The Japan Business Mastery Show

Audiences are so impatient today.  Worse still, they have a powerful weapon of escape from us in their hand held devices.  They observe the first few minutes of our presentation to decide if they will keep paying attention or whether they will escape to the delights of the internet.   How long does it take you on average to form a first impression?  My presentation skills students tell me two seco...

Having a code in sales is critical.  How do we keep an even keel in a profession which is continuously buffeting us with ups and downs?  We need a set of guidelines to help us become the trusted partner of our clients.  Today we are going explore some human relations principles which will help us do that.   There are thirty human relations principles for helping us all to become friendlier with ou...

Time is spelt L-I-F-E.  We will use time everyday, but how well will we use it. Let's get some ideas in today's show on wat we can do with the time we have.   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 beckon...

What are the key things we should be concentrating on to make sure we are clear to our audience?   The most common request, from both Japanese and English speakers in our classes is to "be clear when presenting".  The speakers want their message to get across to the audience, to be easy to follow, to have some impact from their efforts to get up in front of others and speak.   Firstly, we should d...

Success is replicable but only if we know what has worked well for others.   Here are some common characteristics of the most successful negotiators.  Being successful, doesn't mean being cunning, tricky, transactional, thinking win/lose. It also doesn't mean being impervious to the impact the way you conduct a negotiation will have on both your current reputation and longevity in the marketplace....

Everyone is a critic today, holding their firm opinion, swanning around full of biases and prejudices.  We better know how to state our conclusion in a way which avoids all of those minefields.   Avoid this Business School advice at all costs, "State your conclusion first and then explain the reasoning behind it".  The "conclusion first" advice is a reaction to lengthy diatribes, wandering aimless...

The competition to grasp and then hold the attention of our audiences is becoming more and more fierce.   We have all become fervent multi-taskers, listening to someone speak while surreptitiously scrolling through our email feed, Facebook or LinkedIn or all three!  Having our listener follow what we are saying, digest it and agree with it, must be the goal. Otherwise, why are we bothering? Many p...

The client has a problem and we fix it, our goods or services are delivered, outcomes are achieved and everybody wins.  Problems and issues are a bit like icebergs though – there is a lot more going on below the surface than can be spotted from the captain's bridge.  The salesperson's role is to go after the whole iceberg and not just the obvious bit floating above the waterline.   The standard sa...

We all know a little knowledge is dangerous.  I have witnessed this many times when it comes to some advice being pandered by so called experts about public speaking. Let's dodge the fake news and learn what we should be worrying about in our presentation.   Professor Albert Mehrabian's 1967 study of communication concluded that 55% of the presenter's message was received visually, 38% from voice...

How do we think about our customers?  How authentic are our communications as a result?  Are we telling enough stories about them?  In this week's show, we will see how a master of communication does it.   I am sure you have you seen notices explaining that this location is going to close while the building is being reconstructed and that it will reopen at a specified day in the future?  One notic...

Conflict happens in organisations.  We can't stop that, but we can control how we react to others when disagreements and arguments arise.     You know you are not perfect, but some of those around you are a real pain to deal with.  Why are they so difficult to get on with? Who knows, but the easiest way forward is to reduce the stress to a minimum by avoiding them or minimizing any interactions.  ...

Many people don't start out with a design for their talk.  They launch straight into the details, especially working with the slides.  The lack of design shows as the structure isn't tight enough, the points are nor clear enough and mostly the talk is totally forgettable.     Designing our presentation is a critical stage.  We have identified our target audience for our key messages.  We have sele...

Clever, shallow, smooth as silk, glib, "rat with a gold tooth" salespeople are the scourge of the earth. There are no barriers to entry or qualifications to enter this field of sales work. Riff raff need not apply but quite often they do.  Some will tell you anything, they live for today and like a shark, are constantly moving around in order to feed.    So, how do honest salespeople get anywhere...

We judge you by how well you can speak. Do you mumble, lurch from on random thought to another, or are you clear, concise and convincing.  We not only judge you, we base our impression of your entire organization on you.  Given this is important you would think we all would really work on communication skills.  We can but we don't.  Find out about altering ypur mindset in order to master this crit...

First impressions are everything.  If we get that wrong, then we won't be selling anything to that buyer.  Today we will review some of the things we should be paying careful attention to, in order to help us build the trust with the client.   As a buyer of products and services here in Japan, as someone who teaches sales and employs salespeople, it has always been astonishing to me how hopeless m...

Procrastination is the bane of efficiency.  Actually we all know well what we should be doing, but we just keep putting it off.  Today we will look at some practical steps to get us better organized and become able to move forward and make progress.   Paper piled high on all flat surfaces, email in-boxes bursting at the seams, project and completion deadlines menacing your normal calm equilibrium....

There is almost a checklist for things to pay attention to in getting ready for our talk.  Things we should anticipate and plan for.  In today's show we will go through the most important aspects of preparation.   Before jumping straight into the slides to build your presentation, identify your likely audience.  It might be an internal meeting report to your team, a presentation to your immediate...

When is enough enough with bad actors?  What do you do when they are the buyer's representative?  How much crap should we be prepared to take from nasty people just because they are the client?    The customer is kamisama (God) in sales.  We hear this a lot in Japan across all industries and sectors. Sometimes however, the buyer can more like an oni (Devil) when they deal with salespeople.  Bad be...

Busy bosses have the whole coaching thing taken care of – they don't do any, because they are too frantic.  Not a good approach is it, because we know we need to develop our people.  No one will get promoted unless there is a willing and able replacement ready to step up.  Coaching is how we get them ready and today we look at how to coach people properly.   A consistent issue our clients raise wi...

We want profile.  We want respect.  We want plaudits.  We want recognition.  The problem is often we are totally unprepared for these things in a public arena.   Consequently, when we are recognized for our achievements we destroy our credibility and we self immolate our personal brand.  Don't do that and find out in this episode what you can do instead.   The hush has now swept across the room. ...

The first sale is to yourself regarding what it is you are selling.  If you are not sold, then get out of that sales job and go find something you can believe in to sell.  In Japan, you won't find any other car brands in the Toyota carpark for a reason.   The hardest sales job in the world is selling something you don't believe in yourself.  The acid test is would you sell this "whatever" to your...

There are 15 public holidays a year in Japan plus some accepted company holidays as well.  However there are other factors which impact work capability in Japan, that we need to be aware of and adjust our expectations accordingly.  A boss grasp of these sensitivities will be well noted and much appreciated.   There are specific work rhythms for Japan.  Spring is hopeless because of  all the differ...

This is the hardest time ever for presenters.  We are already in the Age of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism and then we add alcohol to the mix – what could possibly go wrong with audience attention to our message?  Find out here to be heard when all the odds are against you.   The Master of Ceremony (MC) goes to the microphone to get the programme underway but the audience are oblivious, caugh...

Cold calling is a nightmare at the best of times and even much worse when we don't know what we are doing.  Today we will look at some real life examples of what we need to be saying.   Cold calling works much better when we are very clear about the outcome we can expect to achieve.  There are products and services you can sell over the phone, however these are very, very, very few.  The main aim...

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...