The Japan Business Mastery Show

Time is life and time is money – we know this, but do we organize ourselves well enough with this in mind.   The disappearance of Executive Assistants and Secretaries reflects the dominance of the keyboard and a DIY approach to work content creation by leaders.  Once upon a time, the majority of boss content output was produced by others, a magical time of delegation ruling the world.    Today the...

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 the upper reaches.  Yet, they have feet of c...

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 know we should do that project or piece of work but we resist.  We may even be bold and get it into our To Do list, maybe even attach a high priority number to it, but still fail to start.  Why?  We are all pretty clever about avoiding pain and some projects have pain written all over them.    Our inner dialogue could also be an issue.  We are talking ourselves out of doing the work because of...

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...

We know storytelling is an effective communication medium but so what, are we any good at it.   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 salesperso...

Leaders are busy people.  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 beckons with its siren song of "look at me, look at me", imminent deadlines loom.  Consequently, you often look back on the day and are bewildered as to where the time went and become frustrated with how little actually got done.    Ex...

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.  They know they have to work harder to get and keep clients, but somehow this irks their sense of self-importance.  Being very good in the law should be enough, they think.  "We are experts and that is all we...

"We are going to be in your area next week, would you be available on Tuesday or Thursday?". "Really? Which part of my area will you be in?". "Are you available on Tuesday or Thursday?". "Wait a minute, you just said you would be in my area, so which part of my area will you be in?"  "Akasaka". "Really that's interesting. Akasaka is a big place, which part of Akasaka?". "Are you available on Tuesd...

Reputation in business is critical. Being honest, law abiding and treating business partners in a fair manner is the best policy for enhancing our reputation. Japan is a hard place in which to get into trouble, but that doesn't stop some from trying.   No possibility of jail time for me, you say.  Hopefully you are correct, but you might be juiced up having a big night on the town celebrating in R...

Marketing plays a key role in generating leads.  They are trying to maximise the accuracy of the segmentation of the data base, to make offers that resonate specifically with different segments.  They are producing content marketing pieces that will spark leads through the SEO route.  Buying ad words to get pay per click activation from buyers, who are searching for your specific good or service i...

"The Devil Is In The Detail" saying, reflects ancient wisdom about taking careful notice of small things.  E-mail surges, flat surfaces groaning under the weight of paper, meetings back to back from dawn to dusk, ring tones, beeps and assorted intrusions from digital devices we carry on our person 24 hours a day - this is the modern life.  How easy it is for us to become overwhelmed by all the det...

When presenting and you can't back up who you say you are with the goods, credibility declines rapidly and in fact dissipates.  Seriously sad really.  Our speaker had some excellent points to convey, but due to silly basic errors, killed his organisation's messages and brand.    The impressive thing was our speaker was delivering the talk in English, when that was not his native language.  Actuall...

Salespeople are very busy, rushing around finding new clients, developing leads, networking, cold calling, attending client meetings, getting stuck into preparing proposals and later executing the follow through on what has been promised.  Somewhere in this process some key basics start to go missing.  One of those basics is the proper preparation for client meetings.   Listed client companies ver...

We need "good hustle" from our salespeople.   Not "hustle" in the sense of tricking clients into arrangements to secure a big commission or a fat bonus.   "Good hustle" is about focus on getting commitments from buyers to proceed, that will benefit the buyer, because it will improve their business.   This is usually not about long-term massive interventions but about the practical improvements tha...

Evidence is good and lot of evidence can be even better, depending on how we present it.  Blasting our audience with data is boring.  Telling gripping stories highlighting the data is much better.   Your presentation needs both good content and good delivery. If either is missing then the talk will be a dud.  The idea that the telling isn't as important as the showing of the evidence of what you a...

Proper follow through after the sale is critical. The difficulty of gaining a sale is hard enough, but the real difficulty is in the followup, to get the re-order.  This is where we should all be very finely focused.  Rather than approaching a potential client with a sale in mind, what if we set off with the idea of the re-order firmly entrenched in our brain?  This simple switching of gears compl...

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....

We know that first impressions really count and we have planned the start.  We contacted the organisers well before the talk to get a sense of who has signed up for the talk and what their main interests are. We got to the venue early and checked on all the logistics.  We have been speaking with some of the early arrivals to get a sense of why they are attending and to know their name. We referenc...

Service provision should be linear but it isn't.  We receive great service followed by bas service.  Why is that and how do eliminate the inconsistencies revealed?   Salespeople are always trying to assure their buyers that they and their firm are trustworthy and reliable.  The follow through component of the sales process is when these two claims are tested.  The salesperson can be doing a splend...

Complex subjects are usually presented by technical experts.  It is rare to find one done well though.  How can this be, these are very smart people?   Technical experts love their specialty.  Usually, they have studied hard and long to get into their profession and there is also substantial on-going professional development required to stay current.  They are analytical types who thrive on the de...

Motivation is simple.  It comes from within.  If you don't believe me, try yelling to your staff member "be motivated, be motivated, be motivated" over and over and you will soon see how ridiculous the idea is.  The boss's job is to create the environment where the self-motivated can excel.   "Motivate me" must be one of the saddest requests a leader can receive.  The request may not be so bluntly...

Japan is a male dominated society, especially in business.  If you are a female presenter in business, the chances are high there will be a majority of men in the audience.    I attend a lot of events in Tokyo and I have noticed a few commonalities amongst the most successful women presenters in this male dominated environment here in Japan. Here is what I have seen work well for businesswomen whe...

 The facts, data and details of our solution are addictive.  So addictive, we want to start telling the prospective client all about how great they are.  We are getting ahead of ourselves though, because how do we know they are the right solution for that buyer?  This is where we have to change our mindset and think about how we can identify the need before we launch forth with the solution.   He...

To be successful in business today, we need to be able to access the full capability of our team. The boss can't do it all by themselves and they don't want to have to be the brains of the outfit, constantly having to tell people what to do and how to do it.  We need to tap into the creativity of our people and that makes all the difference.   The tried and true leadership model of "do what I say...