The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

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 co...

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 wo...

  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...

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...

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...

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...

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 b...

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 reli...

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,...

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 proc...

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...