305 Have You Upped Your Sales Game With 5G Speed?
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Release Date: 01/28/2024
Always Be Selling
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
In B2B sales, the real money is often not in the first deal. It is in the follow-up, the reorder, the cross-sell, the upsell, and the referral. Too many salespeople rush off hunting for the next buyer after the contract is signed, leaving serious revenue sitting on the table. Why should salespeople follow up after delivery? Salespeople should always meet the buyer after delivery because that is when satisfaction, problems, and future opportunities become visible. The sale is not finished when the agreement is signed; it is only entering the proof stage. In Japan, where reliability,...
info_outline
Low Energy Doesn’t Work When Presenting
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Low Energy Doesn’t Work When Presenting Why does low energy ruin a business presentation? If we do not grab attention and interest at the start, our message disappears. That is the core problem with low-energy presenting. A speaker can be intelligent, prepared, well read, and backed by strong content, yet still fail to leave any memorable impression. When the delivery lacks force, the audience hears the words but does not retain them. When the opening feels ordinary, the talk feels optional rather than compelling. Many business presentations fall into this trap. The presenter covers the...
info_outline
Educational Trends Not Matching Industry Needs
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Educational Trends Not Matching Industry Needs Why does Japan’s education system still look strong on basics but weak on industry alignment? Japan’s education system remains highly effective at teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. That foundation is not the issue. The deeper issue is the growing mismatch between what industry needs and what the education system continues to produce. Because the system still rewards predictable academic performance, it keeps feeding students into established pathways rather than preparing them for a changing labour market. This is a structural gap,...
info_outline
Buyer Style Knowledge Is Key
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Buyer Style Knowledge Is Key Why is buyer personality style more important than national culture in Japan business communication? When many of us think about doing business in Japan, we immediately focus on cultural differences between Japan and the West. That makes sense, because Japan does have distinct cultural patterns. However, buyer personality style often matters more in the actual communication moment than broad national culture. Cultural factors create the base layer. On top of that, there are individual differences in how Japanese buyers think, decide, communicate, and respond....
info_outline
Entrepreneur Top Requirements
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
What do entrepreneurs really need beyond cash flow and capital? Most entrepreneurs start by thinking success depends on money. Sufficient cash flow and capital matter, but they are not the deepest drivers of business success. They are the result of earlier decisions. Because of that, we need to look further upstream and identify the capabilities that produce better decisions in the first place. For most businesses, technology alone does not create success. That might happen in rare cases, but most entrepreneurs still need strong human capability. The three core requirements are mastering time,...
info_outline
Slide Decks and Presenting
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
How should we use visuals in a presentation without letting slides take over? The core rule is simple: visuals should support the presenter, not compete with the presenter. Many people preparing a slide deck for a keynote presentation ask the same questions. What is too much? What is too little? What actually works? The answer is that less usually works better because crowded slides pull attention away from the speaker. When a screen is filled with paragraphs, dense sentences, and too much information, the audience starts reading instead of listening. Because the audience can read for...
info_outline
Dealing with Taxing People
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Why do difficult people feel so hard to deal with at work? Most of us never received a practical playbook for dealing with difficult people. School rarely teaches negotiation with taxing personalities, and workplace induction training usually skips it too. Because the “how to handle conflict” manual never shows up, we often react on instinct. That instinct can turn into email wars, tense phone calls, or arguments that go nowhere. Because difficult interactions feel personal, we may treat the person as the problem rather than the issue. That approach fuels ego, defensiveness, and...
info_outline
Japan Is Very Formal In Business
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
Why does Japan feel more formal in business than countries like Australia or the United States? In Japan, formality is tightly linked to what is perceived as polite behaviour. If you come from a business culture that is more casual, the Japanese approach can feel unexpected, even hard to fathom. In countries like Australia, the United States, Canada, and similar places, you can build rapport with relaxed posture and informal talk. In Japan, that same approach can land badly because it may look like a lack of respect. This matters because the meeting is not only about exchanging information. It...
info_outline
How To Pump Up An Audience
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
How do you pump up an audience without feeling manipulative? You pump up an audience by combining storytelling with audience participation, then using both in moderation. The goal is not to “perform” for performance’s sake. The goal is to lift the room’s energy so people pay attention while you deliver your key message. When you overdo it, it can feel manipulative. When you use it lightly and intentionally, it feels engaging and memorable. A simple mental check helps: is your showmanship serving the audience’s understanding, or serving your ego? If it supports...
info_outline
Sports Lessons Which Instruct Leaders
The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
What has changed in coaching, and why should business leaders care? The classic image of a coach delivering a half-time, Churchillian speech to whip the team into a frenzy is fading. The most successful modern coaches rely less on mass emotional rallies and more on human psychology, insight, and superb communication skills. Because motivation is personal, therefore leadership methods that treat everyone the same often fail to lift performance. Business leaders keep inviting sports coaches to conferences, off-sites, and retreats to learn motivation. People return to work energised, but they...
info_outlineThe release of 5G or fifth generation mobile networks was launched in Japan in March 2020. Our old phones ran on a 4G standard and 5G faster is significantly faster than 4G. So what does that mean for salespeople across all industries?
The capacity to upload heavier files, to be sent at lightening speed, grabs your attention. What are some of the heaviest files at the moment? Video! YouTube is already the second largest search engine after Google. It is true too. I have noticed myself that I prefer going straight to YouTube to find out how to do something, rather than wading through all the links and ads on Google. The union of content marketing with blinding connection speeds, means the search function for YouTube will overtake Google in the next few years. AI will probably overtake everything for search in the future. Nevertheless, are you prepared to be found by buyers as the star of your own video?
Now this is not to say that the importance of audio is going away. Podcasts are also a key way of getting value by turning up in front of buyers. That is why I am releasing six ever week. People are multitasking these days like they have been possessed by demons. They want to listen to audio, while they are at the gym or walking the dog. Don’t miss the implications of audio access to our information from all of these devices like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Home, etc. We will be tapping into information through audio, to a greater extent than now, but today I want to feature more on video and 5G and what it means for us in sales.
Producing video content and uploading that to YouTube will become a more important aspect of “know, like and trust”. Video gives a very strong impression about us. How we look? How we sound? Are we trustworthy? How we relate to the audience? Are we authentic? As some of my friends have unkindly remarked, “Greg, you have a good head for radio”, meaning I am not very photogenic. True. Consequently, we may be shy to video ourselves, thinking that we are not handsome or beautiful enough, or smooth enough in front of the camera, or attractive enough on tape when a microphone is involved.
Forget all of that. This will be the age of discovery by buyers, before they ever meet us. This is how they will be searching for experts to bring solutions for the problems they face. They will be able to “try us before they buy us” by watching our video, to see if we have the goods or not. What if we are not attractive enough for video, won’t that work against us?
Well, I wish I was more handsome, but there is not much I can do about that. My parent’s DNA contribution has spoken. I have to go with what I have got and so do you. I am releasing three video shows every week. I don’t have a great sounding voice either, because it sounds husky, from all that shouting or kiai I did, in my 53 years of karate training. Can’t do too much about that either. One of our Dale Carnegie trainers in America is DJ Thatcher, who has a voice you would die for. Very deep and melodic. I can’t become DJ Thatcher, but I can control what comes out of my own mouth.
So despite how we look and how we sound, are we providing actual value? Our videos have to show we know something special about our subject and that we can be useful to the buyer. Don’t think you have to hold the “best bits” back either and keep them secret. You have to go the other way and provide strong expert authority in this environment and do it for free. Put your best stuff out there.
You might sorry, “won’t my buyers become sated on my free video offerings and not need more from me?”. I don’t think this is a concern. When they need more than what they can get from a video, you are the one they will select over everyone else you are competing with. By the way, if a video can fix their issue that simply, then there probably wasn’t a substantial engagement involved anyway.
Won’t my competitors steal all my best ideas? The old style control function of buyers by suppliers, through exclusive, high value, proprietary knowledge, still exists, but only just these days. Almost everything is out there today. I remember in karate training, that the Sensei had the secret knowledge of the kata and we could only learn it from him. It was a control mechanism to keep us in line. Today, you can learn the most amazing kata via YouTube. That secrets era has passed and there are not many secrets left anymore. You have to jump in because everyone else is. There is a safety factor though. They can copy you, but they can’t be you.
I could order a big truck right now and send all of our training manuals to my competitors, but it wouldn’t help them. They don’t know how to deliver it the way we do, so all they get is an empty shell. This is the same with your competitors. They can’t replicate who you are, your company culture, your approach to clients, quality, reliability, plus all the human interaction pieces which are the sum of all that you are, down at your firm.
As an example, I recently did the recordings for the audio version of my book Japan Sales Mastery. Anyone could have read the text, but no one would emphasised key words the way I did. This is because I wrote it, I know what I want to say and how I want to say it. We cannot be copied. Get busy and get your stuff out there in the public domain.
So let’s start working on video of you for your newsletters, video email messages, website, YouTube channel and then push it out through social media so that it can be easily found. These days you have so many choices. You can do it through various live broadcast functions as well. You just pick up your phone and away you go. Although, as I found live broadcasting is like walking on the high wire between two skyscrapers, with a strong wind blowing and no safety net for beginners. If you screw it up in the first forays, like I did (!), you are very visible to lots and lots of folks. Oops. I am your typical male who never reads the manual. I found out later there is a function you can select where only you can see the video, which is probably a good precaution when you are starting. Hey, I should have done that!
You can go for weekly YouTube TV shows like I have, with The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show or The Japan Business Mastery Show. High quality camera, lighting soft boxes, serious audio recording technology, a set, editing suite, green screen, etc. Or you can shoot something on the move with a mobile phone, or a tablet, as the camera quality is so good today. Just add an external microphone, stand close to the camera and away you go. It can be edited later, so you can correct any problems. I have a number of videos on our Japan Dale Carnegie TV channel on YouTube which were shot on my iPad with an external mic. Very low cost and time effective for the quality. The audio is key though, so I suggest you make an effort to get that to be the best you can arrange.
What about appearing in front of the camera? My recommendation is to do our High Impact Presentations Training course. I don’t say this because it is Dale Carnegie, I say it because it is such an awesome course. This will give you the supreme confidence and skills to master the lens. That is what I did and you can check out the results in my videos! I reckon if I can do it with how I look and how I sound, you can do it and probably do it much better. You will now see AI technology rolling over the top of you or you can start surfing down the face of the wave. The technology is here now and time waits for no salesperson.
Action Steps
1. Read up on the technical innovations underway and what it will mean for you
2. Understand the power of the YouTube search function with buyers
3. Get over your inhibitions about being video and voice recorded, no one cares, as long as you are bringing value
4. Be prepared to share your best stuff for free, because your competition will be doing that
5. Start, review, improve, continue, master