The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

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 ab...

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...

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. T...

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 t...

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...

"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 goin...

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 ar...

  "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 un...

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...

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...

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 hap...

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 coll...

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, pe...

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 oft...

"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 m...

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 p...

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...

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 i...

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...

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 yo...

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...

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 al...

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...

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 mu...