The Japan Business Mastery Show

I have often thought there are so many lessons from the martial arts for our businesses.  Here are my musings after 53 years of training in traditional Karate. Stepping on to the floor The dojo is the ultimate equalizer.  Whether you arrived by chauffeur driven Roller or took Shanks’s mare, once you step on to that dojo floor only your ability and character separates you from everyone else.  In business we forget this and allow people to accrue titles, status and power unattributed to their abilities.  We need to see beyond the spin and politics and ensure that people’s real abilities are recognized and rewarded. Starting The class begins with a short meditation interval.  This is designed to focus the mind and separate the day from what will now come.  Next everyone is bowing toward the front.  The front of the class represents all who came before us.  We are not here today based solely on what we have done. Others were here before us building the art and the organization.  By bowing we acknowledge the continuum and our responsibility to keep it going.  Now we bow to the teachers, respecting their knowledge and their devotion.  Finally we bow to each other expressing our solidarity as fellow travellers on a journey of self-discovery. How do we start the work day?  Is there a chorei or morning gathering of the work group, to get everyone aligned and focused on the WHY we are there.   Stretching We warm-up our minds and our bodies by going through a set routine to stretch our muscles to be able to operate at a very high level of performance.  If you are a sales team, are you beginning your day with role play practice or are you just practicising on the client? Basics We repeat the same drills over and over, every class.  We are seeking purity of form and perfection of execution.  We are preparing ourselves for a Zen state where we can react without pre-thought.  A large amount of our work is routine, but can we improve the systems, the execution to bring in greater efficiencies and achieve higher productivity? Sparring Free sparring is 100% spontaneous, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of move and counter move.  At a high level, this is like playing a full chess match in one minute, but using our techniques with full body commitment. When we compete in the marketplace are we a speedboat or an oil tanker?  Are we nimble, adaptive, on purpose and aware of market changes?  Are we thinking steps ahead of the opposition, anticipating their moves and constantly outflanking them, applying our brains over their brawn?  Kata These are full power set pieces, representing a battle against multiple opponents.  The forms are fixed and the aim is perfection.  The form is set and so Zen like releases the mind to go beyond the form.  Are we able to keep reproducing execution pieces of our work that are perfected?  Can we refine our actions for the maximum effectiveness?  Can we eliminate mistakes, defects and rework entirely at all levels in the organisation?  Strengthening and warming down Strength training is there to build the physical power and our mental perseverance.  We do a final stretch to reduce stiffness and muscle pain by reducing lactic acid build up in the muscles. Are our training methodologies making us stronger than our rivals in the marketplace?  Are we allocating sufficient time to grow our people?  Are we seeing outcomes from the training time invested? Finish We repeat the bowing and this time we add the Creed.  Voicing carefully chosen words which represent the value system of that dojo, (e.g. Effort, Patience, Moderation, Respect) so that these are the last things setting into our minds, before we go back to our usual routines of life. How do we end the workday?  Do we set up for the next day by reviewing what we did today, what we achieved and what we need to work on tomorrow?  Do we reflect on the quality of our performance and think about ways to do better?

Salespeople don't set the price of what they sell.  This is usually an obscure outcome decided by someone else inside the machine.  It might actually be an elaborate process, where multiple variables are carefully calibrated, mathematical formulae are applied and a price is arrived at.  Or, it might be a slightly moist index finger boldly thrust skyward to come up with a number.  The latter is often the case when arriving at pricing for services. Regardless, the salespersons task is to sell at that price.  This is where we get into trouble. Salespeople are total wimps when it comes to price.  We have learnt that getting a sale is what counts and price is an obstacle in that process.  If we are on a fixed salary and bonus or base salary and commission, the two usual cases in Japan, we get paid when we make a sale.  Do we know the profit margin attached to each sale? Usually no and actually we don't often care either, as long as we get paid.  We are just happy to (A) not get rejected by the buyer and (B) get a win, however small. Our self-esteem is totally tied up with getting sales, modest in size or otherwise. The instinct of the salesperson then is to make the price as malleable as possible.  Offering a discount seems to get the buyer in a good mood and more likely to give us a yes.  This reduced price immediately impacts our commission and if we keep doing this, will also impact our bonus and job security, as we don't bring in enough revenue relative to the target. The key problem is that the salespeople often don't believe in their own product or service.  Because of this they can discount with gay abandon.  This is a short-term gain for long-term pain.  The ability to meet the price requirement is a critical piece of the salesperson’s skill set.  Dropping the price may be easy, but we never build the skills to really succeed in this profession.  It usually is a path to our removal by the sales manager, who understands we are unable to sell. Amateur salespeople, when they don't believe in the price, start right off the bat with a discounted price. They say stupid things like, “normally the price is x but I am going to offer it to you for y”.  Or, “if you buy two, I will drop the price by x”.  The client hasn't even requested a discount, begun haggling, attempted to massage the ask and yet lo and behold, a miracle has just popped up without warning.  This tactic may be misinterpreted by salespeople, who don’t know what they are doing, as building trust and a good relationship with the client. That is a false dawn of hope on the part of our intrepid hero or heroine. Thanks to volunteering an unprompted price cut, the client now understands that your firm are a bunch of liars who say one thing, but do another.  They also know you are a tricky bunch who are trying to snow buyers with your fiction pricing magic.  They don't see the gratuitous lower price as a bargain.   They see that as the starting point in a negotiation to drive the price even lower.  By having a listed price and immediately offering a lesser price, the buyer feels you cannot be trusted because you cannot even defend what you say is the value of your offering.   By dropping the price so quickly, the whole question of perceived value is brought into fundamental disrepute.  There is no fixed price for this sale and therefore no equivalent particular value attached to it either.  We are now in the Wild West of selling, where there the only rule is the right of force and the buyer has the Gatling Gun and we have a water pistol. The salesperson’s job is to pour on the value explanation and show why this pricing is fair and reasonable, fully justified and easily defensible.  If they do need to meet the client’s restricted budget or need to allow the buyer to save face with their bosses, then any discounting should in the first instant be attached to volume purchases.  If they buy more then the price can be adjusted.  The amount reduced should be as smallish amount, as part of the first offer.  Remember, we are now off the paved highway and are hacking our way through the dense brush of a negotiated agreement, where there are no maps, no signposts and no 5th Cavalry about to come to the rescue over the sand dunes. If the price point is to be assaulted, then the reductions should be small and fought heroically all the way.  Do not go for round number drops or large number drops, go down in dribs and drabs.  The client will feel much better knowing that they got a legitimate discount against the usual price, because they extracted that right out of the salesperson’s hide, rather than the salesperson rolled over right from the get go.  When that happens, they doubt everything about you and your company because your pricing seems bogus. Never drop your price.  Defend your price with value.  Resist reductions all the way down and extract some form of quid pro quo against volume purchases.  If you buckle, you will be destroying the brand, the brand positioning and the credibility of the firm.  You may lose some sales.  These are usually people who cannot afford you anyway.  If you believe in the value of what you are selling don’t give in, defend, show value, fight, fight, fight.  

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 grandmother?  If the answer is no, then get out of there right now!  It is rarely that clear cut though. The more important test is whether what you are selling solves the client’s problem or not.  Selling clients on things that are not in their best interests is a formula for long-term failure and personal brand suicide. There are elements of the sales process which are so fundamental, you wonder why I would even bring them up.  For example, believing in what you sell.  There are lots of salespeople though, trapped in jobs where they don’t believe but keep selling.  The more common problem is that they actually do believe in what they sell but they are not professional enough to be convincing in the sales conversation.  They often have a sales personality deficiency, where they are not good with people or not good with different types of people.  When I joined Shinsei’s retail bank, I recognised immediately that 70% of the salespeople should never have been given a sales role.  My brief was “we have 300 salespeople and we are not getting anywhere – come in and fix it”.  The vast majority of people in the role of convincing wealthy Japanese customers to buy our financial products were really suffering.  They lacked the communication skills, the people skills, the persuasion power, the warmth,  the concern for the customer, etc., which they needed to be successful.   As Shinsei, we worked out who was best suited for a sales role and gave those people the proper training to equip them for success.  The remainder were given a role elsewhere in the bank.  What training did we give them?  The ability to ask good questions, to fully understand wealthy customer’s needs. At Dale Carnegie we do a lot of sales training and we see the same client issues come up continuously.  Certainty around the thing being sold must be in evidence.  Selling is the transfer of your enthusiasm for the product or service to the buyer.  Your body language must naturally exude belief.  Your face needs to be friendly.  Fluency in communication is critical.  Be it Japanese or English, a lot of “filler words” like Eeto, Anou , Um, Ah, etc., might help you to think of what you want to say next, but you come across as if you are not sure or convinced about what you are saying or proposing.  We definitely don’t buy sales person uncertainty. Success in sales is based on following a sales process.  That process is based on three powerful foundations – your belief in what you are selling, your ability to fluently articulate back to the buyer what you heard they need and how your solution satisfies their need.  If you want your sales team to be successful, make sure they get a proper sales process, get certainty, get fluency and get going!

One of our problem areas is what to do with our hands when we speak.  Judging by most of the presentations I see in Japan, few speakers have worked this out yet.  Here are some common habits we can improve upon to make ourselves much more persuasive and professional. 1.  Hands in front of the body.  The arms and hands when held in front of the body create a subliminal barrier between the audience and the speaker.  It is saying “I don’t trust you, I am scared of you and I need to protect my most vital organs from you, in case of sudden attack”.  We want to show we are totally confident and have a welcoming attitude to our audience. 2.  Arms behind the back, clasped together.  Since cave dweller days, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands are not visible to us.  They may have been concealing a weapon.  Instead have the palms open and facing forward, a gesture which is universal and timeless indicating “I am not a threat to you, because, as you see I have no hidden weapon”.   3.  Arms folded across the chest or one hand touching one elbow while the other hand is held near the face.  Like number one, these are defensive postures specifically designed to keep your audience away from your vital spots.  In speaking term though, these postures send all the wrong messages.  We want to be trusted as a speaker and to do so, we have to show we are open to our audience.  4.  Hands in the pockets.  This is a particular favourite of male executives who have no idea of what to do with their hands when speaking.  The really confused thrust both hands into their respective trouser pockets achieving a sort of stereo effect.  It presents the hands where they can be seen from the front, but it denies us the opportunity to use gestures during out talk. 5.  Holding something in our hands.   Sheets of paper can become a distraction as we tend to wave them around.  The pages quiver and shake if we are nervous and this is visible to our audience. We are sending the wrong message to them.  We want to convey belief and confidence in our message.  We want to remove all distractions from what we are communicating and we want to free up our hands so we can employ our gestures to bolster our argument. 6.  Gripping the podium, the microphone stand or holding the hand microphone with both hands.  It can make us appear quite strained as we apply muscle power to the upper arms and raise our shoulders, as we ensure the podium does not make a sudden attempt to scarper.  Best to not even touch the podium at all and just feel free to raise your hands for gestures.  Don’t touch the microphone stand at all.  Restrict the hand microphone usage to one hand only, so the other is free and readily available for emphasis

Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. The hush has now swept across the room.  All eyes are fixed on the MC, breaths are being held, awaiting the announcement of this year’s winner.  Amazingly, it registers that it is your name they are calling to the stage.  Emotion wells up.  Your team join you for handshaking, shoulder hugs, high fives and backslapping.  The prize is now firmly ensconced in your hand and you are beckoned to the microphone.  What happens next? Do you find your mind is experiencing whiteout and goes blank.  Do your nerves suddenly kick in when facing a sea of faces with thousands of eyes boring into yours?  Do your knees mysteriously seem to have been drained of all their sinuous strength?  Do you launch forth into a raging torrent of Ums and Ahs, followed by indiscriminate rambling, punctuated with pathetic apologies for your inability to string two words together? Are you having an out of body experience watching yourself have a public meltdown of stupendous scale.  Seeing yourself trash your company and personal brands simultaneously, because you are demonstrating to all that you are a total dud as a professional? What would have been a better approach?  Expecting to win is a good place to start.  From that thought flows a stream of things that must be done, just in case lightening does strike, unlikely as that may have seemed at application time.  What will be the content, how will you start, how will you end?  It could go like this:  “Ladies and gentlemen, let me say thank you to the judging panel for selecting us.  I am sure it was a very demanding job for you and the organisers of today’s competition. On behalf of all the candidates, allow me to say thank you one and all for your efforts. Inside our company, Taro and his team regularly took the last train home in the coldest, darkest depths of winter and were back early the next day, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to get the Z project completed.  Thank you all for going the extra mile, for your loyalty, commitment and perseverance, when so many doubted we could do it. We would not be standing up here tonight, if it wasn’t for Tanaka san at XYZ company.  She gave us a chance to demonstrate we could deliver on schedule, on budget and at the right quality.  I know that she had to weather some particularly tough internal meetings with her Directors last fall, but she went to bat for us.  So we all say a very big “Thank you” to her and we are delighted she can be with us tonight. As we all know, we often spend more hours working with our colleagues than we spend with our own family.  When we get home, exhausted, we unburden ourselves and share our concerns and worries.  We need to set the ledger right and also share in the good times and tonight is just that occasion.  I would like to thank my own family for their total support, which keeps me going.  I would also like to recognise all the families of our team members who equally are giving their support.  We know it is a sacrifice and we appreciate that you make that on the company’s behalf.  So this prize tonight goes to all the angels at home who keep us going and make it all worthwhile. Finally, I would like to say how proud I am of our widget.  We are committed to making the lives of our clients and their clients easier and more effective.  We are on a mission to serve as many people as we can, because we know we are bringing value and growth to their businesses.  Entwined inside their growth and success is our success and that thought drives us each and every day to do our best.  Thank you!” That is two minutes.  We have managed to say a lot in two minutes and we will leave a very positive impression with the audience hearing that speech. What if you go to all this trouble and you don’t win.  You have definitely improved your speech making skill and you have put yourself out of harm’s way.  Both are major wins, even if the big prize eluded you this time.  There is always next year, the next occasion and your speech is ready to rock. You have positioned yourself in a good place from every angle. 

If we are presenting a brochure, flyer, price list, hard copy slide deck or any other typical collateral item, then we should adopt best practice for greatest success.  Have two copies always, one for you to read and one for the client, unless you are a genius of reading upside down (which by the way seems to include all Japanese!).   At the start, put your copy to the side for later if you need it and turn the client’s copy around to face them. Then proceed to physically control the page changes of the document.  Don’t just hand it over, if you can avoid it.  You want to walk them through the pages, under your strict supervision. There is usually a lot of information involved and we only want to draw attention to the key points.  We don’t receive unlimited buyer time, so we have to plan well.  You don’t want them flicking through the pages at the back and you are still explaining something up the front  By the way, don’t place any collateral pieces in view of the client at the start of the meeting.  Keep them unseen on the chair next to you or in your bag.  Why?  We want to spend the first part of the meeting asking solid questions to uncover their needs.  Don’t distract the buyer from answering your questions – this is vital to understanding their business and their needs. As we hear their answers we set off a chain reaction.  We mentally scan the solution library in our brain and start lining up products for them.  The details will be in a brochure or a flyer etc., but by showing them at the start we will distract the client.  It also implies I am here to sell you something.  What is our mantra?  Everyone loves to buy but nobody wants to be sold. Keep the sales materials out of sight, until you absolutely know what you will need.  If we hand over the sales materials at the start, they will be reading something on page five and you will still be focused on page one. If you allow this to happen, control of the sales conversation has been lost.  The salesperson’s key job is to keep control of the sale’s talk direction, from beginning to end. If you can’t do that, then selling is going to be a tough employ for you. After placing the document in front of them, facing them, pick up your nice pen and use it to show them where to look.  There are many distractions on any single page, so we need to keep the show on the road and them focused on the key items.  Our pen is our navigator. Know where the items of most interest in your materials are located, based on what you heard earlier and skip pages that are not as relevant.  Do not go through the whole thing, from beginning to end.  You want them focused only on the most relevant and interesting elements of your presentation.  Also you have to narrows things down, because you just don’t have that much time available to you. Action Steps 1.  Control the reading flow of the presentation document 2.  Use you pen as the navigator through written materials 3.  Only show the materials after you have had your questions answered and know what they want

We are all pretty average on recalling events, people’s names, locations, sequences, inanimate objects, etc., but we are geniuses on remembering feelings. We are especially good on how people made us feel and what super memories we have developed in this particular department. Business is deemed to be logical – cool, balanced, unswerving on the road to greater efficiencies. Ironically, we are such emotional beings trying to be detached, but we are usually not very good at it though. Ever find yourself still chewing over some ancient injustice? Something doesn’t arrive on time or in the right format and we have that chemical reaction that is triggered by the emotions of anger, disappointment, fear or frustration. People say something trying to be funny or witty but we take it badly. We instantly feel insulted, embarrassed, hurt, mortified or humiliated. There are some basic principles of successful human relations we forget at our peril. “Don’t criticize, condemn or complain” is an all weather wonder. Let’s resist the urge to correct others, to tell them off, to bring their personal failings to their attention immediately. It is not a cure that works well and in fact just builds pig-headed resistance, as the guilty party seeks to justify their dubious actions. “Let the other person save face” is a handy principle to keep in mind in public situations. Not everyone is quick, elegant or urbane and some people seem to invite correction, but let’s resist that urge. Just because they may not obviously react should be cold comfort. Remember to beware the dog that doesn’t bark. “Show respect for the other person’s opinion. Never say you are wrong”. Even if you feel they are so totally incorrect it is barely fathomable. Restrain yourself from leaping in and pointing out they are an idiot. “The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it”. Incredibly, even people in sales forget this sage advice and want to argue with the client. We might win the battle over the point of contention, but we will lose the war over the long term. Maya Angelou summed it up brilliantly: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. So how do you make people feel? Apply these principles and let life get easier.

The Master of Ceremony (MC) goes to the microphone to get the programme underway but the audience are simply oblivious, caught up in their own riveting conversations.  The situation is much worse at receptions where alcohol is already flowing and the people down the back are generating a roar, a positive din, that drowns out the speakers. Here are seven ideas that will shut down the noisy rabble and provide a proper platform for the speaker to be heard.  Make sure to turn off the background music well before you are ready to start. Surprisingly, this is often forgotten by the organisers. Speakers should not try to compete with irritating white noise in the background. Preferably always have someone else introduce you. Their job is to quiet the room in preparation for your presentation. This doesn't always go to plan though, because it can be a lucky draw on who introduces you. Be ready to take over if you need to, in order to restore some decorum. Don’t allow the podium to dominate you If you worry about speaking behind high podiums and appearing to your audience as a stylish coiffure just peaking above the water line, always arrive early and have the event staff provide a small raised dais behind the podium for you. Even better, dismiss the podium altogether, because now we can use our body language to maximum effect. Voice projection is key for cutting through crowd noise.Today’s microphone technology is very good, so you don’t need to have a stentorian voice to be heard.  However, placing the microphone too close to your mouth creates dissonance, making it harder to hear you. Mysteriously, some speakers have the opposite problem and hold the microphone so low that there is almost no sound being heard.  I saw a guy the other day wrap his entire hand around the microphone mesh – don’t do that if you want to be heard. Use Pauses. When you face a challenging noisy crowd, make sure to hit the first few words very hard. To get things going, start with a strong “Ladies and Gentlemen” with power invested into the first word and remember to draw that first word out slightly (Ladieeeeees). Elongate it for effect but don’t overdo it .  Now include a small pause before a strong finish to the phrase. Like this: “Ladies and Gentlemen” I have seen speakers using assorted cutlery to bang on a glass, to create a chime that signals it is time to “shut up everyone and listen”. It works, however, one word of warning - don’t speak while pounding. Get their attention then speak. Similarly, you can also use powerful music to drown out the crowd’s babble and make them listen to what is coming next. Just a short piece will do, as it signals action is about to commence and people will switch their gaze to you at the front of the room. After the music ends, again use a slight pause and then start. To be heard above the din, remember: turn off the BGM well before you start; have someone else quiet the room for you; don’t allow the podium to dominate you; practice with the microphones, so that you know the correct distance and angle of elevation to use; hit the first word hard and elongate it slightly; use pauses – they add power to the speaker; if you strike a glass to produce a crowd-quieting chime, don’t speak while pounding; a short burst of music can silence an audience and clear the way for you to start speaking    

Usually this isn’t even a question for most presenters, because the organisers have already set up the room when you arrive. Our speaking spot has been designated for us.  But have we been designated a spot by experts in public speaking or by the venue crew who usually just haul chairs, lug tables around and set up the stage?  Sadly the coalescence between expertise in public speaking and membership of the logistics team is rare.  So where should we stand?  This will depend on the venue size, the illumination of the room, the size of the audience, the layout of the stage, where the screens are located and what you want to achieve.  If we are using a screen, then is it hoisted high above us, are there two giant screens on the left and right or is it at our height in the center of the stage?  In smaller venues, the screen is normally at our height and usually set up such that the podium is on the audience right of the stage.  No particular thought has gone into this location and the choice is purely random, often linked more closely to power outlets and cabling considerations, than the speaker’s effectiveness. Stand on the audience left of the screen, so that the audience can read your facial expression and body language and then move their eyes right to read text or images on the screen.  We read left to right, so this is a natural progression.  We always want the screen to be subordinate to us.  So set the proceedings up such that they have to look at you first, rather than at the slides on the screen.  Our face is a trillion times more powerful as a communication tool, than anything that is on that screen. If there are giant screens above, then the chances are the venue is pretty large and the stage will be quite wide.  Rather than being stuck in one place, work the stage area.  I don’t mean nervous, fidgety, random pacing across the stage as I have seen done by many amateur presenters.  I mean move right to the very apron of the stage and to the extremes of left and right to engage with all of your audience.  Start in the middle of a large stage, as close as you can get to your audience.  Remember, that to those seated at the back or up on the first, second or third tiers of seating, you are the size of a peanut.  Yes, they have the giant screens but try to bring your physical presence as close to your audience as you can, to create a closer connection.  Move slowly to the extreme left and then stop.  Now we can engage everyone on this side of the room.  After a few minutes move slowly back to the center and stop.  Now move slowly across to the extreme right and stop.  Then slowly back to the center, by which time it will be getting very close to your peroration.  To be an effective speaker, we need to include consideration of the best logistics needed to support our efforts.  Don’t rely on the clueless to prepare the venue properly, instead have a clue ourselves and always be in command of our environment.  

To succeed in our own business, we need three critical skills:  the ability to master our time, to clone ourselves and to be persuasive. Time: Poor time control leads to inefficiency, wasted efforts, stress and missed opportunities.  Entrepreneurs are geniuses at trying to do too much. This means they are run ragged with time demands and no good solutions. This has to be turned around and time gotten under firm control. Follow this mantra:  “I can’t do everything on this list everyday but I can do the most important thing”.  Each day decide the number one priority for your business and complete that, then start number two, and so on. Delegation: Being so busy is a result of not having trusted people around us to whom we can delegate.  We must get leverage through our team.  But we don’t.  We cannot find the time to develop them, so we are stuck like a rat on the treadmill.  Getting a better grip on your time will create space to spend on training your key people.  Don’t fluff the delegation process, because you are clueless on how to do it.  Don’t just dump stuff on people, expecting them to magically get it and somehow be able to come back with excellent work.  Stop dreaming, it won’t happen.  Have a meeting with the delegatee, where you explain the task in terms of how this is designed to help them grow and succeed in the business.  Talk in terms of their interests not yours.  Inspire: Investors, potential new staff, valuable existing staff, clients, all need your persuasive ability to impress and keep them happy.  If you are an unclear, unimpressive speaker, it is hard to get people to believe in you and follow you.  You can be a tyrant, but let me know how that is working out for you?  Honey does better than vinegar, when it comes to communicating with people.  You will never work it out on your own.  Get the necessary speaking training and stop kidding yourself.  Master time, grow the leverage throughout your team and learn how to inspire people.  Get on to it. Be honest – are you a great leader or are you a mediocre leader? How can you become a leader people actually want to follow? How can you be the leader whose team gets results? Do it yourself trial and error wastes time and resources.There is a perfect solution for you- To LEARN MORE click here (https://bit.ly/43sQHxV ) To get your free guide “How To Stop Wasting Money On Training” click here ( https://bit.ly/4agbvLj ) To get your free “Goal Setting Blueprint 2.0” click here (https://bit.ly/43o5FVK) If you enjoy our content then head over to www.dale-carnegie.co.jp and check out our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules and our whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. About The Author Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com The bestselling author of “Japan Sales Mastery” (the Japanese translation is "The Eigyo" (The営業), “Japan Business Mastery” and "Japan Presentations Mastery" and his new books "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" and the translation "Toreningu De Okane Wo Muda Ni Suru No Wa Yamemashoo" (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのは止めま Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. He leads the Dale Carnegie Franchise in Tokyo which traces its roots straight back to the very establishment of Dale Carnegie in Japan in 1963 by Mr. Frank Mochizuki. He publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Has 6 weekly podcasts: 1.     Mondays -  The Leadership Japan Series, 2.    Tuesdays – The Presentations Japan Series Every second Tuesday - ビジネス達人の教え 3.    Wednesdays - The Sales Japan Series 4.    Thursdays – The Leadership Japan Series Also every second Thursday - ビジネスプロポッドキャスト 5.    Fridays - The Japan Business Mastery Show 6.    Saturdays – Japan’s Top Business Interviews Has 3 weekly TV shows on YouTube: 1.     Mondays - The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show Also every Second Thursday - ビジネスプロTV 2.    Fridays – Japan Business Mastery 3.    Saturdays – Japan Top Business Interviews In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, become a 39 year veteran of Japan and run his own company in Tokyo. Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate (糸東流) and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.  

There is an old truism in sales, “sales is nothing more than the transfer of the enthusiasm of the seller for the product or service to the buyer”.  What are we doing when we are speaking?  We are selling!  “Hang on a minute there Greg.  I am a professional, I am not a car or vacuum cleaner salesman”, you might be saying to yourself.  That sort of self-talk is dated and dangerous.  Make no mistake, we are all in sales, regardless of whether our business card has salesperson written on it or not. So if we are up at the podium, out there on stage, standing up in the room to speak, we are selling.  Firstly, we are selling our personal brand. Depending on how good a job we do, this will sell the company brand.  The next thing we are selling is our message, the conclusion we have reached, the insight we have gained.    Of course, we have to a strong base in the subject matter.  In fact we should be subject matter experts if we are going to get up in front of people and talk.  Given we have the expertise to speak on the subject and given that we realise we are selling ourselves, our company and our message to the audience, then we need to add the magic ingredient of enthusiasm.  The way to be enthusiastic is to speak on a subject or an aspect of a subject, which lights your inner fire.  Inside your profession there are bound to aspects which you feel very strongly about, so talk about those and your enthusiasm will naturally emerge. Relive things that happened in your experience that has become a foundation of your belief in what you are telling the audience.  Tell the story of what happened to you and how it impacted your views.  Talk about the lessons, the trials, tribulations, the highs and the lows.  Your feeling for these stages of the tale will shine through and the audience will be right there beside you. When you relive the whole journey, the good, the bad, the mediocre, the inner passion you have for what happened, will burn forth and captivate your audience.  By combining our belief in our message, with an enthusiastic delivery, we will carry the audience with us, along the journey of belief that we have trod already based on our real world, hard won experiences.  That combination is unbeatable.

Having a buying need and doing something about it can often be quite disparate ideas.  When the buyer is looking at the gap between where they are now and where they want to be and they judge it is pretty close, they don’t feel any urgency or need to buy.  They will have certain drivers pushing them along in their role in the business, but this gap perception component is key in selling to buyers.  If we can’t show that the opportunity cost of no action is too high, then they are not inspired to do anything.   We have to draw out the implications of taking no action, of doing nothing.  When and how do we do that?  In the questioning stage, we can draw attention to the size of the gap.  Now if we say “that is a pretty big gap you have there and you should fix that”, they doubt us.  We are salespeople, so the buyer is always mentally dismissing everything we say as fluffy sales talk.  We need them to tell us the gap is big and needs attention.  Also tell us that it needs attention right now.  When we are discussing the Should Be question -  where they want to be in the future we need to add a little question to this process.  We ask where they want to be and then we follow up their answer by asking them, “What happens if you can’t get there fast enough?”.  No one ever gets there as fast as they want, so it automatic opens up the idea of a gap that needs addressing.  When we are asking about the Barrier Question along the lines of “if you know where you are now and you know where you want to be, why aren’t you there yet”, we have another chance to emphasise that they need our help to achieve their goals.  We find out what is the obstacle holding them back and then we ask the gap widener - “What happens if you cannot clear that obstacle?”  If we try to point out these aspects which won’t work and we say it, we won’t be believed.  We have to get them to tell us it won’t work, under their own steam, at the current pace, with the current resources and investment.  Once we get them thinking about that gap we can start suggesting when we present the solution that we are the cure for all their ills.  We have the ability to help them get where they want to be faster and more smoothly.

Sadly, not everyone is like us – wonderful, charming, amusing, attractive.  Despite our best efforts to be a role model of perfection, setting them a good example, others persist in being a major pain.  Here are some selective tips on negotiating with the difficult amongst us. 1. Meet on mutual ground Try to meet, rather than engage in a protracted email war or discuss complex issues over the phone.  Face to face is best and preferably on neutral ground for both of you.  Away from the workspace is often best, such as over coffee or lunch, away from the office. 2. Clearly define and agree on the issue Sometimes we are arguing about different things under the same banner.  By defining the issue in commonly understood words, we are a long way toward achieving better clarity about what is at stake.  If the issue is a biggy, then break it down into bits that can be dealt with one by one, in concrete detail. 3. Do your homework Start by taking the other person’s case and building the argument from their perspective.  This often opens up gaps in our information or assumptions we are drawing, based on no particular facts.  Decide what is our BATNA – the best alternative to a negotiated agreement or our walk away position.  Also determine what we can accept, what we can live with and what would be an ideal outcome.  4. Look for shared interests Conflict has a way of magnifying perceived differences and minimizing similarities, so look for common goals and desired outcomes.  There may be a common objective but the disagreement is often around the best path toward achieving it. Focusing on the common goal and the desired future, keeps the conversation moving forward. 5. Deal with facts, not emotions Focus on the issue not the messenger.  Maintaining a goal oriented rational approach may be difficult, especially when the ego gets in play, but try and de-personalize the conflict and separate the issues from the personalities involved.  Instead of being defensive, ask clarifying questions that get them talking and you listening.  6. Present alternatives and provide evidence Create options and alternatives demonstrating your willingness to compromise.  Frame options taking into consideration their interests and back up your plans with evidence. 7. End on a good note Shake on it, agree the actions steps and who is accountable for what, by when and how. Tricky personalities and difficult people will never just conveniently go away.  Instead, we need to be better prepared in dealing with them.  These practical tips will help us on the journey to a less stressful and more rewarding future

The chances of speaking to a 5000 person business audience happening and happening regularly in Japan are remote for most of us.  Nevertheless, in case you find yourself in front of a very large audience, here are a few hints on how to adjust to the increased size of the event. Get there early and go and sit in some of the most far-flung locations.  It might be the last row at the back or the rear seats on the elevated third tier of the venue.  You realize you will seem like a peanut to audience members seated at the far extremes and so you need to “big up” your presentation to suit the tyranny of distance. Definitely go for the pin microphone, so that you hands will be left free for gestures.  These gestures will have to become much larger than anything you have been used to before.  Remember you are a peanut waving your arms around to those in the cheap seats at the back.  This means go for double handed gestures as much as possible, to fill up more of the stage with your presence.  Marshal your ki for the big stage.  Ki is the intrinsic energy we possess and it is most famously seen in martial arts.  When you are on stage, you have to try and push your energy, your ki, to the very back wall of the hall.  You have to mentally project your energy that distance.  Your voice helps with this task.  You have to be directing your voice all the way to the last rows of seats.  Your eyes also come into play here.  You need to be breaking the audience up into a baseball diamond.  Left, center, right field, inner field and outer field.  These six sectors have to be worked hard by your eye contact to be picking out individuals and looking straight at their eyes for six seconds each.  Use the left, center and right sides of the stage.  However walk slowly to the extreme edges, stop, settle and talk to the audience on that side.  Walk back to the center and talk to those located in the center seating, then walk to the right and do the same for that side of the venue.  Keep repeating this walk and stop, settle process throughout your talk. For those in the front row, definitely don’t forget to look at them, because you are so close and can have the greatest impact with that group because they feel your presence most immediately.  When the venue is really big you have to go even bigger when presenting.

In sales in Japan we chill, cruise and take the foot off the pedal.  We get lazy.  We start cutting corners.  We get off our game.  The temptation is when we get to a certain level of success we think well, we have done enough.  We have  to facedown “average is good enough” self-talk.  We need to make sure we are doing the basics like a demon on fire.  The pipeline tells no lies.  We need good basics in play to stuff that pipeline full of qualified clients.  I should be sifting, hunting and corralling those buyers who need my solution.  I should be shelving those who don’t, because time is the main currency of a sales life.  There are basics in sales we quickly try to short circuit.  We are fooling ourselves.  We need to have time allocation every day for prospecting.  In the process of doing that, we should be polishing our pitch until it is tight and has a massive hook attached to it.  We have to be well schooled in cold calling techniques to be successful in sales in Japan and most salespeople here in this regard are sad, sad, sad. We need to be parsimonious with the words to explain why they need us.  We need to be eloquent with the explanation of the hook, as to why the person answering the phone should bother to connect us with the line manager we wish to speak with. At networking events, when people are making their first kinesthetic contact with your meishi or business card and trying to fathom what it is you do, you helpfully jump in and concisely explain how you are saving mankind.  You will set up an appointment to meet right there and then.  If they don’t agree, go back to the hunt for an actual buyer. We need to treat every lead coming in from our website, be it from an SEO enquiry or a paid click though from our ads like it was on fire.  If we don’t get in touch with that potential buyer right now, the lead will combust further and become a burnt, unrecognisable cinder.  We have to fight complacency.  The enemy of great is good. 

The classic movie half-time locker room Churchillian oratory from the coach, whipping the team into a frenzy for the coming onslaught is now gathering dust in Hollywood’s archives.  Today’s most successful coaches are masters of human psychology, combining insight with superb communication skills.  What about leaders in business in Japan?    In my experience, the Japanese model of sports leadership is antiquated, excelling in only one area - “gaman” - perseverance.   Japan’s feudal militaristic regimes for leadership spill over into business from the domestic sports world.  University “club” members know that age seniority, group dominance, rigid hierarchy and the suppression of the individual are the key leadership lessons learnt at varsity.  Not a sparkling sport’s blueprint for leadership in the modern world of business.  The lesson for business in Japan is to train our leaders to motivate our teams, one person at a time, based on what that person finds motivational Motivating others requires a good understanding of the interests and aspirations of that person.  Communication skills and time invested in getting to know that person are critical. In a time-poor world however, of doing more, faster with less, we are skipping steps and rushing toward the finish line.  We just don’t invest enough time in knowing our people.  How many business leaders can you think of who are really great communicators or motivators?  What about yourself?   Let’s all pause, reflect and commit to improve. We need to build business success through our people, individual by individual and the time to start is right now.

When we stand in front of an audience, we are representing our personal brand and our firm’s brand. People evaluate us and our companies based on how we perform. Think back to the presentations you’ve seen and I’m sure you’ll agree that many speakers are missing passion and commitment to the topic.  Don’t be like that. Typically, we speakers enter a room full of pre-occupied people with microscopically short attention spans, distracted before we even start. Our job is to grab their attention away from whatever it was they were doing before we get up to the podium.  Our opening needs to be well-planned and attention-grabbing. It must feature a powerful hook to get everyone’s attention.   We will have rehearsed our talk at least three times, to make sure it flows well and fits the time slot we have been allocated. The slides will be so clear that our audience can deduce the key point of each slide in two seconds, because of how we are presenting the information.  During our presentation, we are eyes-up and making eye contact with members of our audience. Each audience member gets about six seconds of total eye contact concentration each time, as we make our points. They feel we are speaking directly to them and this is a very powerful audience engagement tool.  We are backing up our eye contact with our gestures, voice modulation and pauses.  Building to a big finish is critical, because here we leave our audience with their final impressions. Rather than gradually fading out at the finish, our presentation should rise to a peak, delivering our call to action and encouraging our audience to metaphorically storm the barricades.  We need to bring our energy to the finish and leave a positive memory of our talk.  

Often the first reaction to hearing no from the buyer is for the salesperson to panic and go harder.  They somehow imagine they can force the buyer to buy.  The immediate impulse is to go straight to the answer to counterpoint the objection.  This is mainly an emotional reaction based on the adrenalin flooding the brain with the fight response.  We need to stop that process. How do we do that?  We need a circuit breaker.  We need an interruption between our hearing the word “no” and going in for the rebuttal.  That is where the cushion comes in.  A cushion is a short sentence which is quite neutral and won’t inflame the situation with the negative buyer.  Answering straight away exposes us to a big danger.  That occurs because we are possibly not answering the right question.  We hear “it is too expensive” but this is a headline.   When we hear that headline from the buyer we need to ask why that is a problem.  We also cannot just go down one layer.  We have to dig right in for the deeper reasons.  We also need to get these out and even when we think we have exposed them all we should ask, “are there any other reasons why you wouldn’t go ahead?”.  We need to uncover the hidden objections.  Once the list is completed we now need to have the buyer prioritise which one is the main deal breaker for them.  Once we hear the main reason holding them back we have to check if this is a legitimate objection or not?  It might be constructed on false information.  If the objection is true, then we should admit it.   We can answer the objection, but we need to know we have our ladder up against the right wall before we embark on a reply.  We need to have the breaker in there to get us to a series of why questions to dig down to the highest priority item worrying them.  If we can solve their objection then fine, if we can’t fine. We just move on a find another client we can serve.

Bosses are often oblivious to the idea of diversity.  I don’t mean diversity as mainly considered in Japan, which is usually about lack of inclusion of women in the workplace.  Diversity here means variations amongst the team in terms of communication preferences.  Here are two decisions to determine the best communication style to deal with your boss. Picture a horizontal scale of assertion, low on the left and high on the right.  Assertion here means to what extent you have a strong opinion on things, state that opinion confidently.  Add a vertical scale, where the top has high people orientation and the bottom high task.  A “people orientation” signifies care and attention to people around you and how they feel.  Task orientation is about outcomes, results, KPIs, getting the job done. We now have four hints to guide our communication. The top right quadrant combines both assertion and a people orientation.  Often salespeople, actors, trainers fall into this group – they like people and they are looking to influence those around them.  Don’t focus the conversation on gritty detail, move to discussions about big picture issues. Their diagonal opposite loves detail, proof, data and statistics to three decimal places.  Talk in terms of micro detail with this crowd, often accountants, technical people, scientists, lawyers.  The outcomes focused type in the lower quadrant on the right is assertive and task driven.  Often company founders and scary CEOs, with a strong “time is money” mantra.  Don’t beat around the bush or waste their time. Be direct, confident, succinct – they won’t mind.  Their opposite quadrant are the non-assertive, people oriented, sensitive types.  Taking your time, speaking softly, talking about how people will feel about things, attracts this group. We can quickly tell who is which style, by carefully listening to what they say and how they say it.  The boss may not be difficult after all, just different.  Life gets better when we can get on the other person’s wavelength and surf that wave together.

The usual frequency for most people for giving formal presentations is once in a blue moon.  In other words, we don’t do so many in a year.  This presents a problem, because as we know, repetition is key to learning and improvement.  Instead of hanging around waiting for someone to invite you to speak, you need to get out there and beat the bushes for opportunities to present.  What can you speak about? There will be a natural alignment between your own areas of experience, expertise and knowledge and popular demand, which will determine the types of subjects you will be able to speak upon.  If these areas are such that there is a common interest in this subject, you will find there will be groups who will be interested in having you speak.  The trick is to let them know you exist as a speaker. How will speech organisers know you exist as a speaker?  Investigate what sorts of groups exist in your area who regularly feature speakers. Make a matrix between the subject areas they cover and your own range of interests and capabilities.  If there is a match, then contact them and ask if they are looking for future speakers.  The person tasked with finding speakers will be very happy to hear from you, because they usually have a difficult job finding good speakers. A simple way to demonstrate your ability is to do speeches on relevant subjects, video them and put them up on YouTube and your website.    Once you get a chance to do a formal presentation, to a live audience, make sure you get it on video.  You can point the event organizers to the videos, to give them an idea of your ability.  After the speech you post the video to a link to your website so that people can see you in action. With all of this content floating around you start to become a known face and people will start contacting you.  We get into a virtuous cycle here where success breeds success.  This is really great for personal and company brands and that is what we want.