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 sec…

Large organisations have many willing hands. Often, the quality of the people employed is very high, and the firm has the deep pockets sufficient to attract and retain them. Leading smaller firms is more challenging. There is a large degree of multi-tasking going on, as the workload gets spread across the troops. Everyone is busy, busy, busy and th…

Storytelling is usually associated with novels of hundreds of pages, movies lasting two to three hours, television drama series fifty minutes long per episode. In sales in Japan we get a mini window to the buyer that, hopefully, in the first meeting will last an hour. During the second meeting, to present the solution, we will also get around the h…

At different times, I have done both formal and informal one-on-one coaching for people who want to improve their presentations skills in Japan. Most people can understand the concepts of voice modulation, gesture usage, posture, movement on stage, energy projection, design elements, slide deck build rules, rehearsal importance, etc. The one area w…

Previously Emmanuel was the Representative Director for Camso (Michelin Japan and Korea), General Manager European Project Sumitomo Riko, Business Development Director Japan and Korea EFI Automotive, Customer Service Manager PPG Industries, Marketing and sales Michelin, Market Research Staubli. He has an MBA in International Management and Japanese…

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 …

Teams don’t build themselves. They are delicate, fragile and unstable. They need constant care and attention from the leader. Despite the sexiness, a team of stars is not what we want either. They will always lose to a star team, a united front of uncompromising commitment to each other and to winning. Here are some things to think about when build…

Bosses love hunters. They beat the bushes and find new clients for the business. Usually, they love the thrill of the hunt and wrestling the buyer down to do the deal. CRM systems, paperwork, boring follow-up detail—not so much. This is the preserve of the farmer. That person you can entrust the client to, knowing that they will be well taken care …

Recently, I was asked to coach the President of a 100,000 person company with a long history for his presentation. What I noticed was how difficult it was to do a good job of promoting the firm, without it sounding like a blatant commercial for the business. Many of us in business are asked to give public presentations and these are excellent oppor…

Ross Rowbury, Previous President of Edelman Japan, celebrated his 40th anniversary since first arriving in Japan as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. Mr. Rowbury began his career in the finance sector in banking and securities before moving on to PR roles specializing in finances. With several years of leadership experience in foreign financial firm…

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…

When I first got to Tokyo in 1979, there was a very well established corporate educational system in Japan. Unlike Universities in Australia where you studied a subject and expected to work in a closely related field, Japan was concentrating on producing generalists. It didn’t matter what you had studied at University, because the company would edu…

I received this note following my attendance at a networking event run by one of the foreign Chambers of Commerce here in Tokyo. “Dear Greg Story , I hope this message finds you well. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I truly enjoyed our conversation and the valuable insights you shared. Please feel free to reach out if there is anything I can ass…

Seamless Slides and Stellar Delivery. Unlocking AI’s Potential in Presentations In Japan Something I had never heard of before called “Steampunk” popped up in my TikTok feed. Now I write a daily blog published on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, called “Fare Bella Figura: Make a Good Impression, Be A Sharp Dressed Man” on the subject of classic m…

Jeremy Sampson, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan, originally started his career at Hilton Hotel in Australia, before moving to Japan to teach English. He joined Robert Walters as an Associate in 2005. In 2008, Mr. Sampson became the team manager specializing in manufacturing and heavy industries, coinciding with the Global Financial Crisis…

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 stra…

The blow torch has never been applied more ferociously to how leaders lead than what we see today. Once upon a time, there were resumes pilling up to consider who we would hire. We had the whip hand, and the applicants felt the lash. Now the roles have been reversed and the applicants are interviewing us, rather than the other way around. I have do…

“Thank you for submitting your proposal for our capability development project. We appreciate the time and effort your team invested in preparing the proposal. After careful consideration, we have decided to proceed with another vendor whose proposal more closely aligns with our current needs and strategic direction. This decision was not easy, giv…

We see a lot written about public speaking and presenting. Usually it is on the assumption we are the sole speaker or one of a line-up of speakers who wow the audience one after another. Interestingly, a lot of speakers I see these days are often members of expert panels, herded together by the MC and taken through the key points of the topic. I al…

Once you walk the talk over a given period of time as a leader, you gain trust, and then people will follow you, instead of just doing what you say. Then you start getting buy-in and ideas and you can work cross-functionally. On engagement surveys, if you are giving a very low score, then you should not be coming into the office. If you are not goi…

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 “talk…

We recently completed an in-house Leadership Training for Managers programme for a local Japanese firm. The President founded the firm as a spin-out from a well-established international accounting company many years ago and has successfully grown the organisation. He is now considering succession planning and aims to develop his senior leadership …

n the West, we often emphasise that inaction doesn’t necessarily mean safety for the buyer, and there is a real cost to taking no action. We talk about the “opportunity cost” of doing nothing. A buyer’s competitors aren’t stagnant; they’re actively seeking new advantages with something better or more advanced. The market is never still either, as i…

I had two interesting experiences last week. One was watching the aspirants for a top position in a Chamber of Commerce go head-to-head for the votes of the members by giving talks about why they should be elected. I love attending these types of events because as an instructor of public speaking; I know there are always a lot of life and business …

As a leader, I learned to not compete on things I did not have expertise in. I had a financial background, not a technical background, so there was no use trying to convince technically strong employees on that front – I had to use financial data as facts in order to convince my employees to accept that things needed to change in order to grow on t…

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, wha…

Are you sitting too much and for too long at your desk every day? Are you eating too much every meal because your mother told you when you were a kid to finish everything on your plate. Are you hitting the booze after work with your mates or at home to rid yourself of your stress? Are your kidneys and liver in good shape? Are you carrying around to…

One of the worst combos in sales is a virtual meeting online and the buyer says, “send me your proposal” or even more insane, you volunteer to send it. Even if you managed to sit down face-to-face with a buyer, do not under any circumstances finish up the meeting with this sentence, “I will send you my proposal”. Sale is hard enough as it is, so wh…

In Australian politics, they call it a “Dorothy Dixer”. This is when one of your confederates from your own political party ask a ruling Minister a real soft ball question in the parliament during Question Time, to allow for a fully pre-prepared answer. Dorothy Dix was an American newspaper advice columnist who would answer reader’s questions, and …

Laurent Depus, President of Natixis Japan Securities, the Japanese branch of French bank corporation Natixis, has been working in Japan for over 30 years. Originally from Belgium, he aimed to become an English and Spanish interpreter but changed his career course when he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in Luxemburg as a trader. After experiencing vario…

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 an…

We know that AI has gone from the domain of geeky people in white lab coats to the mainstream of business in a nanosecond. Such speed is difficult to keep up with and the roll out of new options continues unabated. As the leader how do we surf this tech wave and prepare our people for this AI enabled future/ Making data backed decisions is always p…

Hunting for new clients is difficult and expensive. Marketing tries to drive people who are seeking our solution to our door through the website, advertising, search words and SEO. That all costs a lot of money and the success ratio can be quite low. We attend networking events and these usually cost money too. Now our most fundamental sales goal i…

There are 6 elements we should check when putting our visuals together. Review this checklist before you start building the slide deck and your presentation will be much more impactful and successful. 1. Make sure you are boss of the visuals and not the other way around Often, the speaker is overshadowed by the visuals and everyone’s attention is d…

Summary When you lead people, you have to lead them in a way they are going to follow. In Japan, when you teach a class, you line people up in order of seniority and you stand in front of the class. It seems very regimented but everyone is perfectly comfortable because they know their role and where they are supposed to be so that allows for perfor…

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-morn…

Recently, I was teaching a class of APAC executives on how to handle pushback to their ideas. Some participants were senior legal counsels, who frequently had to say "no" to their salespeople. As a salesperson myself, being told "no" is something that comes with the territory and is not intimidating at all. In fact, we often hear "no" most of the t…

We know that there are a lot of salespeople who are totally untrained. They have cobbled together bits and pieces of the sales process but they don’t have the whole picture in their brains. I remember when Dave Stearns, a Carnegie Master Trainer came to Tokyo to certify us a Sales Trainers. He started with the top right hand corner of the whiteboar…

It's been a while since I attended a highly technical talk by serious experts. The audience, however, was not as expert, so the two speakers knew they were addressing a less specialized group. Complex topics require special handling.Piling a lot of data onto one slide is a big no-no, but that didn’t stop our intrepid, geeky speakers. One of them, a…

Today Bela is the Chief Executive of Sans Frontiers Enter Japan K.K., Board Advisor to Soul Mate Company, Senior Executive at Life Lab Inc., and previously Adjunct Professor at Temple University, Vice-President and Board Director at Haagen Dazs Japan, Head of Marketing Nokia Japan & Korea, Management Consultant at Schweiger Marketing & Co., Directo…

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 impossib…

Pulling rank on people is clearly the fastest and easiest way to get people to fly straight and do what we want. It is also a very dangerous choice in Japan in an era when the demand for people is so strong and the supply so limited. Mobility today means people have choices. If you are not interested in what they have to say or their ideas, they wi…

Basically, we know that a third of the potential buyers we meet will never buy from us, another third will buy, but not right now and the remaining third are ready to go, if they can be convinced to take action right now. The issue though is when we meet them for the first time, we don’t know which bucket they fit into and we can waste a lot of tim…

As a vigorous networker, constantly in motion, always looking for new clients, I attend a lot of events. Usually there are speakers or panel discussions or sometimes both. In this regard, I probably see over 100 people a year presenting in Japan. One consistent theme across all of these presentations is the lack of understanding of the “ba” (場) whe…

Previously Eduard was sales director Outokumpu VDM Japan, Sales Director at ThyssenKrupp VDM Japan. He has a B.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Vienna, and an M.A, from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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. …

Have you ever had the experience of leaving a job and seeing your successor screw it up? We spend so many hours at work and we are trying hard to lift the bar through our leadership. However, if we do well, we get promoted or we join another company seeking a bigger job. It is very disheartening to leave and see the place go backwards under your re…

I am a great fan of Victor Antonio, who writes books, gives lectures and training on sales. I listen to his Sales Influence Podcast and he has a lot of solid, credible advice. In a recent episode he spoke about not using “weasel words” in sales and being more directive and certain with the buyer. Weasel words are defined as “words or statements tha…

This seems a ridiculous construct – of course we when we are presenting in business we shouldn’t lie. However, look at what is happening in the rest of the world. Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the American political debate to explain lies. Donald Trump rails against the fake media and fake news. It would appear that many peop…

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 airlin…