The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

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...

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, u...

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 t...

"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...

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 pas...

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"...

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...

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.  W...

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...

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. T...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 s...

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 thi...

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'...

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...

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 f...

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 leadi...

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 hi...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...