The Sales Japan Series

"Relationships come before proposals; kokoro-gamae signals intent long before a contract". "Nemawashi wins unseen battles by equipping an internal champion to align consensus". "In Japan, decisions are slower—but execution is lightning-fast once ringi-sho is approved". "Detail is trust: dense materials, rapid follow-ups, and consistent delivery reduce uncertainty avoidance". "Think reorder, not transaction—lifetime value grows from reliability, patience, and face-saving flexibility". In this Asia AIM conversation, Dr. Greg Story reframes B2B success in Japan as a decision-intelligence exercise grounded in trust, patience, and detail. The core insight: buyers are rewarded for avoiding downside, not for taking risks. Consequently, a new supplier represents uncertainty; price discounts rarely move the needle. What does? Kokoro-gamae—demonstrable, client-first intent—expressed through meticulous preparation, responsiveness, and long-term commitment. Greg's journey began in 1992 when his Australian consultative selling failed to gain traction. The lesson was blunt: until trust is established, the offer is irrelevant because the buyer evaluates the person first. From there, the playbook is distinctly Japanese. Nemawashi—the behind-the-scenes groundwork—recognises that many stakeholders can say "no." External sellers seldom meet these influencers. The practical move is to equip an internal champion with detailed, risk-reducing materials and flexible terms that make consensus safer. Once the ringi-sho (circulating approval document) moves, execution accelerates; Japan trades slow decisions for fast delivery. Greg emphasises information density and speed. Japanese firms expect thick printouts, technical appendices, and rapid follow-ups—even calls to confirm an email was received. This signals reliability and reduces the purchaser's uncertainty. Trial orders are common; they are not small but strategic—tests of quality, schedule adherence, and flexibility. Win the test, and the budget cycle (often April-to-March) can position the supplier for multi-year reorders. Culturally, face and accountability shape referrals. Testimonials are difficult because clients avoid responsibility if something goes wrong. Longevity itself becomes social proof: "We've supplied X for ten years" carries weight. Greg's hunter-versus-farmer distinction highlights the need to support new logos with dedicated account "farmers" who manage detail, cadence, and service levels that earn reorders. Patience is tactical, not passive. "Kentō shimasu" may mean "not now," so he calendarises a nine-month follow-up—enough time for internal conditions to change without ceding the account to competitors. Throughout, he urges leaders to think in lifetime value, align to budget rhythms, and communicate more than feels natural. The result is a high-trust system where consensus reduces organisational risk—and where suppliers that master nemawashi, detail, and delivery become integral partners rather than interchangeable vendors.  Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership succeeds when it reduces organisational risk and preserves face during consensus formation. Nemawashi equips internal champions to address objections before meetings, while ringi-sho formalises agreement. Leaders who foreground kokoro-gamae, provide dense decision packs, and allow time for alignment see decisions stick and execution accelerate. Why do global executives struggle? Western managers often prize speed, big-room persuasion, and minimal detail. In Japan, uncertainty avoidance is high; buyers seek exhaustive documentation and incremental proof via pilots. Under-investing in detail or follow-up reads as unreliable. Overlooking budget cycles and internal approvals leads to mistimed asks and stalled ringi. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Individuals are incentivised to avoid downside, which shifts decisions from "risk-taking" to "risk-mitigation." The system favours tested suppliers, visible track records, and trial orders. Price rarely offsets perceived risk. Trust and history function as risk controls; once approved, delivery speed reflects the system's confidence. What leadership style actually works? A patient, service-led style that privileges relationships over transactions. Leaders ask permission to ask questions, listen for hidden constraints, and co-design low-risk pilots. Farmers—or hunter-farmer teams—sustain cadence, escalate issues early, and remain flexible as conditions change, protecting the champion's face and the consensus. How can technology help? Decision intelligence platforms can map stakeholders and sentiment across the approval chain. Digital twins of delivery schedules and SLAs, plus living dashboards of quality metrics, give champions ringi-ready evidence. Structured knowledge bases, rapid response workflows, and audit trails strengthen reliability signals during nemawashi. Does language proficiency matter? Language builds rapport, but process fluency matters more: understanding nemawashi, ringi-sho, and budget cycles; providing dense Japanese-language materials; and maintaining a proactive follow-up cadence. Bilingual support teams and translated technical appendices can materially lower perceived risk. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Optimise for the reorder, not the first sale. Reliability, speed of follow-up, document density, and cultural fluency compound into durable trust. Japan rewards those who "hasten slowly," then deliver flawlessly when the decision finally lands.  Timecoded Summary [00:00] Context and thesis: Japan's B2B environment rewards risk mitigation over risk-taking; relationships precede proposals. Greg recounts his early failure applying Australian consultative selling before building rapport and trust as prerequisites. [05:20] Nemawashi in practice: Many stakeholders can veto; sellers rarely meet them. Equip the champion with dense packs, options, and flexibility to navigate objections. Ringi-sho formalises consensus, and once signed, execution accelerates. [12:45] Detail and responsiveness: Japanese buyers expect information-rich printouts and fast follow-ups—even same-day responses. Trial orders function as risk-controlled tests of quality, schedule, and flexibility. Delivery during trials sets the tone for long-term partnership. [18:30] Referrals and proof: Public testimonials are rare due to accountability risk. Tenure becomes currency—long relationships serve as de-risking signals to new buyers. Social proof derives from sustained performance, not logos on a webpage. [24:10] Cadence and patience: "Kentō shimasu" often means "not now." Calendarise a nine-month check-in to match likely internal change cycles. Align proposals to April budget rhythms to avoid timing out. Maintain polite persistence without pushiness. [31:05] Operating model: Pair hunters with farmers; once a deal lands, a service-led team manages detail, SLAs, and face-saving flexibility. Leaders message lifetime value, not quarterly wins, and use technology (decision intelligence, digital twins, knowledge bases) to support nemawashi and ringi.  Author Credentials Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.   

We've all had those weeks where the pipeline, the budget, and the inbox gang up on us. Here's a quick, visual method to cut through noise, regain focus, and turn activity into outcomes: the focus map plus a six-step execution template. It's simple, fast, and friendly for time-poor sales pros.  How does a focus map work, and why does it beat a long to-do list? A focus map gets everything out of your head and onto one page around a single, central goal—so you can see priorities at a glance. Instead of scrolling endless tasks, draw a small circle in the centre of a page for your key focus (e.g., "Time Management," "Client Follow-Up," "Planning"). Radiate related sub-topics as circled "planets": prioritisation, block time, Quadrant Two focus, weekly goals. This simple visual cues the brain to spot what moves the needle first and what's just distraction. In 2025's noisy, Slack-popping world, mapping beats lists because you see interdependencies, not just items. It's a low-tech cognitive offload that scales across roles—from B2B SDRs to enterprise AEs—in Japan, the US, or Europe alike.  Do now: Grab a blank page, pick one central outcome, and sketch 6–8 sub-topics in 3 minutes. What's the six-step template I should run on each sub-topic? Use this repeatable mini-playbook: (1) Area of focus, (2) My current attitude, (3) Why it matters, (4) Specific actions, (5) Desired results, (6) Impact on vision. Walk a single sub-topic (say, "Prioritisation") through all six prompts to turn fuzzy intent into daily behaviour. This prevents feel-good plans that never reach your calendar. The key is specificity: "Block 90 minutes at 9:00 for top-value tasks, phone on Do Not Disturb" beats "be more organised." Leaders can cascade the same template in pipeline reviews or weekly one-on-ones to connect tasks to strategy and help teams self-coach.  Do now: Copy the six prompts onto a sticky note and keep it next to today's focus map. Can you show a concrete sales example for time management? Yes—prioritisation in practice looks like: organise, calendarise, and execute the top-value items first, every day.Start by acknowledging the usual blocker: "I never get around to it." Then translate to action: buy or open your organiser, maintain a rolling to-do list, and block time in your calendar for the highest-value, highest-priority items before anything else. Desired result: your best time goes to tasks with the greatest impact (e.g., discovery calls with ICP accounts, proposal updates due this week). Vision impact: consistency compounds—your effectiveness rises, and so does your contribution to team revenue. This is classic Quadrant Two discipline (important but not urgent) adapted for post-pandemic hybrid work.  Do now: Book tomorrow's first 90 minutes for your top two revenue drivers and guard it like gold. How should I prioritise when markets differ (Japan vs US vs Europe) or company size varies? Anchor priorities to value drivers that don't care about borders: ICP fit, deal stage risk, and time-to-impact. In Japan (often relationship-led and consensus-driven), prioritise follow-up and multi-stakeholder alignment; in the US (speed + experimentation), prioritise high-velocity outreach and fast iteration; in Europe (privacy/regulatory sensitivities), prioritise compliant messaging and local context. Startups should weight pipeline creation and early GTM proof; multinationals should weight cross-functional alignment, forecasting hygiene, and large-account expansion. The focus map adapts: the central circle stays constant ("Close Q4 revenue"), while the "planets" change by market and motion (ABM research vs channel enablement vs security reviews).  Do now: Label each sub-topic with the market or motion it best serves (e.g., "JP enterprise," "US SMB," "EU regulated"). How do I turn focus maps into weekly cadence without burning out? Run a lightweight loop: Monday map, daily 90-minute deep-work block, Friday review—then iterate. On Monday, pick one central theme (e.g., "Client Follow-Up") and 6–8 sub-topics. Each morning, choose one sub-topic and run the six-step template; protect a single 90-minute block to execute. On Friday, review outcomes vs. desired results, retire what's done, and promote what worked. Leaders can add a shared "focus wall" for visibility and coaching. This cadence blends time-blocking (Cal Newport), Eisenhower Quadrants, and sales hygiene—without heavy software. As of 2025, hybrid teams using this approach report better handoffs, cleaner CRM notes, and fewer "busy but not productive" days.  Do now: Schedule next week's Monday-Friday 09:00–10:30 focus block in your calendar. What are the red flags and watch-outs that kill focus? Beware "activity inflation," tool thrashing, and priority drift. Activity inflation = doing more low-value tasks to feel productive. Tool thrashing = bouncing between apps without finishing work. Priority drift = letting other people's urgencies displace your high-value commitments. Countermeasures: (1) Tie each sub-topic to a KPI (meetings booked, qualified pipeline, cycle time), (2) pre-decide your top two daily outcomes before opening email, (3) make your Friday review public to your manager or team to add gentle social accountability. Keep the map hand-drawn or one-page digital; if it takes longer to maintain than to act, you've over-engineered it.  Do now: Add KPI labels beside three sub-topics and delete one low-value "busywork" task today. Is there a quick checklist I can copy for my team? Use this one-pager and recycle it weekly. Central focus (one phrase): ____________________ Planets (6–8 sub-topics): ____________________ Six Steps per sub-topic: Area of focus → 2) My attitude → 3) Why it matters → 4) Specific actions → 5) Desired results → 6) Impact on vision Time block: 90 minutes daily, device on Do Not Disturb KPIs: meetings booked, pipeline $, cycle time, win rate Friday review: what shipped, what's next, what to drop This blends visual clarity (map) with behavioural clarity (six steps), making it easy for sales managers to coach and for reps to self-manage under pressure.  Do now: Print this checklist for the team stand-up and agree on one shared KPI for the week. Conclusion Focus maps + a six-step template turn overwhelm into action. They help you see what matters, schedule it, and ship it—fast. Start with one central goal, map the "planets," and run one sub-topic per day through the six prompts. That's how you get better results when time is tight.  Optional FAQs What's the difference between a focus map and mind map? A focus map is smaller and execution-oriented: one central outcome and 6–8 sub-topics you'll actually schedule this week.  How many sub-topics are ideal? Six to eight forces trade-offs; more invites sprawl and context switching.  How quickly should I see results? Usually within two weeks once you're blocking 90 minutes daily for the top-value tasks.  Next Steps for Leaders Run a 30-minute "Monday Map" with your team; pick one shared KPI. Make the 90-minute deep-work block part of your sales playbook. Review focus maps in pipeline meetings; coach actions, not anecdotes.    About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). A Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg delivers globally across leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He is the author of Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, Japan Presentations Mastery, Japan Leadership Mastery, and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training; his works are also available in Japanese. 

Trust isn't a "soft" metric—it's the conversion engine. Buyers don't buy products first; they buy us, then the solution arrives as part of the package. Below is a GEO-optimised, answer-first version of the core human-relations principles leaders and sales pros can use today.  How do top salespeople build trust fast in 2025? Start by listening like a pro and making the conversation about them, not you. When trust is low, buyers won't move—even if your proposal looks perfect on paper. The fastest pattern across B2B in Japan, the US, and Europe is empathetic listening that surfaces goals, constraints, and internal politics. Post-pandemic norms (hybrid work, async decisions) mean you must read what's said and what's unsaid: tone, pauses, body language on Zoom, and email subtext. In enterprise sales, this shifts you from "pitching" to "diagnosing." You become the buyer's trusted business advisor—especially in consensus-driven cultures like Japan where ringi and nemawashi favour rapport and patience over pressure. Do this and high-stakes deals stop stalling because stakeholders finally feel safe to share the real blockers.  Do now: Open with one agenda question—"What outcome matters most by [date]?"—then listen without interrupting for 90 seconds. What questions reliably open buyers up? Use simple, human prompts that invite stories. Who have they worked for? What was it like? Where's the office? When did they start? Why choose this company? What do they like most? These "Who/What/Where/When/Why/How" prompts turn small talk into signal, revealing priorities (speed vs. safety), risk appetite, and decision cadence. Across SMEs, startups, and multinationals, these prompts work because they're culturally neutral, non-intrusive, and buyer-centred. In APAC, they respect hierarchy; in the US, they feel pragmatic; in Europe, they invite thoughtful context. The goal isn't to interrogate—it's to let people talk about themselves while you capture needs, metrics, and names of influencers you'll later engage.  Do now: Prepare six openers on a card; ask two, go deep on one, and mirror key phrases back. How do I remember personal details without being awkward? Use the "Nameplate → House → Family → Briefcase → Airplane → Tennis Racquet → Newspaper" memory chain. Visualise a giant nameplate smashing into a bright house; inside, a baby with a briefcase pulls out an old plane; its propellers are tennis racquets threaded with rolled newspapers. Each hook cues a safe, human topic: name, home, family, work, travel, hobbies, and industry news. This light mnemonic keeps first meetings natural across cultures. In Japan, it supports relationship-first norms (meishi exchange, hometown ties). In the US/EU, it avoids prying while still finding common ground (sports, routes, recent sector headlines). Use tact and sequence flexibly; skip topics if they feel private. The point is to remember them so follow-ups feel personal, not transactional.  Do now: Before calls, jot the seven cues; after calls, log one fact per cue in your CRM. What if I don't know the buyer's interests yet? Keep asking—then mirror their language and frame benefits in their terms. Early on, many buyers withhold interests until they decide you're trustworthy. That's normal. Persist with respectful questions, then translate features into "so-whats" they already value: uptime for CTOs, cycle-time for COOs, compliance for CFOs, psychological safety for HR. As of 2025, complex deals involve multi-threading (RevOps, Legal, IT, Security). Tailor each touch: startup CTOs want velocity and unit economics; enterprise VPs want risk mitigation and stakeholder alignment; Japanese heads of division may prioritise harmony and precedent. The win is relevance—your proposal reads like their strategy memo, not your brochure.  Do now: After each meeting, write one line: "They care most about ___ because ___." Lead with that next time. How do I make someone feel important—without manipulation? Spot real wins and praise them sincerely and specifically. Most professionals get little recognition. When you catch people doing something right—clear brief, crisp data, fast feedback—name it. Never over-flatter; buyers detect tactics instantly. The goal is dignity, not drama. Practical example: "Your timeline reduced rework across Legal and IT—that saved us both weeks." In Japan, sincere appreciation that acknowledges team effort (not just the individual) lands better; in the US, direct credit energises champions. Across sectors (SaaS, manufacturing, services), this fosters reciprocity and deepens trust far faster than discounts ever can.  Do now: In your next email, add one honest, specific thank-you sentence linked to a business outcome. What should leaders systemise so this sticks? Bake these principles into playbooks, onboarding, and CRM hygiene. Codify the seven memory cues, the open-question matrix, and a "buyer interest" field in CRM. Coach for silence (count to three before replying). Review call snippets for interrupt rate and question balance. Reward teams for discovery quality, not just revenue. Executives at firms from startups to conglomerates can run fortnightly "deal trust reviews": is the sponsor heard, interests mapped, and recognition given? In Japan, align with nemawashi—map stakeholders and pre-wire decisions. In the US/EU, pressure-test value hypotheses with RevOps and Finance. Consistency beats charisma.  Do now: Add three fields to your CRM today—Interests, Stakeholders, Recognition Given—and make them required. Conclusion When you listen deeply, speak in the buyer's interests, and recognise people sincerely, you stop selling and start being chosen. Make this your firm's operating system and watch cycle times shorten and referrals grow.  FAQs Isn't this just "be nice" advice? No—these behaviours reduce friction, surface risks early, and accelerate consensus, which shortens sales cycles.  Do these tips work in Japan? Yes—especially the memory chain and sincere group-focused recognition, which fit relationship-first norms.  How do I measure progress? Track interrupt rate, number of stakeholder interests captured, and instances of specific recognition logged in CRM. Next Steps Add the seven-cue mnemonic and open-question set to your onboarding. Require "Interests" and "Recognition Given" fields in every opportunity. Coach teams to wait three beats before replying on calls. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. Japanese editions include ザ営業, プレゼンの達人, トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう, and 現代版「人を動かす」リーダー. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, followed widely by executives seeking success strategies in Japan. 

The 3 Everyday Habits That Win Trust Sales rises or falls on trust. As of 2025—post-pandemic, hybrid, and time-poor—buyers have less patience for fluffy rapport and more appetite for authentic, repeatable behaviours. This guide turns three classic human-relations principles into practical sales moves you can use today: be genuinely interested, smile first, and use people's names naturally. What's the fastest way to build trust with time-poor buyers in 2025? Lead with curiosity, not a pitch. Ask about their context before your product, and mirror back what you heard in concrete terms (KPIs, deadlines, constraints). This converts a transactional meeting into a partnership from minute one. In Japan, the US, and Europe alike, executives are bandwidth-constrained; they remember the seller who reduces cognitive load. In enterprise deals, curiosity surfaces hidden stakeholders and post-purchase risks. In SMEs and startups, it reveals cash-flow windows and procurement shortcuts. Curiosity isn't manipulation; buyers detect feigned interest instantly. Done right, it creates common ground that makes every later ask easier. Start every meeting with one "business-human" question (e.g., "What must be true by quarter-end for this to be a win?"). Mini-summary: Curiosity first → faster trust → smoother deals. Do now: Prepare three context questions per persona. How do I show genuine interest without going off-topic? Be human, but keep it business-linked. Tie personal context to business impact; keep it relevant, short, and anchored in their role, industry, and timeline. Ask about post-purchase adoption ("What would success look like for your users in the first 30 days?"), operational realities (e.g., Japan-specific compliance), and leadership pressures ("What will your CFO scrutinise most this quarter?"). Compare contexts—APAC vs EU privacy, B2B vs consumer rollout, startup urgency vs multinational governance. Document what you learn and open the next meeting by recapping their words—snippet-ready proof you listened. Mini-summary: Human questions, business purpose. Do now: Build a one-page "interest map" per account. Does smiling still matter in serious, high-stakes meetings? Smile first to set the social temperature, then match the room. Under deadline pressure, many sellers present a tense "serious face" that raises defensiveness. A genuine, early smile lowers friction and signals "I'm safe to talk to," especially in first meetings or escalations. In Japan's formal settings, a measured smile plus a slight nod communicates respect and openness; in the US, a warmer smile can accelerate rapport. The key is timing: smile as you greet, then calibrate to the buyer's style within seconds. The goal isn't cheeriness; it's creating a cooperative atmosphere where tough topics (risk, price, delivery dates) can be discussed without posturing. Mini-summary: Smile first, calibrate fast. Do now: Add "reset face → greet with smile" to your pre-meeting checklist. How can using names increase influence without sounding fake? Use names sparingly at moments of emphasis. Offer your own name first, confirm pronunciation, then use theirs to mark alignment and commitment—never as filler. In group settings with multiple stakeholders, sketch a quick seating map to avoid missteps later. This habit personalises without pandering and helps you track the real decision network behind procurement. Close clearly: "Aiko-san, we'll send the red-lined MSA by Friday." Mini-summary: Names for signal, not filler. Do now: Practise name recall and pronunciation before the meeting. What's the cross-market playbook (Japan vs US vs Europe) for relationship momentum? Universal habits, local nuance. The same three behaviours—interest, smile, names—work everywhere, but settings differ. In Japan, invest more time upfront on context and internal harmony; be precise with honorifics and follow through meticulously. In the US, move faster to value articulation and next steps, keeping warmth high. In Europe, expect variance (Nordics vs DACH vs Southern Europe) in decision cadence and consensus. Align to company type: startups reward speed and flexibility; multinationals reward consistency and risk management. Hybrid selling post-2020 demands tighter summaries and clearer asynchronous follow-ups. Mini-summary: Universal habits, local settings. Do now: Add a "market nuance" line to every call plan. How do I turn these habits into a repeatable system my team can use? System beats intention. Bake the habits into templates, rituals, and measurable checkpoints. Create a pre-call sheet with (1) three curiosity questions, (2) a reminder to smile on entry, (3) stakeholder names and pronunciations, (4) a 90-second recap script for follow-ups. In your CRM, add fields for "buyer language used," "stakeholder map," and "adoption risk notes." In weekly pipeline reviews, inspect not just stages but relationship signals: trust markers logged, name usage at key moments, and recap emails sent within 24 hours. Train using short, scenario-based drills (enterprise renewal, startup pilot, public-sector RFP). Mini-summary: Process it so it happens. Do now: Standardise a one-page "relationship checklist." Final wrap Make the buyer—the human—the centre of the conversation. Start with interest, open with a smile, and use names with intent. Then systemise the behaviours so they happen every time. When products look similar, these micro-habits become the differentiator. About the author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including ザ営業, プレゼンの達人, トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう, and 現代版「人を動かす」リーダー. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews.

Why trust, empathy, and human relations remain the foundation of sales success in Japan Hunting for new clients is hard work. Farming existing relationships is easier, more sustainable, and far more profitable. Yet not all buyers are easy to deal with. We often wish they would change to make our jobs smoother, but in reality, we can't change them—we can only change ourselves. That principle, at the core of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, remains as true in 2025 as it was in 1936. By shifting our mindset and behaviour, we can strengthen buyer relationships and secure long-term loyalty. Why must salespeople change first, not the buyer? Expecting buyers to change their habits or behaviours sets us up for frustration. Buyers act in ways that make sense to them, even if inconvenient for us. The only real lever we have is our own behaviour. Even a small shift—like adjusting our approach by "three degrees"—can change the buyer's counter-reaction. In Japan, where harmony and long-term trust are prized, this principle is especially powerful. A salesperson who shows flexibility and empathy stands out in contrast to competitors who push rigidly for their own preferences. Mini-Summary: Salespeople cannot force buyers to change; by adjusting their own behaviour, they influence the relationship and build trust. What role do Dale Carnegie's Human Relations Principles play in buyer relationships? Carnegie's Human Relations Principles are timeless tools for building cooperation. Three are particularly relevant for sales: Don't criticise, condemn, or complain. Criticism rarely changes behaviour—it provokes defensiveness. Give honest, sincere appreciation. Genuine recognition strengthens bonds and motivates reciprocity. Arouse in the other person an eager want. Frame solutions around what the buyer personally values. These principles apply across industries, from manufacturing to finance. Japanese buyers, in particular, value respectful, non-confrontational communication that acknowledges their contributions. Mini-Summary: Carnegie's Human Relations Principles—no criticism, sincere appreciation, and aligning with buyer wants—remain timeless tools for sales. Why does criticism damage buyer relationships? When salespeople criticise clients, they expect reasoned acceptance. Instead, they trigger defensiveness. Buyers justify their decisions, harden their positions, and often sour the relationship. Consider situations common in Japan: extended payment terms, last-minute order changes, or requests for multiple quotes as compliance. Criticising these behaviours damages trust. Instead, salespeople must work constructively within the constraints, showing professionalism while seeking long-term influence. Mini-Summary: Criticism never wins buyers—it hardens resistance. Professionalism and patience maintain the relationship, even under pressure. How does sincere appreciation change buyer behaviour? Most professionals receive little genuine recognition. Buyers, like colleagues, are often starved of appreciation. Yet false flattery is quickly detected, especially in Japan where sincerity is scrutinised. The key is to find something specific and genuine. For example: "Suzuki-san, thank you for sending the information so promptly—it helped me meet my deadline." This kind of concrete, truthful appreciation motivates buyers to cooperate more readily in future. Mini-Summary: Specific, honest appreciation builds cooperation and strengthens relationships—especially in Japan, where false flattery backfires. Why must salespeople align with buyer wants, not their own? Buyers spend most of their time focused on their own priorities, not the salesperson's. To gain cooperation, salespeople must align their proposals with what the buyer values personally, not just professionally. In Japan, this often means recognising not only company goals but also individual motivations—career advancement, personal reputation, or peace of mind. Framing solutions to satisfy these deeper wants increases buyer engagement and willingness to act. Mini-Summary: Sales success comes from aligning with buyer priorities—both corporate and personal—rather than pushing seller needs. How can salespeople apply these principles consistently? Building strong buyer relationships requires discipline. Salespeople should: Avoid negative talk about buyer policies. Express timely, specific appreciation for buyer cooperation. Frame every proposal around the buyer's personal and organisational goals. Companies like Toyota and Hitachi succeed because their sales teams apply these principles systematically, not occasionally. Sales leaders must coach and reinforce this mindset, ensuring every client interaction strengthens trust. Mini-Summary: Consistency in applying human relations principles transforms sales teams from product pushers into trusted partners. Conclusion In 2025, with competition fiercer than ever, building strong buyer relationships remains the bedrock of sales success. We cannot expect clients to change for our convenience. Instead, by applying Dale Carnegie's timeless principles—avoiding criticism, giving sincere appreciation, and aligning with buyer wants—we shift the relationship dynamic in our favour. Buyers in Japan reward this behaviour with trust, loyalty, and repeat business. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

How a structured roadmap transforms sales performance in Japan At the centre of every sale is the customer relationship. Surrounding that relationship are the stages of the sales cycle, which act like planets revolving around the sun. Without a structured cycle, salespeople risk being led by the buyer instead of guiding the process themselves. With it, they always know where they are and what comes next. Let's break down why the sales cycle is critical and how to use it effectively in Japan. What is the sales cycle and why does it matter? The sales cycle is a five-stage roadmap that moves from first contact through to closing and after-sales follow-up. Each stage—credibility, questioning, solution, objections, and close—ensures that salespeople remain in control of the process. In Japan, where buyers are cautious and expect professionalism, having a clear cycle prevents missteps. It reassures clients that the salesperson is competent and methodical. Just as Toyota uses structured processes for manufacturing excellence, salespeople need a reliable process to achieve consistent results. Mini-Summary: The sales cycle provides a roadmap that keeps salespeople in control, especially in Japan where clients expect structure and professionalism. How should salespeople make a strong first impression? The first step is credibility. Buyers often meet salespeople through referrals, events, or cold calls, and they form impressions quickly. A refined credibility statement is essential: it should clearly communicate who you are, your expertise, and why you are reliable. At this stage, qualifying questions are also critical. They help determine whether the prospect is a genuine fit for your solution. Without qualification, time and resources are wasted. In Japan's relationship-driven market, credibility and early alignment build the trust needed to advance the conversation. Mini-Summary: A polished credibility statement and targeted qualification questions establish trust and ensure you're talking to the right buyer. Why is questioning compared to a doctor's diagnosis? Just like doctors, salespeople must diagnose before prescribing. Asking questions reveals the buyer's current situation, future goals, barriers to success, and personal motivations. These insights uncover not only organisational needs but also the executive's personal stakes in the outcome. In Japan, where buyers may not volunteer information freely, structured questioning is vital. It demonstrates that the salesperson genuinely wants to understand before offering solutions. This approach aligns with consultative selling methods used by multinational firms, which outperform competitors relying on generic pitches. Mini-Summary: Diagnostic questioning uncovers both company needs and personal stakes, showing buyers you are serious about solving their problems. How do you present solutions effectively in Japan? Once needs are clear, the salesperson must outline the solution with detail and proof. This involves explaining features, translating them into benefits, and providing evidence of success in similar contexts. For example, showing how Fujitsu or Rakuten solved a comparable problem makes the solution credible. Importantly, salespeople should use trial closes to test understanding and identify concerns before the final ask. In Japan, this gentle approach respects hierarchy and allows buyers to raise issues without losing face. Mini-Summary: Effective solution presentations combine features, benefits, and proof, reinforced by trial closes to surface and resolve concerns early. How should objections be handled? If objections arise, it signals that either clarity or persuasion was lacking. The professional response is to address concerns respectfully, provide further evidence, and reframe value. In Japan, objections are often indirect, so listening carefully is essential. Global best practice suggests preparing objection-handling strategies in advance. Whether in consumer goods or B2B tech, salespeople who anticipate resistance show competence. Japanese clients in particular value patience and persistence in overcoming doubts. Mini-Summary: Objections reveal gaps in clarity or persuasion; handling them calmly and respectfully strengthens trust in Japan's relationship-driven culture. How do you close the sale and secure loyalty? Closing should not be abrupt. Instead, salespeople can "paint a word picture" of success, helping the buyer imagine the benefits of the solution in action. Then, a soft closing technique invites agreement. After closing, follow-up is critical. Maintaining contact ensures satisfaction, resolves issues, and opens the door for referrals. In Japan, where reputation spreads through networks, happy clients become powerful advocates. The sales cycle does not end with the sale—it ends with loyalty. Mini-Summary: Successful closing combines gentle persuasion with strong follow-up, turning satisfied clients into long-term advocates and referral sources. Conclusion The sales cycle—credibility, questioning, solution, objections, and closing—is the roadmap that guides salespeople through every conversation. Without it, sales interactions risk becoming chaotic or buyer-led. In Japan, where professionalism, trust, and long-term relationships are paramount, mastering the cycle is non-negotiable. Salespeople who use it consistently not only close more deals but also create loyal clients who sustain their business for years to come. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

Why Western sales revolutions haven't reshaped Japanese selling practices Sales gurus often argue that "sales has changed." They introduce new frameworks—SPIN Selling, Consultative Selling, Challenger Selling—that dominate Western business schools and corporate training. But in Japan, sales methods look surprisingly similar to how they did decades ago. Why hasn't Japan embraced these waves of change? Let's break it down. Why has Japan resisted Western sales revolutions? Japan's business culture is defined by consensus decision-making. Unlike in the US, where one buyer may have authority to sign a deal, Japanese firms typically rely on group approval. Aggressive closing techniques—"100 ways to overcome objections"—don't resonate in a context where no single buyer holds final power. When a salesperson meets a Japanese executive, even the president, decisions are often delegated downward for due diligence. The result? What looks like a top-level entry point becomes just the beginning of a long bottom-up approval process. Mini-Summary: Western-style "hard closes" fail in Japan because decisions are made through collective consensus, not individual authority. Who really decides in Japanese sales negotiations? Salespeople often assume they're negotiating with the decision-maker. In Japan, that's rarely the case. The person in front of you is usually an influencer, not the final authority. They gather information and share it with unseen stakeholders—division heads, section chiefs, back-office teams—who never meet the salesperson directly. This creates the sensation of "fighting invisible ninjas." You prepare to persuade one buyer, but in reality, you must equip your contact to persuade a network of hidden decision-makers. Mini-Summary: In Japan, sales success depends on influencing unseen stakeholders through the buyer's internal champion. How do Japanese buyers expect salespeople to behave? Unlike Western buyers who are open to consultative approaches, Japanese buyers often expect a pitch. When salespeople arrive, they are typically asked to explain features and price. This isn't necessarily because they don't value needs analysis, but because decades of feature-focused selling have conditioned buyers to expect the "pitch-first" style. Even in 2021, many Japanese sales meetings begin with a features dump, not diagnostic questions. As one veteran trainer notes, Dale Carnegie's 1939 sales model of asking questions before proposing solutions remains largely ignored in Japan today. Mini-Summary: Japanese buyers have been trained by decades of salespeople to expect a feature-and-price pitch, making consultative selling harder to implement. What problems arise from pitching before asking questions? Pitching before discovery creates major risks. If you don't know the buyer's actual needs, you can't know which features matter most. Worse, buyers may dismiss your solution as irrelevant or commoditised. Globally, best practice is clear: ask questions, uncover pain points, align benefits, provide proof, then close. Yet in Japan, many salespeople still rush to pitch, skipping diagnostic discovery altogether. This keeps Japanese sales culture stuck in the "dark ages" compared to markets like the US or Europe, where consultative and challenger methods are standard. Mini-Summary: Pitching without discovery weakens sales effectiveness and prevents alignment with buyer needs, but remains common in Japan. How can sales teams in Japan modernise their approach? The roadmap is simple but powerful: Ask permission to ask questions. Diagnose needs thoroughly. Identify the best-fit solution. Present that solution clearly. Handle hesitations and objections. Ask for the order. This structure modernises Japanese sales while respecting cultural norms. It avoids "pushing" while still providing a disciplined process for uncovering and addressing client needs. Executives at global firms like Toyota, Sony, and Mitsubishi increasingly expect this approach, especially when dealing with multinational partners. Mini-Summary: A structured consultative process—diagnose, propose, resolve—aligns global best practice with Japanese cultural norms. What should leaders do to drive change in Japan's sales culture? Leaders must train salespeople to abandon outdated pitching habits and embrace consultative questioning. This requires coaching, reinforcement, and role-modelling from the top. Japanese firms that continue with pitch-driven sales risk falling behind global competitors. By contrast, firms that shift to questioning-based sales processes build trust faster, uncover hidden opportunities, and shorten approval cycles. The future of sales in Japan depends on whether leaders push for transformation or let tradition slow them down. Mini-Summary: Leaders must drive the shift from pitch-first to consultative sales or risk being left behind in a globalising market. Conclusion Japan hasn't embraced the sales revolutions of the West because its business culture is consensus-driven, pitch-conditioned, and tradition-bound. But the future demands change. The companies that modernise sales processes—by asking permission, diagnosing needs, and presenting tailored solutions—will outpace those stuck in pitch-first habits. Leaders have a choice: keep Japan's sales culture in the past, or bring it decisively into the 21st century. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

Why trust is the ultimate driver of long-term sales success in Japan Salespeople everywhere know that trust is essential for winning deals, but in Japan, trust is the difference between a one-off sale and a lifelong customer. Research shows that 63% of buyers prefer to purchase from someone they completely trust—even over someone offering a lower price. In a market where relationships outweigh transactions, trust doesn't just support sales, it builds loyalty. Why does trust outweigh price in Japanese sales? While discounting may win a deal, it doesn't create loyalty. Trust, on the other hand, generates repeat business. The cost of building trust is far lower than repeatedly slashing prices to close deals. Buyers in Japan, who are highly attuned to signs of insincerity, quickly detect opportunistic sales tactics. When they find a salesperson who is genuinely trustworthy, they hold on tightly. This is why successful firms in industries from pharmaceuticals to IT services prioritise building trust-based partnerships over price competition. Global research and local practice confirm that loyalty is rooted in belief, not bargains. Mini-Summary: Trust is more powerful than price in Japan because it creates repeat business and loyalty, while discounting only secures short-term wins. What mindset builds long-term customer loyalty? The salesperson's mindset determines whether buyers see them as a partner or a pusher. A focus on long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions changes everything. When salespeople think in terms of "partnership" and "reorder," communication becomes more genuine, reassuring buyers that their interests are respected. In Japan, this long-term orientation aligns with cultural norms of reliability and stability. Buyers expect a salesperson to stand by them through multiple cycles, not just disappear after the first contract. Sales leaders at companies like Toyota and Hitachi have reinforced this by emphasising repeat business as a performance metric, not just one-time deals. Mini-Summary: A partnership mindset—focused on reorders and long-term success—creates loyalty and aligns with Japanese business culture. How do buyers sense a salesperson's true intention? Buyers are experts at detecting hidden agendas. If a salesperson approaches with a "win-lose" attitude, buyers sense it immediately. Past purchasing mistakes make buyers cautious and wary of being taken advantage of. By contrast, when salespeople project genuine interest in mutual success, buyers relax and open the door to trust. The key is consistency: every action, from initial meetings to after-sales support, must reinforce the message that the salesperson is invested in a "win-win" relationship. Mini-Summary: Buyers intuitively sense whether a salesperson is seeking a win-win or win-lose deal. Only the former leads to loyalty. What drives buyer loyalty beyond trust? Loyalty is both emotional and behavioural. It stems from the buyer's belief that the salesperson is reliable, competent, and focused on their success. The trust-loyalty equation can be expressed as: Trust + Relationship = Buyer Loyalty At one extreme sits the "product pusher," chasing maximum price before moving on. At the other extreme is the "trusted advisor," dedicated to mutual benefit and long-term collaboration. The question every salesperson must ask is: where do you sit on this scale? Mini-Summary: Buyer loyalty comes from the combination of trust and relationship, positioning the salesperson as a trusted advisor rather than a product pusher. What are the five drivers of trust in sales? To earn loyalty, salespeople must master five trust drivers: Intention: Always seek win-win outcomes. Competence: Deliver reliable solutions that meet buyer needs. Customer Focus: Prioritise the buyer's success as the path to your own. Communication: Provide clarity, manage expectations, and follow through. Value Creation: Continuously add value that goes beyond the product. In sectors like finance and healthcare, where risk is high, these drivers determine whether clients commit for the long term. Without them, loyalty cannot be sustained. Mini-Summary: Trust is built on intention, competence, customer focus, communication, and value creation—five pillars every salesperson must master. What should leaders do to embed loyalty in sales teams? Organisational culture matters as much as individual behaviour. Some firms claim to be "customer-first," but internally reward only short-term sales. Leaders must align messaging and incentives with trust-building behaviours. Salespeople working in trust-driven environments are more motivated, more professional, and more successful. If a company does not encourage loyalty-driven practices, sales professionals may need to move to one that does. In Japan's competitive market, those who embody trust and loyalty enjoy longer, more rewarding careers. Mini-Summary: Leaders must create environments that reward trust-building, or risk losing both customers and talented salespeople. Conclusion Customer loyalty is built on trust, not discounts. For salespeople in Japan, adopting a win-win mindset, projecting genuine intentions, and mastering the five drivers of trust are essential to becoming a trusted advisor. Companies that encourage loyalty-focused behaviour will thrive, while those stuck in transactional models will struggle to sustain growth. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

Why mastering client conversations in Japan defines long-term sales success When salespeople meet new clients, the first few minutes set the tone for everything that follows. This "transition zone" between pleasantries and serious discussion is where trust is either built—or broken. Let's explore how professionals in Japan and globally can own this crucial phase. Why is the sales transition zone so critical? The sales transition zone is the moment when the buyer and seller move from small talk into business. For the client, the first question is usually, "How much will this cost me?". For the salesperson, the focus is on proving value beyond price. Unless this gap is bridged quickly, the conversation can collapse into a price war. In Japan, where relationship-building and long-term trust are prized, handling this transition with sensitivity is even more critical than in the US or Europe. Western executives may prefer blunt efficiency—"Let's get straight to business"—but Japanese buyers expect context, respect, and subtlety. Mini-Summary: The transition zone is where price-driven client expectations collide with value-focused sales strategy. Mastering it determines whether the meeting builds trust or breaks down. How should salespeople frame the meeting agenda? After greetings, professionals should set a clear agenda that shows respect for the client's time. For example: "I appreciate Suzuki-san introducing us. She felt there may be mutual benefit, so today I'd like to explore how our solutions may support your business. I also want to better understand your needs and see if there's a fit. Are there other items you'd like to cover?" This framing balances structure with flexibility. It prevents the client from feeling "sold to" while subtly keeping control of the meeting. Across industries—from pharmaceuticals to IT services—Japanese clients respond positively when they feel their input is requested early. Mini-Summary: Outlining a flexible agenda signals professionalism and respect, while keeping the salesperson in control of the meeting flow. How can unique selling propositions (USPs) be introduced naturally? Clients don't want a corporate brochure; they want proof of relevance. Introduce USPs in a conversational way: "We are global soft-skills training experts, here since 1963, specialising in sales training in Japan." This single sentence embeds four powerful points: global scope, world best practice, 60 years of Japanese experience, and local market adaptation. Companies like Toyota, Rakuten, and Fujitsu look for vendors who demonstrate both international credibility and deep domestic roots. Mini-Summary: Well-crafted introductions should deliver layered USPs that combine global credibility, local experience, and proven relevance. How can salespeople prove credibility with results? Proof must be concrete, relevant, and measurable. For example: "Recently we trained a company in your industry. Salesperson confidence rose 40%, and revenues increased 18% within six months." This approach works across sectors—manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods—because executives trust comparative results. But credibility evaporates if numbers are exaggerated. In Japan, where long-term relationships matter, any suspicion of dishonesty ends future business. Mini-Summary: Share specific, industry-relevant metrics to prove impact. Honesty is non-negotiable if you want repeat business in Japan. How do you smoothly shift to client questioning? Once credibility is established, invite permission to ask questions: "I don't know if we could achieve the same results for you, but may I ask a few questions to better understand your situation?" This low-pressure approach keeps the salesperson in control while respecting the client's space. It allows for uncovering challenges—talent gaps, process inefficiencies, competitive threats—without triggering defensiveness. Japanese executives particularly value humility paired with competence. Mini-Summary: The best transition uses respectful permission to shift into diagnostic questioning, creating trust and revealing real client needs. What if you discover you can't help the client? Not every prospect is a fit. Forcing a solution damages reputation. Instead, tell the client: "This may not be the right match." This honesty preserves brand integrity. In Japan's tight-knit business networks, reputation compounds: one display of integrity can open doors elsewhere. Global comparisons support this: US firms often admire aggressiveness in sales, but in Japan, restraint builds credibility. Long-term success comes not from a single deal, but from a portfolio of reorders, referrals, and reputation. Mini-Summary: Walking away respectfully when there is no fit strengthens credibility and ensures long-term opportunities in Japan's relationship-driven market. Conclusion Owning the sales transition zone means balancing confidence with humility, structure with flexibility, and proof with empathy. Salespeople who master this moment avoid premature price talk, build credibility through structured storytelling, and earn the right to ask deeper questions. Ultimately, success is not about one transaction but about sustaining long-term partnerships in Japan's trust-based business culture. About the Author Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

At the age of sixteen, I was wandering around the streets of a lower working class area in the suburbs of Brisbane, working my first job, trying to sell expensive Encyclopedia Britannica to the punters who lived there.  Despite my callow youth, I had a tremendous gift as a salesman.  I could tell by looking at the house from the outside whether they were interested or not in buying Encyclopedia Britannica and so could determine whether I should knock on their door or not.  I was saying "no" for the client.  Obviously, I had no clue what I was doing. The only training we received was to memorise, word for word, a twenty five minute pitch for the buyer, synchronised with showing the flash looking pages inside the encyclopedia.  I am sure though there are many much older and wiser salespeople out there, still making that fundamental error I was making.  Eventually, I discovered I didn't have any x-ray vision gift. I was just an idiot.  There will be plenty of opportunity for the buyer to say "no", so we shouldn't be joining in to support them on that quest. Even before the call, we will have anticipated some potential pushback and we are fully armed and ready to go when it emerges.  I was reminded of this x-ray vision into the buyer problem recently.  The top salesperson of an organisation I know, said "no" for the buyer.  He was an intermediary for me with the client and didn't like one of the conditions of the sale I was proposing.  This was an important source of his commissions for him and they had been a big buyer over a number of years.  He had them wrapped up in cotton wool and was extremely nervous about maintaining the relationship. I have learnt the hard way and so I don't believe in saying "no" for the buyer, so I pushed it.  I rejected his rejection and told him to put my request to the client.  We got into an elongated email wrangle over this, but not only am I dim most of the time, I am also supremely stubborn, especially when it comes to sales.  Stubborn and dim is a lethal combination. He didn't like it at all, but he held his nose and put my proposition to the client. Guess what? They went for it.  As we say in Japan, "even the monkeys fall from the trees" and even Mr. Number One sales guy can get it wrong.  I refrained from mentioning that Japanese proverb of course or being a smarty pants and just thanked him for his cooperation. One common case of saying "no" for the client is when the prices are raised for the product or service.  Salespeople invariably will start whinging to the boss, that the client will never agree to buy at that higher price.  Effectively, they are saying "no" for the buyers.  There are many ways to dilute the pain of raising the price.  The terms of payment can be elongated.  The guarantees and warranties can be expanded. The rise can be counterbalanced by discounts for volume purchases.  The proposition can be ramped up on the value equation scale.  Additional incentives can be packed together with the original offer to justify the price rise.  Services can be thrown into the product purchase process to make it more palatable and vice versa. Interestingly, salespeople complaining about the price increase, spend zero time thinking about how to sell the value increase to the client. Price increases are one thing, but defending existing prices against discounting is another case of having to say "no" to the customer. In Japan, salespeople are very weak in front of the customer.  The buyer here isn't King but GOD and GOD doesn't brook hearing "no" from salespeople.  The constant complaint from our clients is that their firm's salespeople identify too closely with the client and don't defend the company's policies well enough, including pricing.  I had the same problem with one of my salespeople.  He was happy to discount and take a lower commission, even though the firm made very little profit.  He got his base salary and some commission, so he was happy.  I wasn't so happy. I get it - the logic is simple.  The salesperson heavily invests in the relationship with the buyer and works hard to defend that relationship, even against their own employer.  This sounds crazy, but they know the value of an existing customer, compared to the pain and effort to find a new buyer. This is where the value element has to be worked on more, so that salespeople can justify the existing pricing, without resorting to discounts to get the business.  The basic sales skills of the team have to be improved, especially their communication skills.  This don't say "no" for the client arena, shows the real capabilities of the salesperson.  Sadly, there is a major population decline underway here and salespeople are in increasingly short supply.  The quality of the people we can hire isn't going to improve, so our sales training mechanisms and our sales leadership mechanisms, become even more important than any time in the past.  Are you ready for this and are your people ready to say "yes" for the buyer?

It is seriously sad to be dumb.  Nothing annoys me more than when I finally realise something that was so obvious and yet I didn't see what was there, right in front of my nose.  We talk a lot about value creation in relation to pricing, trying to persuade clients that what we are selling is a sensible trade off between the value they seek and the revenue that we seek.  We want the value we offer to be both perceived and acknowledged value by the buyer.  Often however, we get into a rut in our sales mindset.  We carve a neuron groove once in our brain and keep ploughing that same row.  Outside stimulation is needed.  I realised that fact when I recently did some formal online training. My previous companies had sent me to the Harvard, Stanford and Insead business schools in the past, which of course, were all amazing.  However, when I was doing my recent studies, I recalled that it has been some time since I did something formal like that. During the coursework, I realised many things we could do around value provision, which we have not been doing or not doing sufficiently well enough.  I am an avid reader, but I also found that the mantra of both "formal" and "informal" lifetime learning is a good one to follow. I found we have had a lot of assets lying around, which we have not fully utilised, hence the "I hate how dumb I am" statement.  We need an omnichannel approach. Often, we may have videos hanging around, explaining the benefits and the details of a service or a product.  Now the video has an audio track, which we can strip out of the video. This allows us to turn it into a different medium, allowing clients to access the information in that format.  So many people are now processing information through audio, thanks to the recent proliferation of podcasts and audiobooks. Buyers are busy, busy and so many are multi-tasking while listening.  Having audio alternatives may help to save them valuable time, compared to them having to sit down and watch our video. Depending on the content, the audio might also become a training tool for our own staff.  Now if that video is sitting there on YouTube for free, then once people have watched it, suddenly, a whole world of YouTube's other groovy offerings appears on your client's screen.  They are being tempted to look at our competitor's videos.  That is not a great result for us.  We want to keep the client on our website for as long as possible.  There are companies like Wistia, for example, which will host the videos for a monthly fee. These videos are no longer mashed into YouTube's offerings, but sit independently, such that the client cannot stray into competitor territory.  We want to build a moat to keep the client in our ecosystem, so that after watching the video on Wistia, they have to come back to us.  Are you able to free your clients from the YouTube loop and make sure they escape your rival's charms? The audio track can also be run through AI programmes like Descript, which will turn sound into text.  Once the text emerges, we need to edit the content, because the AI is good, but it is not perfect.  Once we have the corrected information in text, it can go into our newsletters, get it on to our website and we can send it out to clients.  When we have text in English, we can translate it into Japanese and use that for clients.  We can use this text information to supplement other information we are going to send to clients or include it in our after sales service programmes.  Do you have any opportunities to create text, which didn't exist as text before and find ways to employ this to add more value for clients?   Often we have multiple solutions for clients, which we could bundle together.  As salespeople though, we tend to be stuck in that Johnny One Note neuron groove and only sell clients one solution. An ideal bundle would be so attractive that the client would be willing to enter into a subscription format to pay something upfront for a whole year or each month or each quarter.  The point is to get them to sign up for more than an episodic transaction that always has a formal completion date.  We want repeat business and this subscription model is one way to weld the relationship between buyer and seller closer together.  Once we become part of their ongoing business plans, it reduces the buying friction. Importantly, it also increases their internal friction to turn the buying process off.  It is always easier to keep something going, than to start it in the first place.  This builds a moat around our client, denying our rivals an option to steal our business.  So, what could you bundle together to create a no-brainer, totally stupendous offer for the buyer? There might be some administration associated with using our type of product or service.  The buying entity inside the client's company is always time poor.  Perhaps we can offer a system which supplies the service or product, but in such a way that we reduce the friction involved on their side.  A famous example is the Kanban system at Toyota.  It works well for Toyota as the buyer of the auto parts, as their warehousing costs are substantially reduced. The suppliers have revolutionised their logistics ability and can time their deliveries to fit in with Toyota's production schedule.  The suppliers are selling their products but also reducing Toyota's friction.  What can we do to sell our products and services and also reduce the friction in the buyer's internal systems? When I finally got religion about maximising the assets we already have for increasing our value to clients, I was amazed at how much latent opportunity we had there all along.  I was asking myself, "why has it taken me so long to work out this simple idea?".  I was just dumb but now I have wised up at long last.  What items are available for you to recognise the latent value you possess and package them up as assets transformed into new forma  

When we think of team selling, we imagine a room with the buyers on one side of the table and we are lined up on the other.  There is another type of team selling and that is taking place before we get anywhere near the client.  It might be working together as a Sales Mastermind panel to brainstorm potential clients to target or strategising campaigns or plotting the approach to adopt with a buyer.  Salespeople earn their remuneration through a combination of base salary and commission or bonus in Japan.  There are very few jobs here in sales, which are 100% commission, simply because salespeople don't have to accept that model.  There is always a demand here for salespeople and in fact the declining population is keeping a lot of dud salespeople afloat. Given there is not much 100% commission selling going on, there is also not so much salesperson competition going on with each other.  There is competition, but the losers usually don't get fired, as they might in some Western business environments.  So the opportunity is there to collaborate more on approaches to the client and generating more business.  What often happens though is, salespeople tend to operate from within their own little castles.  They have their moat around their existing clients, which they serve and they spend their time trying to find new clients by themselves.  They may have sales managers, but in these modern times, sales managers are expected to produce revenues as well.  That means there isn't a lot of coaching going on. If we have one person looking at the client through the prism of their own experience, things get a bit thin quickly, if that person doesn't have such a wealth of experience.  It would be more logical to gather a team of salespeople together and look at the best approach for that client, rather than relying on the best efforts of a single person.  But we don't do this very often.  This tends to be because of a territorial concept, where each salesperson has their clients and they should take care of them, without wasting anyone's time, especially when they are getting paid a commission or a bonus, for the sale. This does make sense at one level, but we are missing out on the sum of the parts being able to exceed the whole here.  This is often a culture issue within sales teams.  If you run things with tight individual accountability, it is hard to get other salespeople to assist a colleague.  As leaders we need to establish a framework for teamwork even in a commission based world of focused individual benefit.  The money getting paid out doesn't change, but the time becomes the sticking point.  How do we get salespeople to spend time to help others be more successful? One way to do this it to treat a particular client as a project and pull in other salespeople to work on the best approach. Once the salesperson in question has spoken with the client, then we need to gather the Sales Mastermind together again and brainstorm what would be the ideal solution.  This should be one of the tasks for the sales manager, but often they are swamped with their own clients and trying to keep the whole sales team coordinated and moving forward.  Breaking out time for one-on-one discussions may simply not be happening and the salespeople are often left to their own devices. When we approach this on the project level, the time required becomes contained and less oppressive for the other salespeople.  It is also a case of quid pro quo too, because it will be their turn to benefit next time, from having more heads than one tackling client problems and helping match the best solutions.  This is where the sales manager can play a role in setting up the project teams and monitoring progress.  It is good for the salespeople because one day they will become sales managers and will need to introduce similar systems into their own teams.  Funnily enough, we often have the experience of learning a lot ourselves, when we are working on someone else's problem.  We can be too close to our own issues and be blind to aspects which could have an important bearing, but we cannot see the wood for the trees.  Somehow looking at another's problem brings clarity for us about our own contemplations. There are many benefits to using Sales Masterminds from within the team, working together for the best outcomes for the client.  There is an education process going on both up and down the scale of experience, as we all come away from the process that little better educated in our craft.  

 was studying an online learning programme from Professor Scott Galloway, where he talked about Appealing To Human Instincts.  His take was from the strategy angle, but I realised that this same framework would be useful for sales too.  In sales we do our best to engage the client.  We try to develop sophisticated questions to help us unearth the stated and unstated needs of the buyer.  Professor Galloway's pedagogical construct can give us another perspective on buyer dynamics. The first Human Instinct nominated was the brain.  This is our logos, our rational, logical, analytical mode.  What are the unanswered questions and key internal conversations occupying the minds of our buyers.  If we can meet the buyer in their thought process, then we are more likely to be able to understand their needs and then be in a position to meet those needs.  We know that some buyers will be analytical types, for whom three decimal places is unremarkable when considering data.  Often though salespeople are big picture. Macro types who shun this level of detail because they feel it is boring.  They love the sale and abhor the paperwork which goes along with it.  I had two insurance salesmen in my home trying to get me to buy various policies.  What astounded me was they were middle aged, well experienced gentlemen and yet they couldn't fill out the paperwork correctly, so we had to do it again.  They loved the conversation with me but not the conversation with the fine print in the contract. The next instinct was the heart.  Our emotions are there for all to see, if the right stimulation is provided. We laugh, cry, get angry, become determined and give up, based around our emotional configuration at any point in the day.  Salespeople walk into a mine field of buyer emotions, with no way of knowing which particular configuration we have bumped into today.  Our job is to gauge as quickly as possible where the buyer is emotionally and how they prefer to communicate at that moment.  We know our tempers once frayed, tend to trigger a supreme impatience with everything.  Woe be tied a salesperson who cannot "kuki wo yomu" or read the air, as we say in Japanese, to understand this client needs another visit on a better day for them. Instinct number three was the gut.  This reminded me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs where survival was at the bottom and became the prism through which information and ideas were judged.  Company buyers are always bound firmly by risk reduction, budget stringencies, cash flow imperatives and fears for the future.  Everyone loves a bargain except salespeople, especially those salespeople who have commissions attached to the sale price.  Value is the only antidote for this price discount swamp fever infecting buyers.  Babbling on about features won't cut it.  Yet amazingly this is the step where many salespeople check out.  They never even attempt to consider scaling the summit. We had better migrate up the value scale and talk about the application of the benefits.   We need to lock in the evidence where this has worked magnificently somewhere else, for this buyer to feel safe that there are precedents.  The fourth instinct was sex appeal.  Buyers want to attract attention to themselves as capable, highly promotable, sexy beasts attracting a lot of favourable accord.  Our role is to make them look like heroes, legends, masters of the universe.  They want to elevate their worth, status and value within the organisation.  "Look at me, I am clever" they want to say. We become their instrument to promote that message by giving them our product or service, which becomes a game changer inside the client company. Salespeople have to be master jugglers, elevating many balls in the air at the same time.  We need to see our buyers in a holistic manner, to fully appreciate the tack we need to take buyer by buyer, because they are all different.  This takes a change in the sales mindset because most salespeople are focused on themselves, their commission, their Beemer upgrade and a thousand other things, which the buyer couldn't care less about.  So next time we sit down with a buyer, we need to make sure we are engaging all of their human instincts and appealing to them from many angles. 

Group crowdsourcing has been around since cave dweller days.  Gathering a crowd of prospects and getting them to buy your stuff is a standard method of making more sales or starting conversations which hopefully will lead to sales.  Trade shows provide booths but also speaking events, if you pay more dough to attend.  These days the event will most likely be online rather than in person, but the basics are common.  "We all love to buy but we don't want to be sold", should be a mantra all salespeople embrace, especially with selling from the stage. The common approach at events is to provide a lot of information, generally the features of the product and then trot out the sales pitch at the end.  As an audience, we brace ourselves because we see the switch from value to pitch coming. Mentally, we get our sceptic hat out and put it on ready for the sales blurb. When you think about it this is a pretty dumb approach. The giving value first idea is a good one, but why separate the value from the pitch at the end?  Why not integrate the two together, so there is no audience bracing required?  It all comes back to design.  We have all grown up with the explanation, then pitch model, so we tend to just accept that is how it is done.  This is even though on other occasions as audience members ourselves, we are experiencing that "brace yourself" mental switch.  It is a bit strange isn't it, so why not learn from our own experience and make a change for the better. The talk will be broken down into chapters.  Chapter One is the opening. This is where we have to say something that snaps a distracted, sceptical audience member out of their social media induced coma and gets them to listen to us.  We may share a really surprising piece of high value data or information.  We might tell a gripping story that attracts the audience.  We might ask a devilish question that completely consumes the attention of the audience. Next we start to move into some features of the solution we are proffering and critically, we must link these to the applied benefits.  We do this by using examples of what other buyers have done with our solution so that the audience can draw a direct line between the purchase and the benefit.  These claims have to be backed up with solid evidence or it comes across as salesperson hot air.  At this point we need to ask a question which gets the audience thinking about their situation.  It must be subtle, rather than bold outbursts like "You should have this shouldn't you?".  Rather we can say, "can you see an area of your business where this widget would increase revenues or reduce costs?".  We then say nothing and let that question hang in the air, to allow the audience to focus on it and make a mental evaluation for themselves. We will keep repeating this formula in each chapter – feature, benefit, application of the benefit, evidence and then a subtle question.  We can't keep repeating the exact same question every time, because that sounds ridiculous, so we need a stock of these.  Others could be, "Thinking about some of your strategies for your business, can you see where having this widget would help advance the business for you?", or "Even incremental advances are welcome, so can you see where you could gain a five, ten or fifteen percent improvement in results through applying this widget to your business?", or "Business is super competitive today so stealing a march on your rivals is always a challenge.  Can you see an avenue through using this widget which will differentiate you from your competitors in the minds of your buyers?". By the time we get to the end of our presentation, we will have used a variety of questions which will resonate differently with each of our potential clients, because not all of their situations are identical.  We need to use this insight when we are designing our questions, hoping at least one will hit the bullseye for a particular client.  We finish off with inviting members of the audience to stay back and chat, if they found some solutions to their business issues from our talk.  At no point could the audience members "brace for impact" from our sales pitch.  We have eliminated resistance to what we are saying.  We have also come across as a company who focuses on value for clients and are not a collection of rabid shysters, spivs, hucksters and dodgy carnival barkers.  Even if they don't buy from us today, our reputation will have been enhanced and they are more likely to look favourably on us in the future.  

Japanese salespeople should love to hear "that sounds pricey" from buyers.  Why?  Because they know that this statement is the most common objection to arise in response to their sales presentation and they are completely ready for it.  It is one of the simplest buyer pushback answers to deal with too.  Well, simple that is, if you are trained in sales and know what you are doing.  Untrained salespeople really make a big hot mess of this one.  They want to argue the point about pricing with the buyer.  Or they want to use their force of will to bully the buyer into buying.  Or they want to use one of those American style aggressive response statements, to try and push the deal over the line.  This is all nonsense. The only words emerging from our lips should be "Thank you.  May I ask you why you say that?".  We could say something else like "compared to what?", which is a pretty snappy rejoinder, but it is a bit too aggressive in this situation and doesn't really yield enough information about buyer thinking.  We could simply drop the price to be "competitive", but that is the mark of the weak, whining, unwashed, pathetic salesperson.  We need to do better than that, unless that proffered discount is directly linked to certain purchase volume prerequisites. When we first hear "that sounds pricey" we may feel some pressure to justify our numbers.  That is totally the wrong way of thinking.  That number of ours is there for a reason.  There is a justification for that number, based on the value it provides.  There are plenty of clients willing and happy to pay that number for the goods or services they receive in exchange. When we sweetly ask why they say that, we now have moved the pressure for justification back to the buyer. This is called "tossing back the porcupine".  The comment "pricey" is like a spiky porcupine being thrown to us and it is tricky to handle, without incurring lots of pain. We ask "why" thus shooting the porcupine back to the buyer and we can sit there cool calm and collected and listen to what they have to say.  This is important because we need to use our highest level of empathetic listening to comprehend what they are saying, in order to understand what is really on their mind.  Our object in sales is to meet the buyer in the conversation they are having in their own mind. That will be a compilation of their current situation, their experiences to date, their personal situation and a million other factors which we will never be privy to. Asking them that "why" question gives us the chance to tune in to what is important for them and to alert us to factor in things which we hadn't considered before. I was given that price pushback for some training I was proposing to the HR team at a Japanese company.  I asked them the "why" question and then just sat there stone cold silent.  They did not reply immediately. It was one of those long uncomfortable silences for foreigners.  Fortunately, I have learned to become comfortable with silence in Japan.  After what seemed an absolute age, they explained that they are given a quarterly budget for training and my number was over that quarterly limit. Did I rail against the inequity of having such dopey quarterly budgets or rage that they should change their entire budgeting system and get that accounting  department better geared up to suit my preferred pricing?  No. I sweetly asked, "If we could spread the payment across two quarters, would that be of any help?" and again I shut up and didn't say one more word.  They looked at each other and I saw a light get switched on inside their heads and they said that would work.  So, it wasn't too pricey after all.  It was too much price for that arbitrary temporal unit called a quarter of the year. After the buyer tells us all the good reasons why our price is too high, we need to be packing heavy with our value justification for the number we have just quoted.  This is why salespeople need to be well prepared and practice for this "that sounds pricey" pushback.  Trying to wing it and produce some intellectual and articulation magic on the spot is possible. Unlikely though, especially when your brain is frozen with fear getting that infamous pushback. Recently a multinational client wanted presentation training in Japan, after having conducted training in APAC with another provider who was based out of Hong Kong.  They were unable to deliver in Japan so the client contacted us.  I gave them my proposal and they told me my number was "pricey".  When I sweetly asked "why", they not so sweetly told me that the other vendor did the exact same training for a price significantly at a discount to what I was proposing.  They said that I should match this other provider, whom I had never heard of.  I checked them out. They didn't have a 109 year history of teaching presentation skills, a track record of 58 years in Japan, teach 90% of the Fortune 500 companies, have 200 branches in over 100 countries, teach in 35 languages, have ISO 9001 certification, require their trainers to undergo 250 hours of train-the-trainer instruction for their first license, have a trainer who had personally delivered 545 public speeches, appear in the Training Industry Top 20 training companies and on and on it went.  You get the idea.  In the end, I suggested we do a demo session with the key decision makers, so that they could comfortably recommend us to their executives, at the price I required.  The demo blew them away, because now they could directly compare us with the other vendor.  We did the training and achieved a 9.3/10 Net Promoter Score and a Voice Of Customer score of 92.8/100, which are very high scores, thoroughly justifying the investment.  Yes, I am bragging, but the point is we have numbers we can quote back to clients in order to brag.  We do the satisfaction surveys for our professional work, so we can justify the value of our training, at the price point we nominate. When professional salespeople hear "that sounds pricey" they remain extremely calm, because they know what to say and how to justify their pricing.  How about your sales team?  Are they like deers in the headlights when they get pushback or are they legends of value explanation to buyers?  

Japan's image as a sophisticated country with a solid, unique traditional culture is well placed.  For example, every year around 130,000 Shinkansen bullet trains run between Tokyo and Osaka, bolting through the countryside at speeds of up to 285 kilometers an hour and boast an average arrival delay of 24 seconds.  Think about that average, sustained over a whole year!  Such amazing efficiency here is combined with basically no guns, no drugs, no litter, no graffiti, very little crime and the people are so polite and considerate. If you step on their foot in the crowded subway cars, they apologise to you for getting their foot in the wrong place. If you drop your wallet there is a close to 100% chance of you getting it back, intact. Considering all of the above and with the biggest concentration of Michelin three star restaurants in the world, no wonder Tokyo is the best city in the world to live in.  Once Covid is contained, put Japan on your bucket list folks, you won't regret it. Yet sales professionalism is still so far behind, by Western standards. I am going to make incredibly broad, general statements here, but actually they are true for most salespeople in Japan.  How do I know this?  We have been teaching sales training here since 1963 and these are the things companies consistently ask us to fix.  Let's highlight a few things which may surprise you about sales in Japan. Asking for the order is avoided.  Saying "no" is culturally taboo, so the best way to avoid having to say it or to hear it, is to save everyone's face and leave the outcome deliberately vague.  There are shelves of books in English on how to close the sale,  many are in translation, but not a great take up here as yet.  When the seller meets any resistance from the buyer, the first reflex is to drop the price by 20%. Western sales managers would be apoplectic if this was the default objection handling mechanism.  Here defending your price, through explaining the value, is thrown overboard and simple price point reductions are the preferred lever. Objection handling skills are weak, because the seller sees the buyer not as a King but as a God. The seller's job is to do everything God wants.   The salespeople are predominantly on base salary and bonus remuneration arrangements, so not much commission sales "fire in the belly" going on here. Salespeople love the spec, the data, the detail and are not so keen on the application of the benefits. How do we know this?  I am a buyer here too and in they come bearing their catalogue, flyer or their slide deck to take me through all the details. Surprisingly, they never rise above the spec waterline to talk about value or benefits or how to apply the benefits.  It is the same in our sales classes and we see this phenomenon in the role play sequences.  Salespeople struggle to think about what the spec represents in terms of the benefits to the buyer. This opens up the can of worms about understanding buyer needs. By any definition, getting straight into the detail of the product or service, without asking the buyer any questions, is insanity.  Yet this is normal here.  So much for all that slick American consultative sales jive. We are back to the God problem. The seller must not brook God's displeasure by rude behaviour, such as asking questions about what are their firm's problems. Ergo, the buyer completely controls the sale's conversation. They demand the pitch be made straight up, so that they can lacerate it, to make sure all the risk has been cut out.  Buyers are incredibly risk averse in Japan. This a zero default, no errors, no mistakes business culture.  This is great as a consumer of course. However, the seller is not considered a partner here, more of a slave to the buyer's every whim and demand. So the Japan business sales process is pretty "refined". There are only three steps. The salesperson opens with their pitch, then we move immediately to client objections.  Next, the buyer will get back to you, but probably not.  How does any business get done here?  Please see the next section! Sellers really prefer to concentrate on existing clients, rather than running around trying to find new clients. They rely on the firm brand to do all the prospecting work, rather than their skill as a professional in sales. Hunters are a rare breed of salesperson in Japan, as everyone prefers being a farmer.  This is probably true of everywhere, because obviously it is much easier to keep the business going, than to start a new piece of business.  Japanese salespeople just take it to new heights of speciality. Salespeople never think to ask permission of the buyer to ask questions. Such a simple thing, but so hard to break out of your own cultural context to actually execute.  Once we teach them how easy it is, the scales literally fall from their eyes and they become true believers in asking questions, before introducing anything about the detail of their solution line up. The first foreigners who lived in Japan in the late 19th Century often described Japan as a "topsy turvey" world, because so many things were opposite to what they were used to back in Europe and America.  The differences are what makes it so fascinating and why I have been here for 36 years and am never leaving.  These differences are also a big business opportunity too, as many companies have found, including ourselves.  See you over here after Covid!  

Selling to a buyer in-person and selling to the same Japanese buyer online are worlds apart. Yet how many salespeople are succeeding in making the transition? Are your clients seeking virtual sales training? Not enough. COVID has revealed a lot of salespeople weaknesses. which were hidden in the face-to-face sales call world. Wishing things get better is a plan, but not a very good plan because things don't appear like they are going to get better for quite some time. There is also the fact that a lot of companies are not going to have staff in the office every day anymore. So selling online, isn't going to disappear as a part of our reality. Our skills have to include this piece of the puzzle, whether we like it or not. What do we need to do? Here are some ideas to apply with your sales team and get them better able to get the deals COVID or otherwise. First impressions whether at the office venue or online are critical. Posture sounds like an unlikely choice for something to focus on, but think about the body language clues we pick up from people according to the way they hold themselves. Online, we need to be quite formal sitting up ram rod straight, or if we are standing, than standing tall. Our posture needs to convey confidence, competence, trust, and reliability. Sit forward, Roman style toward the edge of the seat online just as you would do in a face-to-face meeting. Get the camera lens up to eye height and frame yourself on screen so that your upper half of your body is visible. This becomes important when we want to use our gestures. Many people I see in online meetings never use their gestures when explaining things. Gestures work online too, but you have to make some adjustment. The corridor between your chest and your ear height is where to use gestures, because that way they will be easily seen. Also don't wave your hands around. These fake backgrounds can't take that type of movement. So it means we need to maintain our gestures longer than usual and move our hands very slowly. You wouldn't slouch in the chair in front of a buyer. And you would look them in the eye when you talk to them. Looking at their faces on screen looks like you are looking down on them when you're talking and that cannot help build a good relationship. Instead, look straight at the lens and try to engage the buyer. We need to make greater use of our voice and lift the energy up at least 20% louder and stronger than usual to compensate for the power loss, which the camera extracts. We need to hit key words and phrases much stronger in order to give them emphasis. We also need to slow our speaking speed down because the audio on these video platforms is universally poor. Pauses become more important to allow what we have said be captured, processed, and understood. We should eliminate ums and ahs because we've rehearsed our sales call online before we make it. We want to sound assured, confident and convinced about what we are saying. Any vocal hesitations defeat that effect so we have to get rid of these verbal ticks. We need to lead off with our credibility statement. This is a brief highlight of our USP or unique selling proposition. We should be using the screen share function to show any visuals supporting what we are saying. For example, one of our USP is longevity, having stood the test of time. For that purpose, we show the New York skyline as it looked in 1912, when the company was founded and the Tokyo skyline in 1963, when we opened in Japan. This visually is much more powerful than just saying we started in 1912 and 1963. Next, we should put up a draft agenda for the call using the screen share function. In this agenda we specify why speaking with us is a good idea. We nominate that we are going to discuss their current situation and their desired future situation, as well as barriers, challenging them from reaching their targets. We ask them if they would like to add any points to the agenda so that they feel ownership of the plan for the call. If they have any additions, then we just type them straight into the document and put it all back up on screen. As we work our way through the detail, it is important to check for understanding. One of the bad elements of online meetings is that buyers multitask while we are talking. In person, they can't do it. But online is the new wild west and there are few rules. This means we have to be insistent that they turn on their camera even though this may uncover some pushback or reluctance. We need to set this up. We both appreciate that mutual trust is very important in business. So let's both turn our cameras on today while we have this meeting. If they won't even turn their camera on, you have to ask yourself if this is really a prospect you should be spending any time. After the meeting, we need to send a lot of data they can look at on their own time. Japan is the data vortex of the universe. And the basic rule is you can never give Japanese buyers too much information. If I asked for a quotation or a proposal, then we should make an appointment right there and then for the next meeting for you to take them through it. Never send the document ahead of the meeting. Arrange the next meeting and then use the screen share function to take them through it. Send the actual document after the meeting. This way you can control their understanding of the content and justify that big number on the last page, because you can explain the value it represents.  

You manage to get the appointment, which at the moment is seriously job well done.  Trying to get hold of clients, when everyone is working from home is currently a character building exercise.  You ask permission to ask questions.  Well done!  You are now in the top 1% pf salespeople in Japan.  You do ask your questions and quickly realise you have just what they need.  Bingo! We are going to do a deal here today, so you are getting pumped.  But you don't do a deal, in fact you leave with nothing but your deflated ego and damaged confidence.  The finish line was right there in front of you and you fell down short.  Why? This is one of the most frustrating things in sales.  You do all of the right things or so you think and then you don't get the deal.  You start analysing what went wrong.  Let me save you some time on that one.  You didn't ask your questions in the right way.  Finding out things like: what they want, where they are now and where they want to be, are all brilliant questions.  They won't do the deal though, because you have missed one vital step. That step is to ask the question about where they want to be, and ask it in a specific way.  We can say, "so you have mentioned to me the current state of play in the business, can you now please allow me to understand where you want the business to be going forward?".  Good try, but no cigar.  That question needs an addendum.  We need to ask it this way, "so you have mentioned to me the current state of play in the business, can you now please allow me to understand where you want the business to be going forward and what are the implications, if you don't get there fast enough?". This is a clever phrasing of the question, because it is no longer about whether they can get there or not, but can they get there fast enough.  Often, the buyer is sitting there listening to us, but thinking to themselves, "that is all very true and we will work on all of that – BY OURSELVES".  That may be the case, but the world has not stopped, so that they can get their act together at their pace, when they are ready, in the fullness of time.  No, they have competitors and are engaged in a life and death struggle for survival and in that fierce contest, speed to market is a big factor.  This is where we come in. The question is a good one because it challenges their ability to get it done themselves internally and done fast enough.  They have to allocate scarce resources to this project and they are already quite busy with what is on their plate now.  We can provide that high level of expertise immediately and make a big difference.  The best plan in the world never executed is no help.  Procrastination affects people and institutions.  Getting stuff done inside companies can be excruciatingly slow.  So many meetings required, so may sign offs, so much paperwork and bureaucracy to wade through. Having a problem and doing anything about it are different things.  As the salesperson, the first thing we learn is that the client is never on our timetable.  You need that deal now but they don't feel any sense of urgency.  We have to make sure that sense of the size of the gap between where they are now and where they need to be is enormous.  So vast that they just won't be able to do it by themselves.  Also, we have to create that sense of urgency that the cost of doing nothing is not zero.   We have to paint the picture of the opportunity cost of being too slow to get going and how their competitors are active and moving forward, while they are lagging behind.  If we don't do this well they will imagine they can do it by themselves at their leisure.  The person we are talking to is thinking they can be a hero to their boss by fixing the problem with no need to hire external solution providers.  We could say to them,  "By applying our solution now, you will speed up the opportunity to gain increased revenues.  These additional revenues will not only pay for our solution very quickly but will build a war chest for you to be more agile in taking on your competitors". That won't work.  Why? Because it is a statement from a salesperson, trying to sell something. Instead, we need to extinguish that false hope of doing it themselves at their leisure, by pointing out through asking well constructed questions, the folly of that approach.  For example, "If by applying our solution now, would it be beneficial to you to speed up the opportunity to gain increased revenues?".  After they say, "yes", we continue.   "If these additional revenues allowed you to not only pay for our solution very quickly, but also build a war chest for you to be more agile in taking on your competitors, would that assist your business?". We need to be sensitive to the client becoming our competitor for the needed solutions.  We can most easily attack that false flag by raising the issue of speed.  Few companies can move as quickly as they need to and our agility becomes our competitive advantage, as a solution provider.      

Salespeople have sales tools which often are not thoroughly thought through enough.  These can be flyers, catalogues, slide decks, etc.  They can also be proposals, quotations and invoices.  Usually the salespeople are given the tools as they are and either don't ask for improvements or don't believe the marketing department has much interest in their ideas about the dark art of marketing.  Consequently, there are some areas for improvement which go begging. Flyers, catalogues and slide decks tend to be very evenly arranged.  Every page is basically presented in the same way.  Yet, as salespeople we know that there are going to be certain products which are more popular than others.  These items and corresponding pages should be up the front.  It might mean breaking away from the sectional approach, of all the bits and bobs being collected together in their respective places, separate and cordoned off.  Also, on important pages of these most important products or services, there are bound to be key words or key paragraphs that, over time, we have learnt are of the most relevancy to our clients.  There will also be key data tables, diagrams or photos which should be drawn to the buyer's attention.  Why don't we have marketing do something with this information.  Maybe make the font larger, or add bold or highlight using colour.  This is only a matter of adjusting the layout of the page and getting the next round of printing or soft copy to reflect these updates. Generally speaking, we don't want to be handing our materials over to the client, in the first instance.  We want to spin the item around, so that they can easily read it. With our nice pen we draw their attention to the areas we want them to see.  Not everything on that page has equal value.  Some sections will be more important than others.  They can read the whole thing later at their leisure, but while we are there with them, we want to go through the content  and determine what they need to focus on.  When we leave the materials with them the highlighted areas will draw their attention to where we need them to be looking for information. If this is so easy, why are all the sales materials we see all look the same – flat, undifferentiated and no attempt to direct the eye of the reader?  Everyone has their job.  Marketing is there to produce the materials, but they don't know which are the key sections for buyer purview.  Salespeople are busy running around seeing clients and just take what they have been given.  They never think to make requests to marketing to change the materials. What if the buyers have different interests?  That will be true, but it will also be true that 20% of the key information will suit 80% of the buyers, so we should concentrate on that content.  If there are particular sections which are not highlighted, then we can deal with that problem when we are with the buyer. The other areas for some marketing effort are around how we present quotations, invoices and proposals.  We should be advertising our services or goods on the quotations and invoices.  Key people in the buyer's company will see these materials and here is a chance to get our information in front of them.  If there are soft copies involved this allows us to add links to the website where more information can be found.  QR codes are also good for taking information on a page to a website. Proposals can be very florid or very flat.  Something in the middle is a good idea.  We don't want the presentation of the information overwhelming the messages.  We also don't have to just rely on text. Visual stimulation is very powerful and photos of people are always attractive to us.  This is where we salespeople need marketing's help.  We need someone who has great layout skills and knows how to assemble the look and feel of the pages. Let's rethink our sales materials and ask what more could we get from them?  

I hear some people say translating terms like "nemawashi" into English is difficult.  Really?  I always thought it was one of the easier ones.  Let's just call it "groundwork".  In fact, that is a very accurate description ,from a number of different angles.  Japanese gardeners are superstars.  There is limited flat space in this country, so over centuries gardeners have worked out you need to move the trees you want, to where you want them.  They prefer this approach to just waiting thirty years for them to turn out the preferred way.  It is not unusual today to see a huge tree on the back of a big truck ,being moved from one location to another and presto instant garden.  The roots of that massive tree will be wrapped up in cloth to protect them.  That wrapping process is called "nemawashi".  In business, it means being well prepared for the business meeting – doing the ground work beforehand. In a Western context being well prepared for the meeting will mean assembling all the data and analysis in order to make an impassioned plea for your idea or suggestion, to be accepted by the big bosses.  We all get to the meeting, listen to the different approaches and we make a decision in that meeting.  What could be more time efficient and logical?  They never do it that way in Japan. Concepts of time efficiency differ for a start and throwing massive amounts of overtime at a problem is not problem in Japan.  The meeting is also a ceremony, because the decision has already been arrived at beforehand and the gathering is just to formalise the outcome.  This happens in the West too.  Whenever you see global leaders delivering their joint statements or signing agreements,  they didn't arrive at the wording during the meeting. That was all worked out by their minions beforehand, over many hours of debate, negotiation and discussion.  The TV cameras just capture the big guys and gals inking the document, after all the "groundwork" has been completed. I was talking with a Western businessman recently and he was relating how hard it was to get the team behind his ideas.  The issue was, he was trying to get it all agreed to, at the key meeting and hadn't invested the time to do the groundwork.  What he needed to do was go to see all the key people, the influencers, the stakeholders with a vested interest and explain the idea. Get their input and agreement and then rinse and repeat with the rest of them.  By the time the meeting happens, everyone will recognise parts of their preferences and ideas in the submission.  Agreement flows easily in these cases. In sales, we will probably not have direct access to all of the decision makers, influencers and stakeholders.  Our primary contact has to become our champion for sheparding the agreement through the internal nemawashi process.  Asking them directly who are these hidden decision makers is insulting.  It says, you are a nobody, but I still need your help.  We need to be more considerate of their "face" and ask in a way that enhances their face. Once we have established the trust, have uncovered their needs, shown we can help and have dealt with any hesitations they may have, we are ready to marshal our forces for the final push through to a "yes" to the sale.  We explain, we understand that many people will be interested to know about this change in the delivery of product or services.  We also know that they will be tasked to explain it to others who cannot join our meetings.  We ask how can we help them?  This is a rhetorical question because we want to get into the detail of who are the players.  So we go straight into asking who do they think would have the most concern about the change and why they would be concerned?  We keep repeating this process until we have fleshed out the people who will have the most interest in saying "no".  The next stage is to arm our champion with the tools to deal with the pushback.  We try to understand the concerns and then arrive at creative ways of overcoming those concerns.  This is what we mean by nemawashi or ground work.  Is it time consuming – yes!  Do we have to invest the extra time – yes!  There is an internal  logic to the way decisions are made in Japan.  There is no point railing about how the Japanese business decision making process should be Westernised, so it is more familiar for us.  That is never going to happen, so we need to be better and more flexible to understand the system and then become a master of influence within it.  We need to become the nemawashi maestro!