The Japan Business Mastery Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan
The Japan Business Mastery Show aims to draw back the velvet curtain on what is rerally going on with doing business in Japan. Everything is so different here it can be confusing. This show will take you through all those minefields and position you for success in this market.
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235 Being Conversational In Japan
01/23/2025
235 Being Conversational In Japan
Presenters get this wrong. Avoid creating a barrier between yourself and the audience. Presenters are often elevated on a stage or positioned at the front of the room, surrounded by podiums, slides, lighting, and microphones, all of which can inadvertently distance them from their audience. In Japan, standing above a seated audience requires an apology at the start of the speech, as such positioning implies superiority in a hierarchy-conscious society. Similarly, using a commanding voice or overly formal demeanour can create unnecessary separations. Instead, focus on building rapport and connection. To persuade your audience effectively, remove as many barriers as possible. Speak conversationally, as though addressing close friends with whom trust and familiarity have already been established. This approach creates an atmosphere of shared confidences, making the audience feel they are privy to special insights and data. Transition from speaking at your audience to speaking with them. One practical technique is to engage with your audience before the presentation. Arrive early, converse with attendees, and ask about their reasons for attending. Incorporate these interactions into your talk. Mention names and comments from the audience to create a sense of inclusion and intimacy. For example: “Suzuki-san mentioned an interesting point earlier,” or, “Obayashi-san shared new data during our chat before lunch.” Recognizing individuals publicly not only builds connection but also enhances their sense of value. Adjust your tone to be more inclusive and conversational. Speak as though you’re chatting over a backyard fence rather than addressing a formal audience. Use gestures to draw people in, such as extending your arm with an open palm or miming an embrace of the entire audience. Maintain eye contact for about six seconds per person to ensure inclusivity without discomfort. Self-disparaging humour can also break down hierarchy. Boris Johnson, for example, uses humour to appear more relatable, despite his elite background. While you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously, avoid overdoing it, as excessive self-deprecation can seem insincere or manipulative. To foster connection, shift your mindset to a friendly, informal setting. Include your audience in your presentation, adopt a conversational tone, and use gestures and humour to build rapport. These strategies make your delivery engaging, memorable, and effective.
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234 Lure Out Their Objections
01/16/2025
234 Lure Out Their Objections
Salespeople often hope for straightforward buyers who buy without hesitation. However, reality is rarely so simple, and objections are actually critical to the sales process. When buyers hesitate, it signals interest, as it means they are considering potential issues. If buyers show no interest and raise no questions, that’s a warning sign—they’re not truly engaged. Objections suggest a mental commitment to the purchase, as buyers are naturally cautious and want to resolve potential risks before moving forward. In sales, objections reveal an intent to purchase and can guide us in addressing any reservations the buyer may have. When a buyer has no objections and doesn’t ask questions, they’re likely not invested in the product or solution, which could mean a failed sale. This is especially true in cases of high-cost or complex products; questions and objections indicate the buyer is working through a mental checklist and seriously evaluating the purchase. Addressing these concerns builds trust and moves the buyer closer to a decision. In Japan, decision-making is often done collectively, through a process called the ringi system, where various stakeholders in the company must approve the purchase. The individual in the sales meeting may be gathering information for others, not the final decision-maker. Consequently, they may raise fewer objections, not because they lack interest but because they’re not the end-user or the final decision authority. This can be misleading for the salesperson, who may not realize they still need to engage other decision-makers. A recent sales example illustrates this point: during a pitch to a financial institution with a scope ten times larger than they anticipated, the representatives raised few objections. This lack of questions signaled that they were likely not the decision-makers. This highlights the need to address the real stakeholders and make sure objections are raised and answered to progress the sale. No objections can indicate that the salesperson hasn’t demonstrated enough value or urgency. The true objective isn’t just a one-time sale; it’s to build a long-term partnership and ensure reorders. To achieve this, buyers need to feel confident they’re making the best choice for their business, requiring the salesperson to prove the product’s value and address any concerns that could prevent future purchases. Key Points Objections show genuine buyer interest and intent. No questions mean the buyer likely isn’t engaged or ready. In Japan, decisions often require broad approval, meaning the salesperson may not meet all stakeholders. Addressing objections builds trust and confidence, essential for long-term partnerships.
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Stop Rushing About
01/09/2025
Stop Rushing About
Is speed expensive? Constant hustling can lead to large and small errors of judgment. We get so caught up in living 24/7 lifestyles that we start missing big pieces of the success puzzle. People are the key to most businesses, but look at how we treat them. We hit the panic button on a piece of work and make everyone jump through hoops to make sure the deadline is met. We either end the sentence for the person we are speaking with or we cut them off and lunge in with our own preferred words and ideas. Doing more, faster with less, we are constantly hustling to gain time. The process becomes addictive. The unrelenting daily email tsunami pushes us to gain extra time - all the time. Our “contemplative self” is subsumed by the “mad rush us”, leaping around like a lunatic. Imagine if every interaction you have with others, where you are focused on hustling for your personal gain, came back to haunt you. How would this change your behavior? You would definitely take more care about the people around you, how you spoke with others and your general interactions with humanity. You would be more considerate of others. The slow food movement was a reaction to the impersonalisation of the food service industry. We need a slow business movement to do the same thing in the way we run our businesses. Contemplation is vaporizing as we constantly hustle. Who we really are and what we actually stand for in our value system is getting bent out of shape. So if you find yourself hustling like mad, stop and ask yourself, what is the cost of all this speed? What am I actually doing with all of these contraband minutes? Unleash the contemplative you instead and practice tuning yourself into other people. This is the universal, timeless, key business success skill – our ability to do well in our engagement with others and we are in danger of losing it
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233 Self-Sufficiency When Leading
12/26/2024
233 Self-Sufficiency When Leading
The beauty, weight loss, fashion, and entertainment industries project fantasies of success, often leaving people feeling inadequate. Comparing ourselves to wealthy actors, sports stars, or CEOs can amplify dissatisfaction with our own lives, making us wish we’d been born with better resources, opportunities, or advantages. However, dwelling on these thoughts isn’t productive; we aren’t going to be dealt a different hand in life. While past mistakes, poor choices, or unfavorable circumstances may weigh us down, it’s essential to stop focusing on what we cannot change. Instead, shifting our energy toward what lies ahead helps us progress. Many get caught up in revisiting past errors, but to move forward, it’s crucial to leave those burdens behind and focus on present strengths and opportunities. Moving forward means becoming our own "first responder." When disaster strikes, first responders act quickly to save lives. Similarly, no one will swoop in to rescue us, so we must act on our own behalf, developing a rescue plan to overcome mental barriers that limit us. While we can’t forget our past, we can stop letting it incapacitate us today. Worrying about past events doesn’t alter them. Instead, mentally “compartmentalize” these memories, so they don’t spill over into our present. With the past contained, the next step is to focus on our strengths. One of the most significant assets anyone has is time. Whether spent productively or otherwise, time is ours to use, and how we spend it determines our future. By viewing time as a key resource, we can direct it toward building the life we want. To use time effectively, set a clear vision for where you want to be. From there, identify specific, realistic goals and action steps. Progress may feel incremental, but with every action step, momentum builds, moving you closer to your vision. This process requires only a small amount of your most valuable asset—time—and yields a future crafted by your own efforts.
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232 Don't Be Flat When Presenting In Japan
12/19/2024
232 Don't Be Flat When Presenting In Japan
"The good is the enemy of the great" reminds us that competent speakers often fall short of their full potential, delivering presentations that are solid but forgettable. Many presenters lack that extra energy—the metaphorical "ten degrees of heat"—needed to elevate their talk from adequate to impactful. An intelligent, prepared presenter can cover content, address questions, and complete their talk. Yet, without that added intensity, the presentation fades from the audience's memory almost instantly. The issue is usually a lackluster opening. When speakers start speaking at the same level as their pre-talk chatter, they fail to signal a shift to something meaningful, making it easy for the audience to remain passive. Audiences arrive distracted, their minds already full, so the first words must forcefully capture attention. The beginning of a presentation should demand focus, with language that grabs listeners and prepares them to engage. Opening with a vivid story, an intriguing statistic, or a compelling quote can draw people in. These "hooks" are essential in creating a memorable experience. This attention-grabbing start should also include physical tools like eye contact, voice modulation, and gestures. Using a strong voice and adding gesture strengthens the overall impact, forcing people to focus. Eye contact is essential, even with large audiences, as it creates a sense of connection and accountability. Directing focus to individuals for about six seconds at a time gives a sense of shared attention and purpose. Physical positioning is another tool. Moving closer to the audience or adjusting posture to convey authority and warmth can amplify the connection. For example, standing over a seated crowd can add power to the speaker’s presence. These non-verbal cues, combined with vocal dynamics, engage the audience effectively. Once a speaker has captivated the audience, the next task is maintaining that energy. Vocal variety, pauses for effect, and energy level must be sustained to prevent the talk from slipping into a monotone that loses attention. Pauses build anticipation and emphasize key points, making the talk more memorable. A good start sets the tone for a powerful presentation. Sadly, many speakers start flat, stay flat, and finish flat, leaving audiences unimpressed and unengaged. Don’t let that be your presentation. Action Steps Recognize that audiences are often inattentive at first. Understand you’re competing with short attention spans and various distractions. Use a strong opening to grab attention. Leverage voice, eye contact, body language, and positioning for impact. A powerful beginning makes it easier to sustain energy throughout.
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231 Dealing With Objections In Japan
12/12/2024
231 Dealing With Objections In Japan
Hearing “no” isn’t easy, especially in sales. It’s a rejection we often react to emotionally, pushing harder in hopes of reversing the answer. However, immediately countering objections is usually ineffective, as this response is driven more by impulse than by strategy. A better approach is to use a “cushion”—a neutral statement that buys a few seconds to regroup and keeps the conversation calm. For example, if a client says, “it’s too expensive,” respond with, “It’s important to have good budget management,” instead of jumping into a justification. This brief pause lets you refocus and prompts you to ask “why” instead, uncovering the real reasons behind the client’s objection. Hearing a reason like “it’s too expensive” is often just a headline—surface-level feedback that may mask underlying concerns. Much like retail shoppers who claim they dislike a color to avoid revealing they can’t afford the item, buyers may deflect to avoid discussing their true reservations. Digging deeper is essential. Asking “Why is that a problem?” and probing further helps reveal their actual issues, and asking, “Are there other reasons?” ensures you’ve gathered all potential objections. Once the main reason is identified, determine if it’s based on fact or misconception. False information may require a firm rebuttal backed by evidence. If the objection is legitimate—like delivery time issues tied to quality standards—acknowledge it, explain, and see if there’s a workaround. In cases where finances are the concern, reframing your product as a solution to help improve their business can be effective. The key is addressing objections only after fully understanding the client’s perspective. Without this understanding, you risk wasting time on objections that don’t address their real concerns. Ultimately, by pausing, asking strategic questions, and prioritizing key objections, you can either resolve the issue or determine that it’s best to move on to another client who can benefit from your offer.
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230 Leadership Visionary In Japan
12/05/2024
230 Leadership Visionary In Japan
Visionary leaders are often seen as motivators and guides, but to lead effectively, they must first have a clear vision for themselves. Many people offer sound advice to others while neglecting to apply it in their own lives, which can undermine their credibility as leaders. To be a visionary, one must back their vision with specific goals. Living an “intentional life” is a good starting point; it means choosing to accumulate meaningful experiences instead of drifting aimlessly through life. Before focusing on a corporate vision, individuals should concentrate on their personal vision. If one’s life is disorganized, it’s difficult to inspire order in an organization. A future vision should reflect the life one desires: where to live, who to be with, and what fulfills and entertains them. In the corporate world, significant resources are dedicated to defining a brand’s direction. Individuals should apply the same rigor to their personal branding. This involves envisioning the ideal location and style of one’s future home, including details about its color, design, and surroundings. By creating a vision book with images and words, one makes this vision more tangible. To live intentionally, it’s essential to visualize objectives in detailed, concrete terms. This includes contemplating the person one aspires to become, relationships with others, travel experiences, preferred styles, and even choice of vehicle. Crafting a detailed picture of the desired future state helps solidify goals. Once the vision is established, it’s crucial to set goals that align with this vision. Goal-setting is most effective when roles in life are considered. People often focus solely on professional objectives, neglecting their multifaceted nature. Each person plays various roles—spouse, parent, friend, etc.—and should establish corresponding goals in areas like finance, health, and personal development. These goals must connect back to the personal vision. While the vision serves as the destination, goals are the vehicles that facilitate progress. Establishing a timeline for achieving the vision necessitates creating milestones for the goals to ensure accountability. Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” To be a visionary leader, one must assist others in realizing their goals. The first step is to get one’s own life in order. This focus will establish the leader’s credibility and capability to support their team’s ambitions. When leaders successfully help their teams achieve their goals, they foster cooperation and become true visionary leaders.
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229 Dress Presentation When Presenting In Japan
11/28/2024
229 Dress Presentation When Presenting In Japan
The saying goes that there are "lies, damn lies, and statistics," and in the world of presenting, an often misquoted statistic claims that 55% of audience impressions are based on appearance. While this stems from Professor Mehrabian's research at UCLA, it's crucial to understand the context: this percentage applies when the content and delivery of a presentation are incongruent. When a speaker's words don’t match their presentation style, audiences can become distracted, especially in today’s world filled with distractions like smartphones. As speakers, it’s our responsibility to maintain audience engagement. High-energy presentations, which I strive to deliver, can generate heat, making clothing choices critical. For instance, I avoid wearing light blue shirts, as sweat can create a distracting two-tone effect. Instead, I prefer white shirts and always wear a jacket to maintain a professional appearance. The sight of a speaker with sweaty armpits is unappealing and distracting. Proper fit is also essential. An ill-fitting suit can disrupt the audience's focus. I recommend avoiding bright jackets during presentations; they draw attention away from your message. Instead, keep the focus on your words. When presenting on a panel, be mindful of your posture, especially with leg crossing. It can lead to awkward views of hairy legs or ankles. To avoid this, I wear long socks. While I enjoy bright ties, I choose muted options for presentations to prevent competing for attention with my face. One of my pet peeves is when men allow gaps between the tie knot and shirt collar. This oversight can be distracting. I also shorten my tie length slightly so that it doesn’t peek out from under the jacket, which helps maintain a polished appearance. Attention to footwear is also crucial. Shoes should be spotless and well-maintained; scuffed shoes convey a lack of professionalism. Ensure that your belt matches your shoes—brown with brown and black with black. Mismatched accessories can undermine your credibility. Nametags, often made of distracting plastic, should not be worn while presenting. Instead, place them on the table or lectern to avoid visual distractions. While this discussion primarily addresses men’s attire, similar principles apply to women. The key is to prioritize facial visibility over fashion, ensuring that nothing detracts from the power of your message.
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228 Ending Your FY Powerfully In Japan
11/21/2024
228 Ending Your FY Powerfully In Japan
Salespeople often fall into a rhythm of easing off as the year-end approaches, especially in Japan, where the fiscal year ends in March. This period, leading up to the holiday break, can see a decline in productivity that equates to 8% of the year. To maximize sales, it’s essential to maintain focus and activity through December. One effective strategy is to reach out to existing customers. Even if they are currently utilizing some of our solutions, there are often additional products or services they may not yet have considered. To identify these opportunities, create an Opportunity Matrix, listing available solutions at the top and clients on the side. Use check marks to denote what clients are currently purchasing and mark potential sales chances as A, B, or C for follow-up discussions. December is also an ideal time for prospecting, particularly by reconnecting with “orphans”—clients with whom you previously had a relationship but have since lost contact. Various factors, such as changes in personnel or economic conditions, may have caused these clients to drift away. Use this time to reach out, even if meetings may not occur until January. Another crucial action is to identify look-alike targets—companies in the same industry as current clients that would likely have similar needs. Instead of random calls, conduct targeted outreach to these potential clients, leveraging existing industry knowledge to craft compelling opening conversations. Finding the right decision-makers can be challenging, particularly in Japan, where information is not always readily available. Annual reports can provide insights into key personnel, while social media platforms like LinkedIn might also help, though penetration in Japan is relatively low. Utilize your network for referrals, and if necessary, refine your credibility statement to get past gatekeepers and reach decision-makers directly. When communicating with potential clients, emphasize your experience with their competitors to strengthen your credibility. Present a general statement about your services, back it up with evidence of successful collaborations with similar companies, and assert your authority to command a direct connection to the decision-maker. Ultimately, the goal is to expand the sales pipeline and maintain momentum through December, setting up meetings for the new year. In Japan, December, known as "shiwasu," signifies a busy time when teachers are on the move. Similarly, salespeople should stay active and focused as the year closes, ensuring a strong finish and a robust start to the new year.
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227 Getting Trust In Japan
11/14/2024
227 Getting Trust In Japan
Leaders often rely on “automatic trust,” stemming from their authority, to gain compliance from team members. However, achieving genuine, “earned trust” is crucial for fostering motivation and commitment within a team. Unlike automatic trust, earned trust develops through consistent, authentic interactions where leaders show integrity in both “talking the talk” and “walking the walk.” Without earned trust, delegation becomes risky, as leaders may feel their team won’t reliably handle tasks, which hampers time management and the team’s growth. Conversely, when trust is high, team members willingly give discretionary effort, displaying greater creativity, dedication, and initiative. Building and maintaining earned trust requires time and steady effort. Leaders may inadvertently undermine trust by losing their temper, rejecting ideas without consideration, or failing to follow through on promises. Moreover, insufficient communication—where leaders focus on issuing orders instead of explaining, listening, or seeking input—can erode trust. Effective communication involves explaining the purpose of tasks, listening to team concerns, and fostering mutual understanding. A significant challenge in cultivating trust is finding the time for these trust-building interactions amidst a busy schedule. Leaders who don’t delegate effectively often have less time to engage meaningfully with their team, leading to a vicious cycle of mistrust and lack of delegation. To break this loop, leaders must prioritize one-on-one time with team members, understanding their motivations, interests, fears, and goals. These personal insights allow leaders to align delegated tasks with individual career paths and developmental needs, building a sense of purpose and accountability within the team. For successful delegation, it’s essential that leaders approach each task with their team member’s growth in mind, involving them in planning and monitoring progress. This process demands dedicated time, which may be easily deprioritized due to competing obligations, but committing to these conversations ultimately pays off by strengthening trust. In sum, building trust is an ongoing process that requires leaders to change their mindset, habits, and time allocation. Rather than repeating the same experience annually, leaders must continually work to strengthen relationships with their team. Earned trust not only requires effort but is invaluable in elevating team cohesion, individual motivation, and collective success. Consistent attention to these trust-building efforts results in a lasting foundation of trust within the team. Action Steps: Recognize the difference between position-based and earned trust. Develop delegation skills that foster growth. Reflect on whether genuine communication is occurring. Dedicate time to knowing your team deeply.
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Leader Charisma
11/07/2024
Leader Charisma
There is an abundance of definitions on what is charismatic leadership? The definition proffered during a recent webinar was uncontroversial and acceptable: emotional and intellectual engagement, inspiration to go the extra mile – all quite reasonable elements. Somehow that left me feeling vaguely unfulfilled. Reflecting on charismatic leaders, what was it about them that made them so attractive? Of course they were highly skilled, experienced and professional. Yet their technical knowledge wasn’t the distinguishing feature, because hosts of uncharismatic leaders are equally skilled. Great communicators, they capture the key points, are concise, insightful, engaging. No shortage of would-be charismatic leaders with this resume but no cigar. Optimistic, positive, high energy, fast paced, dynamic – yes all good points, but there was still something missing. I think the missing piece of the puzzle here is the way charismatic leaders make us feel when we are with them. I have heard that in his prime Bill Clinton would speak with you and make you feel like you were the only person in the room, despite being one person in a massive crowd. What are some relevant behaviours we can adopt to make us more charismatic? Begin with praise and honest appreciation. This must be genuine and linked to actual behavior, not vagaries. There isn’t a lot of praise and appreciation floating around in the business everyday, because a lot of leaders are Driver personality styles, who prioritise task completion over building people. We can be different – we can look for the good, the strengths in our people and play to those rather than lurking around the cubicles with our super fault-finder nuclear harpoon at the ready. If we find fault, call attention to it indirectly. We should also use encouragement and make the fault seem easy to correct. Let them save face, don’t create a barrier by lambasting them. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. This means seeing people at their best and treating them that way rather than the opposite. We can ask questions, instead of giving direct orders. Socrates was on to the power of this approach centuries ago, but the typical boss today is still an order dispensing machine. When we tell, we own the task - when we ask, our people own it. We all own the world we help to create, so be the boss who gets help creating that world. Make them feel happy about doing the thing you suggest. Is this easy – no, but if our behavior is the driver then we need to persistently and permanently change our approach.
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226 Using Slide Visuals In Japan
10/31/2024
226 Using Slide Visuals In Japan
Many people ask us at Dale Carnegie, what should I do with preparing my slide deck for my key note presentation? What’s too much? What’s too little? What’s the best way to make this work for me? That is what we will explore in this week’s show. Here’s some guidelines for using visuals. Less is definitely best. On a screen try to avoid paragraphs and sentences. If you can, use single words, and bullet points. Single words can be very very powerful. Just one word or even just one number can be very very powerful and then you can talk to the number, or you can talk to that word. Or just a photograph or a simple visual and you talk to the visual. You don’t have to crowd the screen with stuff that we can read ourselves. What you really want is the audience to be focused on you, the presenter and not what’s on the screen. This is very critical. We don’t want the screen competing with us so the less you have up there the better, because people look at it two seconds, they’ve got it and then they come back to you. Which is where you want them. And I mention that two seconds because I believe that the two second rule is a key rule. If you are putting something up on screen and an audience cannot see that and understand it within two seconds, it’s probably too complicated. Generally the six by six rule means that less is best. Six words on a line and six lines maximum on a screen is good. With fonts, try to make fonts easy to read. You might use for the title 44 font size, and for the text a 32. In terms of font types, sans serif fonts like Arial are very easy to read. For visibility, be careful about the using underline and bold. Italics are also not easy to read. Pictures are great. Pictures have a lot of visual appeal and as we say, a picture is worth a thousand words. In two seconds they’ve got it. Now they’re ready for your words to talk about the relevancy of this visual image. Colors are tricky, you rarely see people using them. Colors like black, blue, green - they work very well on a screen. Stay away from oranges, greys and red. Black and blue work together well as a contrast, as does green and black.
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225 Needed Basics in Sales In Japan
10/24/2024
225 Needed Basics in Sales In Japan
We get lazy. We start cutting corners. We get off our game. We chill, cruise and take the foot off the pedal. Sales is demanding and a life of constant pressure. The temptation is when we get to a certain level of success we think well, we have done enough. We can justify that coffee break, that longer lunch, coming in late after the first mid-morning appointment and heading home early after the last early afternoon appointment. This is not how the pro thinks. We should be getting our hustle on, getting our motivation going, setting out sights high. We have to have a showdown with “average is good enough” self talk. We need to make sure we are doing the basics like a demon on fire. The pipeline tells no lies. It is either looking good or it is looking bad. That pipeline will determine the amount of business we can do in any given quarter and in any year. We need good basics in play to stuff that pipeline full of qualified clients. There are basics in sales we quickly try to short circuit. We are fooling ourselves. We need to have time allocation every day for prospecting. In the process of doing that, we should be polishing our pitch until it is tight and has a massive hook attached to it. We need to be parsimonious with the words to explain all of that. We need to be eloquent with the explanation of the hook, as to why the person answering the phone should bother to connect us with the line manager we wish to speak with. Every industry needs a specific hook, based on the pain points of that business. The pitch is canned and not canned at the same time. It has some common elements which are the best composed explanation of who we are, etc. The why you should care part, needs to be specific to that industry, the sector, the market, the firm in question at this point in time. We need to treat every lead coming in from our website, be it from an SEO enquiry or a paid click though from our ads like it was on fire. If we don’t get in touch with that potential buyer right now, the lead will combust further and become a burnt, unrecognisable cinder. Soon it will be too cold and too feeble to sustain the follow up call required. We have to fight complacency. The enemy of great is good. So no being satisfied with good is allowed! Don’t forget our sale’s pro basics need constant work, permanent polishing, endless eagerness.
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224 Will They Follow Your Ideas in Japan?
10/17/2024
224 Will They Follow Your Ideas in Japan?
Before Shinya Katanozaka became President of ANA Holdings he came up with a genius idea. Allow the passengers to order breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever they pleased. Passenger surveys showed the clients were in full agreement. What the boss had not anticipated was that passengers would order the meals immediately on take-off, making it impossible to deliver on the promise. The plan was soon scrapped. The point here is not about being willing and unafraid to try new things, in order to differentiate ourselves from the hoi polloi of the competition. That courage and motivation is exemplary. The real issue is that no one inside the ANA organisation told him the “Emperor Has No Clothes”. When you have dynamic leaders, you often get the “success at all costs no matter what” dynamism, that comes as part of their personality package. They are mentally strong, persuasive, disciplined, hard working, intolerant of weakness, tough, masterful and basically a handful for everyone around them. As leaders in Japan, one of our biggest fears is ignorance. We may come up with a genius idea that is actually rubbish. The age, stage and power hierarchy here ensures no one wants to stand out by “speaking truth to power”. Subordinates learn quickly that taking personal responsibility for anything is a risky business. You become a powerful advocate for your own opinion, you are ace at debate, you can wrangle with the best of them to get your way. Hasn’t that been your formula for your massive success so far? Why change what is working? If the people around us don’t feel the trust to speak up, without being decimated by our forceful personalities, then we will keep on building our ladder higher and higher, better and better up against the wrong wall Listening to others is a new skill for most bosses, so it will take time to bed it down. The key is to slooooow down. To give our 100% concentration to the person in front of us. To really listen to them for a change. We have built up a reputation of not listening, of being the bulldozer, of pushing through regardless and of being oblivious to dissenting opinions. This will not get turned around in a day. This is the work of months of effort. This must become the new behaviour change we need to install, if we want to draw on the full power of all the opinions at our disposal. Here is the real crunch point – we have to become more humble about the validity of our own judgment and experience. Got it boss?
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223 Inspiring Your Audience
10/10/2024
223 Inspiring Your Audience
Whenever I am in the USA, I love watching the different television preachers in action. I noticed they are master storytellers, usually using Bible incidents to make a point in the here and now. The parables in the Bible are all mini-episodes, which teach a point about success. They are definitely on to something with their storytelling expertise. As speakers, we have a topic to address, a key message we want communicate and the platform to do so. How can we add memorable, interesting stories to our talk which will bolster the point we are making? The best stories are the ones people can see in their mind’s eye. It is a bit like reading a novel, after you have seen the video series or the movie based on the book. You can easily picture the scenes, the situation, the characters, the backdrops, etc. when you read the text. This is what we should be looking to create. Short descriptions of incidents that inform a certain course of action. There should be people involved, preferably people they know already. We want locations they can see or imagine. We weave our point into these stories and draw conclusions for the audience on what course they should take. So, plan the talk well and paint a picture of the season, the location interiors, the people involved. We want the listeners to be able to see all of this in their mind’s eye. Combining storytelling, with a bit of showmanship, is a powerful move. Being energized will help us get our message through all the competing noise in a busy life. We need to use showmanship in moderation though or it can quickly feel manipulative. It will however lift the energy in the audience and grab their attention, as you download your key points. Try adding some excellent, illustrative stories into your next presentation and also see where you can add in some showmanship, to engage with the audience members. Let’s use storytelling to become much more memorable as presenters, but in a good way!!!
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222 Customer Service Is Your Brand
10/06/2024
222 Customer Service Is Your Brand
You really appreciate the importance of brand, when you see it being trashed. Companies spend millions over decades constructing the right brand image with clients. Brands are there to decrease the buyer’s sense of risk. A brand carries a promise of consistent service at a certain level. Now that level can be set very low, like some low cost airlines, where “cheap and cheerful” is the brand promise. Another little gem from some industries is “all care and no responsibility”. At the opposite end are the major Hotel chains. They have global footprints and they want clients to use them where ever they are in the world. They want to be trusted that they can deliver the same level of high quality. There are plenty of competitors around, so the pressure is on to protect the brand. When you encounter a trusted brand trash their brand promise, it makes you sit up and take notice. When I arrived at the Taipei WestIn Hotel check-in I was told there were no rooms ready. I asked when a room will become available. The young lady checking me in, tells me she doesn’t know. I ask her for the name of the General Manager. This is where it gets very interesting. Her response - stone motherless silence. Not one word in reply. Nothing! So I asked again. More total silence. I elevated the volume of my request to try and illicit a response. More pure silence. This low level of client service has now morphed across to the ridiculous zone. Finally I get a whispered “Andrew Zou”. So what am I thinking now? Wow, this Andrew Zou character is a lousy General Manager, because his staff are so poorly trained. There is no room ready for me and no indication of when it will be ready, so in that great Aussie tradition, I head for the bar and wait. Any number of things can go wrong with the delivery of a product or service. We all understand that. The problems arise when our client facing team members are not properly trained in how to deal with these issues. Hotels have guest complaints all the time, so they should be absolute gold medal winning, total geniuses at dealing with them. This would have to be a key area of training in that industry. The poor training is a direct result of poor leadership. If the leaders are working well, then the staff service levels will be working well. The Westin brand is global and I have stayed in a number of their properties in Asia. The Taipei property was killing their global brand and that is an expensive thing in the world of cut-throat competition amongst leading Hotels. From this experience, I realized that I need to be very vigilant about the service levels in my own company. Are we fully geared up for trouble, should it arise? How do we protect the brand across 220 locations worldwide? Can people get to me easily if there is a problem? Are we doing enough training in client complaint handling? The Westin Taipei leadership did a poor job. We should go back a take a long hard look at our own operations. We may be incorrectly assuming things are working, when they may not be functioning properly. We have to protect the brand at every touch point with the clients. That is the job of the leadership team, starting with the boss.
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221 Leading With R.E.A.L.
09/26/2024
221 Leading With R.E.A.L.
We love acronyms! Our workplaces are thriving with them such that we can hold extended conversations composed entirely of seemingly impenetrable codes. They are handy though and this one R.E.AL. is short and serviceable to describe best practice leadership attributes. It always good to have evidence around pontification. “Reliable” is an obvious choice and though much upheld in principle, tends to break down in practice. Reliable is an attribute that leads to trust only when the staff observe that what is said is actually done, that promises are kept and that their own personal development is being given a high priority. “What is in it for me” is a common human frailty. Bosses who keep this in mind when making sure the organisation and individual goals of their staff are aligned, get more loyalty and more accomplished. “Empathetic” is closely linked to listening skills. Taking the viewpoint of the other person is difficult if we don’t know what that viewpoint is. Busy bosses don’t have much time to get below the surface calm of the workplace. Some don’t care – just get me the numbers – or else! Using our position power works up to a point but we miss out on a lot of creative potential as the opportunity cost. Successful bosses have good awareness and confidence to communicate they really do care about their people. “Aspirational” reflects ideas about grasping the bigger picture. Hovering above the melee of the everyday to see the vision to be realised on the far horizon. It means communicating beyond this quarter’s goals and placing each individual’s role in terms of their contribution to the bigger goal. The leader has to inject the ideas and concepts involved into terms that resonate with each person individually. “Learning” gets nods of approval but many executives have had one year of experience thirty times rather than thirty years of experience. Their views are still locked away in a mental vault, for which they have lost the key. Too busy to learn. Busy, busy working in their business, rather than on their business. If we aren’t prepared to permanently kill our favoured ideas and concepts, we must be prepared to risk falling behind, trampled by our competitors. REAL, is easy to remember and that at least is a start to actually realising its power. We know all of these things – we just forget or get too busy to do them. Let’s change that.
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Real Listening Skills In Japan
09/19/2024
Real Listening Skills In Japan
Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets. In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in the client’s best interests. We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer’s needs. We know that by asking well designed questions, we can possibly come up with an insight that triggers a “we hadn’t thought of that” reaction at best and at worst, at least know if we have a solution for them or not. Under pressure though, salespeople can go temporarily deaf. Even assuming they are smart enough to ask questions in the first place, they may fall over when it comes to listening to the buyer’s answers. They are not actually plumbing the depths of what the client is trying to achieve. In fact, they are ignoring the hints and nuances in the sales conversation. What are they doing? They are fixated on their needs, their target achievement, their big bonus, their job security. The client may have outlined what they had in mind, but that won’t scratch because the salesperson needs a bigger sale to make target. They need to expand what the client wants regardless of whether the client needs that solution or not. Upselling and cross selling are legitimate aspects of sales, but the purpose has to be very clear. It is not about making the salesperson more money The client may not have the full view of what is possible, because they will never know the seller’s lineup of solutions as well as the salesperson. They will also not have had deep conversations with their competitors. They won’t have been allowed behind the velvet curtain, to see what their competitors are doing and how they are doing it. They will not have had a broad exposure to what other firms and industries are doing in terms of best practice. This is the value of the salesperson, because they are constantly doing all of these things. They are collectors of stories, problems, breakthroughs, successes and can connect many dots together. In this sense, they can see possibilities the client may not have know exist or may not have thought of. This is where the cross-sell and the up-sell add value, because the salesperson can expand the client’s world and help them to become more successful. That is a long way from ramping up the number value of the sale, to make target. Nevertheless, this is what happens when the focus is on the wrong objective. If salespeople are trying to expand the complexity of the sale, to manufacture a larger sale, at some point the client is going to drop out. Unless they see overwhelming value in increasing the scope, they are well aware that this enlarged project is over budget. Now budget is just a fiction and we all know that. It is an imaginary estimate of where expenses could be allocated and it occupies a cell in a spreadsheet line. Many times we have seen budgets miraculously appear from nowhere, when the perceived value is great. The “Rob Peter To Pay Paul” school of accounting. The point about value comes back to listening skills. If the salesperson is focused on the client’s benefit, then they can rummage through their memory banks for best practices that could be applied to help the client achieve their aim. In the process, this may mean increasing the investment to get a bigger return. If the salesperson is just focused on getting their monthly number, they are not really paying attention to the client’s needs at all. They just start padding the details of the project, so that the numbers are bumped up. Once the client feels they are being ramped up for the salesperson’s benefit, then the trust is gone and the deal won’t happen anyway. Salespeople need to be really listening to the needs of the client and should forget about what they want. As Zig Ziglar said, “if you can help enough other people get what they want, then you will get what you want”. Zig was a great listener!
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No Robots For Our Leaders
09/12/2024
No Robots For Our Leaders
Basically your job is toast. There is a machine or there will soon be a machine that can do it faster, better and cheaper than you. Our skill set didn’t change much from the start of agriculture 12,000 years ago until the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century. This last 150 years has been busy. We have created a weapon that can destroy our race. Who thought we would be that stupid? Fifty years ago we didn’t believe machine translation of our complex language skills would get very far. Driving cars and trucks requires us, because it is such a delicate, detailed and difficult set of tasks. What a ridiculous idea to imagine replacing those cantankerous, aging Japanese taxi drivers and punch perm truckers here in Tokyo with a self-driving, self-navigating vehicles. Internet of Things Komatsu tractors ploughing rice fields by themselves, nah, never happen. Apocalypse Now style “death from the air” requires top gun pilots and gum chewing gunners, doesn’t it. Killing each other can’t be delegated to drones. Robot vacuum cleaners, programmable pets, hotty droid receptionists, nimble stair climbing machines, adult men (many with passports) waving light sticks at holograph vocalists (Hatsune Miku) – not possible right? Don’t worry, moral and ethical judgments, “the buck stops here” business decisions, hiring and firing employment protocols, creative brainstorming – there is a long list of actions which will always require people to be involved. We need the human interaction, to hear stories, to share experiences, to be motivated, to aspire together against the rival firm, to set and follow our organisation’s Vision and Mission. We want empathy, collaboration, a sense of ownership, relationships. Geoff Colvin in his book “Humans Are Underrated” references a recent Oxford Economics study asking employers which staff skills they will need the most over the next five to ten years. The top priorities were all right brain - relationship building, teaming, co-creativity, brainstorming, cultural sensitivity and the ability to manage diverse employees. Henry Ford complained that every time he wanted a pair of human hands on his assembly line, he got “a brain attached”. Today, we want that brain that can feel as well as think. We have to be good at being human and good in our interactions with other humans. Colvin noted, “being a great performer is becoming less about what you know and more about what you’re like. Here is the challenge for typical male CEO driver types, who are assertive and task, not people, oriented: how to lead organisations where technical skill is being outsourced to bots and the value of human interaction has become more critical to the success of the organisation?. Do you ignore it or do you decide to change? How do you change?
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The Brand Won't Save You
09/05/2024
The Brand Won't Save You
My eyes are closing. I am struggling to stay awake. There is something about this presentation that is not working. I thought, it must be me. I must be tired. Later however I realized the problem. I was being lulled into sleep by the monotone delivery of the presenter. The brand by the way is gorgeous. This is seriously high profile, a name that everyone knows and respects. The name alone triggers images that are all first class. The slides and videos he presented were all quality. These people have money and they know about marketing very high end products. Our speaker had all of this powerful support going for him, yet the actual presentation was sleep inducing. Why was that? The brand is a passion brand, but there was no passion. The brand is a great story, but the storytelling was minimal. The delivery was wooden. Measured, but wooden. Fortunately, despite his lifeless delivery, the brand is so powerful it can survive his attempt to murder it. But what a wasted opportunity. It is not as if this brand doesn’t have competitors. He is their guy in Japan, so that is his job, every time, everywhere. It was a good audience too. These are people who appreciate a good brand, who are influencers, who can spread the message. No one will bother though because they were not receiving any energy from this talk. Brands are being recreated every single day. When the product is consumed that is a brand defining moment. If the brand promise is not delivered when the product or service is consumed, then the brand is that much lessened. If this continues, then the brand will disappear, vanquished by its competitors. If our man in Japan had given a high energy presentation, extolling the virtues of the brand, that would have been consistent with the positioning of the brand. If you are representing a funeral home however, that would not be appropriate. So obviously we need to be congruent. This brand case though would be a great platform for enthusiastic storytelling and verbal passion for the brand. Where were the gripping stories of high drama and intrigue, as they duked it out with their competitors across the globe and over the decades? Where were the human dimension stories of the customers who were famous and fans. There was little or nor energy being transmitted to the audience. When we speak we have to radiate that energy to the listeners. We need to invigorate them. We do this through our voice and our body language. It is an inside out process, where the internal belief is so powerful it explodes out to the audience. They see we are convinced, we are believers and they become believers too. Let’s raise our energy levels up when promoting our company in a public presentation. Make sure our voice is using all the range of highs and lows to get full tonal variety. No monotone delivery please. We need to punch out hard certain key words and phrases, like the crescendos in classical music. We need our body language to be backing this up, our gestures in sync with what we are saying. We need to lift the energy of the audience through our personal power.
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Dealing With Price Resistance
08/29/2024
Dealing With Price Resistance
Pricing is usually set by the boss and salespeople are just there to get out and sell at that designation. The trouble though is salespeople are not convinced by any price setting methodology. They only believe in the reality of the market. The way they know the reality is the degree of pushback they get from clients, when they are trying to sell. When you have no belief in the value backing up that price point, your ability to sell at that rate is simply squashed. You default to discounting to get a small piece of something, rather than a very large piece of nothing. The crunch point is the sales price negotiation with the buyer. If you have gotten into the death spiral of last minute discounting, in order to move the product or service, you have now trained the buyer to extract the biggest possible discount every time. Instead, give them an ultimatum on price and a very, very short fixed time to take it or leave it. In the meantime, call another potential buyer. If you have not built up pipeline for your sales, then you are always going to be vulnerable to price collapse. If you discount once and then imagine that by telling the Japanese buyer this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a spectacularly rare alignment of the planets, which will never happen again in their lifetime, a never to be repeated offer, you are kidding yourself. Don’t miss this. In Japan, as soon as you drop the price, you are now locked into that price point with that client forever. It is not impossible to go higher but it is very, very hard to pull that one off. You have to be ready to drop the buyer entirely, to restore your price point validation. The equation here isn’t just with the buyer, it is with the salespeople as well. By dropping the price we tell them that this is all this is worth and they believe it. They cannot push the price back up, because they don’t see it at that level either. The company leadership has to intervene and say “burn that buyer if they won’t accept this price”. Be prepared to lose their business. If we do that, then the salespeople will get religion about the pricing validity. When we are haggling over the price with the buyer and they say that, “this price is too high”, “that is out of our budget”, “we can’t afford it at that level, ”can’t you drop the price”, “we never pay that much”, etc., we are in a bind. We want the sale, so we immediately go into discount mode. This is a big negotiating mistake. Don’t fold on the price pushback. What we should be doing is defending our price. We don’t do that by arguing with the buyer. We don’t do that by force of will. We do it by trying to better understand the client’s situation. Often salespeople stop asking questions at this critical juncture and instead go into high energy “tell mode”. They start telling all the good reasons why the buyer should pay the requested price. This won’t work. Firstly, don’t start your response by arguing with the client. Instead agree with them. We can say, “You are right and I understand it is a considerable investment”. If we disagree with them, they stop listening to us and start thinking about all the reasons their “too high” statement was correct. While we have their attention, we have to transition and question the buyer as to why they made that comment. “You just mentioned the price was too high, may I ask you why you feel that way?”. We avoid arguing and instead of us having to justify the price, we now need to switch it. After you make that comment do not speak. In this process of further explanation by the buyer, we pick up very valuable insights into the client’s situation. Armed with more data and insight, we may be able to come up with a flexible solution that is a win-win for both of us. We may in fact discount the price. We might give them longer payment terms or structure the payments across two quarterly budget periods. We may offer the discount on the basis of a volume purchase. All of this sounds simple enough, but when salespeople hear “the price is too high” they go blank and forget the basics. The job of the salesperson is to serve the client and that means to clearly understand the client’s situation. The only way to do that is to ask questions. It is not to be annoying, pigheaded, stubborn or inflexible. Quite the opposite. We are here to solve the client’s problem and we have to do that in an arrangement, that is a win-win for both of us.
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Don’t Tell It Like It Is In Japan
08/22/2024
Don’t Tell It Like It Is In Japan
You have to tell people how it is or you will lose power and authority. If you swallow what you want to say, you will diminish yourself. If you avoid hard conversations, you will have less influence. You need to tell them exactly how you are feeling. This was the tenor of the advice coming from an American communication “guru”. While listening to this, I thought this is absolutely going to fail in Japan, if not everywhere. Dale Carnegie’s human relations principles however work well not only in Japan, they work well everywhere. So rather than trying to ardently assert our rights, telling others how we feel and gaining power through strength of will, let’s try some proven methodologies that actually work. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain The guru gave the example of someone keeping you waiting, suggesting you “respectfully” tell them how you feel about that. Dale Carnegie realised there was no point. Even if you are polite, people become defensive and are irritated to be reminded that they are less than perfect. They were late, you can’t get the time back, so you just have to accept others are not as reliable as you are and move on. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view When we are fixated on what we want, we become inwardly focused. The goal of successful human relations is to be liked and trusted. Selfishness won’t get you there. They are massively late, so what? Are they doing this to annoy us, to punish us, to irritate us? No, there are bound to be any number of things happening in their world which we don’t know about, so let’s not be too hasty to apply “our rights” to the situation. Begin with praise and honest appreciation Rather than launching into the witch hunt of the “crimes’ of the other person, zeroing in on the hard talk topics, build the relationship with praise. Not fake, apple polishing, sycophantic praise. Rather, genuine reflections on their good points, backed up with concrete evidence or examples. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves Few people listen today. Tied up in themselves, in having power or status, they are all about them. They interrupt others when they are talking, they try to display their cleverness by finishing other people’s sentences, they one-up others to be dominant. People however want to be acknowledged, to be heard and our job is to get them talking about themselves. Forget about being powerful through winning at hard talk. People will willingly cooperate with you, if you apply these principles. The ideas are easy to understand, but not so easy to apply.
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Capturing Your Audience
08/15/2024
Capturing Your Audience
We can speak to a group and then there is another level, where we try to captivate our audience. What makes the difference. The content could even be the same but in the hands of one person it is dry and delivered in a boring manner. Someone else can take the same basic materials and really bring it to life. The quality of the argument we are going to present is important. We definitely need to design two powerful closes, one for the end of the speech and an extra one for after the Q&A. Importantly, we start from this point when designing the talk. We work out what is the most compelling message we want to leave with our audience and we start working backwards structuring the speech from here. Once we know what we what to say, we need to be gathering evidence to back up that assertion. In a thirty minute speech, there won’t be so much time, so we might get through three or four of these key points and that is it. Now we make sure that the evidence is super strong, offering really compelling proof, to build credibility for our argument. Next we work on a blockbuster opening. This has to compete with all the things running through the minds of our audience. We have to smash through all that obstruction and clear a path so that they will hear our message. The first words out of our mouth had better be compelling or we will lose the battle for today’s minute attention spans. We want our visuals on screen to be clear and comprehendible within two seconds. Let’s keep the colours to an absolute maximum of three. Photos are great with maybe just one word of text added. If we use graphs, we should have only one per screen wherever possible. Every five minutes we need to be switching the energy levels right up, to keep our audience going with us. Naturally, we have tonal variety right throughout the talk, but we need to be hitting some key messages very hard, around that five minute interval. This needs to be combined with some powerful visuals on screen to drive home the point. We are meticulously sprinkling stories throughout the speech to highlight the evidence we want to provide for our key points. Data by itself is fundamentally dull, but stories fleshing out the data are so much more scintillating. We sketch out physical locations, describe colours, talk about the season, mix in people they may know, explain the why of what is in the story. Our final close after the Q&A has to go out with a bang and not a whimper. We want a strong call to action. We need great structure, evidence, visuals, stories, pacing, energy, passion and belief in our presentation. The delivery is going to rock because we make it rock through rehearsal after rehearsal, until we have refined the whole thing into a symphonic triumph. That is how we need to be thinking to captivate our audience when we start constructing the talk. Begin with audience capture in mind.
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Superior Customer Service
08/08/2024
Superior Customer Service
Jan Carlzon many years ago published a tremendous guide to customer service. He had the job of turning around SAS airlines and captured that experience in his book “Moments Of Truth”. I was reminded of Carlson’s insights when I was recently checking into my hotel in Singapore. While going through the check-in process at the hotel, a waiter from the adjoining restaurant approached me bearing an ice-cold glass of freshly squeezed juice. Singapore is very humid and trust me, that ice cold beverage went down very well. I thought this is really well thought through customer service by this Hotel. One of Carlzon’s observations about customer service however was the importance of consistency of delivery. For example, visualise the telephone receptionist answers your call in a pleasant helpful manner and you are uplifted by your exposure to the brand. The next staff member receiving the transferred call however, is grumpy and unfriendly. Now both your mood and positive impression plummet. You are suddenly irritated by this company, who have just damaged their brand by their lack of an ability to sustain good service across only two consecutive touch points with the customer. So back to my story. As I get to my room, in good spirits after unexpectedly receiving my ice-cold juice, I find out the television isn’t working. After a forensic search for the cause, including a few harsh words with the television controller, I discover the power is not on. There is a card slot next to the door that initiates the power supply to the room. Yes, I worked it all out eventually, but the thought occurred to me that the pleasant young woman checking me into the hotel, failed to mention these two facts to me. Sustainability of good service has to be the goal if you want to protect or grow your brand. When you are the leader of your company, you presume that everyone “gets it” about representing the brand and that the whole team delivers consistent levels of service. You expect that your whole team is supporting the marketing department’s efforts to create an excellent image of the organization. After all, you have been spending truckloads of money on that marketing effort, haven’t you? But are all the staff supporting the effort to build the brand? Perhaps they have forgotten what you have said about consistent customer service in the past or they are a new hire or a part-timer who didn’t get properly briefed. As leaders, we should all sit down and draw the spider’s web of how customers interact with us and who they interact with. We should expect that nobody gets it and determine that we have to tell them all again, again and again. First impressions count, but so do all the follow-up impressions, if we want to build a sustainable, consistent positive image with our customers. Consistency of good experiences doesn’t happen automatically. We have to look again at all of our touch points with our customers and ensure that everyone in the team understands their place in maintaining the excellent brand we have built up.
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Charismatic Leadership
08/01/2024
Charismatic Leadership
“Born to lead” is nonsense. Many things shaped that person in order for them to achieve credibility with others. Of course, we can become a “leader” as part of our company designated hierarchy. We sit somewhere in an organizational chart above others, with various reporting lines elevating us above the hoi polloi. We know many people with that august title of “leader”, who we would never willingly follow in a million years – pompous, tiresome, incompetent jerks! Can we become someone who others will follow when all the paraphernalia of leadership pomp and circumstance has been stripped away? How do we become a charismatic leader, whom others willingly wish to follow? The starting point is critical. If your desire for leadership is driven by personal aggrandisement and ego, where all good things must flow to you, this force of will factor is not attractive. Good leadership is differentiated by the followers desire to want to follow, when there is no coercion, structure or impetus to do so. We gravitate to these charismatic leaders because of how they make us feel. Effective leaders are good with people. There are some key principles they embody, which make us like and trust them. This is not artful manipulation, where they fake these principles in a cunning way. That approach exists and will ultimately be revealed as hypocrisy. What we are talking about here is having correct kokorogamae (心構え) - true intentions. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves Bossy people often love to brag. Instead, build the trust by focusing your conversation on them not you. As you stop dominating and start listening, you uncover areas of shared desires, values, interests and experiences which are magnetic in their properties and bind us more closely together. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view Often we are egocentric - it always about me, me, me. Having listened, we uncover the context behind their beliefs and arrive at a greater appreciation for their views and positions. We can more easily get on each other’s wavelengths. When this happens, we become more mutually simpatico, supportive and powerfully bonded. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders The inclusive, humble promotion of self-discovery unleashes powerful forces that encapsulates our shared direction. We become the catalyst for their self-belief. We all want to be around people who make us feel good about our better selves and with whom we share common goals. People will willingly follow us when we apply these principles. We must sincerely switch from a “me” focus to an “our” focus. Change our approach and we change our results. We will become a charismatic leader.
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220 Close The Gap With Your Audience
07/25/2024
220 Close The Gap With Your Audience
Lawyers in Japan are an elite group. I attended a legal symposium, involving these super elite Japanese lawyers and yet the communication skills on offer were incongruent with their elite educations and high social status. I can never resolve how intelligent people can manage to stand up in front of an audience and position themselves such that they fully ignore one third of their audience. So here is a hint to ourselves. Whenever we are standing before an audience, always make sure we position our feet such that they are facing ninety degrees directly forward and just turn our necks and upper body, when we want to involve each side of the room in eye contact. Actually there wasn’t any real eye contact underway either. Speaking to everyone and nobody at the same time, is a common lack of professionalism in many speakers in Japan. Winning the audience over to us, getting them to listen carefully to what we are saying and drawing them in to our point of view, are all aided when we use eye contact. We seek to hold eye contact for around six seconds, before we move our gaze and make eye contact with another member of the audience. When we do this, we really engage our audience. In typical Japanese fashion, the main speakers were allotted a table to sit behind, decorated with a microphone stand. In this seated position, out came the sheets of the speech transcript to be read to us in a monotone voice. Extremely painful and ineffective. We must always keep in mind one key advantage we have over our audience. Only we know what we are going to say. If we forget something or if we deviate off topic slightly, well, only we know that. So whenever possible we should stand and deliver, no safety net, in full gaze of the audience without notes and use our eye contact to draw everyone into our message. The last part of the day was devoted to panel discussions. A couple of things to keep in mind for ourselves, if ever we are engaged in a similar panel discussion. Learn how to use the microphone correctly, so we can be heard clearly. I notice, so many people don’t speak across the mesh of the microphone properly, so they are not getting completely picked up by the audio technology. These are highly educated, super elite people in Japan and yet they make these fundamental presentation errors. So it tells us that being well educated and being in a prestigious job, does not automatically anoint us with the magic fairy dust of successful public speaking professionalism we all need. Remember, these are our personal and professional brands we are holding out there for all to see. To bolster your brand, get the training, because today is the age of persuasion power and we must master this skill if we want to be fully successful. Connecting with our audience is one of the key business skills we need to add to our repertoire when presenting.
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219 Be A Showman When Selling In Japan
07/18/2024
219 Be A Showman When Selling In Japan
Tricky area in sales, showmanship. The word has a certain odor about it that reeks of fake, duplicity, con game, spruker, carnival barker, etc. Yet, like storytelling, this is an important part of the sales professional’s repertoire. Clients are card carrying members of the Great Guild Of Skeptics. They are highly doubtful about salespeople’s claims. We need to bring some powerful persuasion techniques to the fore. This isn’t making up information to snow the buyer or doing a bait and switch, between what they think they are getting and what we actually deliver. This means using our communication skills to highlight the key points that will persuade the buyer, that what we are offering will help them and is in their best interests. What we say has to be true, but we don’t need to say it in a flat, lifeless, mundane or boring way. Showmanship would involve using persuasive word pictures to draw out the scene.A favourite example of showmanship is the car tyre puncture repair story. This is used to illustrate to salespeople the importance of showmanship, when explaining choices of action versus no-action to clients. Having a need to buy and buying are not always well paired together in the mind of the client. The example of the gas stand is used, where the service attendant notices the front left hand tyre of the car has a slow leak and offers to fix the puncture in 10 minutes. The client refuses the offer, because they are in a hurry and drive off. The same scenario is used again, but this time the attendant employs some word pictures and showmanship. So the attendant says: “Mr. Customer, I notice your front left hand tyre has a slow leak. We can repair that puncture in 10 minutes”. The client refuses, because they are too busy to spend the ten minutes repairing the leaking tyre. At this point the attendant doesn’t simply let the buyer leave, but says instead: “Previously, we had another customer here with the same issue – a slow leak in their tyre. Unfortunately they were also too busy to fix it. We saw a report later on the nightly news about a terrible accident. Apparently that same car tyre blew out while they were on the highway. It caused the car to flip and roll over three times. We saw the tangled mess of what was left of the car from the television station’s helicopter video. It was total tragedy. The television reporter said the whole family of four, including the two young kids, died in that accident. When we heard that, we all felt really bad, because we didn’t get them to fix the leak when we had the chance. We could have prevented that accident…. It will take us ten minutes to fix your puncture, let’s do it now, so we will all feel a lot better and safer” Notice the use of very emotive language to drive home the cost of no action. The tone is subdued but still powerful. We need to be looking for ways in which we can contrast the plus of using our solution, against the minus of doing nothing or using our competitor’s solution. Think about what you sell and what are some ways you can illustrate to the buyer that there are opportunity costs to not buying from you and buying now. Look for powerful word pictures to draw this out for the buyer. This is showmanship and we must become masters of communicating value to the client.
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218 Unearth Your Own Insights When Presenting In Japan
07/11/2024
218 Unearth Your Own Insights When Presenting In Japan
In our lives, we have harvested a lot of experiences, which we can use in our presentations. If we were better organized, we might have had the forethought to keep notes, so it would be easier to refer to them when we are looking for material. Well there is a hint right there – keep notes from now on. You can just jot down in your Evernote or something similar, the key points you will want to recall later in a talk. Storytelling is not some Hollywood script writer level requirement for speakers. It is just telling our stories from real life and the lives of people we have observed. We can also share and acknowledge incidents from authors who have captured their experiences on paper, but in our own words. We just have to be observant and be able to see a good connection between a point we are making in our presentation and an example where we can relate it as a story. We know with planning our talk we should start with the conclusion of our talk first, boiled down to its essence. We then pick up the main points we are going to use to illustrate why our viewpoint or our conclusion is correct. We then design the opening to grab people’s attention, amidst the mad world they live in, which seems to permanently distract them. Now when we are fleshing out the key points we want to make, in the main body of the presentation, we are searching for evidence to back up our claims. This comes in the form of data, expert authority and stories to make the point come to life. This is the time to drop into the vault of our collection of stories and find good matches between the point and the story. This may seem hard at first, but when you reflect on why you think something, about an issue there is usually a good reason for it. Something happened which you witnessed or were aware of, which influenced your take on the matter. There will be a story in there somewhere. Usually these are either successes or failures. We can all become careful observers of things going on in our business lives, which we can sew into the fabric of what we will be saying in our talk. There is no shortage of actors and characters out there in businessland from which we can draw. Let’s start our collection today if we don’t have one and keep adding to it, if we do. Some of this stuff you couldn’t make up by the way, which is always exciting. The point is to capture it and employ it.
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217 Sales Is Simple In Japan
07/04/2024
217 Sales Is Simple In Japan
Imagine my surprise, as an expert in sales training, when I meet salespeople who have not spent even one second trying to master the bridging of the gap between value and cost. Sitting in the audience at a speaker event, next to a thirtyish Japanese sale’s guy, we talked about how he does his sales. He told me he contacts a lead, gets an appointment, shows up and explains the service and submits a quote. Really? On the blank side of meal menu, I mapped out the elements of the sales process for him. Prepare for the meeting and focus your intention on one thing – getting the re-order, not just the solitary sale. Build trust through establishing rapport. Create interest by asking extremely well designed questions to understand the client’s needs. Now tell the client whether we can help them or not and if we can, explain the how of our solution. There may be points of insufficient clarity, concerns, hesitations or downright objections to what we are proposing. We need to deal with those before we proceed to ask for the order, and then we do the follow up to deliver the service or good. I then asked him what does he do when the buyer says, “too expensive”. His answer had me reeling. With a cherubic mien, he told me he offered to “drop the price”. Incredulous, I asked “by how much do you usually drop it?”. He quoted 20% as the number. There were four other sales people in his team and if that is how they roll over there, then that is an expensive first response to client pushback on pricing. Here is the snapper – do you know what is happening inside your team? Are they also dropping the price immediately as their first counter to an objection on the money? He should have said, “why do you say that” when told it was too expensive? Was the price objection genuine, a ruse, sport negotiation, time bound, or irrelevant because they haven’t seen enough value yet to understand the price point? There will be one highest priority element in the too expensive objection. It might be the actual volume of cash involved, budget allocation timings, internal competing project competition concerns, etc. Which one is it – we need to know. The moral of this story is to take a very detailed look at what your salespeople are doing. Don’t confuse seven years of sales experience with one year of experience seven times. Also, don’t imagine that they have a process, that they know how to explain the value or to deal with objections. Based on what we see in our sales training classes and talking with clients, in Japan, the chances of that being the case are very, very, very low.
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216 Future Staff Requirements In Japan
06/27/2024
216 Future Staff Requirements In Japan
Japan loves rote learning and parents will pay cram schools to get their kids fully tuned up and on to the education escalator. Rote learning and exam technique is the standard educational approach in Japan right through to starting University classes. At University, unless you are trying for very specific careers like medicine, the elite bureaucracy or some job that requires you to pass a national exam, then the next four years are a type of Club Med for undergraduates. In the internet and AI age, when anything you want to know can be found through a search engine, how relevant is rote learning and exam technique for the future? We all know we need more innovation and creativity in companies. Where is this going to come from? If we think about the work skills, knowledge and abilities we will demand of our employees in the next twenty years, we can be absolutely sure the current Japanese system of education won’t be producing it. With lifetime employment, investing in training people made economic sense because you would reap the rewards. With greater job mobility on the horizon however, this social contract between staff and company will be broken. Young people, who will be in short supply due to demographic changes, will become like baseball free agents. They will rapidly discover they are able to swap teams for a better deal. So where are we up to? The companies aren’t training their staff as comprehensively as they once did. The staff themselves will find themselves being lured by recruiters to move on to greener pastures. I believe the educational construct in Japan basically has its ladder up against the wrong wall. What will become of this country? What will we need to do to prepare ourselves for this brave new world? Are we thinking about these prospects? If we haven’t spared a thought for this grim future of work, then now is a good time to take another look at assumptions, strategies, plans and targets. Those preparing now, will win in this coming war for talent. Game on!
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