The Japan Business Mastery Show

Hearing "no" isn't easy, especially in sales. It's a rejection we often react to emotionally, pushing harder in hopes of reversing the answer. However, immediately countering objections is usually ineffective, as this response is driven more by impulse than by strategy. A better approach is to use a "cushion"—a neutral statement that buys a few seconds to regroup and keeps the conversation calm. F...

Visionary leaders are often seen as motivators and guides, but to lead effectively, they must first have a clear vision for themselves. Many people offer sound advice to others while neglecting to apply it in their own lives, which can undermine their credibility as leaders. To be a visionary, one must back their vision with specific goals. Living an "intentional life" is a good starting point; it...

The saying goes that there are "lies, damn lies, and statistics," and in the world of presenting, an often misquoted statistic claims that 55% of audience impressions are based on appearance. While this stems from Professor Mehrabian's research at UCLA, it's crucial to understand the context: this percentage applies when the content and delivery of a presentation are incongruent. When a speaker's...

Salespeople often fall into a rhythm of easing off as the year-end approaches, especially in Japan, where the fiscal year ends in March. This period, leading up to the holiday break, can see a decline in productivity that equates to 8% of the year. To maximize sales, it's essential to maintain focus and activity through December. One effective strategy is to reach out to existing customers. Even i...

Leaders often rely on "automatic trust," stemming from their authority, to gain compliance from team members. However, achieving genuine, "earned trust" is crucial for fostering motivation and commitment within a team. Unlike automatic trust, earned trust develops through consistent, authentic interactions where leaders show integrity in both "talking the talk" and "walking the walk." Without earn...

There is an abundance of definitions on what is charismatic leadership? The definition proffered during a recent webinar was uncontroversial and acceptable: emotional and intellectual engagement, inspiration to go the extra mile – all quite reasonable elements. Somehow that left me feeling vaguely unfulfilled.  Reflecting on charismatic leaders, what was it about them that made them so attractive?...

Many people ask us at Dale Carnegie, what should I do with preparing my slide deck for my key note presentation?  What's too much?  What's too little?  What's the best way to make this work for me?  That is what we will explore in this week's show. Here's some guidelines for using visuals. Less is definitely best.  On a screen try to avoid paragraphs and sentences.  If you can, use single words, a...

We get lazy.  We start cutting corners.  We get off our game.  We chill, cruise and take the foot off the pedal.  Sales is demanding and a life of constant pressure.  The temptation is when we get to a certain level of success we think well, we have done enough.  We can justify that coffee break, that longer lunch, coming in late after the first mid-morning appointment and heading home early after...

Before Shinya Katanozaka became President of ANA Holdings he came up with a genius idea.  Allow the passengers to order breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever they pleased.  Passenger surveys showed the clients were in full agreement.  What the boss had not anticipated was that passengers would order the meals immediately on take-off, making it impossible to deliver on the promise.  The plan was soo...

Whenever I am in the USA, I love watching the different television preachers in action.  I noticed they are master storytellers, usually using Bible incidents to make a point in the here and now.  The parables in the Bible are all mini-episodes, which teach a point about success.  They are definitely on to something with their storytelling expertise. As speakers, we have a topic to address, a key...

You really appreciate the importance of brand, when you see it being trashed.  Companies spend millions over decades constructing the right brand image with clients.  Brands are there to decrease the buyer's sense of risk.  A brand carries a promise of consistent service at a certain level.  Now that level can be set very low, like some low cost airlines, where "cheap and cheerful" is the brand pr...

We love acronyms!  Our workplaces are thriving with them such that we can hold extended conversations composed entirely of seemingly impenetrable codes.  They are handy though and this one R.E.AL. is short and serviceable to describe best practice leadership attributes.  It always good to have evidence around pontification. "Reliable" is an obvious choice and though much upheld in principle, tends...

Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets.  In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in the client's best interests.  We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer's needs.  We know that by asking well designed questions, we can possibly come up with an insight that triggers a...

Basically your job is toast.  There is a machine or there will soon be a machine that can do it faster, better and cheaper than you.  Our skill set didn't change much from the start of agriculture 12,000 years ago until the industrial revolution in the mid-18 th century.  This last 150 years has been busy.  We have created a weapon that can destroy our race.  Who thought we would be that stupid? ...

My eyes are closing.  I am struggling to stay awake.  There is something about this presentation that is not working.  I thought, it must be me.   I must be tired.  Later however I realized the problem.  I was being lulled into sleep by the monotone delivery of the presenter.    The brand by the way is gorgeous.  This is seriously high profile, a name that everyone knows and respects.  The name al...

Pricing is usually set by the boss and salespeople are just there to get out and sell at that designation. The trouble though is salespeople are not convinced by any price setting methodology. They only believe in the reality of the market. The way they know the reality is the degree of pushback they get from clients, when they are trying to sell.  When you have no belief in the value backing up t...

You have to tell people how it is or you will lose power and authority.  If you swallow what you want to say, you will diminish yourself.  If you avoid hard conversations, you will have less influence.  You need to tell them exactly how you are feeling.  This was the tenor of the advice coming from an American communication "guru".  While listening to this, I thought this is absolutely going to fa...

We can speak to a group and then there is another level, where we try to captivate our audience.  What makes the difference.  The content could even be the same but in the hands of one person it is dry and delivered in a boring manner.  Someone else can take the same basic materials and really bring it to life.  The quality of the argument we are going to present is important.  We definitely need...

Jan Carlzon many years ago published a tremendous guide to customer service.  He had the job of turning around SAS airlines and captured that experience in his book "Moments Of Truth".  I was reminded of Carlson's insights when I was recently checking into my hotel in Singapore.  While going through the check-in process at the hotel, a waiter from the adjoining restaurant approached me bearing an...

"Born to lead" is nonsense.  Many things shaped that person in order for them to achieve credibility with others.  Of course, we can become a "leader" as part of our company designated hierarchy.  We sit somewhere in an organizational chart above others, with various reporting lines elevating us above the hoi polloi.  We know many people with that august title of "leader", who we would never willi...

Lawyers in Japan are an elite group.  I attended a legal symposium, involving these super elite Japanese lawyers and yet the communication skills on offer were incongruent with their elite educations and high social status. I can never resolve how intelligent people can manage to stand up in front of an audience and position themselves such that they fully ignore one third of their audience.  So h...

Tricky area in sales, showmanship.  The word has a certain odor about it that reeks of fake, duplicity, con game, spruker, carnival barker, etc.  Yet, like storytelling, this is an important part of the sales professional's repertoire.  Clients are card carrying members of the Great Guild Of Skeptics.  They are highly doubtful about salespeople's claims. We need to bring some powerful persuasion t...

In our lives, we have harvested a lot of experiences, which we can use in our presentations.  If we were better organized, we might have had the forethought to keep notes, so it would be easier to refer to them when we are looking for material.  Well there is a hint right there – keep notes from now on.  You can just jot down in your Evernote or something similar, the key points you will want to r...

Imagine my surprise, as an expert in sales training, when I meet salespeople who have not spent even one second trying to master the bridging of the gap between value and cost.  Sitting in the audience at a speaker event, next to a thirtyish Japanese sale's guy, we talked about how he does his sales. He told me he contacts a lead, gets an appointment, shows up and explains the service and submits...

Japan loves rote learning and parents will pay cram schools to get their kids fully tuned up and on to the education escalator. Rote learning and exam technique is the standard educational approach in Japan right through to starting University classes. At University, unless you are trying for very specific careers like medicine, the elite bureaucracy or some job that requires you to pass a nationa...