The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

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 pl...

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 Ameri...

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 the...

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 h...

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...

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 b...

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...

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 proce...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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....

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.  Thi...

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 dir...

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 concer...

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 Lately...

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 yo...

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 yo...

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...

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...

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 rev...

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 i...

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 d...