The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

Salespeople worldwide use frameworks to measure meeting success, but Japan's unique business culture challenges many Western methods. Let's explore the BANTER model—Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, Request—and see how it fits into Japan's sales environment. 1. What is the BANTER model in sales? BANTER is a simple six-point scoring system for sales calls. Each letter stands for a key factor: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, and Request. A salesperson assigns one point for each element successfully confirmed. A perfect score means six out of six, showing a fully productive meeting. In Japan, however, acronyms like BANTER face cultural headwinds. Consensus decision-making, indirect communication, and reluctance to disclose financial details make scoring all six nearly impossible. Mini-summary: BANTER is a six-step framework to assess sales calls. In Japan, cultural barriers make a perfect score rare. 2. Why is budget so hard to confirm in Japan? Budget transparency is crucial in sales, yet in Japan, buyers rarely share numbers openly. Many fear that revealing too much will encourage vendors to push for higher spending. As a result, responses are often vague or evasive. This contrasts sharply with Western practices, where budget conversations are normal and allow salespeople to tailor proposals. In Japan, salespeople often end up working blind. Mini-summary: Japanese buyers protect budget details, leaving salespeople without clear financial guidance. 3. Who really has authority in Japanese companies? In many countries, the people at the table can make decisions. In Japan, it's different. Authority is diffused through ringi-seido, a process of circulating documents for approval. Stakeholders who never attend the meeting may hold veto power. This means even strong supporters in the meeting may lack final say. Authority is hidden, and salespeople must navigate carefully. Mini-summary: Decision-making in Japan is consensus-driven, so real authority is often invisible in the meeting. 4. Do Japanese buyers express their needs clearly? In consultative selling, uncovering client needs is the first priority. But in Japan, cultural norms make direct questioning difficult. Salespeople often feel compelled to begin with detailed presentations before asking what the client truly needs. This reversal wastes time and often leaves core needs unspoken. Identifying pain points is possible, but rarely straightforward. Mini-summary: Japanese sales meetings emphasise presenting solutions before probing needs, making "N" hard to score. 5. Why is timing both clear and paradoxical in Japan? Japanese buyers are usually precise about timing once a decision is made. Execution must be flawless and fast, sometimes immediate. However, decision-making can take weeks or months due to consensus processes. The result is a paradox: slow approvals but urgent delivery expectations. At least here, salespeople can usually secure clarity. Mini-summary: Timing in Japan is paradoxical—decisions are slow, but execution is expected immediately. 6. How do Japanese buyers show engagement? Engagement is often signalled through questions and objections. In fact, objections are a positive sign in Japan. Silence or polite agreement may actually indicate lack of interest. This is where salespeople can earn a point in BANTER. Detailed questions show buyers are seriously considering the solution. Mini-summary: Objections in Japan mean engagement. No objections usually mean no interest. 7. Why do Japanese meetings rarely end with clear requests? In other markets, meetings often end with a next step: proposal, trial, or follow-up meeting. In Japan, it is common to hear "we will think about it." Far from being a brush-off, this reflects the need for internal alignment. Still, the absence of a concrete request means this element is rarely scored. Mini-summary: Meetings end vaguely in Japan, as decisions move to backroom consensus. Conclusion: What's Japan's BANTER score? Adding it all up: Budget 0, Authority 0, Need 0, Timing 1, Engagement 1, Request 0. That's two out of six. It may sound discouraging, but that's the reality of selling in Japan. If you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere. The difficulty makes the victories even more meaningful. Mini-summary: Japan scores two out of six on BANTER, proving why sales here is among the toughest in the world. 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.

In high-stakes business events, especially in Japan, executives are often forced to deliver presentations crafted by others. This creates a dangerous disconnect between speaker and message. Let's explore how leaders can reclaim authenticity and impact, even when the material is not their own. Why is speaking from a borrowed script so risky? Executives frequently inherit content from PR or marketing teams. These materials may be polished, but they are rarely authentic. Japan's perfection-driven corporate culture magnifies the stress, where even a small misstep can harm reputations. When leaders recite material they didn't create, they risk looking robotic, losing credibility, and failing to connect. Communication isn't about flawless delivery; it's about belief. If the audience senses the speaker doesn't "own" the words, the message falls flat. Mini-Summary: Borrowed scripts strip away authenticity. Leaders must make the material their own to connect with audiences. What happens when the script becomes a straightjacket? One executive rehearsed using a teleprompter positioned to one side of the stage. The result? Half the room was excluded. Worse, he struggled to squeeze himself into a text written by others. It felt stiff, unnatural, and ineffective. The breakthrough came when he abandoned the teleprompter, created his own talking points, and delivered them in his own voice. Suddenly, the same leader became engaging, credible, and powerful. In Japan's business environment, where leadership presence is scrutinised, this was transformative. Mini-Summary: Leaders who abandon rigid scripts and speak from their own knowledge project confidence and authority. Can imperfect English still be effective on the international stage? A senior executive from Japan's automotive sector had to speak overseas in English, though his skills were limited. The PR team wrote flawless notes, but memorising them was impossible. Instead, he distilled each slide into a single sentence, then into one kanji "trigger" word. He spoke freely to those words, sometimes in broken English. The audience didn't mind. They cared about his conviction. Just as mime and silent film thrived without words, authenticity can transcend grammar. Cross-cultural research shows audiences reward sincerity over perfect structure. Mini-Summary: Audiences value authenticity over perfect English. Heartfelt communication beats flawless but soulless delivery. How can slides undermine communication? Slides packed with pre-written notes tempt executives to bury their heads, reading aloud like narrators. If that's all a speech requires, a video could replace the speaker. Instead, slides should act as prompts, not scripts. By distilling meaning into a single guiding word, slides become springboards for authentic storytelling. Leaders then speak to the audience rather than at their slides, which is critical in global communication. Mini-Summary: Use slides as prompts, not crutches. A single keyword can unlock genuine, impactful delivery. What's the real risk of outsourcing your presence? When others dictate your words, you gamble with your personal brand. The stakes are high: reputation, authority, and influence all hinge on how you appear as a speaker. If you fail to own the material, you risk being forgettable, or worse, irrelevant. The solution is simple: either involve an expert coach or adapt the material yourself until it sounds like you. In Japan's corporate context, where trust and reputation define long-term success, outsourcing your voice can undermine years of effort. Mini-Summary: Outsourcing presentation content risks your credibility. Leaders must personalise material to safeguard their brand. What is the ultimate lesson for leaders? In Japan, events are choreographed to perfection. But communication isn't choreography; it's human connection. Perfect grammar or stagecraft matters far less than belief. When leaders own their material — even if imperfect — they give the audience authenticity. That authenticity is what cuts through the noise of videos, slides, and panic-driven rehearsals. In the end, leaders must choose: become a mouthpiece for someone else, or speak like the leader the audience came to hear. Mini-Summary: True leadership communication is authentic, not flawless. Own your material and the message will resonate. Conclusion The danger of delivering material created by others is universal, but in Japan's high-pressure, error-averse environment, the risks are magnified. Leaders who reclaim ownership — by simplifying slides, abandoning rigid scripts, and speaking authentically — gain far more than fluency. They gain the trust of their audience. And that, ultimately, is the point of every speech.

What does it mean for a leader to be the "mood maker"? A mood maker is someone who sets the emotional tone of the team. When leaders stay isolated in plush executive offices, they risk losing contact with their people. Research and experience show that a leader's visibility directly affects engagement, loyalty, and performance. Leaders who project energy and conviction, day after day, create the emotional climate that shapes culture. Mini-summary: Leaders set the emotional temperature—visibility and energy are non-negotiable. Why does visibility matter so much? Japanese business leader Yasuyuki Nambu of Pasona insisted his executives work in open-plan spaces. Employees saw him move through the office daily, reinforcing approachability and connection. Management thinker Tom Peters called this MBWA—Management by Wandering Around. Leaders who are visible influence more effectively than those hidden behind doors. Mini-summary: Visibility breaks down barriers and makes leadership influence real. How do rituals reinforce leadership mood? The Ritz-Carlton perfected daily rituals to unite staff worldwide. Every shift, in every location, employees review the same service principles. Even CEOs attend and sometimes junior staff lead. This proves that culture is driven by daily repetition, not occasional slogans. Leaders who commit to rituals demonstrate that mood-making is everyone's responsibility. Mini-summary: Daily rituals anchor culture and sustain a leader's influence. What can Japanese leaders learn from this? In Japan, the chorei morning huddle serves the same purpose. At Shinsei Retail Bank, leaders ran daily principle reviews at every branch. At Dale Carnegie Training Japan, the "Daily Dale" ritual uses 30 human relations and 30 stress management principles. These routines turn abstract values into lived behaviours, shaping mood across teams. Mini-summary: Daily huddles transform values into lived culture. Isn't it exhausting for leaders to always project positivity? Yes—but that's the job. Leadership isn't about how you feel in the moment; it's about what the team needs. Even on bad days, leaders must rise above personal moods and radiate passion, commitment, and belief in the "why." Energy is contagious. Without it, teams drift into disengagement. Mini-summary: Leaders must project energy even when they don't feel it. What is the ultimate impact of leaders as mood makers? When leaders step forward and embody visibility, energy, and conviction, they inspire trust and engagement. They don't just manage—they infect their teams with purpose. In contrast, leaders who retreat into offices create distance and apathy. The leader's mood becomes the team's culture. Mini-summary: Leadership mood directly becomes organisational culture. Great leaders are always mood makers. By staying visible, leading rituals, and projecting energy, they set the culture in motion and inspire teams to perform at their best.

Why don't clients in Japan return sales calls? Because the gatekeepers are trained to block access. In Japan, the lowest ranked staff often answer the phones, but without proper training. Their mission is to protect managers from outside callers—especially salespeople. Instead of being helpful, they come across as cold, suspicious, even hostile. This is your client's first impression of your business. If you test it by calling your own company, you'll likely hear the same problem. Mini-summary: Gatekeepers in Japan are defensive, not welcoming. This blocks callbacks from the very beginning. How do cultural habits make it worse? Risk aversion dominates Japanese business. Staff avoid giving their names when answering phones to eliminate accountability. For a salesperson, that means you're dealing with an anonymous voice, reluctant to help. Courtesy in the West often means offering to take a message. In Japan, you usually just hear "they're not at their desk." The expectation is you'll go away quietly. Mini-summary: In Japan, anonymity and risk aversion fuel resistance to helping salespeople. Why don't messages ever get returned? Clients are swamped. The Age of Distraction means their days are full of meetings, emails, and digital overload. Even if a message does get written down, it often ends up buried under papers or lost in an overcrowded inbox. By the time they notice, it's too late—or it looks like clutter. Sales feels personal, but the silence is rarely about you. Mini-summary: Messages don't get returned because clients are distracted, not because they dislike you. What should salespeople do instead of waiting? Persistence. Leave messages every time. Follow up with email. Send physical mail. Try visiting, if you can get through building security. The salesperson's job is to keep making contact, not to give up. When you finally reach them, never complain about how hard they were to contact. Courtesy has changed, and callbacks are no longer part of the business culture. Mini-summary: Keep contacting, without complaint. Courtesy norms have changed—adapt or fail. What if clients complain about too many calls? Stay calm. Never get defensive. Apologise lightly: "You're right, I have been calling a lot, haven't I?" Then pivot: "The reason is what we have is so valuable, I would be failing my duty not to share it." This shows professionalism and positions you as a value creator, not a nuisance. Mini-summary: Deflect complaints with humour and reframe persistence as professionalism. How can persistence win respect? Remind clients that they expect their own salespeople to show persistence. They know follow-up builds results. Deep down, they respect salespeople who push through obstacles, even if they never admit it aloud. In Japan, patience and professionalism eventually break through. The wall will crack if you stay consistent. Mini-summary: Persistence earns respect, even when unspoken. ✅ Final Takeaway: Silence from clients is not rejection. It is an invitation to stay persistent, professional, and patient until the door opens.

Why New Salespeople Struggle New hires, whether they are brand-new to sales or just new to the company, almost always take time before they start delivering results. Yet leaders in Japan often expect immediate miracles. The reality is that ramp-up takes time, especially in a culture where relationships drive business. Even experienced people entering a new organisation need months to learn internal systems, client expectations, and industry nuances. When unrealistic expectations are placed on them from day one, they start their career already on the back foot. Mini Summary: Unrealistic day-one expectations ignore how sales in Japan actually work — relationships and systems take time to build. What Makes Recruitment So Expensive? Recruiting salespeople in Japan is costly, partly because talent is scarce. Agencies often charge fees of around 35–40% of the first year's base salary. Add to that the salary itself — especially for English-speaking salespeople, who can command 20–30% higher compensation — and the initial outflow of money is massive. The problem is that while expenses flood out from day one, revenue from the new hire trickles in slowly. This creates enormous pressure on sales leaders, who then expect results too quickly. It becomes a vicious cycle: high cost, unrealistic demands, early disappointment. Mini Summary: With recruiting fees and salaries high, companies demand too much, too soon, from new sales hires. Why Superficial Training Fails Many firms assume salespeople "already know how to sell" and restrict onboarding to product knowledge. The new hire is shown the catalogue, given a few manager-accompanied visits, and then sent off to perform. But very few Japanese salespeople have ever received professional sales training. Most only get a thin slice of OJT — On the Job Training — and are left to figure the rest out. Without proper skills, they default to pitching randomly, relying on brochures and luck. Professional training, by contrast, teaches how to ask powerful questions, design solutions that match real needs, handle objections, and close the sale. A new hire with these skills instantly outperforms the average local salesperson who never learned them. Mini Summary: Superficial onboarding wastes money. Proper sales training equips new hires with skills that immediately lift performance. What's Wrong with Sales Targets? Target-setting in Japan is often based more on fantasy than fact. Leaders pluck numbers from thin air, with no real data behind them, and then demand the newcomer hits them. For someone in their first year, these inflated targets crush confidence rather than inspire effort. In our firm, we took a different approach. We built a spreadsheet tracking each salesperson's revenue quarter by quarter from their day one. By analysing averages, we could see what was truly realistic for year one, year two, and beyond. This gives a scientific base for setting expectations, avoiding the destructive guesswork that drives people away. Mini Summary: Data-driven targets build confidence and realism; fantasy numbers only drive frustration and turnover. Why Retention is the Real Battle Recruiting a salesperson is only half the job. Keeping them is the other half, and arguably the harder one. When we pile too much pressure on in the first year, many hires simply give up. The tragedy is that by then, they already have valuable product knowledge, client relationships, and maybe even professional training. Losing them means losing an investment of money, time, and credibility with clients. Worse still, some join competitors. I experienced this personally when a trained and client-connected hire quit and reappeared as our rival. That kind of loss stings and reminds us that retention must be protected at all costs. Mini Summary: Overpressure kills retention. Losing trained, connected hires means losing your investment — sometimes to competitors. So, What's the Answer? The solution is not revolutionary, but it is often ignored. Start with science in target-setting. Support it with real, professional sales training. Layer encouragement on top so new hires believe they can succeed. The combination builds confidence, reduces turnover, and protects your investment. It also creates a reputation for stability and fairness in the marketplace. Clients notice when your team is consistent and reliable. New hires notice when they are supported rather than crushed. Everyone benefits. The methods are obvious, but the discipline to execute them consistently is what separates sustainable sales teams from revolving-door disasters. Mini Summary: Add science, add training, add encouragement — and you keep talent, protect investment, and win client trust.

  Why Japanese Corporate Scandals Keep Happening — And What Leaders Must Do To Prevent Them Why do corporate scandals keep repeating in Japan? Japan has been hit again and again by revelations of non-compliance — from Nissan's faulty vehicle inspections in 2017 to Kobe Steel's falsified data and beyond. In some cases, these practices stretched on for decades before discovery. On the surface, companies chase the mantra: "reduce costs, increase revenue." The Board applauds, shareholders smile, and quarterly reports look sharp. But behind the curtain, corners are cut, compliance steps skipped, and procedures quietly subverted. Eventually, everything bursts onto the front page. Newspapers, evening newscasters, and magazines feast on the scandal for months. 👉 Answer Card: Compliance shortcuts always unravel — and in Japan the media monetises the fallout relentlessly. Why doesn't leadership stop these failures? Executives often assume systems are working. They hope rules are followed. But hope is not a system. As Australians say after doing something incredibly foolish, often after a few drinks: "it seemed like a good idea at the time." That sums up many Japanese compliance lapses. After the damage is done, leaders promise reforms, but the cycle repeats. 👉 Answer Card: Leaders who rely on assumptions, not verification, set themselves up for failure. Why is Japan a particularly tough environment for leaders? In Japan, the fear of failure is severe. Mistakes invite shame, career damage, even social ostracism. So employees hide them. They withhold information, they keep bosses in the dark, they become "corporate ninjas" skilled at concealment. The Nissan case made this visible. President Hiroto Saikawa asked why the misconduct wasn't reported sooner. The answer? Workers believed that even if they spoke up, "the issue would not be resolved." 👉 Answer Card: Cultural fear of failure in Japan fuels concealment, blinding leaders to reality. Can leaders ever really know what is happening? No leader can see everything. Once an organisation scales, personal control is lost. You cannot monitor every sales pitch or back-office process. By the time you know about a major failure, it is usually too late. But this does not mean surrender. It means shifting from blind trust to active verification. True leadership is not only about giving direction; it is about constantly checking what is really happening. 👉 Answer Card: Leaders must balance delegation with vigilance. What practical steps should leaders take? To prevent scandal, leaders need to act before the fire starts. Some proven steps: Talk to customers directly. Ask them about service, follow-up, and delivery quality. Talk to suppliers. They often know about problems before you do. Check the systems yourself. Do not rely on assumptions — test them. Audit workflows and quality processes. Do not stop at the financials. One client discovered they were paying $1,500 for a single social media post because no one verified the process. 👉 Answer Card: Regular audits and direct conversations uncover hidden risks before they become crises. Isn't this too much work for executives already stretched thin? Yes, it takes more time. But prevention is cheaper than rescue. Executives of companies caught in compliance scandals are now overwhelmed with firefighting — holding press conferences, issuing apologies, and trying to salvage brand value. Imagine if half that time had been spent on prevention. 👉 Answer Card: Prevention consumes less time, money, and reputation than crisis management. Who is really in charge? On paper, it is the boss. In practice, culture, systems, and hidden behaviours often dictate outcomes. Leaders cannot control every lever — but they can insist on transparency, demand verification, and build prevention into the corporate DNA. 👉 Answer Card: Leaders are only in charge when they choose prevention over assumption. Next Steps for Leaders If you want to stay in charge: Stop assuming. Start verifying. Talk widely — with customers, suppliers, staff. Audit not just numbers but workflows and service quality. Treat prevention as leadership's highest-value activity. Because in Japan, or anywhere, the truth is the same: hope is not a system. Prevention is.

Let's talk about sales, and why the new year always feels like a repeat performance. Greek myths rarely have happy endings. They are mostly cautionary tales, reminders of how the Gods treated humans like toys. One myth, in particular, perfectly captures the life of a salesperson: the story of Sisyphus. He was condemned to push a massive rock up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again, forever. That is exactly what we face in sales. We push that giant rock—the annual budget—up the hill every year. We grind, we hustle, we celebrate the results at year's end, and then what happens? The rock rolls back to zero. Every January, or whenever your company decides the fiscal year begins, you stand at the bottom of the hill again, staring at the same heavy stone. And your sales manager will always say: "Don't tell me about your last deal, tell me about your next deal." That has been the universal sales manager mantra since the role was invented. The tension, pressure, uncertainty, and foreboding in sales never let up. Maybe you had a great year last year. You made President's Club, you stood on stage at the convention, you pocketed a fat bonus. Congratulations—but so what? That was then. This year is a brand-new race. Or maybe last year was a disaster. You barely scraped by, you nearly got fired, and you made little money. Tough luck—but again, so what? That was then. This year, the rock is waiting, regardless. So, here is the real question: how are you going to roll that stone this year? Deals are always out there. The business exists. The only question is: will it come to you? If your strategy is to sit by the phone, hoping for an email enquiry to arrive or for marketing to deliver a steady stream of leads, then you are fooling yourself. That is not sales. That is passivity. And to be blunt, that is what the losers do. Winners know they must take action, not wait for lightning to strike. This is where Grant Cardone's idea of the 10X Rule comes in. Grant is a sales trainer in the US, and his book has had a big influence on how we think. In our office, we even put a huge signboard on the wall: 10X Your Thoughts and Actions.Why? Because the truth is, most of us fall into the rhythm of rock rolling. We get used to small, incremental gains—classic kaizen thinking. Kaizen has its place, but let's be honest: small steps will not vault us ahead of our rivals. They are also improving incrementally. If we want to leapfrog them, we must think exponentially. That is the essence of 10X thinking. The mindset that got you last year's results will not take you much further. If we want to reach a higher level, we must break out of that cycle and think ten times bigger. And then, crucially, we must act ten times bigger. Genius ideas sitting in your head, unexecuted, are worthless. Of course, it sounds easy. For the first thirty seconds, it is easy. But then the discipline required to sustain it kicks in. And that is where most of us fall short. Sales managers have a critical role here: they need to drive this thinking every single day. That means looking at every angle of the rock-rolling exercise. Ask yourself: who bought from us recently? What similar companies have the same needs but do not yet know us? Why are we not calling them? Are we avoiding it because we are afraid of rejection? Do we think the low success rate makes the effort not worth it? If so, we are making excuses, not sales. Let's flip the thinking. Imagine we had the cure for cancer. If your family or friends were suffering, would you be shy about picking up the phone to tell them? Of course not. You would feel an obligation to reach out. Well, our firms may not cure personal cancer, but they do cure corporate cancers—the inefficiencies, the gaps, the problems that drag companies down. If we do not believe that, then we should not even be in business. But if we do believe it, then there is no reason to hesitate in contacting companies who have not yet heard of us. We owe it to them to let them know we have the solution. This is how we overcome the fear of rejection. We remember that we are not intruding; we are helping. We are bringing the cure. And if we approach sales with that conviction, the fear evaporates. So, how do we put 10X into practice? Start with mindset, but do not stop there. Take massive action. Ten times the calls. Ten times the meetings. Ten times the follow-ups. Activity drives opportunity, and opportunity drives results. The more buyers we see, the more business we win. That is the math of sales. Yes, the rock rolled last year. It is rolling again this year. But we do not have to repeat the same tired rhythm. Let's ask ourselves: how can we 10X every stage of this process? From the first call, to the first meeting, to the proposal, to the close. That is how we roll the stone not just up the hill, but higher than ever before. So, let's do it. Let's roll the rock 10X harder, 10X faster, and 10X higher this year.

At some stage in every career, the moment arrives: you're asked to give a presentation. Early on, it may be a straightforward project update delivered to colleagues or a report shared with your manager. But as you advance, the scope expands. Suddenly you're addressing a whole-company kickoff, an executive offsite, or even speaking on behalf of your firm or industry at a public event. That leap — from small team updates to high-stakes presentations — is steep. And so are the nerves that come with it. Why Presentations Trigger Nerves In front of colleagues, we often feel confident. But standing before the Board, or a large public audience, the pressure intensifies dramatically. Under the spotlight, it can feel less like support and more like interrogation. Your heart pounds, your palms sweat, your throat goes dry, and your stomach turns. These symptoms are the fight-or-flight response in action. Adrenaline surges through the body, shunting blood to large muscle groups and away from the stomach, leaving it unsettled. Your pulse races as your system prepares for action — even though you're not about to sprint offstage or wrestle with the Board. And this nervousness isn't unique to beginners. Frank Sinatra famously admitted he was always nervous before stepping on stage. Nerves, in other words, are normal. How to Calm the Body While you can't prevent adrenaline entirely, you can manage it. Two simple techniques help: Deep breathing slows the heart rate and steadies your voice. Purposeful movement — pacing, stretching, walking privately — burns off nervous energy. These physical resets won't eliminate the reaction, but they make it manageable. Why Preparation Matters More Than Slides The second, and often overlooked, antidote to nervousness is solid preparation. Yet many presenters make the same mistake: they obsess over perfecting the slide deck and neglect rehearsals. This imbalance undermines confidence and delivery. True preparation rests on three cornerstones: Know your audience. What do they want, and why are they there? A senior executive once gave a polished talk on personal branding, but the audience was almost entirely small-business staff. The mismatch meant her message fell flat. Define one clear message. Every strong presentation can be distilled into a single sentence. That sentence becomes your anchor, guiding the structure, supporting points, and conclusion. Plan your opening and closing. A compelling opening draws people in. A strong conclusion ensures your message sticks, even after the Q&A. You Are the Boss, Not the Slides Slides should support you, not control you. Too often, presenters become servants to their decks, filling them with text and losing the audience's attention. I coached a senior Japanese auto executive preparing for an international car show. His PR team had created a detailed English script for each slide. It looked professional — but it was impossible for him to memorise and still deliver naturally. The solution was simple: we reduced each slide to one word. Each word acted as a trigger. He could then speak authentically, in his own voice, without being trapped by a memorised script. The difference was dramatic. From Fear to Focus The encouraging truth is that once you start speaking, adrenaline begins to subside. The spotlight feels less harsh, and your focus shifts away from your nerves and onto the audience. You begin to notice whether they're engaged, nodding, or leaning in. With rehearsal and repetition, this transition happens faster. Over time, presentations lose their fear factor. They become opportunities to persuade, inspire, and lead. Key Takeaways How can you deliver your first major presentation with confidence? Accept that nerves are normal and manageable. Use breathing and movement to calm the body. Prepare with audience needs in mind. Build your talk around one clear message. Take control of your slides — don't let them control you. Rehearse until delivery feels natural. By following these steps, presentations stop being ordeals to survive and become moments to make a genuine impact.  

Negotiating in Japan is never just about numbers on a contract. It is about trust, credibility, and ensuring that the relationship remains intact long after the ink is dry. Unlike in Western business settings, where aggressive tactics or rapid deals are often admired, in Japan negotiations unfold slowly, with harmony and continuity as the guiding principles. The key is to combine negotiation frameworks such as BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) with cultural sensitivity. By doing so, foreign executives and domestic leaders alike can win deals without damaging vital long-term partnerships. Q1: Why is preparation the secret weapon in Japanese business negotiations? Preparation is the sharpest tool in the negotiation kit. Before talks begin, we must clearly define what is negotiable, what is off-limits, and what represents both our ideal and realistic outcomes. Most importantly, we must set our fallback position — the minimum acceptable deal before we consider walking away. In Japan, this process must also include anticipating the other side's goals. What would they see as their ideal outcome? What is their fallback or "exit strategy"? By mapping both sides in advance, we avoid being blindsided during discussions. Unlike the United States, where executives may improvise and pivot quickly in meetings, Japanese negotiators value deep preparation and expect the same from us. Mini-summary: Success in Japan starts with preparation — knowing both sides' fallback positions makes us credible and ready. Q2: What is BATNA and why is it critical in Japanese negotiations? BATNA — Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement — defines the point where we walk away. It is our exit strategy, our fallback, our protection against endless concessions. Without BATNA, we risk chasing the deal at any cost, eroding trust and weakening future negotiations. In Japan, patience is prized. If the buyer senses desperation, they may push harder. By quietly knowing our walk-away line, we project confidence. This is not about issuing ultimatums; it is about ensuring we never undermine our long-term credibility in the market. Companies in industries such as pharmaceuticals, finance, and manufacturing use BATNA as a discipline to negotiate firmly while still respecting relationships. Mini-summary: A clear BATNA prevents over-conceding and signals quiet strength to Japanese counterparts. Q3: Why does silence carry so much power in Japanese business culture? Silence is a natural rhythm in Japanese communication, but it is often unnerving for Western negotiators. In the U.S. or Europe, gaps in conversation create anxiety, prompting businesspeople to rush in with concessions, discounts, or extra details. In Japan, however, silence conveys thoughtfulness, patience, and respect. By sitting calmly in the silence, we allow the other side to feel the weight of the pause. They may reveal information, shift position, or even concede. Silence, when embraced as a tactic, is a strategic advantage. This is not empty stillness — it is strategic patience, and it is one of the most overlooked tools in Japanese business negotiations. Mini-summary: Silence in Japan is not a void — it is a negotiation tool that rewards patience and composure. Q4: How does decision-making authority work inside Japanese companies? In Western firms, the person across the table often has authority to close the deal. In Japan, authority is distributed. Decisions require ringi-sho consensus documents, hanko seals, and alignment across departments. The person negotiating may not have final authority but instead acts as a bridge inside their organisation. We can mirror this by using the "higher authority" tactic ourselves. Saying, "I need to check with senior management," is not seen as weak here. It reflects the reality of collective approval. This delay can buy time, cool heated discussions, and adapt to the slower, deliberate pace of Japanese corporate decision-making. Mini-summary: Authority in Japan is collective — deferring upwards is normal and effective in negotiations. Q5: What negotiation tactics are most common in Japan? Japanese negotiations often feature specific tactics that foreign executives must anticipate: Ultimatums — final deal-or-no-deal conditions that must be defused with alternatives. Persuasion through value-adds — sweeteners, incentives, or extras that cost us little but feel significant to the client. Time pressure — deadlines that push for faster decisions. Delays or inactivity — slowing responses to build pressure on us. Add-ons at the end — last-minute requests after the main "yes" is agreed, which are often easier to accept than renegotiate. Recognising these tactics helps us avoid being cornered. More importantly, by preparing our own "value-add concessions" and "low-cost, high-value incentives," we can shape the flow of the negotiation rather than react to it. Mini-summary: Expect tactics such as ultimatums, sweeteners, time pressure, delays, and add-ons — and prepare responses in advance. Q6: How do we win the deal in Japan without losing the relationship? In Japan, closing one deal is not the finish line. It is the starting point of a relationship. Winning here means balancing firmness with respect. If we prepare carefully, set a clear BATNA, embrace silence, understand authority dynamics, and anticipate common tactics, we can achieve sustainable agreements. Unlike in Western markets, where aggressive wins are celebrated, in Japan a hollow victory damages reputation and future prospects. The real win is when both parties feel respected and motivated to continue working together. Mini-summary: The ultimate victory in Japan is not just a signed contract — it is a relationship that generates future business. Conclusion According to cross-cultural negotiation research, Japan remains one of the most relationship-driven business environments in the world. Frameworks like BATNA give us structure, but cultural fluency gives us access. By blending discipline with empathy, foreign executives and Japanese leaders alike can negotiate firmly while preserving harmony. This is how to win the deal in Japan — without ever losing the relationship.

Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model.  This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value.  Think about your own business?  How many business partners do you have where this would apply?  For the vast majority of cases we are not after a single sale.  We are thinking about LTV – the life time value of the customer.  We are focused on the proportion of our time spent hunting for new business as opposed to farming the existing business.  Where do you think the trust barometer would be located, if we started "outwitting" our clients in our negotiations?  Especially in Japan, where trust is such a crucial element and everyone is focused on long term relationships.  So success in negotiating in Japan will be very different and it will definitely be a win-win approach. Fine, but do you have a consistent process to apply to your negotiations?  Often we do it the hard way without a roadmap or we forget parts of the process.  We are all rank amateurs anyway, because the amount of negotiating we do is limited and the size of the deals are usually modest.  Have we got the basics covered?  Here are four steps we need to cover: Analysis We begin by clarifying our own position.  What is it we want to achieve and then we identify alternatives we can live with, if we can't achieve all that we wish.  We also look for ways to add value in areas other than price.  Price is only one lever in a negotiation although most people get stuck on the idea it is the only lever.  We want to understand the client's positions and interests and the background reasons driving their approach.  This is especially useful when looking for alternative solutions, as we might have something that is valuable to them, but not a great impost to us.  We also should look to reframe the conversation to avoid confrontation.  There are trigger words which can rapidly inject emotion into a logical discussion and we need to know what those words are for the opposite party.   We can then phrase things in ways which is not incendiary.  Presentation When we do public speaking we know that if we rehearse what we are going to say, it will go much better.  When the American political leaders have their famous televised debates, they practice taking difficult questions so that they will appear unruffled and credible in their answers.  Doing the same thing before a negotiation makes sense doesn't it.  Have well prepared what you are going to say and how you will say it. Have a colleague hit you with "toughies" – questions you would rather not have to face thank you very much.  "More sweat in rehearsal, less blood in negotiating" should be the mantra.  Like lawyers do when getting ready to go to court, we should also prepare the opposite sides case, the client's case, as though it were our own.  This gives us an insight into the likely approach they will take and we are then much better prepared to deal with it.  Price isn't the only thing so we should be ready to present added value alternatives to simple numbers.  Because we have rehearsed their position, we can more effectively link our solution to the client's positions and interests.   Bargaining At some point there will be a gap between offer and acceptance and this is when we start trading things we want, for things they want.  Bargaining down at the bazaar, in the souk, at the local flea market and in the B2B business world are entirely different.  Our object is a sale with a nice regular, perpetual re-order attached to it, rather than "a one and done" outcome. So at the start we decide our ideal, realistic and fallback positions.  We do this through the prism of our current demand, local and global business conditions, future business trends, price point profitability and our cash burn through rate. Negotiating tactics will be applied to us but the key is to respond logically rather than react emotionally.  Easier said than done!  However if we did our preparation well then we should be rock solid.  We should be looking for win-win so we are trying to make it easy to agree with us and hard to disagree.   Agreement Japan isn't much for legal contracts compared to the West.  Most of our business is done without any contracts, as we agree verbally and then carry out our word and they carry out theirs.  If we are talking about huge amounts of money however, then absolutely contacts will be needed.  So even if a formal contract is not involved, we need some specification of all points of agreement. Put every key item in writing, be it the form of a quotation, invoice or just an email capturing the joint understanding of what is going to happen going forward and how much money is involved. To make it very clear, create a checklist and schedule for fulfillment. These four steps are not rocket science, but remember we are mostly amateurs in the field of negotiating and are you using this simple methodology or just winging it?  Probably the latter, so these four things are there to work on, before your next negotiation, to become a more professional business person.

Presenting isn't always adoration, adulation, regard and agreement.  Sometimes, we have to go into hostile territory with a message that is not welcomed, appreciated or believed.  Think meetings with the Board, the unions, shareholders, angry consumers and when you have sharp elbowed rivals in the room.  It is rare to be ambushed at a presentation in Japan and suddenly find yourself confronting a hostile version of the Mexican wave, as the assembled unwashed and disgruntled take turns to lay into you.  Usually, we know in advance this is going to get hot and uncomfortable. We still have our message to get across but we have to make some adjustments to head off trouble.  The essence of the issue is disbelief.  The audience, for whatever reasons, simply don't believe what you are telling them or they just don't trust you, regardless of what you tell them.  The first casualty of this type of speaking engagement has to be big, bold statements.  In less tense situations we might be throwing these types of statement around with gay abandon and not face much resistance from the audience.  If what we have said gets brought up in the Q&A, we bat it away without breaking into a sweat.  No problem, we have this one! In more fraught circumstances, those big statements will get us hammered, maybe even as soon as they are issued, with no regard for waiting for the Q&A, as the interrogation gets underway immediately.  By the way, if there is an intervention by someone in the audience, we should redirect them to ask that question in the Q&A, which is where we will handle all questions.  This stops your flow being interrupted and the proceedings being hijacked. We need to be more circumspect about the claims we make.  We need to introduce ideas surrounded and buffered by evidence.  Instead of saying, "this is how it is", we need to say, "according to the research, this is how it is" or "according to the experts, this is how it is".  We swiftly and subtly slip off to the side of the attack and let the third-party reference take it between the eyes, rather than ourselves.  We need to wrap up our statements in cotton wool and preface them with comments like, "as far as we know…", "according to the latest information…", "to the best of our knowledge…".  In this way, we are not holding ourselves up as the oracle, the all-knowing, all seeing sage, unburdened by limitations of self-awareness.  We are making ourselves a small target, harder to attack and providing many escape loopholes to leap though, should we need to. We need to lead with context and background.  Making statements and drawing conclusions, before we get to the evidence part, is ritualistic suicide as a speaker facing a hostile crowd.  We need to take a note from the pages of the Japanese language grammatical structure.  Unlike English and most European languages, in Japanese the verb comes at the very end of the sentence.  This is a great metaphor for doling out the evidence first before we get to the punchline.  In Japanese, we don't know if the sentence is past, present or future oriented, if it is negative or positive, until we get to the end of the sentence.  That means we have to sit there and absorb all of the context, background and evidence before we can make a judgment about whether we agree with what is being said or not.  This is what we should do with a hostile audience – load them up on the details, the data, the evidence, the testimonials, the expert statements, before we venture forth with what we believe to be true.  We deliver this deluge of facts piecemeal, so that the audience is taking in the information, processing it in their own minds and jumping to conclusions about what they have just heard.  Our object is that the conclusion they have jumped to is the very same one that we have reached, based on the same information. It is almost impossible to disagree with our context.  They may not agree with our conclusions from our understanding of the context, but the context itself is usually inviolable. Before we go into Q&A we must publicly announce the amount of time available for questions.  It is going to get heated and we don't want to appear like a cowardly scoundrel beating a hasty retreat, because we can't take the rigour of investigation of what we are saying.  By having stated the time available at the start, we can simply refer to it later and say, "we have now reached the end of the fifteen minutes for question time" and go into wrapping up the evening with our final close. Hostilities may commence immediately we begin to speak, so we have to be mentally ready for that.  We also need to switch our presenting tactics to account for the pushback which will come.  By making ourselves as small a target as possible, it becomes much harder for any enemies in the audience to successfully attack us.  If they are going after you, they are definitely not your friend, so keep that in mind when you are preparing.

So many sad cases of people dying here in Japan from what is called karoshi and the media constantly talks about death through overwork.  This is nonsense and the media are doing us all a disservice.  This is fake news.  The cases of physical work killing you are almost exclusively limited to situations where physical strain has induced a cardiac arrest or a cerebral incident resulting in a stroke.  In Japan, that cause of death from overwork rarely happens. The vast majority of cases of karoshi death are related to suicide by the employee.  This is a reaction to mental and physical exhaustion and the associated stress that piles up, until it totally overwhelming.  So the real source of death from karaoshi is stress, not physically working too hard.  Just where is that stress coming from? It is coming from two sources:  the individual's inability to deal with the stress of long hours, long commutes, and no time for recovery, driving them to depression and ending their own precious lives.  The other source is management incompetence, to allow that amount of stress to be experienced by their staff in the first place.  It is compounded by power harassment of those who struggle to keep up with the output requirements. In my view, management irresponsibility is the prime killer.  If there were no cases of exceptional stress buildup, then the staff wouldn't need remedial actions at all.  The long hours worked, long hours of public transport commutation and high amounts of pressure from bosses are the real problems.  The hundreds of extra hours of overtime worked are being logged for no justifiable reason.  In many previous cases, such as Dentsu, the company tried to hide the extent of the hours being worked.   Management was party to the process, all the while knowing it was wrong.  They were also aware of previous cases where people cracked under the strain of too little sleep and permanent tiredness and took their own life.  They knew this was a possibility, but did nothing to alter the work flows. This is criminal and that is what the courts found.  Dentsu was fined 500,000 yen by the judicial system.  However, was justice served?  The young woman involved was 24 years old when she jumped off the roof of the Dentsu dormitory, to kill herself and end her stress and depression.  Many would consider a fine of 500,000 yen insignificant. The management didn't control the work flow.  If there was so much work on, why didn't they bring in either more full time staff or part-time or contract workers to help?  This is what bosses are paid to do – get through the work and apply the required resources to do that.  The system didn't see it that way.  Presumably, they expected the staff to put in the ridiculous hours to save the company the money needed for salaries for new or additional staff.  We can talk about there being a culture of long hours in Japan and it is true.  Dentsu was picked out in the 1970s by Time Magazine as a company of fearless samurai salarymen, toiling ridiculous hours for their bosses, so this is not a new development.  They were held up as a model to contrast with their flabby Western counterparts. These long hours weren't needed then and are not needed now. It is being driven by a pathetic white collar culture of low productivity.  The work expands to fit the time in Japan as per Parkinson's Law and so working hours elongate to suit.  If bosses were capable, they would be seeking improvements in productivity to get through the work in less time.  Is Japan not capable of being highly productive?  The kaizen and kamban production systems in manufacturing are well known in the West as methods of achieving maximum efficiency by blue collar workers.  The irony is that one hundred meters away, staff in corporate offices are working at super low levels of efficiency for the same company – the contrast is large.  How can the same senior managers entertain these two contradictory ideas in their minds, at the same time?  No problem for them because they have compartmentalised the situations.  "This is how we do it around here and so we will keep it going just as it is.  The factory system is different to an office, so there is no relevancy".  That is simply lazy thinking.  Efficiency in process, in workload distribution, in systems sequencing, in checking methods, in approvals are all areas that can be applied to office work as well. What is being kept alive by mediocre company leaders in the way of standard Japanese corporate practices?  Here is a list of leadership crimes for which no one is ever reprimanded.  No clear daily prioritised individual goals, poor time management, meetings too numerous and too long.  Painfully slow decision-making required to get everyone on board.  Disengaged staff turning up to get paid and not motivated to be bothered to innovate.  Poor communication, no real coaching, demotivating performance evaluations, mistaken mistake handling methods and zero effectiveness delegation skills on the part of undereducated leaders, promoted on the basis of longevity and age hierarchy, rather than their ability. There are no excuses for this legacy system to continue in the 21st century and we have to change it from the inside out.  Government estimates are that roughly 20% of the working population is suffering from depression.  It is time to change things in Japan.  We should see no more cases of karoshi here – there are simply no justifications for continued company mismanagement of their staff.  We need to better educate the leaders on how to lead, to teach the managers how to manage and to encourage the staff to push back on illegal requests from senior management to work crazy hours.

Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan.  Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not ever be present in the meeting.  Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buying decision.  In the case of Western companies, the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after everyone has had their say.  In Japan there is a lot of groundwork needed so that the final decision is a rubber stamp exercise, because the actual decision has already been taken. Nevertheless, we turn up for the meeting and the buyer side has a number of representatives sitting in the room.  Often it will be me facing across the table to five to ten buyers.  Where do we start?  Well the meishi or business card exchange is a critical step.  Those hip, modern folk who have dispensed with the humble paper business card are at a massive disadvantage. From the meishi we can immediately understand exactly who is in the room.  We can determine their function and rank instantly and this is very, very helpful.  Before we know how to present to their team, we have to analyse the people in their team.  A buyer team will often comprise multiple layers.  We might have some functional interests represented such as: Executive Buyer Financial Buyer User Buyer Technical Buyer Our Champion Each one has different drivers for making buying decisions.  We can mentally list them in order from those with a long range vision to those with shorter range views. In the case of the Executive Buyers they are thinking about their strategic vision, the future opportunity and growth potential. For the Financial Buyers their attention will be turned to items such as cost, terms, flexibility and preserving cash flow.  User Buyers will be interested in the detailed features, ease of use and reliability.  Technical Buyers are looking at efficiency, practicality and capacity.  Our Champion, the person driving the decision on the buyer side, will be concerned about relationships, influence and recognition.  This sounds daunting enough, but just to spice things up a bit, there are also the buyer personality styles.  The Amiables take their time, don't rush into things and are concerned about the impact on the people from the decision.  The Drivers (often the CEO) are the "time is money" types who are always in a hurry, can make an immediate decision and solely focus on the outcomes.  The Analtyicals (often the CFO or the Technical Buyer) are comfortable with numbers to three decimal places, are keen on the micro detail and want tons of data to support their decision.  The Expressives (often the Head of Sales and Marketing) want the big picture, do not want to get immersed in the weeds and want to have a big party to celebrate the success, at the end. So their role within the company and their individual personality styles will be key factors to fully understand when we present.  Just when you thought we were getting a handle on the complexity of the task, there are also going to be attitudinal differences. It will vary according to the individual and even their mood on that day at that time. Different people will be hostile, resistant, discontent, ambivalent, favourable, supportive, enthusiastic.  We are not finished yet with the layers of complexity.  There will also be different levels of expertise in a team.  Different experiences, education, biases, problems, goals, expertise and culture. Before we present, we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say.  We need to work on our Champion beforehand where possible and yet we may not know this breakdown completely beforehand. We will have to start placing people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room. Have I talked you out of presenting to buyer teams yet?  It is a bit overwhelming isn't it when you break it all down into its component parts, but harden up baby, you have to move forward anyway. Your Champion will have fed you the problems they are facing, you will have analysed them and this meeting is to present the solution phase of the sale.  We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room.  We need an opening to grab their attention.  They will various things buzzing around in their brains competing with your message, so you need to blast way in to get everyone to listen to you.  A startling piece of news or data is always good to grab attention.  Next we need a statement of need for change.  You can list up the enterprises which have gone to the wall because they couldn't make the changes needed to adjust to the demands of the market.  Suggesting this is a fate awaiting many more is a good step to get people thinking about their own longevity.  Very few firms are invulnerable and everyone is always worried about what comes next, in particular things they may not be properly prepared for.  Japanese buyers are always very interested in what their competitors are doing and so if possible, give an example from their industry, where there was a similar business with a similar need for change.  Next suggest three possible solutions. You will be very balanced, going through the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three solutions.  You will present their pros and cons, including practical and emotional reasons, why they are excellent alternatives.  Finally you suggest the best solution for them with evidence as to why it is the best choice.  Now you go into your first close, where you repeat the final recommendation and ask for any questions.  Following the questions from the buying team, you repeat your close again so that this is the last thing ringing in their ears as the meeting ends. Buying teams are formidable and that means we have to cast a broad net to capture each person's interest and need for our solution.  There is no shortcut for this process and the key is in the design at the start.  So take into account all the complexities I have listed and design an approach for that level of diversity.

How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter?  Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan.  Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance.  Always up your formality level in dress terms in Japan, compared to how formal you think will be enough.  This was a big shock for this Aussie boy from Brisbane, who spent a good chunk of his life wearing shorts and T-shirts or blue jeans and T-shirts.  Tokyo is not Silicon Valley, where dress down is de rigueur and where suits have gone the way of the Dodo.  This is a very well dressed, sophisticated capital city where serious money is spent on quality clothing. Business suits are a given when presenting.  Not even coat and slacks in the Italian style, but business suits.  The colour should be on the dark spectrum to fit in with the solemnity of your "aura and presence" as an expert, about to pontificate on your subject.  A serious speaker in a light coloured suit is an oxymoron in Japan.  Go dark.  The suits don't have to be the deepest black in colour, because darker greys and navies will work.  Now the odd thing is this applies in summer too.  The summer speech outfit will be a little lighter in colour than the winter suit, but not as light as the very light colours in summer suits.  It doesn't matter if they are three piece, double-breasted, or have one, two or three buttons. Needless to say the suit should fit well.  I have a very old and dear friend who has, like me, been in constant battle with his weight.  We take it off and then we put it all and more, back on again.  Very frustrating of course, but a painful reality.  The sight one day, of him giving a major speech, while only able to close the bottom suit button, rather than the top, was very sad.  It said to the audience, "I am fat, in denial and have not bothered to adjust my suits to match this reality".   We all have our "fat suits" of course, for those occasions when we are losing the struggle against our expanding waistband, so that would be a good selection if you are carrying a few too many kilos. However, if even the reliable "fat suit" is now too tight, then go to the tailor and get it adjusted.  Better to be paying a small amount of money for that, then telling the world you are a loser in the battle of the bulge. The shoes will be formal, brogues are good, shined within an inch of their lives and never "down at heel".  It would be rare to wear any other colour than black, because the suits are going to be dark.  The belt obviously must match the colour of the shoes and be in good condition, not looking like you have worn it to death.  I don't even know why I mention this, except that I often see some Japanese gentlemen messing it up, getting the colour coordination wrong and displaying a belt clearly on its last legs. The socks should match with the colour of the slacks and when presenting, avoid fascinating contrast colours that herald your rebellious and exciting individuality.  Save that funky revolution for the weekend.  They should be over the calf rather than ankle length.  When seated on stage, for say a panel discussion, there is nothing more alarming than the sight of a very hairy shin protruding from underneath the suit trousers. The shirt should be white, never coloured.  I know this seems very limiting and lacking in imagination, but there is a biological reason for it.  When we are on stage we can become nervous or the lighting on stage can really heat us up.  The consequence is we begin to perspire, and the neck area is one location where this happens very quickly.  That gorgeous Egyptian Giza 45 cotton shirt, in light blue, becomes a two-tone job, as soon as the sweat envelopes your collar and makes it turn dark blue.  Now the audience is losing touch with what you are saying and are fascinated by your unfolding two-tone colour gradation of your shirt.  For the same reason, NEVER take off your suit jacket.  I am soaked under my jacket, by the end of a 40-minute talk, because I am pumping out so much energy and heat.  If I had my jacket off, there would be a much darker colour running down the side of my body.  By the way, there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing someone in a shirt, sporting a saturated armpit, raise their arm so the waterfall armpit becomes visible to the audience.  Your tie collection may have some daring beauties but leave them at home.  At one stage, I was sporting some very ferocious Versace ties, with very vibrant colour combinations and adventurous patterns. I never wore them for speeches though, because they were competing with my face, for the attention of the audience.  Also, forget the power colours.  You don't need them, because your speech delivery should have power and authority to command the obedience of the assembled masses. The same daring do logic applies to pocket squares.  Especially fluffy, elaborate and exuberant little darlings grab the gaze of the crowd and they take their eyes off your face.  We don't want that. The plastic name badges you are given by the organisers are another trap.  Don't wear them when you get up to speak.  They reflect the lights and your body movement can set them off on a navy shipboard signal lamp training session.  We don't want anything competing with us when we are speaking. I am highly reticent to speak about ladies' fashion, because I have so little knowledge of this subject.  My wife tries to encourage me to become more expert, but there has been no great progress to date. My only advice would be basically adopt the same ideas – dark suits, white blouses, black shoes, no scarves, modest earrings and broaches and basic hair and makeup approaches.  This is not a runway fashion extravaganza, but a chance to drive home your message.  By the way, if it is a panel discussion, where you would be seated on stage, then a trouser suit may be easier.  Always make your face the centrepiece, so the audience is firmly focused there.  Our faces can transmit so much power through emotion to drive our messages, so we can't let anything compete with this awesome weapon

We don't run perfect organisations stocked with perfect people, led by perfect bosses.  There are always going to be failings, inadequacies, mistakes, shortcomings and downright stupidity in play.  If we manage to keep all of these within the castle walls, then that is one level of complexity.  It is when we share these challenges with clients that we raise the temperature quite a few notches.  How do you handle cases where your people have really upset a client?  The service or product was delivered, but the client's representative is really unhappy with one of your team. Often, being the boss, you are the last to find out what is going on.  Japan, in particular, is excellent at hiding bad news from bosses.  "The less the boss knows about the source of the trouble the better" is the mantra here.  Japan is a zero mistake tolerance culture and so everyone has learnt to be circumspect about sharing the bad news around.  The irony though is the boss is the one person with the capacity of power and money to fix a lot of issues.  It gets easier to fix issues when you know about them early, rather than trying to sort things out later when the proportion of the problem has grown larger. I found this when I was working in retail banking here.  Compliance violations occur and have to be dealt with.  Usually, they are not fatal errors and the person committing them can recover, learn from the mistake and keep going.  The bias toward hiding mistakes though creates problems in the work environment.  That minor compliance violation has to be hidden, the perpetrator believes and this is when the problems really begin to kick in.  The hiding part is the bigger issue.  The problem is like a balloon that keeps inflating and inflating.  You stick it away in your desk draw hoping no one will notice. Discouragingly, the problem gets bigger and bigger until it breaks out of the bounds of secrecy. It now looms large across the landscape at an immense threatening size.  The genie once out of the bottle can't be stuffed back in again. At the bank, people were getting fired for what were minor compliance violations because they tried to hide them.  This was unnecessary, but that didn't change the effort to keep problems away from the boss.  Why is that? The usual boss reaction to the trouble in Japan is yelling abuse.  This somewhat hampers the effort to have more transparency.  HR recording a black mark in their secret book of employee misdemeanors and crimes doesn't help much either.  So we are pretty much guaranteeing that when things go bad, the boss will only hear about it at the worst possible moment.  This is usually when the window for a helpful intervention has been slammed air tight shut. There are always going to be two sides to the story and the boss's job is to find out both.  Sometimes the client's representative can take a personal dislike to our guy or gal, or they can become emotional because they are under stress within their own organization.  In Japan, they can be fervent about doing a perfect job.  If perfection is your standard, then there are bound be shortfalls in delivery at some point.  How do we sort this mess out without destroying the relationship with the client and killing the motivation of our own team member.  Our team member can genuinely be trying to help the client, but may not have enough capability to do that to their satisfaction.  These gaps are what test the loyalty of the team.  If the boss hammers their staff member for causing the problem, the rest of the team carefully watches and works out that telling the boss bad news is a losing proposition.  They will become experts at hiding trouble until it is too big to hide anymore.  This is not an ideal outcome.  So we have to back our people, apologise to the client, sort out monies involved with a partial or full refund if they are genuinely not satisfied. The boss's job is to switch the brunt of client anger away from their subordinate to themselves, as the senior representative of the organisation, and also become the one to find a solution which satisfies the buyer.  In Japan, that means bringing expensive gifts for the client, lots of deep, deep bowing in apology and listening sincerely to endless and unremitting tirades from grumpy clients.  In Japan, they really labour the point. If there is going to be any on-going business, it can also mean switching that team member out of that project and bringing in a new person to be the contact point.  The air needs to be cleaned up and that means reassigning those previously assigned to the project.  This has to be communicated in a way so that the staff member understands we support them and we trust them.  We are now in the modern business era in Japan of desperate recruiting and even more desperate retaining. Hanging on to people, even when there have been issues, becomes a much more delicate calculation than in the past.  We have to be comfortable with much more complexity than earlier.  Simply firing people if the client complains, berating people publicly for mistakes, ranting to the whole team about not making mistakes, are tools that have seen their "use by" date well and truly pass by.  We need to be more sophisticated, intelligent and nuanced than that today.

We see Japan as a modern, high tech country very advanced in so many sectors.  Sales is not one of them.  Consultative selling is very passé in the West, yet it has hardly swum ashore here as yet.  There are some cultural traits in Japan that work against sales success, such as not initiating a conversation with strangers.  This makes networking a bit tricky to say the least. We train salespeople here in Japan and the following list is made up of the most common complaints companies have about their salespeople's failings and why they are sending them to us for professional training. Only talk to existing customers because you are scared of finding new buyers Japanese people are risk averse and everyone here prefers the devil they know to the angel they don't know.  Staying in the comfort zone of the known customer is preferred to trying to create a new relationship with a buyer they don't know.  Measurements systems and incentive schemes definitely need to include the number of new clients achieved as well as the overall revenues, if you want to grow the business.  Pitch your product range, without having any idea about what the buyer needs Diving straight into the company brochure or the product catalogue, the nitty gritty details is a big favourite here. The trouble is they want blue, we don't know that because we haven't asked what they want and we keep showing them yellow. Don't seek permission to ask questions Why don't Japanese salespeople ask the buyer questions, to find out what they need, like the rest of the universe?  It is considered rude by the buyer, also known as GOD.  That is a cultural aspect that can be overcome if permission to ask questions is asked for first.  Why don't they do that?  Because they are trained by their seniors who never asked questions and who just went straight into the detail of the spec.  The salespeople need training to learn how to craft the permission request. Let the buyer control the sales conversation In Japan the buyer is not a lowly King but as I mentioned, an almighty GOD, whose penchant is to destroy pesky salespeople's presentations.  Salespeople here don't know how to control the sales conversation, because they don't know how to get permission to ask questions and control the direction of the conversation. 5.     Don't uncover the buyer need at all It is almost impossible to hit a target you cannot ascertain.  If the questions to ask need are not there, it is impossible to work out whether you have what the client needs or not.  Only talk about the spec and maybe the benefits of the spec, but never talk about how to apply the benefit, show evidence where this has worked before and then go for a trial close. When salespeople dive into the detail, they get stuck there.  We don't buy the spec. We buy the things the spec does for us.  We need to draw out what are the benefits the spec delivers but much more than that.  Few Japanese salespeople even get to the benefit explanations stage.  We need to show how the benefit when applied in their business will improve their business and we back that up with evidence of where this has worked before. Don't have any clue how to properly handle objections Japanese salespeople suffer the same objections as everyone else, "your price is too high" etc., but they have no way of dealing with them.  On the job training as an instructional methodology taps out pretty quickly when we get down to the finer points of sales ability.  The simple answer is professional training because this is the difference between the pro and the mug. Always drop the price to gain the sale It is shocking to think how much money is being left on the table by salespeople when they get price objections. Just dropping the price by 20% is common and it doesn't have to be like this.  If you know how to handle these types of pushback, then you can do a deal and either defend your value or reduce the amount of discounting. Don't ever ask for the order So many meetings end with a big fat nothing.  The salesperson left the client "buy or won't buy" bit quite vague and not clarified.  Always ask for the order.  The worst that can happen is you are told "no" or "we will think about it" but always ask.  Don't make the client do all the hard work, ask for the business. Sales is not complex.  It is a serious of basics that need to be performed professionally.  Take a good look at what your Japanese colleagues are doing and see how many of these nine you can uncover.

Storytelling is one of those things that we all know about, but where we could do a much better job of utilising this facility in business.  It allows us to engage the audience in a way that makes our message more accessible.  In any presentation there may be some key information or messages we wish to relay and yet we rarely wrap this information up in a story.  As an audience we are more open to stories than bold statements or dry facts.  The presenter's opinion is always going to trigger some debate or doubt in the minds of the audience.  The same detail enmeshed in a story though and the point goes straight into the minds of the crowd and is more likely to be bought as is. When we are planning our talk, we think about what is the key message?  We should get this into one sentence, able to written on a grain of rice.  Okay, you are not likely to be able to achieve that any time soon, but the keys are brevity, clarity, focus, conciseness, and paring the message down to its most powerful essence.  We build the argument to support our key message, broken up into chapters throughout the talk.  We design our two closes, one for before Q&A and one to wrap up the whole talk at the very end.  We design our blockbuster opening to pry the phones out of the hands of the audience, to get them to listen to what we are saying and going to say. We can inject micro stories, by which I simply mean short stories, into every part  of this design.  The opening could be a short story which grabs the attention of the listeners and primes the room for our dissertation.  It might be focused on an incident which relates to the key message of the talk or about an episode from a famous historical figure or about someone in the firm or a client that drives home the message. Each of the chapters of the talk can rely on micro stories to back up the evidence being presented to justify the conclusion we have come to and the point we are making.  These stories bring flesh and blood to the dry facts and details.  They can enliven the point we are driving hard on, by making it something the audience can relate to. These facts don't just appear.  They are there because of a reason and there are bound to be stories aplenty attached to them. Both of the closes can be separate stories that enhance the final messages we are delivering to the room.  We keep them short, bountiful, memorable and attractive, such that they linger long in the minds of the audience members.  We want our story attached to the inside of the brains of the listeners, so that they remember it long after the event has passed by. A thirty minute talk would probably have five chapters, an opening and two closes, so at least room there for eight stories.  These stories can be our own, garnered from our experiences or they could be folkloric stories from the firm's rich history or we could be borrowing other people's stories to make our point. We all have products and solutions.  Where did these come from?  How were they created and who created them?  What about the firm's founders' stories?  Why does this company exist and how has it manage to stay in business for so long?  Taking the key chapter content, we can inject some life into the data points by looking for creation stories or application tales of high deeds and gloried achievements.  Other client's stories can be some our stories too, as we relate how our solution changed their world.  These stories lend themselves for inclusion in the "about us" component of the firm's website and for placement in the corporate brochure.  The point is we have so many stories to choose from, we have a surfeit of content lapping all around us.  All we have to do is collect it.  So from now on build a library of stories about the firm, the personalities, the products, the client successes etc.  When you are reading about other companies look for their stories that you can borrow to make a point about your own business.  Add them to the library so that you don't have to go scrambling about trying to think of stories.  You have them there, ready to go whenever you need them.

 We are often good talkers, but poor listeners. We have many things we want to say, share, expound and elaborate on. For this we need someone to be talking it all in. We like it when people do that for us. It soothes our ego, heightens our sense of self-worth and importance. We are sometimes not so generous ourselves though when listening to others. Here are six nightmare listeners you might run into. By the way, do any of these stereotypes sound a bit too familiar to you? The "preoccupieds" are those breathless types, racing around, multi-tasking on steroids, permanently distracted. They don't make much eye contact because their eyes are constantly scanning for things other than you in front of them. When we meet this reaction we need to grab their brain. We can say, "Is this a good time to talk?" or "I need your undivided attention for just a moment". Once we do get their attention, we have to get to the point, because their attention span is fleeting. The "out-to-lunchers" have the lights on (their eyes are open) but no one is at home. They are thinking about everything else but what you are saying to them. It is a good practice to check in with them to make sure they have absorbed the key points you are sharing. You can ask them a very pointed question about one element to determine if they actually heard you. Closed questions are good because an answer has to be yes or no, they can't fudge it or fake it easily. The "interrupters" are ending your sentences for you, jumping in all over you while you are speaking, they are fixated with their important contribution and not much interested in yours. You cannot stop them, so don't resist. Let them blurt out whatever it is they cannot contain and then interject, "Thanks for that. As I was saying…" And pick up where you were, as if they had not spoken at all. The "whatevers" are giving off that jaded, bored impression that what you are saying is of little interest or consequence. To grab their attention you have to lift your energy and spice up the content, make it more dramatic. Also, ask them specific questions that will draw them into the topic. Use open questions where they have to use actual sentences rather than monosyllabic responses.  The "combatives" are people with a strong sense of their rights and they are very interested in demanding they be heard and defending those rights. They are quick to call out perceived affronts to their dignity and will readily argue every point. Look for points of agreement and concentrate talking about those or ask to agree to disagree. The "analysts" are logical thinking, very detailed orientated and are always in fix-it mode. They love handing out advice regardless of whether it was requested or not. You can go around idea generation from them by saying "I just need to bring you up to speed, so you know what is happening. I'm not looking for advice" By contrast what would a good listener look like? The "engagers" are empathetic listeners who really concentrate on what you are saying. They employ eyes, ears, hearts and minds to absorb your messages. They understand that they already know what they know and can learn a lot more from finding out what you know as well. They let you talk. They make you feel good, because they are obviously following along with you and taking an interest. When they are your boss, they let you talk and give you the opportunity to self-discover solutions and ideas. "We own the world we help to create" and bosses who listen and give their people the opportunity to speak, to suggest, to innovate are going to have a highly engaged team. That is the team that is going to win against the vast majority of teams who just show up to get paid. So the ROI (Return On Investment) from listening can be huge. Were you listening?

Selling to companies in Japan usually means sitting in a meeting room with a single buyer or perhaps two people.  There are occasions though where we may need to present to a larger number of buyers in a more formal setting.  It may be a pitch to secure the business, or it may be a means of getting the buying team more easily coordinated on their side. Before we know how to present to a team, we have to analyse the people in the team.  That means we need to know ahead of time, who will be in the room from their side.  A team comprises multiple layers of responsibility.  We might have some functional interests represented such as the Executive Buyer, Financial Buyer, User Buyer, Technical Buyer and Our Champion.  Each one has a different driver for making buying decisions.  The Executive Buyer will have a strategic vision for the organization so they are interested in opportunities and growth. We need to include the big picture here of what our solution will do to position the company into the future, as well as today.  The Financial Buyer is always interested in cash flow, no matter the size of the organisation.  They focus on the cost, the terms of the transaction and how much flexibility it can provide for them.  The User Buyer wants to know about the features, how easy is the solution to use, how reliable will it be?  The Technical Buyer is concerned about efficiency, practicality and capacity.  Usually we are in that room because of our Champion.  They are concerned about their relationships within the company, with having influence over the buying situation and gaining recognition for their efforts. Just to make it more complicated, there are also the buyer personality styles to contend with.  The Amiable who is focused on relationships and is never in a hurry to make a decision.  The Driver is the exact opposite.  They are dynamic, fast movers who just want the facts so they can make a decision and move on.  The Analtyicals want data and lots of it.  Three decimal places is fine for them.  The Expressives are bored with the nitty gritty detail, preferring the big picture.  It is possible to focus on just one group but not very wise.  The presentation should have a little something for everyone. There are also going to be attitudinal differences.  Some will Hostile, Resistant, Discontent, Ambivalent, Favourable, Supportive and Enthusiastic.  We need to get our body language meter on full throttle to read the audience and we need our Champion to give us the who's who of who is in the room, so we can anticipate where we might hit trouble. There are different levels of expertise in a team.  There will be varying levels of Experiences, Education, Biases, Problem/Positive issues, Goals, Expertise and Culture.  Before we present we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say.  We may not know this completely beforehand but we will certainly start locating people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room. We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room.  We need an opening to grab attention, a statement of need for change, an example of the need for change and to suggest three possible solutions.  For solution one, we outline the advantages and disadvantages.  We repeat this balanced formula for solutions two and three.  We then suggest the best solution of the three, with evidence as to why it is best.  In our closing remarks we repeat the final recommendation. Selling to a buying group is fraught with difficulty, because of the massive variations in the room, as to perspectives, needs and interest.  Nevertheless we can use this structure to cover off as many of the needs in the room as possible.  We rely on our champion to brief us on who is in the room beforehand and to go around drumming up support following our presentation.  We win or lose though the quality of our preparation and our structure.  If they are both in good working order, then the chances of winning the business go up dramatically.  We won't get so many chances to present to a buying group but we need to be well prepared when we do.

We often hear about the need for bosses to do more to engage with their teams. The boss looks at their schedule and then just checks out of that idea right then and there because it seems impossible. The employees for their part, want to get more praise and recognition from the boss, to feel valuable and valued. Bosses are often Driver type personalities who are extremely outcome and task orientated. People are there to produce, to get the numbers, to complete projects and to do it with a minimum of boss maintenance needed to be invested. The snag in all of this though is employees don't want that. They want the boss to be more interested in them, their career and their family. The feeling of being valued by the boss has been found to be an important trigger to create strong engagement in staff. Driver bosses rarely pull that trigger. They believe you need to "harden up baby", do it yourself "like I did". They wonder why we need to mollycoddle this lot. In fact they don't know how to snuggle up to staff and get to know them, because they never experienced that from their own bosses, and they are not built that way. They grew up independent and self-reliant. They are driven to achieve and have a take no prisoners approach to business. They are survival of the fittest advocates. Consequently, they are not much for small talk. They are permanently time pressed, so everything has to be driving toward an outcome, or it is a waste of their valuable time. How do you snuggle up to employees anyway? Bosses need to engage with their staff by using the "innerview" to deepen their understanding of who the person is who works for them, what are their motivations and interests. The sceptics may be thinking "brilliant". Now they can interrogate their staff, find and start pressing their hot buttons, to get more production out of them having found some keys to staff motivation. This is not what we are talking about. Staff can spot this very quickly. They won't be interested in being manipulated by their bosses for higher productivity gains.  The effort is to get to know the team better, so that as the boss you can help them to succeed in their work by aligning their goals, interests and motivations with those of the organization. The classic win/win. Getting to know staff starts with asking basic factual questions. Where did they grow up, where did they go to school, what did they major in. Where have they worked in the past, what are their hobbies, how many in their family etc. To go deeper we need to ask causative questions. The "why" of their choices. Why did they pick that field of study, why that school, why this company, why that hobby, etc.  Then we get to values-based questions. Getting to know how they tick. If you had your life over again would you do things differently and if so , what would you do? What were some turning points in your life? What have been some of the work and non-work related things you have done that have made you feel proud? If you were giving advice to a person entering the workforce what would that be? These questions have to be asked in a relaxed manner, not spewed out like machine gun fire. This is getting to know someone better in order to better be able to appreciate them as a person. It is not a drill in shaking them down for private information, which can be used later to exploit them. Conversations like this, done correctly, invite massive mutual understanding. The end result is better communication and shared values. A uniting of mutual interests toward achieving goals together. So all of you driver bosses out there, this is how to get cuddly with the team. First sort out your objective and make sure it is reflecting the real interests of the staff.   Drop that manipulation thing. Then make the time available to have a deep one on one conversation with another human being who also exists on this planet just like you. Believe me, good things will flow from this.