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261 Why Specs Focus Kill Sales in Japan

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Release Date: 07/31/2025

263 Every Leader Is Now a Media Brand So Step Up When Presenting

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

We all know leaders who are technically brilliant—but hopeless in front of a crowd. One of our friends had a big pitch looming, and he knew he wasn’t ready. He’d been putting off proper training, and now the pressure was on. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. We hope our skills will magically hold up under pressure, but presenting under pressure is a different beast entirely. Leaders are the face of the company, whether they like it or not. Their words, presence and delivery become a public reflection of everything the organisation stands for. If we ramble, fumble, stumble or come...

262 Stop Killing Your Professional Presentation with Terrible Amateur Slides

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

When we are on stage, the visuals can make or break us. People often ask us at Dale Carnegie: how much is too much when it comes to slides? Let’s keep it simple: your visuals should support you, not compete with you. We want the audience’s attention on us, not the screen. That means stripping it back. Paragraphs? No. Sentences? Preferably not. Bullet points, single words, or strong images work best. Say less, so you can talk more. Follow the two-second rule. If your audience can’t “get it” in two seconds, it’s too complicated. Think clean, punchy and minimal. The...

261 Why Specs Focus Kill Sales in Japan

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Let’s set the scene. You’ve built trust with the buyer, asked the right questions, and uncovered their real challenges. You’ve done the hard yards and earned the right to present a solution. This is the moment you’ve been working toward—and it’s also the moment many salespeople blow it. We don’t open with the nitty gritty detail of the specs. That’s amateur hour. We start with our capability statement. We confirm that we have what they need and that we have the capacity to deliver. If we don’t, we say so. We walk away. Stop trying to force the square peg into the round hole....

260 Your Team Doesn’t Need a Critic—They Need a Coach

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Every year, we reset with lofty goals: hit targets, get promoted, improve ourselves. But what if the real breakthrough comes not from inward goals, but outward transformation? This year, let’s become the catalyst for others. Let’s become the light on the hill that lifts the whole team. Rather than finding faults bosses, let's become serial encouragers. We can choose to see others not through their failures, but through their struggles—and their strengths. Workplaces should not be rife with politics, blame games, or backstabbing. They should be zones of mutual respect, support, and...

259 Pro Presenters Cut the Fluff

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

In this Age of Distraction, we’ve got seconds to win our audience’s attention—or lose it. When we’re unclear, rambling, blathering or long-winded, the audience bolts for their phones. If we’re not concise and clear, there’s zero chance of being persuasive, because no one is listening. That’s why structure and delivery matter more than ever. We often dive too deep into our subject and forget the audience hasn’t followed the same path. That’s where the trouble starts. We confuse them, and they mentally check out. We need to set the topic clearly and grab their attention fast....

258 Buyers Won’t Buy So How Do We Get Them To?

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

The distance between wanting to buy and actually buying is often vast. Business leaders all have goals, but constraints around money, people, and bandwidth hold them back. The higher up we go, the more strategic the thinking. The CEO is concerned with the future. The CFO focuses on cash this quarter. Line managers just want to hit their numbers and hold on to their team. HR? In Japan, they’re often passive—gatekeepers and internal rule police, not champions of change. If a buyer feels their current situation and their desired future aren’t too far apart, urgency disappears. No pressure...

257 The Real Cost of Stupid People at Work

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Stupid people in organizations aren’t always easy to spot. They can appear confident, energetic, and articulate in interviews, fooling even the most seasoned managers. But over time, their lack of insight and poor judgment start surfacing. These individuals often speak before they think, overwhelming those around them with bluster and assertiveness instead of substance. Their loudness masks a lack of critical thinking, and in brainstorming sessions, they dominate through sheer brute volume rather than value. This becomes toxic when the time comes to sift, weigh and refine ideas. They insist...

256 Your Presentations Is Mind Numbing And Brand Destroying

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

We watched a big-name company blow a golden opportunity. The speaker was the President, and he had a dramatic story to tell—corporate crisis, media attacks, public apologies, and a redemption arc. Yet his presentation landed like a lead balloon. Why? Because he delivered it in a lifeless monotone, with no energy, emotion, or storytelling. It was a flat narrative built around a dull slide deck that never got lift off. This wasn’t just a bad speech—it was a brand-damaging catastrophe of a speech. And it reminds of David Ogilvy’s tomato soup story: when asked why he didn’t promote...

255 Own the Mistake Or Lose The Customer

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Things go wrong. That’s life in business. Mistakes, delays, accidents — they’re inevitable. But the real difference is how we handle them when they occur. In Japan, people expect you to own the mistake, not hide from it. Silence, excuses, or blaming the customer won’t work. In fact, they can do invisible, long-term damage to your reputation — the kind you won’t see on a balance sheet, but it’s there, quietly draining future revenue. We’ve seen projects nine months late, completely off the mark, and somehow the provider still tried to flip the blame onto the client. That’s not...

254 Cease Your "Three-Day Priest" Mentality

The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

The Japanese saying "mikka bozu," or "three-day priest," perfectly captures the common experience of initial enthusiasm quickly fading. People sign up for the priesthood, find it tough and promptly give up. We often begin new endeavours with resolute resolve, but daily challenges diminish our commitment. If you feel yourself teetering on the brink, don't be discouraged. Instead, reassess your goals and focus on what's achievable to build momentum. It's easy to fall into an all-or-nothing mindset with resolutions, leading to complete collapse and abandonment when reality sets in. We should...

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We don’t open with the nitty gritty detail of the specs. That’s amateur hour. We start with our capability statement. We confirm that we have what they need and that we have the capacity to deliver. If we don’t, we say so. We walk away. Stop trying to force the square peg into the round hole. Instead, go find the right client.

If it is a fit, we go deeper. We don’t just dump product features—we link each key feature to a benefit. And then we take that benefit and apply it directly to the client’s business. We climb that value ladder. We paint the picture of how their business improves because of what we bring to the table.

Still, they are buyers, so they are sceptical. Fair enough. They’ve been burnt before. That’s why we present real evidence. Case studies. Outcomes. Social proof. We remove doubt with stories that land about other buyers just like them and how we helped them. We must bring in the stories. Sales without stories is forgettable. We tie in real examples, real people, and vivid detail. This isn’t just information—it’s transformation.

We don’t forget the trial close: “How does that sound so far?” It’s low pressure, but very high value. It doesn’t feel like we are “closing” them”. It surfaces the doubts and lets us resolve them before they become silent deal-killers.

Remember, our aim isn’t a one-off deal. It’s a trusted partnership. Reorders. Referrals. Long-term wins. That’s what the pros go after. They don’t spry, and pray and say goodbye. They craft, connect, and close.

Let’s not waste the chance we’ve earned to win the trust of the buyer to serve them forever. Let’s make that solution presentation sing. Make it count.

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