

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“The Devil Is In The Detail” saying, reflects ancient wisdom about taking careful notice of small things. The semi-amusing reflection on this saying is that it was created centuries ago, when we can imagine life was substantially less complex than it is today. E-mail surges, flat surfaces groaning under the weight of paper, meetings back to back from dawn to dusk, ring tones, beeps and assorted intrusions from digital devices we carry on our person 24 hours a day - this is the modern life. How easy it is for us to become overwhelmed by all the detail and in the process unknowingly unleash a number of Devils.

The best answers to these types of dilemmas is to work on our time management, especially prioritisation and that other partner in crime – delegation. Surprisingly, many of the executives I train or coach do not sufficiently plan their days. They do not have written down lists of what should occupy their valuable time, in order of priority and executed starting with the task of highest importance. They are commencing their days hammering way on whatever random emails landed in their inbox overnight. They troop off to a barrage of meetings and then race back to attack the newer emails which slipped through during their absence or which could not be knocked over, surreptitiously, on their device during the meeting.

Stop kidding yourself. “Your time is all you have and time is life”. Pause for a moment and let that one sink in slowly. Set goals, so you have a direction. Set a vision so that you have a philosophy about WHY you are doing it all. Boil both down to tasks to be completed on a daily basis, arranged in a pecking order from most to least important and only start with the number one priority.

We can’t do everything each day, but we can do the most important thing. Be adaptable to change the order, as the day unfolds, but stick with the self-designated tasks. Move unfinished tasks to the next day’s list and start again with the application of priorities, as they will vary from day to day. Do this every day and life becomes a lot more productive and the feeling of being in control starts to enter your soul.

The other bear trap for executives is delegation - usually poorly understood and even more poorly executed. Delegation is a misnomer for many executives, because the correct word is dumping, not delegation. This means shoveling the “whatever” off your desk on to some poor unsuspecting soul’s work pile. It means no supervision until the date of completion and then the teeth nashing, hand wringing and ear steam come into evidence, as you discover either it is not ready or even worse ready, but the wrong thing.

Delegation needs two key steps to be actually worthy of being referred to as delegation. It needs a communication piece with the delegatee, where the purpose of the delegation is explained as being there to help that person’s career, by exposing them to the type of tasks they will need to do, to rise through the ranks. The other discipline is checking on progress. There is a delicate balance to ensure checking doesn’t slip into micro managing, but nevertheless there must be checking. The obvious A to B route for any project sometimes takes a detour in the hands of our subordinates, who decide that A to Q makes more sense to them. We need to pick that up early so we don’t see the task wander off piste.

This is all good in theory! Annoyingly, our busy life interferes with the checking component and we easily stray into dumping territory. Often, we later find projects or tasks have gone awry and serious amounts of effort are then need to be devoted to their recovery. Creating templates for follow up can help. Rather than relying on memory (an increasingly unreliable ally as we get busier) we have a series of templates for meetings. The template nominates what needs to be addressed in the conversation, so that nothing gets missed. Subordinates get consistency of management and realise the boss is not dropping the ball, so no shortcuts or deviations will be slipping though unnoticed. We usually only need to make the templates once. Keep them handy and life gets better very quickly.

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Cold calling is an unheralded intervention into someone's already packed schedule. They are distracted by the phone from what they were concentrating on, so they are automatically annoyed. They are time conscious because this call was not in their plan. The person calling them is an unknown quantity, so the trust factor is zero or less than that. They have been cold called by idiots in the past, who say dumb things like, "How are you today" which is an immediate warning bell that we are talking to a nincompoop. The unfamiliar voice triggers “who is this?”, and a feeling that being called by unknown people is not good, “I don't like this”.

So how do we call people in a way that we can add value to their business? A good starting point is to define what is the purpose of the call. Anyone thinking of pitching their whatever on the phone, had better rethink right now what they are doing. There are some items we can sell by phone, but actually very, very few with any success.

There is only one point in making this call and that is to sit in front of the client at a later date and have a conversation about their needs and whether we might be the solution to any problems they may be having. Having said that, the point is not to bludgeon them into a meeting, should they indicate zero interest. If you plan on staying in business then killing your personal brand is not a good idea. Be gracious on the phone, definitely don't be pushy and be charming.

Here is how it can go:

"Hello, may I speak with Suzuki san please?" This opening presumes we have a name to ask for. Usually in Japan if you only have a title, you will get killed at the entry point by some lowly minion, whose only joy in life is getting rid of salespeople like you who call unannounced.

Let's continue:

"Speaking"

"Suzuki san, my name is Greg Story, I am with Dale Carnegie. Do you have a moment to speak? When I say my name I slow down and put a little gap between the “Greg” and the “Story”, so that they can easily catch my name.

I ask for permission to speak with them, respecting their schedule. If they a too busy to speak, it won't matter what I say, I will only be annoying them and will blot my copy book for a later call. If they are too busy at that point, then I say: "Thank you for letting me know, I will give you a call later in the week".

I don't ask for a day or time, because they have already told me they are busy and I want to show I respect their schedule.

If they say, “Fine", then I know I have their agreed attention.

" Suzuki san, thank you. We are in the XYZ business. I have done some research and I see that your company profile fits with what our typical satisfied clients looks like. We have been able to improve the results for our clients who fit this profile because we have ABC. I was just wondering if our ABC were able to grow your business, like it has for our other clients, would getting those sort of outcomes also be of benefit to your company?"

We let them know what business we are in, so that they can garner some context for this unexpected call. We mention we have done research and the call is the product of some analysis and intelligence, not the random phoning a numbers from the phone book or business directory. We mention we have had success for people who look looks them and wonder, not unreasonably, if lightening could strike twice for them as well. We ask if they would like to grow their business.

It doesn't matter if they say "Yes" or "No" next, because we are ready for both. If they say "Yes" then we say:

“Thank you. I am not sure if what we have is a perfect fit for you or not, but let me swing by and show you what we have and how it works. Then you can make a judgment if it is helpful or not. Would this week suit or would next week be better."

We are polite and thank them for their agreement to continue. We are not pushy and we readily acknowledge this may not be suitable, but we at least want to give them the chance to make that judgment. This week or next week is an alternate choice, the answer to which is an agreement to meet, rather than a “yes” or a “no”. If they nominate a week, then we move to the next stage and suggest a choice of days, and having arrived at a day, we ask about morning or afternoon. We don't continue the alternate of choice after this, because it is becoming annoying. We just shoot for a time and then be prepared to vary it according to their time frame.

If they say "no" to wanting to improve the results for their business we say: " Thank you for telling me, may I ask why you say that?" And then we shut up and say absolutely nothing.

There may a thousand good reasons why they don't want to meet and we should be prepared to accept the referee’s decision and not try to force the issue. They may say something however which allows us to reframe the value of meeting and we can carry on asking about getting together this week or next week and so on. Remember a “no” is not “no”. It is “not right now, not in this budget cycle, not in this market, not in the firm’s current situation, not at this period of the financial year”. We do not want to leave them with a pushy, bad impression. This is because we will be calling them back in about 6-9 month’s time, when many of these extraneous factors have changed and their buying situation is quite different.

If we are polite, craft our conversation emphasising the value we can bring to them and only aim for a meeting then we can cold call people effectively. The success rate is not high, but sometimes that is what you have to do, to get new business. When there is best practice about how to cold call, it makes sense to use it.

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Hard and Soft When Presenting

It is so easy to become “Johnny One Note” when presenting. We get locked into a modality of voice and body language power. We just keep hammering away with that mode throughout the whole talk. That might be fine for us, but for our audience it is killing them. If we are all massive power and bravado, after about five minutes, people want a break. If your “aura” is too strong they worry about radiation. If on the other hand, you are a mouse at the microphone, then they feel all their energy being drained from their body, as they shrink into the chair.

If we have a lot of energy, are excited about our topic and eager to share the goodies with our audience, then we can easily find ourselves to talking to our audience, rather than talking with them. The best presentations feel tremendously personal. The speaker has hit on a theme or topic that really resonates with us. The way they deliver it, feels like they are speaking only to us in the room. When we are at full power, it can feel like those cartoons where the audience member’s hair is being blow waved back off their head from the full force of the assault. Not a good idea. They quickly tire and lose interest in our message.

If we are very quietly spoken, modest, perhaps shy and by some supreme misfortune, find ourselves in front of an audience, we struggle to get through the content. We make no attempt to engage with the audience. We are scared of them and want this over as quickly as possible. Our voice whimpers low confidence, we deny our vocal chords the necessary air to project our voice and our body language is in shut down mode. The audience doesn’t feel we are sold on what we are saying and rapidly conclude they are not sold either.

It is easy to get locked into one mode and difficult to break out of it, to inject some vocal and body language variety. We need that variety to keep our audience engaged and also to cover all the bases with the variety of people sitting in front of us. Some will be rambunctious and love the loud. Others will be timid and prefer the low threat environment of the softly spoken presenter. Being in one mode only means we lose a part of our audience. We don’t want to lose anyone when we are speaking.

I found this myself in Kobe. I was speaking in English to a group of departing American University exchange students. I gave a General Patton style power play of motivation about how they should take all the things they had learned in Japan, go back home and really shoot the lights out.

Man, I was powerful, energized, committed, on a complete roll. I was also one single stop on the volume control - loud. It was a twenty minute speech and it was full on, from start to finish. There was no dialing the power up and down. I was pretty happy with it. I thought I had been so wonderfully motivating, giving these young people the full benefit of my many years in Japan and my broad and deep perspectives on life and success. A true tour de force, or so I imagined.

Immediately after me was a Korean Professor, who was teaching at that host University. When he spoke, it was clear, but a little bit soft. I found I had to lean in to hear him and had to concentrate on what he was saying. I had to work a bit to get the message. Now the interesting thing was the complete contrast to the full force gale these students had been subjected to by me. Here we all were, really concentrating on what the good Prof was saying.

I was sitting there thinking to myself, “ah, so soft can also work when presenting”. As I got more experience and knowledge, it became clear that our talks need to mix it up. Now that sounds easy to say, but when you are confident in one mode, it is not so easy to just switch gears and go to the opposite mode.

The secret is in the planning and the rehearsal. Here we hit two major stumbling blocks. Most people do zero planning about the delivery component. They spend all their time putting together the power point visuals. They score another big zero too when it comes to rehearsing. They practice their speech live, for the first time, on their audience. Uh oh!

When we are planning, we need to look for which parts of the speech we are going to accentuate with power – including voice, facial expression and body language. We also look at where we are going to drop the energy and voice, to draw our audience into us.

The telling of stories in speeches is very powerful. They lend themselves well to harmonizing the ups and downs of the delivery, with the flow of the story. Break the speech into 4-5 minute blocks and see where the tempo needs raising or lowering. Make sure you practice to make the switch, otherwise you will find yourself on one power control point throughout.

The result is we can keep the attention of everyone in the audience and get our message across to all.

Action Steps

1. Recognise where your personal power switch is set – high, low or medium
2. Plan the speech for the delivery component not just the visual presentation
3. Inject points of change, from either high to low or the other way around
4. Make the power mode consistent with the content, so it is congruent
5. Break the content delivery down to 4-5 minute blocks and then determine the power mode needed at that point in the talk
6. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

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Smart people in sales are a problem. They have expansive brains, intellectual curiousity and strategic depth. They are quick to spot the big picture solutions for clients. Internally they are a system police, fantastic on urging the fixing of the sales structures and suggesting necessary improvements. With Excel macro skills to burn, they can transform a simple spreadsheet information capture into a formidable machine. They are not what we need in the sale’s team.

We need “good hustle” from our salespeople. Not “hustle” in the sense of tricking clients into arrangements to secure a big commission or a fat bonus. “Good hustle” is about focus on getting commitments from buyers to proceed, that will benefit the buyer, because it will improve their business. This is usually not about long-term massive interventions but about the practical improvements that can be executed quickly, that produce an immediate outcome. Getting the client to that point of agreement requires energy, lots of energy.

That energy is needed to make the phone calls to follow up on leads which come through to the website, from advertising, ad word campaigns, social media outreach etc. Also, contacting potential clients we have met at networking events, seeking referral clients and selecting prospective clients to be contacted through cold calling. This is not exciting work. It is less thrilling than working at the 30,000 foot level, overviewing vast swaths of client territory. What is needed is the exact opposite – meet, propose, meet, follow up, meet, gain commitment, follow up, follow up and further follow up. This is down and dirty in the trenches, just digging, digging, and more digging.

Dull “grunts” in the sales army are not much help either. Clients need more consulting skills from salespeople than ever before and that requires intelligence, analytic ability and clarity. Smart people have these attributes in full, but they tend to become bored with the “grunt” aspect of sales. Digging the trench is not as exciting as planning the complete reworking of the client’s revenue producing systems.

The reality though is we need smart people who can hustle. They are motivated to serve the client and are equally motivated to sift through a lot of potential clients, until they find a good match for the client need with their company’s services. As we say in sales, “you have to kiss a lot of toads before you find the handsome prince or beautiful princess”.

Finding and developing motivated toad kissers is not that easy. Smart people love to work on complex problems. Companies have the same problems with their engineers. They have to give them a diet of complex problems to keep them mentally stimulated and engaged. Smart salespeople are the same. The issue though for leaders is that everyone is pretty busy already. Holding salespeople’s hands is usually outside the sales leader’s job description. Sales demands a huge amount of internal motivation and hustle energy. You cannot inject the latter into staff; they have to produce it themselves.

Dilettante as a descriptor has come to have a pejorative nuance to it, but it does describe a lot of smart people in sales. They are cultivating an area of interest in sales without the real commitment. The real commitment includes doing all the dull digging and toad kissing required to find and satisfy clients. They often feel that is boring and below them. They typically seek the big transaction, the killer deal that breaks all the records. They want to start at the top and work their way up from there. This is why they are a problem for leaders and why they can burn up a lot of management time. Keeping them on track away from shiny objects, glitter and bright lights takes up time which could be better spent elsewhere. It is a dilemma – balancing the needs of smart people with the reality that unglamorous work is the core basis for sales success. If we get it wrong, we pay a double penalty – they don’t produce fast enough and when they leave in frustration, we have to start again and find their replacement. Time, money and stress are all required, which in fact are additional elements we shouldn’t have to be bothered with.

So when selecting sales people for the team, it is absolutely necessary that we find that right balance between big strategic thinking and “good hustle”, between macro and micro skill sets and between textbook smart and street smart.

Action Steps

1. Look for salespeople with a good dose of street smarts about them
2. Ask questions about sales back office systems and see if their eyes light up
3. Check that their work habits include lots of unexciting “grunt” activity

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It always astonishes me that many salespeople have very little sense of proper timing to start selling their product or service. In the sales call, they are in a rush to get down to business. Japan has mastered the idea of building some rapport before starting the sales conversation. Small talk predominates at the commencement of the meeting and then smoothly glides into the main discussion. Western business people are all "time is money" focused and want to "get straight down to business". They consider that preamble to be a waste of their valuable time.

Japan has a preference for the long term view and business partnerships. The "devil" they know is much preferred to the "angel" they don't, which is why, usually, the same suppliers get called back every year. New leaders, new staff in decision making positions can eject you from the sales supply conveyor belt but that is usually because they ahave their own preferred supplier "devil" they know from past dealings.

Everywhere in the world I believe people like to do business with people they like. We may be forced to do business with people we don't like, from time to time, but all things considered we still like to do business with people we like. That early component of the rapport building stage of the sales conversation about the weather, where is your office, how long have you been in Japan etc., is designed to see of you are someone who is likeable.

Trust is the other biggie and the first meeting is mainly geared to determine if the buyer can trust you and your firm in that order. By listening and observing how we behave, the buyer is trying to get a fix on our degrees of reliability. This factor is more important in Japan because of all the tight interlocking relationships in play here. There are many more layers of distribution in Japan, so an error or a problem in any part of the food chain, can have adverse impacts down the line. The last thing a buyer wants is an unhappy buyer of their own,, because of something we did or didn't do.

Believing we are saving time by cutting to the chase, getting down to business immediately is actually wasting your time in Japan. It is a waste because the whole sales process is probably de-railing at the very start.

Another observation I would make is that even those who observe the sales niceties in Japan, get straight into their "pitch" immediately after the small talk is finished. This is a big mistake. The loquacious salesperson is the thing of legend. Talk, talk, talk is the idea, somehow overpowering the buyer's resistance with our onslaught of logic and data.

The fail point here is the degree of relevancy. Your assembled data, powers of persuasion, inarguable logic and passionate delivery are only relevant if the discussion is on point. The trick is to actually distilling what is on point? A cagey buyer who doesn't give much away but demands much in terms of information is a nightmare. The Japanese capacity for obscurantism, vagarity, opaqueness, combined with the Japanese language is unmatched.

You can be sitting there and have no clear idea where the buyer needs are located. If you don't ask any questions and just plough right in with your "pitch" then buyer needs are unlikely to surface. If the buyer is unwilling to share their needs with a total stranger, in the first meeting,e then the "pitch" is going to result in some drinking of cheap green tea and that is about all.

Relevancy means getting a good match between what we have and what they want. The way to understand that is to not "pitch" but to ask well designed questions and listen very, very carefully to the answers. This sounds like the simplest thing in the world to me but so many salespeople fail to do this.

They are so keen to "tell" they confuse this with how to "sell". The solution we have to offer should be held back until we reach a point in the conversation where we determine we have what they need. To get to that point requires the client to do most of the talking. Again fast talking salesmen trying to overpower the Japanesebuyer are goi to fail miserably. If the client needs the item in pink why are we talking about blue. If we don't have it in pink, why are we talking at all?

In Japan, for whatever reason, the cadence of a meeting is small talk, then the business discussion, a possibility of a proposal if there is interest and more small talk n the way to the elevators wrapped up in a hour bracket. We can sometime go longer but only if the interest and time schedule permit but usually the hour is the calibration.

The wise salesperson realizes the likelihood of a sale from a first meeting is relatively low inJaoan, so they know they are playing a long game here and are therefore not frantic about getting an immediate result. Getting permission to come back with our proposal is a big win in Japan. If the client wants what we cannot supply, then nice to meet you and sayonara is the order of the day. Powerful personalities trying shove the square peg into the round hole get nowhere here. Don't try to overpower the client and make them buy. Get out of there and go find another client who can buy. Hanging around trying to force the business is the waste of time,, not the small talk.

When presenting your solution, hold back any materials or samples or examples until you understand whether they want pink or blue. If possible hide these materials on the chair next to you, so they are out of sight Only show the client what is relevant based on what you heard they need. Whipping out your glossy brochure or slick sample, or snappy PowerPoint might get you excited but we are here to get the client excited. The only way to do that is provide them with what they need.

Take your time, oncentrate on building rapport and trust. Use the time available in the meeting to let the client do most of the talking and get them speaking aboit their business, the current market conditions, the relevant timing, their preferences, their frustrations, their experience and their biases.

When we know these things then we have something to talk about but not before.

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118 Three Absolute Fundamentals for Success

Highly knowledgeable people are often at a big disadvantage in business. They have expertise and experience. Their opinion is sought after, they have high personal levels of credibility. They often went to prestigious schools, elite universities, completing challenging degrees. They have paid their dues and have worked they way up the greasy pole to the upper reaches. Yet, they have feet of clay when it comes to representing their section, division, department, company or industry. They are a dud when presenting.

There is a skill to presenting. We talk about “born salesmen”, “born leaders”, “born presenters”. What we are doing is acknowledging that the roots of their skills have been long in the making. They showed some capability at a young age around being confident when talking in front of others, or persuading others to follow their lead or selling their suggestions successfully to their peer group.

Success breeds success and so as they grew up, these attributes became more and more refined and polished. By the time we meet them they seem the complete package. The idea that you had to be born with these skills becomes entrenched in the popular mind. Usually, it is an excuse for the observer’s own shortcomings. They haven’t done the work, so they misname the condition as wrong genes rather than wrong attitude.

The education of the highly specialized person means many years of diving deep into the nitty gritty of their area of expertise. This is done at the expense of developing other skills. The reason we have an MBA or Master Degree in Business Administration is because engineers were so hopeless at everything other than engineering. At school, they were avoiding English classes in favour of science and mathematics. They never bothered with fluffy soft subjects like debating or philosophy or history or the social sciences. They were hard science types. Then they got promoted.

Now they were having to do tasks way outside the engineering realm for which they were woefully undereducated, so they had to be sent back to university for some remedial education. This became the MBA and as the professional consulting firms started hiring them, the degree became a brand and a road to higher pay and positions in companies. Now with so many mediocre folk running around with MBAs, the playing field has been leveled again and people are being judged on their ability and not the degree brand.

So here we have high knowledge/low skill/low attitude constructs for some leaders who find they need to present. The low attitude, in this example, doesn’t refer to their commitment, dedication, engagement or enthusiasm for their work. It refers to their dismissal of the importance of presenting, as part of the total professional’s toolbox. They see it as froth on beer, fluff, smoke and mirrors, style with no substance.

It is hard to master presenting when this is your starting point. So, they bludgeon their audiences with boring, heavy, data laden talks, devoid of stories, delivered with a stern face and a serious air. These days, within seconds, they have lost their audience. First impressions are the basis of our decision to continue to listen to the speaker or to escape to the internet, secured in our hand, hidden under the desk. We know that audience distraction is at a level never been experienced before by human kind. We had better have a killer opening to the talk, because we have between 3 and 30 seconds to capture the attention of our audience. We can deliver facts without emotion or we can deliver them with passion and belief.

“Knowledge is all I need” speakers with this mantra don’t get it. It is not enough anymore. We need to be able to communicate with people across all levels of understanding of the subject, with various interests and biases. We need to be memorable, to be building our personal and professional brands. People won’t recall all the detail of the talk but they will walk away with either a positive, negative or non residual impression of our talk. Conviction and confidence sell our messages, build credibility for our argument and convince others of our point of view.

In a world awash with information, alternative facts and fake news, being remembered as trustworthy, knowledgeable and reliable is more important than in the past. The trustworthy and reliable bits come from our ability to marshal our knowledge and deliver it in such a way that the audience is attracted to our key messages and to us as speakers. These soft skills are required more than ever. It is time to switch attitudes, add skills and become the complete package as a presenter. This means being knowledgeable, skillful in delivery and having the right attitude toward wanting to win the audience over.

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How to best tap into the idea potential of our work teams? We know that the success of the organisation will be determined by the quality of the ideas we generate and the capacity to execute those excellent insights. Gathering folk around the white board and having a free form pitchfest of ideas is more often destructive than creative. Dominant personalities always hog the white board content. There is usually only one speed of idea creation being employed – fast, which is the easiest but most lightweight.

Researchers are questioning whether the group idea creation model actually works best at all, so how should we involve the team when producing ideas?

Here are the steps: ensure there is a facilitator to run the activity so the process is followed correctly. Use Green Light/Red Light thinking to maximise the opportunity to build up our idea bench strength. In the Green Light phase we promote idea free flow without impediment. This means no critiquing of ideas as they emerge.

Green Light thinking moves through seven stages.

Stage One - SILENCE. We ask that each person sit quietly and think. As they capture an idea, they write it clearly on a Post It note. The individuals in the team attach their Post It notes to the whiteboard, again in total silence. In this way, there is no pressure on anyone. Each person can think at their own pace, there are no power plays underway and there is no critique of what is being produced. We are seeking quantity not quality of ideas at this stage

Stage Two - the team go through the Post It notes on the white board together and rearrange them into columns of similar topics. Again, there is no evaluation or commentary on the content, just some clarification as to what was written down, if it is not clear to other members of the group. The column is given a topic name and this is written at the top of the column.

Stage Three - each of the teams share what they have come up with and present their columns and ideas. Clarification questions are allowed but no evaluation, just cross-pollination of ideas between the groups.

Stage Four - the groups go back to their seats and more time is given again for individual silent thoughts of potential ideas, based on the stimulation of other’s ideas and the fact of more time to go deeper. As ideas emerge these are added to the whiteboard.

Stage Five - the team members share their newest ideas with each other, place them into the existing columns or create new ones and then present them to the other groups, as before.

Stage Six - more time is given to work independently, again stimulated by the ideas generated by the other teams. The final group of Post Its are attached to the whiteboard, the ideas are explained and then categorized into the existing columns or new columns are created.

Stage Seven - the team members present their newest ideas to the other groups as before.

The power of these seven stages of Green Light thinking is that we are seeking the widest possible selection of ideas and at the same time allowing people the freedom to go deeply with their ideas. In Stage Four, few will be able to come with any new ideas and that is okay, some think faster than others and some think more deeply than others. In Stage Six, this is even more pronounced with most people coming up with zero new ideas. There will be a few though who will have ideas and often these are the most valuable ideas.

Now is time to start Red Light thinking.

Stage One - the ideas that have been arranged in columns are evaluated and reset into priority order. There will be debate and discussion at this point and choices will be made.

Stage Two - the top 10 ideas are presented to the other groups.

Stage Three - the individual groups take another look at their priority list and re-evaluate based on what they have heard from the other groups.

Stage Four - the top three ideas of each group are picked up for a group wide discussion, about which ideas will be actioned.

Stage Five - the finalist ideas are put to the decision-maker for funding or adoption.

The keys to success are removing hierarchy and criticism from the idea generation process. Once generated, then the selection of highest priority items provides the final approver with the richest possible harvest of ideas from the total group.

Action Steps

1. Use a facilitator to run the event
2. Follow the process of separating the idea generation stage from the evaluation phase
3. Alternate individual work with group work
4. Don’t panic if most people tap out early, keep going to reap the rewards of deeper thought processes from the few

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Lawyers have spent a lot of time studying to pass their bar exams. When they graduate, they are the white collar galley slaves, shackled to legal partner’s teams, doing the grunt work for years, until they can be allowed on deck. As they move up the ranks they begin to interact with clients. After a few more years they actually have to go out and get clients. The big dog in the law firm is the rainmaker, who brought in the clients who paid the most money for the professional services of the firm.

Lawyers are proud of their achievements, their study, their knowledge of the law, their brains. They want the clients to appreciate all of this and as a consequence, give them work. This is the “I deserve it” school of sales in the law. Knowledge is valuable. I have knowledge therefore you need me to help you sort out these various issues you are facing. I don’t have to be persuasive, charming, attractive, engaging or likeable because I have what you need.

Once upon a time that was the way of the legal profession. A bunch of lawyer nerds serving up legal rocket science to companies. Times change and now there are lots and lots of lawyers, all vying for their share of the pie. The clients have also become better educated too and are more discerning, particularly around questioning the massive bills they receive.

Faced with such a proliferation of buying choices what do clients do? They do what they do for all the other purchases they make. They apply the “Know, Like and Trust” rule. To know the legal firm, means to have a trusted confidant provide some testimonial style advice on how they performed in the past, how reliable they were and their degree of expertise in this particular area. If there is no track record which the client can judge, then this “know” process is the equivalent of the “cold call” in sales. Don’t recall there were any “cold calling” modules in the legal curriculum at university.

The “like” part is the legal equivalent of a doctor’s “bedside manner”. Doctors here in Japan haven’t quite gotten around to learning this yet, but in most advanced countries the doctor has to become skilled in handling people. To greet them properly, make them feel relaxed, assure them of the wisdom of their diagnosis and reinforce the trust the patient can place on their prognosis.

This is a great metaphor for the legal profession, because all of those same steps make for the “like” and “trust” results on the lawyer’s scorecard. The diagnosis component requires two great skills: listening and questioning. Asking well designed questions to uncover the client’s needs. This is Selling 101.

The delivery of the solution requires great skill to engage the trust of the client. The client may not be an expert on the finer points of the law on a specific issue, so the ability to explain complex things in a way the buyer can understand and relate to them is a fundamental sales skill. Technical experts, like lawyers, get excited about the details and start explaining these with great enthusiasm.

This is what we call explaining the features of the solution in the sales world. Many lawyers tend to stop there, believing their job is now done, but they are in grave error. This is the case also with unsuccessful salespeople. Instead, the features of the solution require to have the respective benefits attached to them, the application of those benefits need explaining and so does how they will impact the business. Evidence of where this has worked elsewhere needs to be marshalled to sustain the argument and then we ask for the business, using a trial close.

Was there a varsity module on “trial closes?”. No and neither was there one on handling client hesitations and objections. These are part and parcel of the sales world, yet lawyers are oblivious to what is necessary for convincing buyers to select their recommendations.

Lawyers are all in sales, they just don’t know it. They are in bad company though. They are in the same bracket as the failed salesperson. They are saying the wrong things, using the wrong approaches and remaining under skilled and under educated about dealing with buyers. These days the buyer of legal services has a surfeit of choices. They will gravitate to those they know; like and trust. Lawyers who get it, realise they need sophisticated sales training. The rest will scramble for the crumbs.

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Japan is an interesting place. So many things here are ultra modern, high tech, totally nuanced and sophisticated. You take it for granted that your refrigerator door opens from either side and is deathly quiet, that your vacuum cleaner is very light weight and efficient, that your toilet has more control options than most aircraft. So when you hit something out of character you really notice the difference. Presenting skills is the outlier.

We were brought in to consult for and train a very large company’s CEO for a key speech he will be making. We looked at the last year’s speech by the previous CEO. All attempts to humanise the speech had been deleted by that President and it was boiled down to boiled cabbage. An amorphous lump with no life, passion, energy or interest. The explanation was that the audience was made of Presidents of related companies and boiled cabbage was all they could take. Anything else might be considered too radical. In the banking world, it is acceptable to fail, as long as you fail conventionally. Presenting in Japan would seem to be the same case.

When it comes to communication and persuasion when presenting, this is a big blocker to progress in Japan,. The level is so low here, that the audience has been trained to expect boiled cabbage and if they don’t get it, they are unhappy. This sucks even smart people into the vortex of underperformance and even stupidity in some cases.

Watching a very, very innovative, well educated scientist and entrepreneur destroy his presentation really brought home to me the professional gap around presenting in Japan. He is obviously very smart, has become a legend in Japan for innovation and is rightly lauded for the pioneering work he is doing.

His content was very, very good but the delivery was very, very bad. The full message was lost because of the way he presented it. He could have been so much more effective by doing one ridiculously simple thing. Presenters in Japan - don’t put everything on the one slide, in multi-colours, creating a screaming screen nightmare.

The slide he had up was a massive jumble of ideas that stole from the key point he wanted to get across. Slides are free. We can have as many as we want these days, so why try to cram all on to one screen? Because it is all up there at once, he had to use differentiating colours to try and help us navigate through the psychedelic fog. You might have thought this wasn’t a bad idea and maybe you should do that yourself at the next opportunity? In fact, it makes things a lot worse because the audience now has too much visually to absorb on screen. It is all competing and canabalising against itself.

He is a very smart guy, so why doesn’t he get such a simple thing right. The issue is that awareness in Japan of how it should be done is so low. There are so few role models here, so everyone winds up copying all the dud examples of presenting duds. This becomes the stock standard approach and everyone fails, but fails conventionally, so no problem. Well perhaps no problem, as long as you only present in Japan and only to Japanese people.

We can all become too screen reliant in a lot of cases. Do we really need to visually support what we are saying with slides? Sometimes, one slide is enough. I saw the Starbuck’s head Howard Schultz give a speech in Japan, using one slide with only their logo on it. The talk was very effective, because we had to concentrate on the words. In other cases when the content is complex, then properly ordered and prepared slides help to sort and clarify the information we are receiving.

If we decide to use slides, then the platinum rule is one idea per slide. That is pretty simple isn’t it. It doesn’t mean we can’t use many slides though. If we are clicking through slides every few seconds, we can actually whip through large numbers of slides in a 30 minute speech. There is no legitimate link between the number of slides and the length of the talk. It very much revolves around your objective.

A different slide every couple of seconds may be appropriate, if the idea is we want to reinforce images of the company or the business or tell a story visually. A very limited number of slides may be better, if we want to go very deep into the subject matter. By restricting the number, we force the audience to concentrate on the limited ideas we want to register with them.

When we have one idea per slide, we can dispense with the “coat of many colours” approach. Sometimes a single image on screen, which we use as a backdrop to what we are going to say, works well. It might have the image and a single word and we elaborate on that word and image. I saw a presentation recently where that was the method used. It was one of the highest quality presentations I have seen in a long time. The content was complex, the ideas were mind numbingly large, but the delivery was excellent. The simple image and single word meant that we very quickly understanding the visual point and could open our minds up the ideas in the complex message.

Smart people in Japan, stop doing unnecessary, clueless things with your presentations please.

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HQ Never Understands Japan

One of the dubious delights of running an international business in Japan is dealing with the Mother Ship or it’s Regional Hub spin off. Trying to explain Japan to those who don’t know Japan, has always proven tremendously character building for me. Having left the corporate treadmill to work for myself, I mistakenly thought I had kissed goodbye to all that pathetic nonsense. Alas, the long arm of Japan ignorance continues to reach out and challenge me. Today, I live the frustration vicariously through my clients here in Japan, who have to deal with their own version of hell - HQ or Regional Hub know nothings located outside Japan.

Joint ventures and partnerships are a fun feast. Japan is low on the detailed contractual side of the equation. The basic idea in Japan is we don’t need reams of lawyer speak, because the venture will be a success or won’t be a success, based on how well we can trust each other and work collaboratively. If it doesn't work out then we should walk away and not bother with courts, litigation, claims and compensation. We need to focus on the bigger picture of success and how to achieve that and so a handshake is all we need.

I was reminded of this recently when I was contemplating buying a marketing service from a US based company. They kindly sent over the agreement. Pages of lawyereese, barely penetrable, thick and dense to the point of physical pain wading through it. In Japan, we have very few written agreements with our clients. We agree on the training, deliver as agreed and we receive payment in a timely fashion – all off a handshake. We haven’t encountered any issues after 52 years operating here, but if we do, I am sure we will discuss and agree on a mutually suitable solution.

So a typical day in the life of the Japan rep is explaining to HQ why the Japan business is not tracking as expected when the agreement was concluded. In one client’s case, the original expectations proved to be a misalignment of skill sets and targets. The Japanese side had the sales force to cover the market but, it proved, not the expertise to cover it appropriately. Sales were uninspiring, compared to the original business plan expectations.

What was the Mother Ship solution? Fly in the Americans from HQ to berate the Japanese side at the board meetings about Japan’s poor sales performance. Shame them into action to sell something. The local representative was encouraged to keep the pressure on by using these same name and shame tactics in the interim between board meetings. The “verbal beatings will continue until morale improves” type of approach. The American HQ led strategy was going down a treat with the local Japanese partners, of course, as the trust and collaboration rapidly disintegrated.

Training delivered locally to those selected from within the existing sales force, was the better solution. This sounds like a logical step, but convincing HQ to do so was painstaking. The HQ view was to send in trainers from the Regional Hub to do the training. Regional Hubs in APAC usually mean Singapore or Hong Kong. Who do they choose to send to Japan? The HR team is the preferred option, which excitingly, usually means a rapid fire, fast talking Chinese team member to come to Japan and conduct the training in English.

“Its okay, the team can speak English”, is how HQ types see it whenever the language and cultural issues are flagged locally. That English capability assumption would be extremely optimistic, in my experience. Just as a snarky side note, the people recommending these courses of action are often monolinguals, sometimes not even possessing a passport. Machine gun English combined with an unfamiliar Chinese accent and no cultural sensitivity, is just one of those genius solutions HQ unleashes on the innocent and blameless.

Even when native speakers of English are sent in from overseas, they tend to speak too quickly, use too many idioms, confuse with incomprehensible jokes and word play, apply content recalling acronyms that can’t actually be recalled and have zero idea what is really going in the class dynamic.

Doing role plays in English for teams whose clients are Japanese is one of the most brazen breakthrough HQ inspired ideas in a generation. The language of persuasion is brimming with semantic options, which unsurprisingly need to be in the buyer’s language. How we say it is much more important than what we say. Sales people practicing sentence construction in English, so that the instructor can understand, is dumb and pointless.

I was teaching a Relationship Selling class recently in English, with one very international Japanese salesman in the class. He correctly told me that there was no point in him doing the sentence formulation exercise in English because his clients are all Japanese firms. We switched over to Japanese and worked on helping improve his Unique Selling Proposition for his client base. If we are dealing with a mixed audience of English and Japanese speakers, then bilingual trainers are a must. The alternative is to waste the time of the Japanese staff, just to serve the English speakers. Sounds very 19th century Colonial in approach to me!

English comprehension between 50%-60% is the maximum we can probably expect up until about lunchtime, after which rates rapidly spiral down. This is not a very effective way of training local staff in Japan. Delivering the training in the mother tongue, with the required cultural understanding is at least the base line. On top of that, having trainers who are highly skilled is where the leverage can really be applied.

Headquarter’s whacky ideas are often amusing, at least for the first 15 seconds of hearing them, but the “global” training approach has proven fraught with failure. “The training was completed, checkmark the box”, is not an outcome. Taking the training and applying it to deliver higher productivity is the only acceptable outcome. A bit difficult though when you couldn’t understand most of it in the first place. Globally delivered training in English rarely produces any residual value for companies and you have to wonder why HQ keeps repeating the same mistake? It doesn't have to be like this. Time for the organisation to wise up and listen to their local rep’s advice on what works best in Japan.

Action Steps

1. Understand it is difficult to apply a heavily legalistic approach in Japan – it doesn’t work the same way here.

2. Publically berating the Japanese side over their performance is not going to improve anything

3. Deliver training in the local language whenever possible

4. Semantics matter in sales training so English won’t work for teams who sell in Japanese

5. Use highly talented trainers if you want to achieve leverage

6. HQ – listen to what your local rep is saying and follow their advice about Japan

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Consistency In Sales Is Critical

We all know that consistency is a fundamental requirement if we are going to establish trust with others. We ask buyers to purchase from us on the basis that we will be delivering what we say we will deliver, on time, at the agreed price point and quality. Now no salespeople go around promising anything less so there is no differentiation at this stage of the sales process. What can we do the have differentiating from all the other r vials out there making promises and claims of reliability.

Saying you are reliable and trustworthy is hot air, until you prove it. Obviously once we get the order and deliver we are in a position to walk the talk. What about before that though? How do we have the buyer feel comfortable with our hot air such that they decide to take a risk and buy from us?

Being able to quote statistics based on performance is powerful. If we can say that our on-time delievery rate has been running at 97% on average over the last five years that is powerful. Being able to show the dates and times in a format that offer prooof is even better.

Having testimonials that focus on the reliability factor is also convincing. Most testimonials focus on broad satisfaction and quality, but Sking clients to comment on this specific issue is another way to differentiate ourselves from the competition.

Controlling expectations is another important factor in underlining our reliability and ability consistency. Under promise and over deliver is an old chestnut but a good one for salespeople. We tend to want to promise the earth to get the deal agreed. The classic scenario is the sales team promises the client things the company can't fulfill, usually around delivery times or volumes. The factory managers or the production department are now under immense strain to hold up the compNy's reputation because of laziness on the pat of the salesperson and this squally invites things to go wrong t t when you least need them to.

Promise we'll within your range of possibilities on the first outing with the new client. Deliver exceptionally well and then from there expand the conversation to include other services or products. Don't bein a rush to cram the whole line-up down the throat of the buyer. Bite size pieces is how you eat an elaphant and how you best see each new clients. Patience and attention to detail are the primary requirements for success.

We should also be careful about our consistency in casual conversation. If we tell someone our favorite baseball team is the current winning team but next year we are now supporters of the new champions, then we sow the seeds of doubt about our reliability. If you were a vocal critic of a political candidate before the election and now you are a supporter people wonder about your authenticity. Some may see this as immense flexibility but reliability is more valued in business here. If this person can change so easily they come across as opportunistic and standing for nothing.

In Japan especially predictably is valued. Buyers like to be sure of what they Re buying and in the first instanc3 they ar3 buying us. We have to create a great first impression and after getting the business e have to create a great second impression and a great third impression, ad infinitum.

If we tell the client one thing and later contradict ourselves then the trust is destroyed and it is very hard to get it back. The ability to deliver the same product or service at the agreed level doesn't always happen for a variety of reasons. We had better have a rock solid explanation though as to why this variation occurred and why it won't happen again. Everyone knows that things can go wrong, despite the best planning, so it is the reaction and response that buyers look for. Mealy mouthed arguing the point infuriates clients much more than the fact of an error.

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112 Why Lawyers Are So Bad At Presenting

Lawyers are smart people, but sometimes do self-defeating things. They are discovering that unlike the “good old days”, there are many service alternatives today facing prospective clients. Business development is a common term in most industries, but it has a certain unpleasant cache in the legal fraternity. They are only slowly coming to grips with this is new reality. They know they have to work harder to get and keep clients, but somehow this irks their sense of self-importance. Being very good in the law should be enough, they think. “We are experts and that is all we need to do, as far as attracting clients goes”. Wrong.

In any competitive environment standing out amongst a crowded field of competitors is always a challenge. How can you differentiate yourself amongst rivals, especially when there are so many restrictions on how you can promote your legal services? Referrals are the lifeblood of lawyers. This however is a tremendously passive and time consuming approach, more based around luck than good planning. A satisfied client will tell others, but only if they are asked. They are unlikely to go around pro-actively promoting a law firm, even if they were deliriously happy with the service. No, they only react when one of their contacts asks for advice.

Sitting round waiting for the phone to ring or for someone to wander by, doesn’t pay the bills. The other method is to publish and display brainpower and expertise. Are potential clients going to read it or even know it has been published? Again, a bit of a hit and miss approach. Giving seminars is another method of advertising expertise, which sits comfortably within the rules of promotion. Sadly, a tremendous wasted opportunity in most cases.

I previously published an article on LinkedIn about how “Lawyers can’t sell, but need to”. This is another aspect of the same issue. A seminar is a fantastic opportunity to sell the expertise of the firm and the lawyers, but it is not being maximized because lawyers misunderstand what they are doing.

They believe they are there to provide high quality information to the prospective clients. Therefore they believe the quality of the information is the key and that is where their focus lies. In the rest of the real world, this is known as a data dump. Lawyers haven’t realised we don’t buy the data. We buy you.

Having awesome insights, valid experiences, deep knowledge are not enough if the way the information is imparted is substandard. Being an expert in your field is one part and being an appreciated expert is the more important part. Clients will never have the level of in depth knowledge of their legal experts but they can discriminate between who they can understand and relate to and those they can’t. Nerdy lawyers may be sexy within the halls of the profession but not so much with clients.

Clients want people they can understand, who they can communicate with and who they feel they can trust. Here is how the clients sub consciously think about it: “A lawyer on my wave length gets the business over the lawyer who isn’t”. Having great expertise and communicating that expertise are both important skill sets. Lawyers usually only have the former. Smart lawyers who realise getting the best skills to learn how to impart the knowledge, will win the business over those who don’t get it.

The mindset has to shift from “I know a lot” to “I know and can explain complex issues really clearly”. This takes training in how to present to clients, be they gathered in small meetings or at large seminars. It is a skill set that the traditional professions, like law, have been slow to work out is needed.

Lawyers, yes, you do need excellent presentation skills. You may not think so yet, but your clients will vote with their feet and beat a path to your more skilled competitor’s door. The lesson is simple - we buy you. So get properly trained and stop losing business to others. Especially, when there is absolutely no need to have that happen.

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Okay Boss, Motivate Me!

“Motivate me” must be one of the saddest requests a leader can receive. The request may not be so bluntly articulated, but the underlying assumption that the boss is there to motivate the staff seems to linger. “If only I had a better boss, I would be better”. “If only this company got its act together, I could get mine together”. “If only these other staff weren’t so hopeless, I would do better here – these people are holding me back”. The search for salvation located in the responsibility of others is a big fail. Many religions offer salvation, but they all seem to require something from us to deserve that salvation. The world of mammon is no different.

Motivation, loyalty, accountability, effort, responsibility, engagement – probably every boss is expecting these from their staff. They are all outcomes from inputs. Inputs from both the boss side and the staff side. We know what level of staff motivation we want as leaders, but how do we achieve it?

Some favoured leader methodologies are yelling, threatening, instilling fear of loss, shaming and humiliating. Steve Jobs ticked the box on quite a few of these in his early days as a leader. He has become a halo encrusted, saint like figure nowadays, because he took Apple away from the brink of self immolation and gave it a second life through his leadership. He was however a flawed leader who, at various times, resorted to these methods. His later success does not validate these bully boy tactics and abuse. “It was okay for Jobs, so it is acceptable for me to cascade the tough love down to my team”. Maybe not!

You and I are not Steve Jobs, so let’s not get carried away with the parallel logic extension. He had many other fine attributes driving his success and remember he was successful at that moment, in his field, not ours. We also need to look at the opportunity cost of what he could have achieved, had he been a better people leader. Getting massive compliance will not get you enough creative innovation. It is difficult to be fearless about coming up with new ideas and possibilities, if the boss scares you to death.

Jobs could have done more, much, much more, if he had played to his people’s strengths rather than abusing them about their weaknesses. He was able to get brilliance from the brilliant, which is probably not all that hard because they are brilliant already. The trick is getting more brilliance out of the average person. That requires a lot more effort and skill. This is also where most of us live, because brilliant people are terribly expensive and usually we can’t afford too many of them.

By contrast, Craig Bellamy is a Rugby League coach in Australia leading the Melbourne Storm team. He is famous for taking 2nd and 3rd level athletes and turning them into 1st class talent. His club didn’t have the financial capacity to pay for a team full of stars, so he took people with potential and developed them into stars. This is a better model for us, because very few of us can afford to employ a team of stars, but we use our strengths to create stars.

Another challenge for strong leaders is they often work off the assumption that what made them successful is the model for everyone else to follow. Oh if it were only that easy! This is why you hear so much whining when bosses get together. They are dissatisfied with the staff because they can’t operate at the level they require. We forget sometimes that we too had to learn things when we were at their age and stage, that we now know and take for granted as common sense.

I hope this isn’t new information but, unfortunately, few people are ever going to be like you. You realise this as you go though life, when trying to deal with various others, but mysteriously, we tend to forget this fact when at work. There is a reason for those differences. Personality styles are often broken out into four quadrants and by definition we tend to suit one quadrant over the others. Hence three quarters of the population are automatically not on our wave-length. Hmm!

So how can we motivate the people who are not like us – probably the majority of our staff. By the way, if your staff are all the same personality style as you, because that is how you have stacked the recruiting system, settle back for disaster ahead. Your flagrant cult of your personality type and lack of diversity will bubble up so much group think, you will assure yourselves you are correct all the way along, as you speed lemming-like, straight off the cliff.

Let’s assume that is not the case and you have a typically diverse work group with people with various preferred personality styles. Do yourself a big favour and start communicating with the team, as they prefer. This is beyond the Golden Rule, on toward the Platinum Rule of “treating everyone, as they wish to be treated”. That means knowing what is self-motivating for each person and counter-intuitively, aligning that with the organisation’s goals, rather than the other way around. Think about what you have to do in order to achieve that powerful outcome.

Here is a hint. Communication skills, one of the most important soft skills, are a key to success here. What we say is important (technical expert content), but how we say it (expert communicator delivery) is more important. Many professionals are in complete denial about this. They firmly believe that their big brains, rich experience and abundant knowledge will be sufficient. Not true!

We like to do business with people we like and trust. We might trust your professional skill, but if we don’t like you, we will only deal with you if we have no alternative. That would be a pretty rare case in these highly competitive times in rival infested professional fields.

In Japan’s case, dentists and lawyers are good examples. There are currently too many of both for the size of market demand, so the competition is fierce. In this situation, being able to communicate well with the client is critical. If they don’t feel you are on their wave length, they just head off to another practitioner.

This will be the same challenge for how Middle Management in Japan communicates with the younger generation. If the young don’t like it, they will leave. Given the constant demographic nightmare of fewer and fewer young University graduates, then they have many alternatives apart from working for you. If you are engaged in hiring staff then you know all to well, what a fraught and painful process this has become. You also know who bears the whip hand and it isn’t you.

Be clear - we can’t motivate anyone but ourselves. However, as the leader, we can create an ecosystem where the team are encouraged to motivate themselves. Mirroring their preferred communication style when speaking (which is based on their personality style) leads to better understanding. Talking in terms of the other person’s interests, rather than our own, is more likely to be motivating for them. Talking about what you want will be of moderate interest to them, but talk about what they want and they will be all ears.

The trick is you have to spend time with your team to know what their individual interests are. We loop back to the soft skill of good communication. The boss’s barked order generates docile compliance. This isn’t getting us anywhere. However, the alignment of staff self-motivation with the direction of the organisation’s strategy, coupled with the right communications skills, get’s our people going the extra mile.

That is a good goal – create a Platinum Rule turbo charged, self-motivation environment at work. Staff should motivate themselves and bosses should craft environments where staff motivation can be encouraged to flourish. This is a better distribution of responsibilities and has more opportunity for sustained success.

Action Steps

1. Build on people’s strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses
2. Remember you aren’t Steve Jobs and so don’t mimic his faults
3. Your success model only works for you, so don’t expect it of others
4. If you only hire people just like you prepare for disaster, you need diversity of ideas , solutions and thinking
5. Use the Platinum Rule – treat everyone the way they want to be treated
6. How you say it is more important than what you have to say
7. Create the environment for self-motivation – that is your main job as the leader
8. Mirror the communication style of each of your people for the best communication outcomes

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The morning dark gloom of heavy ponderous rain clouds, piling snow drifts or driving, cutting razor blade sleet can have a serious impact on our sales mood. We may be thinking to ourselves, “what a lousy day to have run around town juggling umbrellas, trains, taxis and bags of samples to visit clients”. The next day, the rains have departed. Brilliant azure blue skies and a friendly warm sun seem to say “what a beautiful day to make sales calls”. Neither comment is acceptable for the pro salesperson, because sales masters are not randomly controlled by the inequities of the weather.

These are not the only barbarous mood bear traps we need to look out for. Does your mood of the moment impact completing unpalatable tasks or conversely do they in turn impact your mood? That proposal you have to get out, but don’t want to start because it is time consuming, complex and difficult. You reel back, you move away from the pain, because you may even have to think! Doing the CRM, which you consider a major time waster, feels slow, laborious and boring and to you is a lower priority item. Ironically, you later whine about the lack of leads from the marketing effort, but your moodiness meant you didn’t help with the needed CRM inputs did you?

Where is your sales discipline for doing all the dull bits of the work? A coffee break, a catch up on email, posting something on your business social media, etc., all look a lot more appealing than facing this piece of tedium. The sales pro doesn’t put the reward first. They put the task completion ahead of the reward. They don’t stand in front of the empty fireplace bellowing about what they want – heat. They put the logs in there first and then they light the fire. They understand the natural order of the sales universe. How about you?

What about when buyers let you down? You find out they went with a competitor when you thought it was in the bag, they cancelled their order due to headquarter’s spending constraints or unexpectedly reduced the size of their purchase. Your champion working for this company has been sidelined internally, but you don’t know about that. All you understand is that the next phase in the sales conversation has mysteriously not progressed, you cannot reach anyone and you cannot fathom why.

Just to really top it off, you have already spent the money from the expected commissions. Whoops, hero to zero in two seconds. What is the impact on your self-esteem, your fighting spirit, your motivation? In the rollercoaster of the sale’s life, we are now in the terrifying “nosedive” stage of the process, a white knuckle ride, without any sign of probable relief.

Living an intentional life means controlling both the head and the heart. The bigger picture makes the bump and grind of the everyday palatable, because there is a higher purpose in our life. If we are dedicated to serving clients, then we can absorb the fluctuations in the weather, the unreliability of people, the changing fortunes of the market, the gross unfairness of the sale life. The size of our WHY in the fight makes all the difference.

What if we don’t have a strong WHY or a strong enough WHY? Well, that is going to mean trouble. We better deduce, distill, select or create one. No WHY and sales gets real hard, real fast, real often. Sit down and think about what you want to do, what you need to do and what you wish you could do. Twenty minutes on this type of introspection will soon identify some key drivers for you. Rank them into priority order, start at the top and attach timelines to their achievement. Break them down into smaller pieces, smaller projects and then get going working them. Review the goals frequently, review your work advancement and mini-celebrate even small progress. Most importantly of all – keep going regardless.

If we decide we will alone will determine our mood, our feelings, our orientation and not let externalities invade our moods, we can keep doing what we need to be doing, when we need to be doing it. We won’t be running for cover, trying to find a million other things more appealing to do, than this dull task in front of us. We need to keep reconnecting with our WHY and see our activities like a calling, where we can help people. As Zig Ziglar, the great sales coach mentioned, helping others is how you ultimately help yourself and sales being a numbers game, the more people you help, the better you will do.

Our mood control in sales is a critical function of our sustained and consistent success. The stronger our WHY the less relevant or impactful our mood cycle. Winston Churchill has a great quote about going to from failure to failure, without losing our enthusiasm. That is a brilliant summary of what is needed to succeed in sales and in life. There are always going to be more “nays” than “yeas” from buyers, so we better harden up and bolster our WHYs to control our moods and boost our enthusiasm.

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We Are Always Sorry In Japan Before We Get Up To Talk

Well educated from two top ranked Universities. Undergraduate in Japan and an MBA from the USA. He had a very capable command of English and our presenter did a very good job of conveying the business structure, strategy and results of his publicly listed enterprise. Yet, that presentation could have been so much better with attention to a few simple basics. This difference in polish is both cultural and attitudinal.

Beginning your talk in Japan with a series of apologies is standard practice. First apologise for speaking while standing, because you are towering above your audience, implying your superiority. Next, tell us how nervous you are about speaking to such a distinguished audience. Don't forget to mention you had no time to prepare the talk properly, because you have been so busy. If you are sick, it is always good to get that in there too. If you are speaking in English then an apology for your poor English is mandatory. At the end, make sure you apologise for giving such a poor presentation.

Why do Japanese speakers go through all of this apologizing? Japanese humility demands a public display of rectitude. Appearing too confident is not appreciated here. Seen to be a bit of a smarty pants, never goes down well. Especially when most Japanese public speakers are untrained, dreadful, boring and killing us with their monotone, it is always good to fit in, rather than stand out.

Public speaking has only a relatively recent history in Japan, dating back to early Meiji period when Fukuzawa Yuikichi established the practice of the public speech. If you visit Keio, the university he founded, you can see the enzetsukan or public speaking hall, he built for the sole purpose of speech making.

Daimyo or samurai in charge of their domains were not giving stentorian addresses to the struggling masses or the latter’s samurai betters. Notices were erected to inform everyone of what they needed to know.

Western civilization has been talking up a storm forever, especially since ancient times in Greece and Rome. Today we have embraced the idea of oratory as a particular mark of skill and intelligence. Japan has not fully embraced the power of the spoken word and so it is not as valued here as in the West. Lack of value translates into lack of attention to being excellent as a public speaker. This is especially so, when everyone around you is equally hopeless, so why should anyone bother to be professional about it? It looks like you are showing off and we can’t have that.

Fine, but what should Japanese speakers do when they are addressing an audience in English, made up of foreigners? What should we foreigners do, when we are speaking to a Japanese audience in either Japanese or English?

Most talks are not remembered in much detail. What we do remember though is the speaker. We come away with either a positive or negative impression. In Japan, linguistic purity is not required in either case. Foreigners are used to non-native speakers of English giving presentations with accents, grammatical mistakes and unusual vocabulary choices. Japanese people seem basically convinced that non-Japanese can't speak Japanese, so any attempt to do so is greeted with approval, as long as it isn't too perfect. Foreigners speaking perfect Japanese worries some locals, who seem to think their protective barrier has been penetrated. Maybe this foreigner knows a bit too much. A certain degree of ignorance on the part of foreigners is somehow more comfortable.

For Japanese speakers, find out who is in your audience. The chances are if it is a business audience, then you are speaking to a good proportion of Japan fans, boosters and supporters. Many will be fluent Japanese speakers or possibly speak more than one language, so they understand all the intricacies involved in presenting in a foreign argot.

They will also have been weaned on a diet of regular presentations throughout their education and thereafter and will have an admiration for good speakers. For this audience, then follow western tradition and ditch all the cultural paraphernalia around apologies at the start. Instead open with a blockbuster that grabs everyone's attention and cuts through all the competition for the attention of your audience. Even the most riveting speaker today cannot stay the hands of some in the audience, as they surreptitiously sneak a peak at their hand held device while the presentation is underway. This is The Age of Distraction and we speakers are caught up in its vortex.

Rehearse the presentation thoroughly and show command of the material. If there is a slide advancer involved, practice with it before the start, so you can show mastery over the machine. Have some rhetorical questions at hand to keep the attention of your listeners. The audience should not know if they are going to be required to answer these questions or not in order to keep them locked in to following the speech.

Have a proper close designed, in fact have two ready to go. One for before we get into Q&A and one for after all the questions. Don't just let the speech fade out, as our speaker did, by saying "well time is up and I will finish here". No, we need to leave our audience with a call to action, to get them supporting whatever it is we are promulgating.

The final close is to take back control of the speech, because questions are at random and often can be completely unrelated to what it is we have been talking about. Usually by the time we get toward the end of question time, the connection between the topic and the questions being asked gets quite thin. All the relevant and best questions have already been dealt with, so we now have the great unwashed asking their questions at the end.

As the speaker, we need to reassert our control of the proceedings. We need to re-state our main message ,so that this is what is ringing loudly in the ears of our audience, as they all file from the room at the end.

Now for foreigners, don't copy the Japanese model. You are not Japanese, never will be considered Japanese and are not expected to be Japanese. Give the most professional presentation you can and be another speaker who the Japanese look up to and wonder why they don't have those presentation skills themselves.

It doesn't matter which language your are speaking in, always make it the most powerful piece of communication you can muster. The idea is to help create role models of excellence to better internationalize Japan and help it to do a better job of selling itself to the wider world.

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108 Japanese Leadership Legend Mr. Atarashi's Big Breakthrough

Ever heard that a training course changed somebody's life? "It was good", "I enjoyed it", “I learnt something new”, maybe. Warren Buffett, the famous American billionaire investor is a huge Dale Carnegie fan and often mentions in TV interviews how the Dale Carnegie course changed his life. Being in Japan, it is great to hear a leading local businessman like Mr. Masami Atarashi say the very same thing.

He is very well known in Japan and spends his time writing, adding to the 40 books he has already published and giving public speeches as well as training to executives. Previously he headed up Johnson & Johnson, Philips, and Hallmark in Japan as President. Last Thursday evening, he gave a brilliant talk at our graduate party on being successful in business in Japan.

He also shared with me how the course impacted him, "The Dale Carnegie Course changed my life. When I was asked to make a speech to an audience or to a customer etc., I trembled with fear and I was a lousy speaker, not so much technically but mentally. Half way through the Dale Carnegie Course I found myself beginning to enjoy talking, that's one significant visible change which occurred to me. And overall I began to look at things in a positive way. Instead of saying we can't do it, I start looking at how we can do it. The whole mind set changed and that happened when I was 32."

Like many senior Japanese businessmen who took the Dale Carnegie course in their younger days, he rose to the top ranks in Japan because of how he applied these ageless and universal principles of how to get on with people and how to get their active cooperation.

Buffett and Atarashi share a common passion for a system of training that has been so carefully refined over the last 100 years. It changes with the times but never dates, because the person to person relationship is always the centrepiece of any successful business partnership.

We may believe that technology has completely changed how we communicate and how we interact in the business world, now that we are together on email, LinkedIn , Facebook, Twitter etc. The reality is we don't do deals over business social media. We want to look the business partner in the eye and confirm we can trust them. Especially in Japan and especially when dealing with foreigners.

We determine trust through listening to what is said and how it is said. Everyone puts their best face forward, but we are trying to get behind the superficial to the reality. We are racing around in business, with our antennae on full throttle, trying to dodge the dodgy types and find some trustworthy keepers.

Yet, people say the dumbest things to us, ruining their credibility. Sometimes I am amazed by what I hear. I was in my gym gear recently, waiting to pick up my car after a workout and a long established businessman I have known socially for many years was also waiting for his car. He looked me over and said disparagingly, "so what are you trying to prove?". I was flummoxed by the question, and I am still not quite sure how to answer it, but more so because of his poor human relations skills on display. I thought, "Wow, how has this guy lasted so long in business, if his communication skills are so poor".

We see people who are quite clever, scoring "own goals" all of the time because they can't control what comes out of their mouth or because their self-awareness level is hovering somewhere around zero. The Japanese call it KY, an acronym using English to abbreviate “kuki wo yomenai” or can’t read the air or no sense of occasion, as possible translations.

Trust me, these KY people will have a hard life in business getting others to cooperate with them or getting people to follow them. They can pull position power on the team and force everyone's compliance. This is a long way though from having the team really engaged, actively thinking how we can win against the competition or how can we have things run better around here.

Business is too complex for us to do it all by ourselves anymore - the day of the hero is over. Today we need the hero team. To get things done requires more and more specialisation but with that often comes a poverty of skills in other key areas. Persuading people rather than trying to order them. Getting willing cooperation instead of whipping them into a frenzy of reluctance and resistance. Having technical skills but little common sense. Being smart is good but it isn't enough. We need to be better communicators, better with people, better with diversity, more capable with complexity.

Buffett and Atarashi both discovered that the Dale Carnegie course was a source of answers to a lot of the business challenges they faced to be successful through other people. There is a good reason this course is still around after 100 years. It works. That is why it is paid the ultimate compliment of having changed their lives.

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The Power Of Using Stories When Selling

Storytelling in sales is our ability to express ourselves in a way which is engaging and persuasive. We capture the attention of the buyer because we have taken the client to a world unexpected. This might be because the real essence of their problem has just now been revealed to them. The salesperson who can marshal the discussion to bring forth the hidden insights for the client is the storyteller par excellence.

The content of the story can also be a description of a better place than where the clients finds themselves today. This discussion shows the path forward for the client to realise their goals. To understand that better place requires the salesperson to set up a dialogue, where the questions asked unveil a story from the client of what success would look like. Employing examples, cases and proof where this solution has worked before, must be brought to life if the storytelling is to have impact. The ability to describe this better place in vivid word pictures is what separates the average salespeople from the master.

The delivery of this storytelling facility is not just some incessant babbling by the salesperson but is punctuated by periods of silence. The client is given the chance to talk without having their sentences finished for them, interrupted by a segue, observation, joke or distraction. Often sales people are loquacious, ill-disciplined speakers, who are in love with the beauty of what they are saying. Counter-intuitively, being a skilled storyteller also requires the salesperson’s patience to encourage the client to tell their own story.

The words chosen by the salesperson are important. The majority of the conversation with the client should consist of the client talking. The 80-20 rule applies here. The client should do 80% of the talking and the salesperson 20%. Looked at in this way, the actual quota of words allowed for the master salesperson are very limited. They only use clear, concise constructs, because they know they need to give up the floor to the client as much as possible. Short sentences of inquiry which draw out rich information, are the golden path to sales success. It sounds a snap doesn’t it, but to do this well takes a lot of practice.

When the client hesitates, asks for more insight, information or outright rejects what they are being told, then the salesperson’s level of communication skill really becomes apparent. Plumbing the balance between speaking to add light and employing silence to gauge reaction is a critical facility.

There is a natural tendency when salespeople hit resistance to want to pour it on, to really step it up a gear, to overwhelm the client and their objection with a barrage of data, facts, proof, testimonials and statistics. They want to dominate the discussion through sheer force of personality. This is never going to fly. “A person convinced against their will, is of the same opinion still” is an old saw, we salespeople forget at our peril.

Our way of telling the story makes a huge difference. We need to be matching our communication approach with the personality style of the person we are talking to. Their energy level, pacing, openness, conservatism, the degree of detail they require. All of this must go into the mix of telling the story for the client. If they are a very detailed oriented person, good with three decimal places, then we need to get with the programme. If they are action orientated, quick moving, we must become the same. We all like to do business with people we like and we like people who are on our wavelength.

Great, but in sales we need to foster the ability to be on as many wavelengths as possible. Our clients will be of various styles so we need to effortlessly move between each, without losing our core beliefs in what we are doing. We are not developing split personalities here, just greater flexibility in how we communicate with buyers.

The telling of stories draws out the situation truths needed to understand the correct and best solution for the client. It also means the capacity to package our solution up in such a way that it is highly appealing to our buyer. This storytelling skill separates the professional from the dilettante. By the way, nobody wants to buy from an amateur, so let's become more professional and tell our story well for the client, so they will buy from us and keep buying from us forever.

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Show Me How Great You Are, Don’t Tell Me

Japan is an interesting place where there is a lot of respect for people’s family pedigrees, University alma maters, job titles and position in the company. Sometimes though, you are left wondering is this person really one of the actual elite or is this the best the Japanese elite can produce? American friends tell me Missouri is famous for it’s “show me, don’t tell me” mantra. My home country of Australia is similarly a nation of Olympic Gold Medalists in cynicism. When you can’t back up who you say you are with the goods, credibility declines rapidly and in fact dissipates.

This seemed like just such a case. Seriously sad really. Our speaker had some excellent points to convey, but due to silly basic errors, killed his organisation’s messages and brand. Maybe I am too tough, but I really believe there is no excuse for this anymore. Today there is so much information available, so many role models, so much video instruction, so much access to insight, so much training, you really have to wonder how some organisations can do such a poor job selecting who they send forth to represent them.

The impressive thing was our speaker was delivering the talk in English, when that was not his native language. Actually, the level of English fluency was singularly impressive. The cadence speed was good, the pronunciation was fine, the speaking voice was clear. He came with a grand resume, part of the elite of the land, a well educated, international, urbane, sophisticated, senior guy. This was game, set and match to be a triumph of positive messaging and salesmanship. It was a fizzer.

I approached him after it was all over. Being the eternal Aussie optimist from the land of vast sweeping horizons, brilliant blue skies and wonderful sunshine, I thought our speaker would benefit from a bit of friendly, helpful, positive feedback on how he could help his organisation to do better. He wasn’t buying any of that and asked me for one example. Clearly he believed his talk went down a treat with the crowd, a group by the way, full of long term Japanophiles and enthusiastic boosters for things Japanese. He was in fact preaching to the choir, in audience terms, but even then his messaging went astray.

I asked for the first slide to be brought back up. A confusing coat of many, many colours, seriously impenetrable, dense with data, totally impervious to easy understanding – a roiling florid mess in other words. They were all like this. Data was simply killing the key messages. When I suggested the slides were perhaps attempting to put too much on the screen at the one time, he said I was looking at the pruned and cleaned up version. He had taken the organisation’s standard slide deck and pared it back. “Pared it back, really?” I was incredulous. Well it was still risible and ridiculous.

The other issue was the delivery. Mysteriously, our speaker chose to stand right in front of the monitor and read to us what was on the screen, while having his back to the audience for most of the presentation. Fortunately, he was handsome, urbane, charming, international and articulate. He had all the natural flair and advantages to carry the room to his way of thinking. Unfortunately, he failed completely. Why was that?

What could our erstwhile hero have done? He made a fundamental miscalculation. He allowed the slide deck to become the centerpiece of the presentation, instead of making his messages the key. Here lies a mighty lesson for all of us. We should all carefully cull our ideas and distill the talk down to only the most powerful and important elements. We should present only one idea per slide, restrict the colour palette to two colours for contrast and try to keep it zen-like simple. Here is Dr. Story’s iron rule for slides - if our audience cannot grasp the key point of any slide within two seconds, then it needs more paring back.

Graphs are great visual prompts and the temptation is to use them as unassailable evidence. This usually means trying to pack the graph slide with as much information as possible, showing long periods of comparison and multiple data points for edification, usually anointed with microscopic fonts. Instead think of them like screen wallpaper. They form a visual background. We can then go to another slide showing a turning point in splendid isolation for clarity or we can have an overlay pop up, with a key number, emphasised in very large font. In this way, we can cut through all the clutter and draw out the critical proof we want our audience to buy. Trying to pack it all on one screen is a formula for persuasion suicide and personal brand demolition.

We also need to learn some very basic logistics about presenting. Despite how the organisers have set up the space, move things around if possible to give yourself the best shot to present as a professional. Try to stand on the audience left of the screen. We read from left to right, so we want them to look at our face first and then read the screen. We want to face our audience and if anyone drops the lights so that your screen is easier to see, stop everything right there and ask for the lights to be brought back up. We need the lights on in order that we can see our audience’s faces. We can then gauge if they are with us or resisting our messages. They can see us too and we can use our gestures, facial expressions and body language to back up the words we are saying.

Changing the slides and the delivery would have made the speaker’s messages clearer and more attractive. None of the things I have suggested to him are complex or difficult. Why then are we still assailed with unprofessional presentations from smart people? He remained resistant, stubborn, unaware. He is part of the Japanese elite, after all, but he regardless of that dispensation, he still didn’t get it. So I saw him riding off into the sunset on his quixotic quest to convert others to his organisation’s point of view. I pondered, “good luck with that one buddy!”.

People will judge us on what they see. In the event notice they will note our grand resume, they will hear the MC’s complimentary introduction, but they will make up their minds based on what we present and the way we present it. Missouri’s rule of “show me, don’t tell me” is a good one to keep in mind when preparing to stand up in front of others and pontificate.

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Episode #105 Success Formula for Leading Project Teams Take One

Leading projects can be tricky. Often the enthusiasm for the detail overrides the brain and the team are leaping into the minutia of the details without planning the project from a holistic viewpoint. The other penchants of the misguided are looking for cool tech solutions when the biggest issues are always people issues. Having a tracking tool is good except when the people involved don’t have sufficient accountability to either use it. Today we will dig deep into what we need to do to be a successful team leader for any projects.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Japan has the lowest ratio of people of working age to those aged sixty five or over according to a UN report. Japan has only one point eight people aged twenty five to sixty four, for each person aged sixty five or older. By comparison the ratio in Australia and New Zealand was three point three and three in Europe and North America. In other news, cash settles eighty percent of the transaction sin japan, with the rest done by credit cards, mobile payments and prepaid swipe cards. That is the second highest cash usage in the world after Germany. According to Nomura research Institute cashless payments increase per customer sales by one point six percent. Finally, according to the Research Institute of Japan Finance Corporation the average age of people who started a business in two thousand and eighteen was forty three years of age. The proportion of people older than fifty rose to twenty six percent. The research also showed that sixty eight percent of those starting a business were able to do so with less than ten million yen or ninety three thousand dollars.

This is episode number #105 and we are talking about Success Formula for Leading Project teams Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Projects are too common. Because of this we take them for granted, seeing them as part of everyday work, but we don’t approach them properly. We usually gather the team together and then dive straight into the details of the project, without really applying a professional approach. We certainly don’t apply as much planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade straight into the mechanics of the execution. Why is that? Poor leadership and lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as the team launches forth rocking and rolling with no strategy and little expertise.

Often, there is no existing documented planning process in place. This can be rather ironic because often the projects are repeated or very similar projects are undertaken. Templates and structure are missing so everyone just wings it, making it up as they go along, re-inventing the wheel.

The goals of the project are often vague. This is a lack of direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the work. The project leader has to push back and manage upwards, seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project and then make sure everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.

Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project, denying it success. The project begins with vague boundaries around what is to be done. In quick order, either external parties or the team themselves, become like Emus and are attracted by bright shiny objects. Very quickly the additional tasks multiply but the time frame and the resources committed to the project do not change. This never ends well.

The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines and follow-up is weak or non-existent. Well, when you are having fun and winging it, you are super busy getting on with the actual work, so no strategy needed. Later things go wrong because timelines were not clear nor properly planned. The resources do not turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover or resolve.

You quickly find that people, rather than logistics, are the trickiest part of project leadership. You may not have been able to match the project team resource with the skill sets required and you have to make do with what you have. There may be incompatible working styles in the team and you are now chief psychologist, in addition to team project leader, spending a lot of time and energy dealing with staff or division conflicts.

Welcome back The start of the project may be exciting, but over time other tasks start to impede on this project and compete for your people’s time. Their motivation starts to slide. You have to rally them constantly to be enthusiastic and committed to the successful completion of the project. This is when you discover your communication and persuasion skills are rubbish and you are getting nowhere with them. This becomes magnified when there are critical issues of internal and external cooperation required.

People not completing their tasks on time unleashes issues around trust and reliability. Their excuses are never in short supply, but this is not especially helpful, because your boss won’t be accepting any from you, as project leader.

Because you have never been trained on how to delegate properly, you either don’t do it at all or you give it a shot, it fails and you wind up doing most of the work. This would be fine if you had nothing else to do and could devote your time to just this one project. Strangely enough the organization has bigger plans for you and they involve a whole slather of other work to be done as well.

The answer is fairly simple. Train people properly on how to lead projects. Projects are always going to occur and we should have our own organisation’s way of doing them. This would be developed through long periods of hands on experience and constantly updated to reflect best practice discoveries made along the journey.

There are seven project evolution steps we should follow: define scope; devise plan; implement; monitor/modify/keep checking; get closure/evaluate and finally celebrate. For each of these steps we need a trained project head, highly skilled in leading people, rather someone we who is ace on creating macros in spreadsheets!

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my other weekly shows. For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.

In episode #106 Don’t tell Me, Show me we are talking about. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Episode #104 Hard Sell Hell Take One

I feel sorry for the “phone dogs” having to cold call clients to sell them stuff and at the same time I hate them. They are paid to call clients to arrange for one of the sale’s team to roll in and close the sale. I am all in favour of cold calling but I detest idiocy. The phone dogs are given sales scripts cobbled together by idiot bosses and the end result is you feel your intelligence is being insulted by this brutal process. There are so may better ways to cold call clients it is embarrassing, so why do they persists doing it the stupid way? Let’s look at a more intelligent approach.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

We all grew up thinking teachers had a pretty good life. Work is over by 3.00pm and they get months off from work during the summer holidays. How good is that! Well of course not in Japan. Junior high school teachers here worked the longest hours on average of all the forty eight OECD countries. They are putting in fifty six hours per week on average compared to the thirty eight point three hours average by the participants in the Teaching and Learning International Survey. Primary school teachers in japan worked fifty four point four hours per week on average. In other news, a government survey has found that fifty three point two percent of youths and young adults in japan do not want to study abroad. This is interesting because as the Japanese consumer population declines, because of the aging society, Japanese companies must add operations based outside of Japan. These companies will desperately need more internationally minded and highly skilled speakers of English to compete internationally. Where will the come from if the young don’t want to leave Japan? Finally, there is a major wealth disparity in Japan. According to a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey, households whose head is sixty years or older, have about twenty four million yen or two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in savings on average. About eighteen percent of this age group had forty million yen or three hundred and seventy thousand dollars or more in savings. Twenty two percent however only had five million yen or forty six thousand dollars. Households headed by someone twenty nine years or younger had on average only two point five million yen or twenty three thousand dollars in savings and debts of four point nine million yen or forty five thousand dollars. For those between the ages of forty and forty nine the average savings were ten point two million yen or ninety five thousand dollars and had debts of ten point six million yen or one hundred thousand dollars.

This is episode number 104 and we are talking about Hard Sell Hell Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. “We are going to be in your area next week, would you be available on Tuesday or Thursday?”.

“Really? Which part of my area will you be in?”.

“Are you available on Tuesday or Thursday?”.

“Wait a minute, you just said you would be in my area, so which part of my area will you be in?”

“Akasaka”.

“Really that’s interesting. Akasaka is a big place, which part of Akasaka?”.

“Are you available on Tuesday or Thursday?”.

This was an outbound investment sales call. The object was to sell me on investing my hard earned cash in their company’s investment product.

By the way, this conversation carried on far beyond what I have extracted here and became even more ridiculous, if that is actually possible. The essence was that I didn't believe that what they were saying was true. They started with a suggestion that they would be in my area and could just drop by. They say this to appear indirect and less “hard sell”.

However, when you push back on the validity of what they are saying, out comes the blatant hard sell - their constant annoying refrain of “Tuesday or Thursday?”. Why would they be doing this, when it is so obviously ridiculous? The answer is lack of sales skills and proper training.

There is a set script in place and I departed from the sacred text by challenging what they were saying. I did not believe that they will happen to be in my area and therefore that they could just drop by. It sounded unlikely to me, so I pushed back on their basic assertion. If they wanted to see me, why not just say, “we would love to visit you, would Tuesday suit or how about Thursday?”. Instead they started with a lie or at best, a dubious assertion, that has close to zero credibility.

Now this sales call is for an investment offer, where you cannot see, taste, hear, touch or smell the product and you won't know if it is any good for years. The trust factor on this type of sale is huge, yet they start the proceedings with an obvious lie.

How could they have done it more professionally? They don't know me and have found my address and phone number somewhere, so are trying to begin a relationship. When you are starting a relationship you need to immediately put the other person at ease and try to build some rapport.

“Hello Dr. Story, we have not met or spoken before, but my name is Taro and I am with xyz company. We exist to serve the interests of highly discerning clients like yourself. Do you have a few moments to speak?

Thank you.

We offer information, insight and help busy executives like yourself to better manager their wealth. Our clients often tell us they are so busy helping everyone else that they tend to sacrifice devoting enough time to their own personal wealth management. Is this the type of experience you have ever had?

We may or may not have something that suits your situation, but the beauty of spending a short meeting with our experts is that they can at least outline some of the most successful portfolio structures that have been working for executives similar to yourself. Are you in a position today to be able to consider investing in products which you might find attractive?”.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back This example passage does a number of things. It flatters me that I am discerning, checks that I have time to talk, tells me they are in the wealth advisory business. They also pick a problem that busy executives do have and that is that often we are not managing our own wealth sufficiently well.

By asking me if I have had that experience, this opens up a sufficiently broad timeframe range to receive a positive “yes” response. By saying they may or may not have what I need, comes across as balanced, consultative and not hard sell. Referring to the best practice examples, tells me they are only going to talk about things that are relevant and working well already.

Checking whether I have capacity to take action will save us all a lot of time. Wealthy people don't leave their money sitting around in cash. They are leveraging it, investing it, working it. Often, as a result they don't have any capacity to invest, because they are already locked into other investments. The wealth management firm is looking for people who have not committed all of their wealth because they have recently cashed out of something, come into sources of cash or have a high degree of liquidity to enable them to move cash around between investments.

Instead, all we had here was a hard sell for a Tuesday or Thursday alternative of choice, built off a lie about the fact they would be in my area next week. There is no congruency between what they are selling and how they are selling it. The young woman I was talking to was calling me from a Philippines sales boiler room and was a "phone dog", her job being to call large numbers of people like me on a list and go through the script. I departed from the script and she was lost.

We are all in the trust business and so what we say can't be tricky, smarmy or duplicitous. We are here to serve clients and tricking them into seeing us isn't a winning formula. The point of the conversation was to get an appointment, no matter what. Wrong objective!

The point of the conversation should have to been to build trust and invoke interest. They need to weed out non-clients like me, so that they are only speaking with qualified buyers. I wasn't one, but she had no idea of knowing that because the script wasn't intelligent. Now you would hope that your financial advisor would be intelligent, yet what they were doing was clear proof to me how unintelligent they were.

In this modern age, boiler room induced hard sell doesn’t work. The client’s interest has to be paramount. Salespeople who don’t get this basic point are not going to be around very long. Re-design the sales approach and put the client’s success at the center and then you will meet clients and make sales.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my other weekly shows. For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.

In episode #105 we are talking about Success Formula For Leading project teams. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Episode #103 The Danger Zone When Presenting

In the history of the world, it has never been harder to be a presenter. The Age of Distraction has guaranteed that everyone will mentally escape from us, without a bye your leave and with no compunction. Assuming you have done a good job planning the opening to grab attention, have you also planned for the middle stanza of your talk? This is where people can get bored and distracted. They will leave you. We need to plan the brackets of the main body of our talk or we may find ourselves talking to ourselves, as everyone is furtively looking at their phones under the desks.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

According to Toyota their Japan Taxi vehicle was launched not for profit but to contribute to the creation of a rich society by supporting the movement of many people with taxis. It can carry wheel chair users, luggage-laden travelers and foreign visitors of all sizes. It has a sliding door on the left side which make it very easy to enter and exit from. The object is to replace one third of Tokyo’s thirty thousand taxis before the Olympic games start. Government subsidies are giving taxi companies incentives to buy the vehicle. They consume half the fuel of older vehicles and the anti-collision sensors have reduced accidents by ten percent. In other news, the Financial Services Agency the FSA is calling on financial institutions to crate financial products that focus on longevity risk. This is running out of money before running out of life risk. The FSA warns thought hat there is a need for services that preserve asset for when people cognitive functions deteriorate. Finally, with the rise of research into autonomous driving issues have arisen. In a level three situation the car is self driving but the human driver must take over in an emergency. How does the car know this is the time to release the autonomous driving mode? It won’t do that until it is sure the driver is ready to take over. Sumitomo Riko in Nagoya have developed the Smart Rubber sensor, made of anti-vibration electrically conductive rubber material which can determine which part of the steering wheel the driver is holding, by detecting a change in pressure. Currently computers have a hard time determining whether pressure applied to the rubber on the steering wheel was from the driver or something else. The new sensor will improve the accuracy of those detections.

This is episode number #103 and we are talking about The Danger Zone When Presenting Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. We have worked hard to get our opening right. We know that first impressions really count and we have planned the start. We contacted the organisers well before the talk to get a sense of who has signed up for the talk and what their main interests are. We got to the venue early and checked on all the logistics. We don’t need to thump the microphone and ask if they can hear us don the back because we have already tested it. We don’t need to fuss around with our laptop because we are ready to go or if there is a laptop change over, we do that first before we even start saying one word.

That first word is a chosen word, not some accidental offering. We have been speaking with some of the early arrivals to get a sense of why they are attending and to know their name. we reference their name as we start to connect with the audience and remove the barriers between speaker and the gathered masses.

We are also fully primed for the end, with both our first summation and our final close. We know we need two closes, one for the immediate end of the talk and another one for after the Q&A. We have prepared both. We know how to properly handle questions – repeating, if not hostile or paraphrasing if a veiled or direct attack upon us. In this way, we can make sure everyone heard the question and that any invective in a question has been properly neutered.

What about the middle bit of the speech? How we do we keep attention from start to finish when we have an entire audience fully tooled up with their escape vehicles firmly clasped in their hands. Their mobile devices will release them from the mortal toil of listening to us and they can be swept afar to more interesting and pleasant climes.

The next time, you are at a presentation look around after the first 10 minutes and see what the audience are doing. Many will be surreptitiously scrolling through their Facebook or Line feed or whatever, multi-tasking, rather than giving the speaker their full attention. How do not become that speaker who has lost the opportunity to get their key message across to the audience?

Every five minutes we need to switch the pace. We need to be presenting something that grabs the attention of the masses. We need an example, a story, demonstration, audience involvement, etc. This shouldn’t be left to random chance. This needs D-Day level planning, so that you know what slide you will show at what point, what story you will relate. Your voice is such a phenomenal tool yet so many neuter it by turning it into a monotone that is guaranteed to become an insomnia cure.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back We need to use pace – fast and slow, strength – loud and soft, vocal intonation – up and down. Japanese native speakers have a disadvantage on the up an down front because Japanese is monotone delivery language. No problem , just work on the pace and strength variables and you will gain enough variety in the delivery to keep your audience’s attention.

Story telling is so powerful and so under used. There is huge demand for reality television, which are like home movies into the lives of celebrities. This is basic storytelling, often at a very mundane level. Nevertheless, these programmes draw an audience because we are fascinated by the personal lives of others. So tell your disasters, your fails, your hard won lessons, your triumphs. Come up with pithy quotes that are referencing well known legends like JFK or Churchill etc.

The key here is the planning and then the practice. What is written down sounds a bit clumsy sometimes when we say it out loud. This is where rehearsal comes in. Go through the presentation and work on the cadence of the delivery. Make sure that every 5 minutes you are switching gears and giving your audience something to do, like raise their hand (don’t overdo this, it is annoying) or ponder, or laugh at, or to nod knowingly. We cannot let our audience escape and lose the benefit of hearing our valuable message to the idiocies of whatever is trending on social media. It is our job to make sure that doesn't happen and the way to do that is to plan thoroughly on the basis, they will be gone in a nanosecond if we falter.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my other weekly shows. For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.

In episode #104 we are talking about Hard Sell Hell. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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How To Persuade Followers Take One

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Here is some bad news for pollen allergy sufferers in Japan. The National Federation of Health Insurance Societies the Kenporen have proposed that prescription drugs to treat hay fever containing the same content as their nonprescription counterparts should be excluded form public medical insurance coverage. Hay fever patients who pay only ten to thirty percent of the costs of these drugs would need to fund the full cost from their own pockets. The savings would 560million dollars a year for public health costs. Nationally one in four people suffer from these allergies and in a big city like Tokyo the number is probably closer to half. In other news, the Government is going to increase subsidies for companies whose employees take paternity leave. The rate of staff taking the leave is only about six percent and far from the government’s goal of thirteen percent by twenty twenty. Japan ranked forty first in a UNICEF report on paternity leave based on legal entitlements. The reasons cited for why more men don’t take the leave were companies being short handed and a corporate culture that makes it hard for employees to request paternity leave. Finally, financial institutions are starting to implement measures to address issues related to the dementia amongst their aging customer base. Elderly people hold sixty percent of individual assets totally some sixteen trillion dollars. The number of aging dementia sufferers is projected to grow to seven point three million by twenty twenty five. The share of assets held by dementia sufferers is expected to top ten percent by twenty thirty. Banks are training their staff on how to support customers with dementia. They are also requiring that customers suspected of having dementia be accompanied by their family members when they visit the bank.

This is episode number #102 and we are talking about How To Persuade Followers Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. The tried and true leadership model of “do what I say or else” is a personal favourite of people who actually can’t lead. This is the military model, which works when the bullets fly and your death is a requirement to achieve the broader objective. This is a ridiculous model for business and yet it lingers on. Death is not imminent but following idiots probably does shorten our lives. Higher degrees, certification, specialisations, longevity, technical knowledge etc., are all relied on for authority, to convince others that we should be in charge. But should we be in charge?

Leaders and managers have different roles. Managers are there to manage the processes of the organization, to make sure what needs to be done is completed, in a timely fashion and correctly. Leaders do all of that too, but they have an additional role and that is to develop people. This is where the “my way or the highway” breaks down.

We respect knowledge and ability more than we respect position power, degrees or degrees of self-aggrandisement. The thing we respect most though is how much interest the boss has in helping me to grow in my career. How much sympathy and understanding has the boss for my personal situation at home, because of my aging parents requiring care or my marriage is hitting a rocky patch, or my kid is having problems, etc.

In the old days, there was a clear separation between the individual’s work life and private situation and the boss would never go there, as it was considered intrusive and none of their business. Times have changed and society seems more complex today. We want people to bring their whole selves to work. The need for staff input of ideas and creativity is greater than it has ever been in human history. Technological advances have plugged the entire advanced world into a 24/7 cycle of work.

Persuading people of the “why” is leading today, not just pointing out the “what” or the “how”. Apart from professional salespeople who move up into management, there are probably few leaders who are any good at persuading anyone of anything. They are usually poor presenters, especially the technically oriented types.

They are working off the old paradigm of “I am smarter than you, that is why I am the leader and so do what I say”. If we want our organisations to be powered by just the brains and experience of these few leaders that is fine. If we want to bring the entire power of our teams to the battle front line with our competitors, it is not sufficient.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back We need as many engaged brains as possible assembled and working on the problems facing us. The spark of creativity is not solely located in the leader’s brain. The youngest, newest employee may have keen insights and openness to new possibilities that the leaders who have moved far from the frontline cannot even recognise any more. Depending on the market, they may also be closer to the customer than their much older bosses.

The point is how to persuade our staff to think, to be creative, motivated, to come up with better ideas than our rivals. The issue is how to get them to engaged completely rather than simply working at a mediocre rate, collecting their pay and then switching on their brains as they hit the building exit.

The technical person who as leader gets a rush of blood to the head and starts telling the why will sometimes assume that having told the team the why, they are good to go. I wish it was that easy. One of the surprising things about leadership is that you have to keep telling your people the same things over and over again and you cannot assume they ever fully get it.

In our office, we start the day by getting everyone together and going through the Vision, Mission, Values, and on daily rotation, one of Dale Carnegie’s principles. Why do we do this everyday? Connecting the team to the WHY we are doing this work is the single most important job of the leader. Each person takes turn leading the session, so it is not reliant on my being there. The alternative, which you no doubt have seen, is to frame all of this stuff and hang it up on a wall so everyone can remain oblivions to it. Not much of an alternative really is it. Better to make it real and remind everyone everyday about the WHY.

So we need to make time available to explain the why to people, keep repeating it and to find ways to tap into the full power of the brains populating our organisation. Here is a new challenge for bosses. Drop the “I know everything, now do this” approach and take on the “what do you think” alternative instead. This is a radical switch for many leaders, but an absolutely important one. Asking questions will yield so many more dividends than telling everyone what to do and how to do it. If you can make the switch you will have more success, because you are able to out think the opposition. Even if they copy you, they will always be one step behind. They also miss out on the motivational aspect of team members seeing their ideas come to fruition. This builds teamwork and higher levels of engagement. Your rivals will have a very hard time trying to copy that, because you have created an ecosystem of success that is distinctly your own.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my other weekly shows. For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.

In episode #103 we are talking about The Danger Zone When Presenting. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Prospecting For Golden Clients

Do you have a clear image and understanding of your perfect client? Authors often mention about writing for their avatar. This is their imaginary reader. They have a clear picture of whom they are writing for. They know their reader’s hopes, fears, aspirations, behaviors, goals and idiosyncrasies.

In sales, prospecting to find your Golden Client is a bit like discovering your life partner. We have to go out and meet a lot of potential partners, until we find the person who just clicks with us. We find we get along very well together – we are simpatico, share common interests, have great communication and are on the same wavelength.

Clients are our partners too. Partners in the sense that we are looking for a long- term relationship. Our chief objective is to make re-sales. Not to make a “sale”, but to generate consistent orders year after year. This can only occur when the mutual trust has been built.

If we have distilled what our perfect client looks like, then we have a much better chance of finding such a buyer. Now our perfect buyer may need to grow into that category. It is rare to find someone who is perfect from the outset. The “test and see” strategy in Japan almost ensures that the first orders and interactions will be limited, as the buyer tests us out, to see if we are reliable.

This is done for self-protection in business. The distribution system in Japan is often convoluted and there are many outstretched hands involved. This means there are also many interlocking relationships, constructed on years of obligations and counter obligations.

As a new supplier, we are caught up in this web of mutual responsibility. Failure in any one part of the system jeopardises the livelihood of everyone in the food chain and so people take this relationship building very seriously. Once burnt they are very shy to try again, so we have one shot to make a new client and we had better not blow it.

So our perfect client may actually have to grow in scale to become our perfect client over time. In the beginning, we may only see small orders which based on satisfactory performance by us, will be able to grow in importance. This is the theory anyway.

Now this gradual scale increase idea raises a problem. Which are nascent perfect clients and which are buyers just pushing hard for all they can get from us? At the start this is sometimes hard to determine. As sellers, we tend toward being especially accommodating in the beginning, because we want to grow the business with this new client. This makes perfect sense, but we should always have our BATNA at the ready, to wield whenever needed.

Our BATNA is our “best alternative to a negotiated agreement”. This is our walk away position. If we get pushed unreasonably hard on price, we need to be thinking where is the point where this new client is less than perfect. In fact are they meant to become a non-client, because they are too demanding, too cheap and too problematic?

Sometimes the buyer tendency is to play the “new client” card as hard a possible. They want to force concessions. Then despite all the rhetoric and agreement about this being a one-off, once in lifetime special introductory arrangement, they then set that number as the new low bar. Against this standard all further future discounts are measured and negotiated. This is not a partnership.

We need to have a clear view of who we want to partner with and make sure that there is that level of compatibility. There needs to be win-win outcomes aplenty. We can have the correct approach to clients but not all clients reciprocate. Desperation drives bad decisions and bad partnerships. Life is short. So it is better to take our time and make sure this client is someone we want to be dealing with for a long time.

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.

About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

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Today is a very special milestone, as we have reached the 100th episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show. It is nearly two years now since we started. In the show, I bring the power of the Dale Carnegie Training curriculum to bear on the tough issues we all face. I add in my own experiences in business here, hard earned over the last thirty three years. I have made plenty of mistakes and I hope I can be a guide for you, so you can avoid them in your case. There have been other business shows set in Japan in the past, which I used to enjoy, but one by one they have all faded away. I am glad that my own show has continued.

On this special occasion we need something special to go with it. We will send to you, no matter where you are located on the planet, a copy of my new book Japan Business Mastery. We will be giving away twenty copies and here is how you get one. If you are happy for me to quote it please leave an email comment at greg.story@dalecarnegie.comand the twenty most insightful comments on the show will be rewarded with a copy of my new book. I will reach out to those selected, asking you for your best postal mailing address, so we can send you the book by airmail.

Those who enjoy listening to podcasts will be happy to know you can now access all the episodes of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show as a podcast as well, wherever you get your podcasts.

Today I am also drawing your attention to my new book called Japan Business Mastery available on Amazon. To go with the book, I am also starting a new TV show on YouTube called The Japan Business Mastery Show. There is a podcast version to go with it, wherever you get your podcasts.

With all of this action going on, I need to move some things around. Here is the new weekly publishing schedule. The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube and the podcast version are released on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I continue with the Presentations Japan Series Podcast, Wednesdays with the Sales Japan Series Podcast, and Thursdays with the Leadership Japan Series Podcast. Fridays, I will release the Japan Business Show on YouTube and the podcast version the same day. That means we are broadcasting every day of the week. I guess Saturday and Sunday are still open, but I think I am already crazy enough to be doing daily releases every week. Actually, I am getting tired just thinking about this publishing schedule. Why am I doing all of this for free? The answer - at Dale Carnegie we have a genuine passion to help people progress in their careers and for businesses to be successful.

To have the consistency and dedication to release an episode every day, week in and week out, requires passion. A passion to serve and that is very important in all of our businesses isn’t it? In this one hundredth episode, I am going to talk about the importance of showing your passion for your subject when you are speaking. We have all suffered from the opposite haven’t we? We have been forced to listen to a boring, unengaged speaker just droning on and on, as they run through the details of the data. When it is our turn, we all need to do a lot better than that don’t we, if we want to keep the attention of our “Age of Distraction” audience.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show". This is quite special, as today we broadcast episode number one hundred, so please allow me to say thank you to all the followers of the show for supporting it over this two year period.

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. As always we are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

The number of working women in Japan has topped thirty million, the highest since records were started in nineteen fifty three. The number of women holding a job rose five hundred and thirty thousand for last year. Only fifty five percent of women hold full time jobs, the rest are working part time or are contractors with less stable positions and generally lower wages. A Kyodo News survey of one hundred and twelve companies found fifty seven percent said they are trying to create a working environment more favourable to women.

In other news, Japanese women and men retained second and third place respectively, in their rankings for average life expectancy around the world in two thousand and eighteen. The average life expectancy of women in Japan is eighty seven point three two years. For men it is eighty one point two five years. A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official commented, “Life expectancy has grown longer as we have seen drops in mortality rates for cerebro vascular disease or strokes and pneumonia amongst women and the rate of cancer for men. Finally Toyota Motor Corporation has developed a self driving mini robot car to transport sports equipment during athletic events such as the Olympic Games next year. It will transport the equipment used for the shot put, javelins, discuss and hammer throw events to return them to the athletes . The robot which can travel at twenty kilometers an hour, has three cameras and a lidar sensor which enable to it to see its surroundings.

In this episode we are talking about The Power Of Passion When Speaking

Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

Formulistic presentations may tick the boxes, but definitely don’t ignite much enthusiasm in the audience. Yes, the key points were covered, the time was consumed, people heard the presentation matching the topic previously promulgated, but so what? When we attend a mediocre or even bad presentation, we are reminded that a great opportunity has gone begging. When it is our turn and we stand in front of an audience, we are representing our personal brand and our firm’s brand. People will evaluate our company on how we perform. So our job is to perform well and really build fans for our business and ourselves.

Yes, a written speech is grammatically perfect, but it is often boring because of the flat way in which it is delivered. The reading cadence doesn’t suit the live speaking situation. Have you ever noticed that a flat, deadly boring speech can be followed by a very engaging Q&A session led by the speaker? This is because the speaker is now freed from their self-imposed limitations of reading the speech. They start telling us stories of people to illustrate their points. They pepper us with useful information and data that gives us insights. We see some passion in what they are telling us. We all need to be like this in the main body of the speaking time.

Observing a lot of speakers, I have noticed that the things that often go missing most are their passion and commitment for the topic. Additionally, it may be that an already low energy, flat delivery is further hindered by a poor structure. We enter a room full of pre-occupied people, with microscopic attention spans, basically entirely distracted before we even start. We need to grab their attention away from whatever it was they were thinking about before we get up to the podium.

An excellent opening needs considerable planning. It must be a battering ram to break through the wall of audience disinterest and skepticism. It must have a powerful hook in there to keep our attention. Remember, this is how we in the audience are trained. Headlines, the opening stanzas of newspaper and magazine articles, book titles, talk shows, the nightly news programming, television dramas, movies, etc., are all carefully designed and scripted to grab and keep our attention. This is what we, as speakers, are competing with – a professional class of smart, well paid, attention monopolizing experts.

So our opening has to instantly grab attention. Next we need to lead our flock through the intricacies of our topic, so that they can keep up and understand where we are going. If we have key points, then give them numbers, because we more easily follow number sequences. Just don’t make it too many numbers. Keeping up with the thirty three key points of any topic, delivered in a thirty minute speech, is a nightmare the audience doesn’t need.

Wrapping it all up at the end is a critical component too, because this is the speaker’s final impression with the audience. Have you noticed how often the final words of the talk just fade out. The speaker’s voice strength just drops away altogether at the end. What we really want is passion backing up the conclusion. The voice tone should rise to a crescendo. The talk completes with a powerful hypnotic, all embracing call to action. We want everyone, metaphorically, to join us and storm the barricades.

Instead we get that limping, low energy fade out, as the ineffective speaker just bumbles their way into Q&A. Typically, they don’t have any strategy to control the flow of Q&A either. Because of this, they lose control of the proceedings. They have committed a fatal mistake and allowed the final question to completely determine the final impression of the talk with the audience. How many times have you heard a question raised which was completely off topic? Unfortunately this happens quite often, so the danger here is that the questioner highjacks our speech. Their topic is the last item ringing in the ears of the audience rather than what we were there to talk about. Do not let that happen! We need two powerful, passionate closes – one for the end of our speech and one for the end of Q&A.

Passion for the topic and the audience are requirements. These are not optional extras, useful additions, that we can include or not at our leisure. If we don’t feel passion for our topic and our audience, then we come across as flat, perfunctory, formulistic. In these cases, when the audience leaves the venue, the speaker, topic and their organisation are immediately forgotten. With that type of result, we have to ask, “well just what was the point?”. The residual impression is negative. The listeners feel that their time was wasted and no great value was imparted. They leave determined that if that same speaker ever pops up again in the future, they won’t bother to attend.

You may not have world beating speaking technique, structure, openings, closings or control of the Q&A, but you can overcome all of these shortcomings, if you really communicate your passion. We will forgive you small foibles, if we feel you really want to share this vital information with us. We want to know that you are really motivated to help the audience, who have given up their precious time to hear you out. Enthusiasm is contagious. Our audience will forgive a lot of our faults, if they feel our energy, passion and commitment for the topic.

Be passionate, enthusiastic, well organised, well structured when you speak. If you do, then your audience will recall both you and your firm with positive regard as truly professional and isn’t that what we want in business?

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this 100thepisode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my other weekly shows. For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube

In episode one hundred and one, we are talking about How to Find Golden Clients. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Here is a simple question – are you only working on the highest value items, that only you can do? Some things you can and should delegate but there are others that need your exclusive, personal touch. Isn’t that what leaders should be doing with their time. If that is not the case, then please take note of some efficiency ideas from today’s show.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

The proportion of children with allergies or dental problems is more than ten times higher in families on welfare than in those not receiving benefits. The Tokyo university study identified factors such as stress, house dust and lack of supervision. In households on welfare, thirty one percent of boys aged five to nine suffered from asthma, ten times higher than the norm. In other news, part-time University lecturers with Ph.D.s are part of the working poor. They get paid a very low amount for lectures, get no pay during holiday periods and don’t get remunerated for preparing classes or marking essays. Tenured tracks are reducing but those entering the pipeline are increasing. In two thousand and eighteen the number of Phds was fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty eight compared to only five thousand five hundred and seventy six in nineteen weighty nine. The number of PHD doing part time work went up six fold from fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty eight in nineteen eighty nine, to ninety three thousand one hundred and forty five in two thousand and sixteen. Finally, one in seven Japanese children live in relative poverty. The child poverty rate in Japan tops all of the OECD countries. In single parent households, it is fifty percent. Among households on welfare the ratio of children advancing to universities and vocational training was thirty five percent less than half the average of seventy three percent.

This is episode number ninety-nine and we are talking about How To Finally Get Your Act TogetherSoredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

“The first thing is to make sure you are in the moment” says sixteen time tennis Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic. “That is much easier to say than to do. You have to exclude all distractions and focus on what you are about to do. In order to get into that state of concentration, you need to have a lot of experience, and a lot of mental strength. You are not born with that. It is something you have to build by yourself”.

Leaders are busy people and it is difficult to find time during the day to be “in the moment”. Phones ring, email floods in without mercy, staff want a piece of you, meetings suck the life force out of your day, business social media beckons with its siren song of “look at me, look at me”, imminent deadlines loom. Consequently, you often look back on the day and are bewildered as to where the time went and become frustrated with how little actually got done.

Excluding distractions and focusing on what you need to be doing are learnt skills. It is astonishing to me how few leaders plan their day. When I am teaching leadership to senior leaders and we get to the time management bit, I ask who plans their day – written down and prioritised? On average I would be lucky to get 10% of the participants raising their hands. When I clarify that they are writing it down in some form of numbered order, a few sheepishly lower their hands.

Are they lacking the mental strength to be able to organize themselves? I don’t think that is the issue. It seems to be a general lack of ability to self-organise their day. The first barrier is philosophical – “I don’t want to be locked into a schedule, because mine changes so much throughout the day, there is no point setting priorities which will keep changing”.

There is a breakthrough technology for that called the pencil. If your priorities change, then change the order by re-writing to list. “I can’t be bothered doing that burdensome task”. Well if that erase and re-write construct is too much for you, then we have to wonder why you are being put in charge of people and budgets in the first place.

The reality is the basic order of priorities will only ever change a few times a day and not every day, so the alteration of the order is no big deal, so get over it. The power of setting priorities, in order, is that you can concentrate on the highest value components of your work. When I was at University, I remember one of the professors showing me a cartoon about the difficulties of sitting down and writing. The ironing, the cleaning, the lawn mowing all were given a higher priority, because the writer was afraid to start and looked for escape routes. We do that in leadership – we procrastinate on projects and tasks we should be doing.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back

The golden rule of leadership time management is “we can’t do everything, but we can do the most important things”. The most high value tasks are those that only we can do – they are not things we can delegate. The key is to concentrate our mental energy to be “in the moment” to complete those highest value tasks without being distracted or hindered. Therefore time must be allocated for the highest value tasks that we have nominated ahead of all the other many tasks. The latter are the lower value tasks, which is where those without a prioritised list, spend the majority of their working lives and are left wondering why they can’t get enough done.

To allocate the time required for the highest value tasks, we need to create block time. This is cordoned off time, no distractions time, no meetings time, no calls or emails time. We seize the highest priority work to be done and we throw everything we have at it, uninterrupted and unapologetically. Allocate time in our diaries for block time by diarising a meeting with ourselves that is set in stone. If we don’t do that we will never be able to marshal the time we need for the highest value projects we need to be working on.

We also need to create block time for thinking. We can get very tied up in our businesses, busy, busy, busy working in them. We should also allocate time to for working on them as well. That means getting away from the everyday routine and taking a step back. We need that thinking time to let ideas emerge, percolate and galvanise. What should I be doing more of? What should I be doing less of? What can I add in to the business? What can I take out? Time spent pondering these ponderable will be some of the most valuable time you spend at work. You don’t do it now or do enough of it, because you are not allocating the time. The weeds have seized you and you must break free.

Leaders, let’s stop kidding ourselves - all we have is time and how we spend it determines all. Let’s take back our control and rise above the noise, to work at the most peak level of effectiveness possible.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.

In episode we are talking about. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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In this modern day and age a salesperson just swanning into a meeting and asking the client really basic information about their company is completely incomprehensible. It is basic laziness and unprofessionalism. It is winging it when there is no need. There is so much readily available information on businesses and the individuals running them today it is incredible. It is about time salespeople started using it. Find out how they should be doing that very shortly.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Tokyo cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint was hacked to the tune of three point five billion yen or thirty three million dollars. Remixpoint the owner of the exchange said two point five billion yen or roughly 24 million dollars belonged to customers. Ouch. In other news, Japan recycles eighty four percent of the plastic it collects, one of the highest rates in the world. This sounds good but the figures are misleading. Of the plastic recycled only twenty three percent is turned into new plastic, four percent is chemically recycled into its constituent parts. The vast majority, all the remainder, is burned. Other countries don’t count burning as recycling. Finally, convenience store giant Seven and I had their new mobile payment system using barcodes and QR codes hacked and customers were defrauded through unauthorized access. Eight hundred and eight customers using the cashless payment system lost thirty eight million yen or three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. One month after its all dancing all singing debut, the system has been entirely scrapped.

This is episode number ninety eight and we are talking about Stop Being Hopeless In Client Meetings Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

Salespeople are very busy, rushing around finding new clients, developing leads, networking, cold calling, attending client meetings, getting stuck into preparing proposals and later executing the follow through on what has been promised. Somewhere in this process some key basics start to go missing. One of those basics is the proper preparation for client meetings.

This is rather ironic because we salespeople have never had it so good. In this modern age we have so much information available to us just a few clicks away. Listed client companies very conveniently include their financial details, strategies, corporate officer information, etc., in their annual reports on their web sites.

Invariably, we will see a modern besuited business Titan posing in the plush corporate corner office. In addition to the PR division’s photographic efforts, there will be a substantial article or interview with the CEO, outlining the way forward for the company. The key organisation goals and milestones are on display for all to see.

A few minutes finding this information and reading it will give the salesperson a very clear idea of the key business drivers for the company’s strategy. The financial section will also tell us how the entity is tracking against it’s declared goals. It may even get down to a breakdown at the divisional or country level, which is pure gold to someone about to meet a decision-maker from that firm.

Being able to tie what you sell to the goals they have set for themselves instantly makes the context relevant and places the discussion on the right basis. Talking about your contribution to their ROI is of great interest to someone in that company, who has responsibility to deliver the goals established by senior management. So rather than talking about what you want – to sell something – the discussion is better focused around how you can help them achieve their goals.

How many salespeople though bother to do this prior to calling on the client? Not enough! If we turn up to their office and say, “Tell me about your business?”, this speaks volumes about our lack of research on the company beforehand. It would be much better to ask a question that relates to the goals which have been set within the company. We should be looking for some context where we can show how helpful we can be, in solving their local issues preventing them from satisfying their corporate goals.

We should be coming into that meeting talking about the most relevant issues facing the team we are meeting. We might say:

“I notice that your company President has made it

a clear goal to grow the business by 12% over this next year.

Given the current business climate, that sounds pretty tough.

Is that also the commitment you need to deliver from the Japan business?”

This is a great question because we have indicated we have done our homework on the firm, we are aware of their goals and we are empathetic. We are also checking if the local business has the same issues or not. If they answer that the local unit has to grow by 30%, then that sets us up for a very interesting conversation about how they are going to achieve that and why their local goal is so much larger.

We want to capture the scale of the gap between their current performance and their required performance, plus their chances of bridging that gap without our help. If we find out the opportunity to grow 30% in Japan is a snap, because business conditions here are so much better than everywhere else for them, we may have a hard time showing where we can be helpful.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back

On the other hand if they are really suffering from having such a large target, then perhaps we may be the solution and they will be all ears to hear how we can help. We could ask them “how is business?” and they may or may not choose to enlighten us to their reality. Remember, everyone loves to buy but no one wants to be sold. So the less you have to tell salespeople anything, the less likely you will be sold anything.

If we are able to lead the conversation into a deeper stage quickly, the more likely we are to find out if we have a new client here or not. This should be our goal and we should be using the best resources available to us to achieve our goal.

Apart from the information on the firm, there is also information we will find on the individuals we will meet from the firm. They will probably have a Google, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube presence. A quick search on their name will turn up useful background information, which may allow us to draw out some connections we share in common. If you both studied at the same university or previously both worked in the same industry or lived in the same location (state or town) or have the same hobbies, these are speedy connectors between two total strangers.

In sales, we need our buyers to know, like and trust us. The like and trust parts are the difficult bits, especially at the initial stages of the relationship. Sharing things in common is a great way to quickly establish credibility and a relationship.

Let’s take my example. I am a proud Queenslander, grew up in Brisbane, I support the Brisbane Broncos and Origin rugby teams, studied Modern Asian Studies at Griffith University and I practice karate. There are a wealth of speedy connectors right there. You can find all of this out about me on-line in about five minutes.

Start our meeting by commenting on how well Queensland has been doing in the Origin rugby and you and I are off to a great start! It means you know about the rabid Queensland versus New South Wales State rivalry in rugby and how important it is to native Queenslanders like me to win.

I am a buyer of goods and services here in Japan. Over the last twenty 25 years here, not one salesperson has tried to connect with me through knowing some common connectors. Given what is out there now in the public domain, there is no excuse for salespeople calling on me, particularly over the last ten years, to not try to connect in this way.

It is the same for most people we meet. We can get the relationship off to a flying start, if we bother to invest the time to find out their key details. Yes, we are all very busy but that is not a sufficient excuse. We salespeople are simply not doing a good enough job to use the tools at our command today. It is crazy when you think about it. Trying to build a connection and establish a positive first impression has to be every salesperson’s goal when meeting new clients for the first time.

Yes there are unlisted companies and yes, not so many Japanese business people use LinkedIn as yet. However, there are plenty of companies though who are listed and plenty of Japanese people on Facebook etc., so we should make the effort to do our homework on the client before we meet. In this Internet age there really are no excuses.

One of the other tricky bits about Japan is the group dynamic of decision-making. We may not know beforehand precisely who will be in the room. Often there will be extra people who turn up and so we won’t be able to research them prior to the meeting. However, after the meeting we can try to find out something about them that might enable us to establish a relationship. If they support a particular interest, we might send them an article on that subject.

If they like a certain sport or activity we might arrange tickets as our guest. However, I am a bit conservative regarding individual gift giving in Japan. There are often corporate compliance restraints on entertainment and gift giving which we should be aware of. We don’t want our efforts to cause them any embarrassment or trouble. On the other hand, we could bring something to eat to be shared with the whole team and that is usually acceptable. Japan, fortunately has an amazing selection of these types of goodies for just such an occasion.

This is the age of readily available and free information. We need to differentiate ourselves from every other salesperson out there. A simple way to do that is to spend some time researching the company and the individuals. When we have these insights we ask better designed questions, we uncover more key information more quickly and we provide great context for our conversation with the buyer.

Action Steps

1. Go on-line and read through the corporate annual report
2. Use social media to find out about the person we are going to meet
3. Use search tools like Yahoo and Google to see what we can know prior to the appointment
4. If new people turn up to the meeting, do a search on them and see if there are ways we can connect with them.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.

In episode ninety nine we are talking about How To Finally Get Your Act Together. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Technical experts are rarely expert presenters. Why is that? They are smart, well educated, highly knowledgeable about their area of expertise, have tons of data and boast abundant experience. Their presentations should be nothing less than triumphs, legendary value, unmatched deep dives on their subject. Rarely the case though. They fail for the simplest of reasons, when really they shouldn’t fail at all. Find out why very shortly.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

The Japan Post Insurance scandal boasts some amazing numbers. Ninety thousand cases of inappropriate sales, twenty-two thousand cases of customers being tricked into making double payments, forty-seven thousand cases of being left uninsured for months before signing new contracts after their old ones were terminated, and twenty four thousand other cases where customers were disadvantaged. What happened? The bosses set aggressive sales targets for the sales staff and they gamed the system to make their numbers. When the scandal broke, the bosses tried to justify what they staff had been doing calling it “legitimate”. That didn’t fly and before you knew it, the Presidents of Japan Post insurance and Japan Post were doing a lot of deep bowing at their press conference. In other news, a Pew Research center report for japan found that ninety percent of Japanese think robots and computers will be doing much of the work currently being done by people, in the next fifty years. Some eighty-three percent saw this as causing greater inequality, while seventy four percent believed people will have trouble finding work. Finally, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has provided five hundred million yen or roughly five million dollars in subsidies over three years and three months to SkyDrive Inc, the first company in japan to develop an electric vertical takeoff and landing craft or eVTOLs. Osaka Prefectural Government is aiming for a one person vehicle with six propellers to provide a demonstration flight at the Osaka World Expo in twenty twenty five. At the Fukushima Robot Test Field at the end of February ten drones were launched simultaneously by different business operators to test whether they could fly safely without collisions in an airspace of nine hundred by six hundred meters.

This is episode number ninety-seven and we are talking about Technical Presenters Biggest Mistakes

Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

Technical experts love their specialty. Usually, they have studied hard and long to get into their profession and there is also substantial on-going professional development required to stay current. They are analytical types who thrive on the detail. When they present technical subjects to business people who are not experts they can run into trouble.

The slide deck will be vast and detailed. There is a lot of information to get through and so the slides can be dense. The subject matter, being technical, is a serious business and that is how they approach their delivery. Somber, low energy, no gestures, monotone delivery are all de rigeurfor our self assured,

serious experts. The pace is slow, large numbers of the slides are read to the audience. The entire atmosphere is funereal.

Is there a contradiction between the subject matter and presentation delivery skills.? If the matter is technical shouldn’t the material speak for itself. Isn’t the presenter just a simple conduit of information? Yes, you could do it that way, if you want to be completely forgettable, have no interest in establishing a powerful personal brand and become the go to person on the subject. For many technical people that would be just fine, because they don’t enjoy the limelight, they don’t really want to meet new people and would rather be immersed in their specialty.

If the firm is happy for them to be nobodies in a crowded field of similar experts all vying for the same client business, then that monk like approach is a good outcome. If however, you want your firm to stand out above the din, to become famous for the quality of your team and for your professional bedside manner with non-specialists, then a re-think is in order.

Lets start with the deck, because this is the holy grail for specialists and this is where all the time is sucked up, with iteration after iteration. Slides can be printed out and distributed after the presentation. Why not during? Yes, you can do that but the chances are that you will be on slide 5 and your audience will be on slide 45 and you have lost control of their attention. Better to mention at the start that the materials will be distributed after the presentation. There may be one or two sheets where the detail is so dense, say numbers on spread sheets, that it is impossible to read on screen and these could be handed out at the start.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome back

The details can be presented on the slide because our audience can read it for themselves, which means we don’t have to cover every detail on every slide. We can show and tell. That is, show the slide in its full glory but only refer to a few key points. This allows us to speak without being trapped by the text on screen. We can speak to the points, elaborate and tell stories to bring the facts to life.

Storytelling is mainly absent from the repertoire of technical presenters but these are the things the audience will remember after the talk. They also make the detail more interesting because they are usually dealing with things at the application rather than the theoretical stage.

When speaking not every word needs to have the same value. This is the monotone delivery approach, which quickly puts everyone to sleep. Instead we can select out key words for additional emphasis and hit those words harder when we deliver them. We can bring energy to the fore when we make recommendations or issue warnings. These are simple voice modulation techniques which add validity to what we are saying.

We can use gestures to back up our words, again these bring energy to key points in a way that adds credibility to the content. Our passion for the subject should shine through. The specialist though often believes that their subject matter should be unemotional and delivered in a bland way, that is not controversial. We don’t have to be outrageous to make a connection with the audience. Regardless of the subject matter, it usually has ramifications for people and people are emotional. We can find how this topic relates to their businesses and their lives and make it real for the audience.

We don’t have to be dull. We can take highly technical subjects and humanize them, tell stories, inject situations and people into them to bring them to life. We just need to change our mindset about what we are actually doing here. Are we simply going through the motions or are we trying to communicate our key messages to our audience? That decision makes the path forward very clear.

THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan. Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular.

Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button.

Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts

In episode ninety-eight we are talking about Stop Being Hopeless in Client Meetings. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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Academic studies of business are important sources of case studies, theories and new research. All great stuff. Some areas though are definitely behind the times and that is in the area of imparting information to an audience. The bleeding of the executive summary from the written document, into the way business conducts meetings is a guaranteed formula for tears before bedtime. Find out why very shortly

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Japan has been concerned about having too many of its eggs in the Tokyo basket. There has been a move to relocate central govern offices out of Tokyo, revamping universities outside the capital area and government grants have been extended to promote local industries in rural areas to attract companies to move their headquarters out of Tokyo. This has pretty much been a total failure. In fact Tokyo’s population grew by one hundred and forty thousand last year. The number of firms who have taken advantage of tax incentives to move their headquarters out of Tokyo has been insignificant. Only the Cultural Affairs agency is moving to Kyoto. Despite all the rhetoric, all the rest of the bureaucracy is staying put. In other news, a Health Ministry survey in two thousand and fourteen counted one point one million workers who considered themselves depressed. This was up from four hundred thousand in nineteen ninety nine. More recent surveys pin about ten percent of the people in companies as suffering form depression. Finally, of the one thousand five hundred foreign detainees who were held in prison as of june last year, six hundred and four were asylum seekers. The number of asylum seekers accepted into japan was just forty two. There were ten thousand four hundred and ninety three applications for asylum.

This is episode number ninety six and we are talking about Ignore your Business School Advice Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

Avoid this advice at all costs, “State your conclusion first and then explain the reasoning behind it”. I am sure many have heard this dubious gem about how to persuade live business audiences. It is well intentioned but atrocious advice. Driving this effort are the dual objectives of clarity and brevity. Admirable outcomes for any business meeting. However, if you actually want to dissuade people concisely and quickly, then go for it.

The “conclusion first” advice is a natural reaction to lengthy diatribes, wandering aimlessly around business subjects, driving bosses crazy. The senior leadership are thinking, “I wish they would get to the point”. So the standard advice is state your conclusion up front and then add the evidence. The written word though is different, but here we are talking about oral business presentations.

“Conclusion first” sounds quite logical and reasonable, except it doesn’t work very well when it comes to persuading an audience. If you are just imparting information then it is probably fine, but if you are seeking agreement on a course of action, then expect low rates of success.

If we put up our action recommendation, before the evidence, we are asking for trouble. When there is no context, the audience cannot judge fairly. Your bold, naked conclusion instantly comes under silent assault from a room full of armchair critics and skeptics. They now tune you out. They are totally focused on why what you just said is rubbish and won’t work. This, by the way, is when they are supposed to be absorbing your rationale. Instead, they are no longer listening to you and are concentrating solely on negatives.

The Japanese language, like some others, gives us a good clue on fixing this problem. The verb is at the end of the sentence and so while we are absorbing content, we don’t know if the sentence is describing something in the past, present or future. We also have no idea if it is positive or negative. This prevents the listener from jumping in and cutting us off. They have to suspend judgment about the content. This enables us to explain the reasoning, then bring up our recommendation rather than the other way around.

Find out more when we come back from the break

Welcome backStart with evidence, proof, facts, data, expert opinion but wrap it up in a short story. This story should have a few defining guideposts – time, place, people and emotion. We try to capture our audience’s attention by helping them to see the scene in their mind’s eye.

For example, “I caught up with our client CEO Ben Smith in Tokyo after Thanksgiving. We were meeting in their wood paneled boardroom, on the 46thfloor of their office in Toranomon Hills, listening to feedback on the programme and I was getting nervous”. That introduction takes about ten seconds. No one is going to stop us and say, “Greg, will you get to the point”. We have mentally pulled them into the story, taking them to a place they either already know or can easily imagine. They can visualise the people and the scene. They are also hooked by curiosity – why was I getting nervous, what happened next, etc?

We now have their complete attention, as we explain the problem or issue at hand. We bring in strong evidence with context. We provide our experience, our rationale, our logic and reasoning inside the story. We next state the action step we recommend. This is done in one brief sentence and we immediately tag on the benefit of taking the action. The chances are high that the listeners, hearing the facts and context we have introduced, will jump right ahead of us. They will race to the same conclusion we have reached, before we even have a chance to articulate it.

Better to bridge to your conclusion, while others are already mentally agreeing with it, than having to fight a rearguard action from the start. This approach allows us to more easily persuade others to take the action we are proposing. This is the real world of business not varsity. Try and it and enjoy the results.

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Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover. Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best.

You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.

In episode ninety seven we are talking about Typical Technical Presenter Big Mistakes. Find out more about that next week.

So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

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No one tells you when you start in sales that you need a crash course in juggling. Not juggling balls in the air but juggling al the deals with clients that need the follow through and juggling all the deals that are cooking away but not quite ready yet. We can get ourselves into trouble, if we don’t acquit ourselves well in this juggling venture. Find out why that is very shortly.

Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"

I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.

Why the Cutting Edge?

In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan. We want to help advance everyone’s thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Toyota Motor Corporation is setting up a joint venture with Chinese ride hailing giant DiDi Chuxing Technology company. Toyota is investing six hundred million dollars into the new venture to expand its business in China. GAC Toyota Motor company a joint venture between China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group will also join the project. Toyota aims to promote the use of electric vehicles suitable for future mobility services in China, the world’s biggest auto market. In a bid to transform itself into a mobility company Toyota has established Monet technologies with investment from Softbank Group Corporation. Toyota also invested one billion into Uber technologies new subsidiary to develop autonomous vehicles together with the SoftBank Group and auto supplier Denso corporation. In other news, A science Ministry committee of experts have approved Japan’s first research involving the injection of human induced pluripotent stem iPs cells into fertilized animal eggs with the aim of growing human organs. The aim is to use human organs for transplantation in the future.

Finally, The bank of Yokohama and Chiba Bank have agreed to a business tie-up. The two banks the biggest and third largest by assets aim to launch a partnership in areas such as sharing information on mergers and acquisitions and business successions.

This is episode number ninety five and we are talking about Winning Sales Follow Through

Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.

The implication of this title is that if you don’t properly follow through on the sale then you are losing. Well, it is true - you are losing. The difficulty of gaining a sale is hard enough, but the real difficulty is to get the re-order. This is where we should all be very finely focused. Rather than approaching a potential client with a sale in mind, what if we set off with the idea of the re-order firmly entrenched in our brain? This simple switching of gears completely changes the conversation, the goals and the execution of the sale follow through.

What often happens though in a busy life is we have more than one client on the go. As we are completing one sale, we have other sales coming to fruition. There are proposals to write, meetings to be held, materials and data to be gathered – all sorts of tasks required to make the sale happen. In the middle of this rush, a sale is registered and the concentration on the imminent future sales, suck up all the energy and time that should be available to do a proper job of the follow through.

We need to think carefully about our workload and ensure that above all, we protect our reputation for reliability. If we are going though the Valley of Sales Death, where we have run out of prospects and the sales pipeline is now empty, we may be rushing around like a maniac trying reboot the sales process.

This means we are often over extending ourselves and we don’t get to the follow through in a timely manner. It might mean not following through fast enough with potential clients we met at networking events. We lose the momentum and now they don’t respond to us. It might mean, that we have sealed the sale and then mentally move on to securing the next one, without properly nailing down the execution piece of the first sale, we have just completed.

One key thing we need to check with the clients, is what are their expectations on the follow through, be they someone to meet after the networking event or actual clients who have just purchased from us.

Clients themselves are genius at this. You meet them, hit them up for a follow on meeting and they say contact me: after Golden Week (May), after obon(summer holidays in August), after Silver Week (September), after bonenkai(end of year party) season, after oshogatsu (New Years).