エピソード

  • Incentivising Salespeople

    Incentivising Salespeople
    2026/11/08
    We like certainty. We like our routines. That is all fine for ordinary life, but it can be lethal in sales. When our best people become comfortable, even a strong sales organisation in Japan can stop growing. The question is how to create the right incentives without importing reward systems that do not fit the team. Why do salespeople become too comfortable? Comfort is the enemy of sustained sales growth because predictable repeat business can quietly replace prospecting and ambition. Most of us love routines. We get up, go to work, come home and repeat. Sales is different. Sales is chaos: fragile, uncertain and unreliable. We have to ride the tiger, not look for somewhere comfortable to dismount. I remember watching Kung Fu Panda with my son and laughing when the panda described stairs as his old enemy. In sales, our old enemy is comfortable. Once existing clients generate enough revenue to keep our jobs, the pressure to hustle, reach out and win new accounts disappears. A full calendar is not proof of a healthy pipeline. The test is whether we are generating new opportunities as well as servicing the old ones. This matters in Tokyo just as much as in any B2B sales organisation in Australia or the United States. Do now: Check how much revenue comes from repeat accounts and how many new opportunities your team created this month. Should sales managers focus on top performers or struggling sellers? Managers should protect the development of weaker sellers but put serious growth attention on the people capable of adding the most revenue. The Pareto 80/20 principle is a useful lens, not a guaranteed distribution for every sales team. Imagine one salesperson brings in ¥10 million annually and another ¥100 million. A 50% improvement from the first adds ¥5 million. A 20% improvement from the second adds ¥20 million. That is four times the incremental revenue, despite the smaller percentage gain. Yet managers often spend disproportionate time trying to rescue the weakest producers. Of course we cannot abandon people who need coaching. We should, however, distinguish between coaching to meet a minimum standard and coaching to scale the business. In Japanese corporate sales teams, where relationships can take time to develop, a strong performer with established accounts may have considerable room to expand. Do now: Compare the absolute yen upside from each seller, not just their percentage improvement. Why can public sales recognition backfire in Japan? Public leaderboards and individual praise can discourage some Japanese salespeople when visibility creates social pressure rather than pride. Foreign executives sometimes arrive in Japan with an incentive system that worked beautifully in another market. They announce individual rankings, celebrate the winner and assume everyone else will want the spotlight. Not necessarily. In some Japanese workplaces, people worry about standing out, embarrassing colleagues or being singled out by the boss. The top performer may dislike the attention, while others may feel they have lost face. That does not mean Japanese employees lack ambition or that nobody enjoys public recognition. Preferences vary by person, generation and company culture. The practical point is to ask before importing a reward ritual from the United States, Europe or Australia. Quiet recognition can carry more weight than a trophy presented in front of the entire office. Do now: Ask high performers how they would actually like their achievements recognised. Do high base salaries weaken sales incentives? A generous fixed salary can reduce the motivational impact of commission when salespeople already feel financially secure. I coached a client whose sales team received a ¥10 million base salary plus commission. The client could not understand why extra commission was producing so little extra effort. The answer was staring us in the face: the base salary already gave the team considerable security. In Japan, many salespeople prefer a dependable salary and regular bonus to a heavily commission-based arrangement. This is a tendency, not a rule for every individual or industry. Employers also compete for capable salespeople, so simply cutting the fixed component may drive talent away. The better question is whether the incentive creates a meaningful reason to exceed the target. A commission scheme that looks impressive on a spreadsheet but changes nobody's behaviour is not doing its job. Do now: Ask whether the reward for exceeding target is large enough to matter to the individual. How should companies structure sales commission in Japan? Keep a competitive base salary where recruitment demands it, then make exceptional performance genuinely worth the extra effort. Consider a salesperson earning a ¥5 million base and 10% commission. Asking that person to accept ¥4 million fixed pay in exchange for 15% commission may be a difficult sell. They see the guaranteed loss immediately and discount the ...
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    13 分
  • Selfish Presenters

    Selfish Presenters
    2026/11/01
    The microphone is not a reward for our importance. It is a responsibility to the people who have given us their time. A rambling celebrity speech at a Tokyo Rotary meeting reminded me how easily presenters forget that simple truth. Why do selfish presenters lose their audiences? Selfish presenters lose audiences because they treat speaking time as a personal privilege rather than an exchange of value. At a weekly Rotary meeting in Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, I watched a well-known celebrity in his eighties wander across unrelated topics and run well over his allotted time. Rotary meetings normally finish like clockwork. This one did not. The room included senior Japanese business executives whose schedules were already packed. The speaker appeared perfectly happy, but what had the audience gained? That is the question every presenter must ask. A famous name can attract a crowd, yet celebrity does not automatically make a message useful. Japan often gives established personalities considerable latitude, but indulgence is not the same as impact. The danger for any business speaker is confusing the audience's politeness with their appreciation. Do now: Before accepting the microphone, write down the one benefit the audience should take away. How does a self-centred speech damage an executive's brand? A self-centred executive speech damages the brand when the audience sees ego instead of useful leadership. I have seen the risk when high-powered CEOs fly in to address employees, clients or industry gatherings. Everyone fusses over them, the introduction is glowing, and the room treats them like rock stars. After enough of that treatment, a speaker can start believing the occasion is about their personal brilliance. It is not. Whether the setting is a Japanese corporate conference or a multinational leadership event, the speaker represents the organisation. Audiences notice when a CEO talks at them rather than to them. Even genuine expertise can become a liability when it is used to impress instead of clarify. A poor speech may leave listeners questioning the leader's judgement, not merely the presentation skills. Do now: Review the draft and remove material that flatters the speaker but does not help the listener. Can passionate experts become selfish presenters too? Passionate experts become selfish presenters when their fascination with the subject overwhelms the audience's needs. Technical specialists, founders and experienced consultants can fall into this trap without a trace of arrogance. They know the technology, product or methodology inside out and want to explain every fascinating detail. Unfortunately, the audience has not necessarily come for the full guided tour. A B2B customer may want to understand commercial outcomes, while an internal management team wants decisions, priorities and risks. In Japan, where listeners may hesitate to interrupt a senior speaker, silence can disguise confusion or boredom. Passion is an asset only when it is channelled into a clear benefit for the people listening. The speaker is the vehicle carrying the message, not the main act. Expertise should sharpen selection, not justify including everything. Do now: Cut interesting details that do not advance the audience's most important question. How should presenters research their audience in Japan? Presenters should research who will attend, why they are coming and what they hope to gain before designing the talk. Start with the practical information: company names, job titles, professional backgrounds and the balance of seniority in the room. Those details suggest what decisions the audience faces and which examples will resonate. But do not stop at a registration list. I like to mingle with early arrivals and ask what brought them along. Their answers often tell me more than a formal briefing. A group of Japanese executives may share a business context while holding very different concerns about strategy, sales or leadership. International attendees may also be more inclined to challenge a point publicly during questions. These are tendencies, not rules; never assume everyone will react alike. Good preparation makes room for individual interests. Do now: Ask the organiser what attendees expect, then test those assumptions in conversations before speaking. How can structure and delivery keep a presentation audience-focused? A clear structure and deliberate vocal emphasis help listeners recognise, remember and use the key messages. Decide first what the audience must understand, then organise the presentation so each point leads naturally to the next. Signpost the transitions. Give listeners a clear route rather than a pile of disconnected observations. Delivery matters just as much as content. When we stress key words and phrases, we signal which ideas deserve attention. Without that guidance, even a strong argument can disappear into a monotonous stream of information. Time discipline is part of the same obligation. A ...
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    12 分
  • Leaders Make Or Break The Firm

    Leaders Make Or Break The Firm
    2026/10/25
    Japan's shrinking pool of available workers is changing the leadership game. Cost control, quality, branding and competitive strategy still matter, but none will rescue a company whose people keep walking out the door. The real test is whether supervisors and middle managers create workplaces where employees feel valued, heard and keen to stay. Why are leadership and employee retention becoming inseparable in Japan? Japan's labour shortages make retaining capable employees a core leadership responsibility, not merely an HR administration task. For years, many Japanese employers assumed they could replace departing staff without much trouble. That assumption looks increasingly shaky as demographic pressure and competition for experienced workers make recruitment harder. Candidates can compare employers, speak to recruiters and investigate workplace reputations before accepting an offer. A strong corporate brand may get someone through the door; it will not persuade them to stay with a boss who treats them poorly. In a multinational, a Japanese conglomerate or a smaller local firm, employees experience the organisation through everyday decisions about workloads, recognition and respect. The old habit of treating turnover as an unavoidable personnel matter misses the commercial cost: vacancies, disrupted customer relationships and the time needed to bring replacements up to speed. Do now: Treat retention and manager behaviour as business performance indicators, alongside revenue and quality. Why do middle managers have so much influence over whether employees stay? Middle managers translate executive promises about culture into the daily experience that determines whether staff feel valued. The president can announce a wonderful people-first vision from the top floor. Wonderful. But the supervisor who allocates work, handles mistakes and responds to requests for help determines what that vision actually feels like. Employees judge the firm by whether their direct boss listens, recognises effort and applies rules fairly. A single dismissive manager can undo months of employer-branding campaigns. Conversely, a manager who understands the team's frustrations and ambitions gives people a reason to ignore recruiters' calls. This is particularly important when skilled employees have more than one employment option. Senior executives should not assume that a polished leadership presentation means their culture has arrived on the front line. They need evidence from the people being managed, not just reassurance from the managers themselves. Do now: Ask employees directly whether their immediate manager helps them succeed and makes them feel valued. How can Japanese employers make staff feel genuinely valued? Employees feel valued when their boss knows what matters to them, recognises specific contributions and follows through on support. A salary and a company badge are not enough. Managers need conversations that reveal professional goals, frustrations, hopes and obstacles. That does not mean prying into private lives. It means giving people room to explain the practical pressures that affect their work, including caring for ageing parents or children. In Japan, where some workplaces traditionally maintained a strict boundary between the office and home, this calls for judgement and empathy. Leaders should also connect each person's work to the wider purpose of the business. When someone suggests an improvement, respond seriously and explain what happens next. Nothing says 'we don't value your ideas' faster than asking for suggestions and then burying them. The credibility of an engagement message depends on consistent action, not the language of the annual staff survey. Do now: Schedule regular one-to-one conversations and close the loop on employee suggestions. What role should flexible working and HR play in retaining Japanese employees? Flexible working and supportive HR policies can help retain staff when managers apply them fairly and respond to real-life needs. The old image of HR as the rule police is a poor fit for a workforce managing family care, health appointments and different stages of life. Employees may need to arrive later, leave earlier or work remotely on suitable days. The pandemic accelerated acceptance of remote work, although the options still vary by occupation and company. A factory production role and an office-based consulting role cannot always operate under identical arrangements. Fairness therefore requires clear principles rather than pretending every job is the same. In Japan, a rigid refusal to consider reasonable flexibility can make a competing employer look considerably more attractive. HR should partner with operational managers to find workable arrangements, while managers must avoid quietly penalising people for using approved options. Flexibility is not a substitute for sound management; it is one way to demonstrate it. Do now: Review whether managers consistently ...
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    14 分
  • Salespeople To Avoid

    Salespeople To Avoid
    2026/10/18
    A long career in sales does not automatically make someone a professional salesperson. In Japan, I have met experienced representatives who launch into a polished product pitch without asking a single question about the buyer. That is not consultative selling. That is brochure delivery with a business card. How can you recognise an unprofessional salesperson in Japan? A salesperson who starts explaining a product before understanding your needs is displaying a serious gap in professional selling skills. The first test is simple: do they ask what you are trying to achieve, what constraints you face and why you are considering a purchase? Or do they reach for the brochure? In business-to-business sales and financial services alike, a presentation cannot replace discovery. I once met two experienced representatives from a major multinational insurance company in Japan. They had come to complete cancer insurance paperwork, but then moved straight into an annuity cross-sell. Neither asked about my investment objectives. Years of employment do not guarantee years of learning. A salesperson can repeat the same weak routine for two decades and still call it experience. Do now: Listen for thoughtful discovery questions before allowing a product presentation to begin. Why must salespeople ask questions before presenting products? Questions uncover the buyer's goals, risks and decision criteria, allowing a salesperson to recommend something relevant rather than simply available. The insurance representatives walked me through dollar-cost averaging, charts and a quiz about hypothetical investment returns. I answered correctly and received congratulations. Lovely. But where were the questions about retirement timing, family circumstances, existing investments and financial priorities? Nowhere. With an annuity, these considerations are central to suitability. In corporate sales, the equivalent questions concern business objectives, decision-makers, budgets and implementation risk. Japan's emphasis on relationships does not excuse weak diagnosis. In fact, careful questioning can demonstrate respect for the customer's circumstances. If the buyer has to do all the analytical work, the salesperson is not adding much value. Do now: Require discovery of objectives, constraints and decision criteria before recommending a solution. What should financial product salespeople know about fees and fund structures? Salespeople must understand the costs, underlying investments and limitations of the financial products they present. When I finally read the annuity brochure myself, I discovered a fund-of-funds structure and details of fees, including ongoing charges. I asked the two representatives about those costs. It became obvious they were unfamiliar with that section of their own brochure. That is astonishing when fees directly affect what a customer ultimately receives. The same principle applies beyond financial services: software subscriptions, training programmes and industrial equipment all carry costs and conditions buyers need to understand. Product knowledge means more than memorising the headline benefits. It includes being able to explain what the customer pays, what they receive and what might change over time. Do now: Test whether representatives can explain every material fee, condition and product limitation. Does twenty years of sales experience guarantee competence? No. Twenty years in a sales role may represent deep expertise, or merely one year of inadequate habits repeated twenty times. The representatives I met were seasoned, not newcomers. Their confidence and tenure could easily have reassured a buyer who did not ask detailed questions. Yet they skipped fundamental discovery and could not explain material charges. This distinction matters for sales directors across Japan, whether they manage multinational teams or domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. Seniority, loyalty and familiarity with the company are not substitutes for demonstrated ability. Nor should managers assume a long-serving salesperson has mastered consultative selling, negotiation or customer qualification. Skills must be observed, not inferred from age or length of service. Do now: Evaluate actual selling behaviour rather than using tenure as a proxy for capability. How can sales managers identify weaknesses in their teams? Short, realistic sales role-plays quickly reveal whether representatives ask useful questions and genuinely understand what they sell. Give a salesperson a realistic buyer scenario, then watch what happens. Do they begin with a product explanation or investigate the situation? Can they explain the commercial details without hiding behind marketing material? Can they handle an unexpected question about costs or suitability? A role-play need not become a theatrical production. Ten minutes of observation can expose habits that annual sales figures may conceal. Managers should also review discovery notes, coach ...
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    12 分
  • The Big Perspective Is Needed When Presenting

    The Big Perspective Is Needed When Presenting
    2026/10/04
    The podium is a powerful place for powerful ideas. Your audience has no idea where you are going to take them. For thirty or forty minutes, you are effectively master of the universe, omnipotent over everyone seated before you. The question is: what are you going to do with that remarkable opportunity? Too many business presentations stay safe, practical and buried in detail. They inform, but they don't elevate. A powerful presentation should occasionally take the audience above the weeds and give them a bigger perspective on their company, industry, country or even the world. Why Do Business Presentations Need a Bigger Perspective? Great business presentations do more than transfer information; they challenge audiences to think more deeply and differently. Businesspeople are naturally pragmatic. We talk about revenue, customers, costs, market share, productivity, people and performance. Nobody expects the CEO to mount the podium and deliver a fiery call to storm the Bastille. The danger is that this practicality makes our presentations too safe. We report what happened, explain what is happening and perhaps predict what will happen next. Everything is locked down and neutral. That may be professionally safe, but intellectually it can be pedestrian. If we never challenge ourselves to think beyond the immediate details, we won't challenge the audience either. Do now: Ask yourself what larger issue sits behind your immediate business topic and whether your audience would benefit from seeing it. Why Do So Many Executive Presentations Get Lost in Detail? Executives often spend vastly more time arranging slides than developing the one or two big ideas their audience should remember. PowerPoint, Keynote and presentation templates encourage us to think sequentially: slide one, slide two, slide three. We become consumed by charts, graphs, bullet points, fonts and the order of the deck. The presentation then becomes a collection of information rather than an intellectual journey. This problem is particularly easy to encounter in complex organisations, where presenters need to satisfy numerous stakeholders and demonstrate command of the detail. Yet senior executives usually need more than detail. They need perspective. The speaker should be asking: What does this mean for our industry? What might happen next? What danger are we failing to see? What opportunity are we overlooking? Do now: Before rearranging another slide, write down the single biggest idea you want your audience thinking about after you finish. How Can Speakers Turn a Company Issue Into a Bigger Business Idea? Take the immediate company problem and deliberately elevate it to the industry, societal, national or international level. Suppose your company is struggling to recruit younger employees. You can certainly discuss your recruitment figures, retention rates and employer branding. But why stop there? The bigger issue might be demographic change, changing attitudes towards careers, competition for talent or the future relationship between employers and employees. The same applies to sales, technology, leadership and customer service. A declining sales number can open a discussion about changing buyer behaviour. A technology investment can raise questions about how artificial intelligence will alter the division of labour between humans and machines. You are still talking about the real world. You are simply viewing that reality from a higher altitude. Do now: Take one problem in your presentation and ask, "What bigger trend does this represent?" Does a Big-Picture Presentation Risk Becoming Too Philosophical? Yes, if you overdo it. One or two substantial insights are usually enough to elevate a business presentation without turning it into a soapbox performance. We don't need every presentation to whir off into some philosophical tangent far removed from commercial reality. Our audiences came for something useful, and we should give it to them. The key is proportion. Spend most of the presentation dealing with the practical subject at hand. Then, at carefully selected moments, pull the camera back. Show the audience the wider landscape. This is where a speaker can ask what the current issue means for the industry in five years, how developments overseas may affect the local market, or what an apparently small change tells us about a much larger transformation. Then return to the practical implications. Do now: Identify one or two moments where you can deliberately shift from the immediate issue to the wider significance and then come back. How Can Presenting Improve an Executive's Own Thinking? Preparing to speak about the bigger picture forces executives to escape the everyday problems that normally dominate their working lives. Everyday business can bury us in the everyday, every day. Emails, meetings, budgets, personnel issues, customers, deadlines and targets consume our intellectual bandwidth. The podium gives us an excuse to rise ...
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    10 分
  • Coach For Team Japan Excellence

    Coach For Team Japan Excellence
    2026/09/27
    Japan's younger generation wants something different from the traditional boss. They need leaders who can explain the WHY behind the work, communicate persuasively, develop careers, build confidence and act as personal coaches. Sounds easy, doesn't it? We should be able to knock that lot off before lunch. Well, maybe not. The problem is that Japan no longer has the luxury of getting this wrong. The country's demographic decline means younger employees are becoming an increasingly scarce and valuable resource. As of March 2026, Japan had approximately 36.2 million people aged 65 and over but only around 13.3 million under the age of 15. For Japanese companies, retaining and developing young talent is moving from being an HR issue to becoming a business survival issue. Why do Japanese bosses need to become coaches? Japan's shrinking workforce means companies cannot afford to keep losing talented younger employees because their managers do not know how to lead, develop and coach them. Competition for younger Japanese workers will intensify as the population declines. The OECD continues to identify severe labour shortages caused by Japan's ageing and declining population, particularly among SMEs and non-manufacturing businesses. You can already see the impact in construction, retail, convenience stores, hospitality and food service, where companies increasingly depend on non-Japanese workers. This completely changes the role of the boss. Commanding people to do things may have survived in an era when labour was plentiful. It becomes considerably less effective when good employees have alternatives. The modern leader has to persuade people that staying, learning and developing within the organisation is worth their time. Do now: Stop thinking of coaching as an optional HR activity. In Japan's labour market, developing and retaining people is becoming a core management responsibility. Are young Japanese employees really leaving companies so quickly? Yes. Roughly one-third of recent Japanese university graduates leave their first employer within three years, making early-career retention a significant management issue. The latest Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare figures show that 33.8% of university graduates entering employment in 2022 left within three years. For high-school graduates, the figure was even higher at 37.9%. The rate also varies enormously according to company size. Among university graduates working for organisations with fewer than five employees, 57.5% left within three years. For companies employing 1,000 people or more, it was 27.0%. Money, job content, career opportunities and workplace conditions all matter, of course. But the immediate boss has enormous influence over an employee's daily experience. Young employees are constantly asking themselves: Am I learning? Am I progressing? Does anyone here care about my future? Do now: Treat retention as something managers influence every day, rather than something HR discovers during the exit interview. Why are many Japanese middle managers weak at coaching? Most Japanese middle managers were never systematically taught how to coach, so organisations often reproduce yesterday's management habits through OJT. On-the-job training is deeply embedded in Japanese corporate life. OJT itself isn't the problem. The problem is what happens when the person delivering the OJT has never received professional leadership or coaching training. The previous generation teaches the next generation what they themselves were taught. If you had a brilliant mentor, excellent. You were lucky. But hoping that every manager magically develops coaching capability through experience is not a management development strategy. The traditional Japanese boss was often expected to be technically competent, experienced and knowledgeable. The modern boss needs those qualities plus communication, persuasion, feedback, career development and coaching skills. That is a substantial shift. Do now: Companies should explicitly train managers in coaching rather than assuming that being promoted automatically equips someone to develop other people. How should a Japanese manager coach a younger employee? Effective coaching starts by identifying the skill required, agreeing on the desired outcome and making sure both the manager and employee own the goal. First, identify what capability is actually needed. There may be twenty possible things the person could improve, but trying to coach everything simultaneously is hopeless. Prioritise. Then picture the desired result together. What does good performance look like? What is the gap between current performance and that outcome? Next comes attitude. Different people are motivated by different things. What gets the boss excited may completely underwhelm a twenty-seven-year-old team member. This is where trust becomes critical. How well do you actually know the people working for you? What are their career ambitions? What ...
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    12 分
  • Sales Objection Handling Mastery

    Sales Objection Handling Mastery
    2026/09/20
    Sales objections are a normal part of selling. The problem is not that clients object. The problem is how salespeople react when they hear the objection. There is often a moment of brain fog. Then the salesperson recovers and springs into action — usually the wrong action. They start arguing with the client about why the objection is wrong. That effort normally goes nowhere. Sales objection handling is not about winning an argument. It is about understanding what is really preventing the buyer from moving forward, deciding whether that obstacle is legitimate and then determining whether you can solve it profitably. How should salespeople respond when a client raises an objection? The first response to a sales objection should be to investigate it, rather than immediately trying to answer it. What the client initially tells us is often just the headline. There is usually a much longer explanation sitting underneath it. Think of the objection as the tip of an iceberg. We can hear the few words sitting above the surface, but we cannot yet see all the reasoning underneath. This is particularly important in B2B sales in Japan, where buyers may be cautious about expressing every concern immediately. If we jump in with our magnificent answer to the first objection, we may be solving something which isn't actually stopping the sale. Ask questions. Clarify what they mean. Encourage them to explain their thinking. Do now: Don't fight the objection. Expand it until you understand what the buyer really means. How do you uncover the real sales objection? Keep asking what else is preventing the client from proceeding until you have exhausted their list of concerns. One objection may conceal another. Price might be mentioned first, for example, when the real concern is risk, internal approval, confidence in the supplier or reluctance to change. After uncovering the objections, ask the client to rank them. Which issue is the most important? Which one really prevents them from saying yes? Now we have something useful to work with. At this point, make a judgement. Is the highest-ranked issue a genuine and legitimate objection? If it doesn't sound convincing, you probably haven't reached the real problem yet. Keep digging. Salespeople often feel pressure to start selling immediately. Resist it. Diagnosis comes before prescription. Do now: Uncover all the objections, rank them and work on the highest-priority genuine objection first. Should salespeople always try to overcome an objection? No. Some objections cannot — and should not — be overcome if satisfying them would make the business unattractive or unprofitable. Once we understand the genuine objection, we have another judgement call to make. Can we actually provide what the client wants? Can we deliver it in the way they want? Can we do it at a price which makes commercial sense? This is where sales discipline matters. Some buyers engage in what I call "sport negotiating". Winning the negotiation becomes almost as important as buying the product or service. They want to see how far they can push the salesperson, particularly on price. We don't have to play. I would rather build a long-term relationship with a repeat buyer than lock myself into a transactional relationship with someone who constantly bullies suppliers. Do now: Before overcoming an objection, decide whether winning the deal is actually worth winning. How should you handle price objections in Japan? Protect your pricing because once you lower a price in Japan, that reduced figure can quickly become the new ceiling for future negotiations. If you decide that some movement is possible, you then have to judge how far you are prepared to move. Never casually surrender your best price. If you immediately offer the lowest possible figure, you leave yourself nowhere to go when the buyer pushes again. And they may push again. The objective is not simply to close the transaction. The deal still has to make financial sense. This is particularly important where your pricing reflects local Japanese costs rather than a foreign headquarters' assumptions. We recently encountered this with a global automotive company. Their overseas headquarters wanted Japanese pricing reduced to fit their global model. Yet the programme involved was already heavily subscribed at the existing Japanese price. There was no compelling reason to surrender the economics. Do now: Establish your walk-away point before negotiating and preserve enough margin to negotiate without destroying the value of the deal. How can you overcome the objection that a client is happy with their current supplier? You need clear differentiation and a low-risk way for the buyer to experience that difference for themselves. This objection can be tougher than price. Japanese companies often stay with suppliers they know and trust. Changing introduces uncertainty, and the perceived consequences of making the wrong choice may outweigh the perceived ...
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    13 分
  • The Mindset For Presentation Success

    The Mindset For Presentation Success
    2026/09/13
    Our mental approach to what we do has a huge influence on the result. We recognise this easily in sport and business, yet when it comes to presentations and public speaking, we often forget it. For many people, the problem starts long before they walk onto a stage or into a meeting room. We may carry old fears about speaking in front of others into adulthood. Then, as our careers advance and presenting becomes unavoidable, we focus immediately on slides, content and logistics rather than first getting our mindset right. That is a mistake. A presentation puts our personal and professional brand on public display. How we think about the presentation influences how confidently we deliver it, and confidence has an enormous impact on how the audience judges our credibility. Why is mindset so important for presentation success? Your presentation mindset affects how confidently you speak, how your audience perceives you and ultimately how much impact your message creates. Many professionals approach public speaking with negative self-talk. They imagine forgetting their words, being judged by the audience or making a mistake. Sometimes that fear may stretch back many years. I certainly experienced this myself. I successfully avoided public speaking until I was around 29 years old because I was fearful of it. Eventually, career progression makes avoidance impossible. Presentations, meetings, conferences, sales pitches and leadership communication all require us to stand up and communicate ideas. The danger is concentrating entirely on mechanics—slides, timing and logistics—while ignoring the mental preparation required to perform confidently. Confidence and credibility are closely connected when we present. We may feel nervous internally, but hesitation and uncertainty weaken the delivery of our message. Do now: Treat mindset preparation as part of presentation preparation. Before thinking about slides, decide how you want to think, feel and appear when you speak. Does confidence matter more than having great presentation content? Excellent content is important, but audiences also judge whether the speaker appears confident and credible enough to make that content worth listening to. I recently watched a speaker whom I initially thought was impressive. When I analysed the presentation afterwards, however, I realised he had not actually provided much breakthrough information or many particularly valuable insights. What impressed the audience was his confidence. He stood in front of everyone looking completely comfortable being there. The audience was buying his confidence as much as his actual message. This is an important warning for presenters who believe their content will somehow compensate for poor delivery. We sometimes tell ourselves, "My information is excellent, so the presentation technique doesn't really matter." That is rarely a sensible strategy. Most presenters are competing for attention. Their audience has other priorities, other thoughts and, increasingly, a device sitting directly in front of them providing unlimited alternatives. Do now: Never rely on content alone. Build both sides of the presentation equation: a valuable message and a confident delivery. How can presenters compete for the audience's attention? Presenters have to combine worthwhile content with engaging delivery because the audience can mentally—and digitally—leave the presentation almost instantly. Modern audiences are accustomed to multitasking. While supposedly listening to us, someone may be checking email, searching Google, scrolling through LinkedIn or looking at social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and countless other digital distractions are competing directly with the speaker. That means our presentation needs sufficient energy, confidence and value to hold attention. We have to sell two things simultaneously. First, our message is worth hearing. Second, we genuinely believe in what we are saying. Reading paragraphs of text from notes while barely looking at the audience makes both objectives much harder. Instead, know the material well enough to speak naturally from key points. Work the room. Look at people. Communicate the ideas rather than simply reading words. That becomes considerably easier when we have created the material ourselves or thoroughly adapted material someone else prepared. Do now: Know the content well enough to engage with the audience rather than hiding inside your notes. What is the best structure for preparing a confident presentation? Start with a strong opening, organise the presentation around three to five major points and deliberately design both your conclusion and your final close after questions. Presentation confidence becomes easier when the structure itself is clear. Begin with a powerful opening and introduce the central message you eventually want the audience to remember. Then isolate three to five key points that make your argument. Support those points with ...
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    13 分