Couverture de The Japan Business Mastery Show

The Japan Business Mastery Show

The Japan Business Mastery Show

De : Dr. Greg Story
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For busy people, we have focused on just the key things you need to know. To be successful in business in Japan you need to know how to lead, sell and persuade. This is what we cover in the show. No matter what the issue you will get hints, information, experience and insights into securing the necessary solutions required. Everything in the show is based on real world perspectives, with a strong emphasis on offering practical steps you can take to succeed.Copyright 2022 Direction Economie Management et direction
Épisodes
  • Lure Out Their Objections

    Lure Out Their Objections
    Oct 29 2026
    Salespeople love the fantasy of a buyer who listens politely, agrees with everything and signs immediately. Nice dream. In real business-to-business selling, especially in Japan, the buyer who challenges you may be far closer to purchasing than the buyer who says nothing. The trick is to lure out objections rather than celebrate their absence. Why are buyer objections a positive signal in B2B sales? Buyer objections often show that a prospect is seriously evaluating a purchase and thinking about the risks of saying yes. A buyer considering an expensive service, technology platform or training programme needs to justify the decision. Questions about price, implementation, timing and outcomes can reveal the criteria that matter. Silence, by contrast, gives the salesperson precious little to work with. It may mean the buyer is satisfied, but it can also mean they have mentally checked out. Don't confuse a pleasant meeting with a live opportunity. The real sales task is to discover what could stop the decision and help the buyer work through it. In consultative selling, a concern is useful information, not an insult to your offering. Do now: Welcome specific objections and ask which concern matters most to the buying decision. What does it mean when a prospect raises no objections? A prospect who asks no questions may lack interest, authority or enough information to assess the proposal. Too many salespeople emerge from a meeting delighted that nobody challenged the presentation. That is not necessarily good news. If the offer is complex or expensive, the buyer should have something to investigate. Perhaps you failed to establish urgency. Perhaps your value proposition did not connect with the buyer's actual problem. Or perhaps the person across the table is collecting information for colleagues and does not yet have a view. The salesperson needs to test the silence gently rather than assume agreement. Ask what issues their organisation would need to resolve before moving forward. A thoughtful question can expose the hidden obstacle before the proposal disappears into the corporate machinery. Do now: Treat an objection-free meeting as a reason to investigate, not a reason to forecast the sale. How does Japan's ringi decision-making process affect sales objections? Japan's ringi approval process can separate the person attending the sales meeting from the people who will ultimately evaluate or authorise the purchase. In Japanese corporate purchasing, internal consensus and circulating approval documents may involve several stakeholders. The individual who meets the supplier may be an information gatherer, an internal advocate or one member of a larger decision group. Their silence tells us very little about what finance, operations, senior management or the end-users will think. A multinational selling into Japan cannot simply import an assumption that one enthusiastic contact controls the deal. Equally, not every Japanese company follows the same process. Map the actual stakeholders, their concerns and the route to approval. The more people who must agree, the more important it becomes to surface their questions early, while there is still time to respond. Do now: Ask who else will review the proposal and what objections each group may raise. How can salespeople draw out hidden objections without pressuring buyers? Salespeople can uncover hidden objections by asking calm, specific questions about risks, approval criteria and potential barriers. Avoid the clumsy 'Any objections?' followed by an awkward silence. Instead ask, 'What might make this difficult to approve internally?' or 'Which part of this proposal would your colleagues challenge?' Invite the buyer to imagine the discussion after you leave the room. This gives them permission to be candid without feeling they are confronting you personally. Follow up with curiosity, not a defensive lecture. If the concern is cost, explore the business impact and competing priorities. If it is implementation, discuss the people, time and resources required. The goal is not to defeat the buyer in an argument. It is to help the buyer make a decision they can defend. Do now: Prepare three open questions that make it easy for the buyer to reveal reservations. What can a large proposal with few questions tell a salesperson? A surprisingly quiet response to a much larger-than-expected proposal may indicate that the people in the room are not the final decision-makers. Consider a pitch to a financial institution where the proposed scope was roughly ten times what the representatives expected. There were few objections. That could look like a triumph to an inexperienced salesperson. More plausibly, the attendees had not yet engaged the people who would bear the cost, approve the budget or use the solution. A major difference in scope should trigger discussion about priorities, affordability, delivery and outcomes. When it does not, investigate the buying process. Ask ...
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    9 min
  • Self Sufficiency When Leading

    Self Sufficiency When Leading
    Oct 22 2026
    Leadership is not a spectator sport. We can spend our days comparing ourselves with famous CEOs, successful entrepreneurs and people who appear to have been dealt a better hand. None of that comparison changes our circumstances. Self-sufficiency begins when we take responsibility for the time, choices and opportunities still available to us. Why does comparing ourselves with successful people undermine leadership? Constant comparison shifts our attention from what we can control to advantages we imagine other people possess. The beauty, fashion, entertainment and celebrity industries sell an attractive fantasy. Business has its own version: the wealthy founder, the charismatic CEO and the executive whose career seems to have been one uninterrupted triumph. We see the results, but rarely the disappointments, lucky breaks or years of effort behind them. That is a poor basis for judging our own lives. A manager in a Japanese SME and an executive in a multinational will have very different resources, yet both can lead effectively within their circumstances. Comparing their titles or budgets tells us little about their contribution. Envy uses up energy without producing a single better decision. The productive question is not why somebody else has more. It is what we can do with what we have today. Do now: Identify one comparison that distracts you, and replace it with an action you can personally influence. How can leaders stop past mistakes from controlling their future? Leaders move forward by acknowledging past mistakes without allowing those mistakes to dictate today's decisions. We all have decisions we would like to revisit. Perhaps we hired the wrong person, missed a business opportunity or failed to speak up when it mattered. Replaying the episode does not rewrite the outcome. It can, however, steal the attention we need for the next challenge. The distinction is between learning and dwelling. Learning asks what happened, what it taught us and what we will change. Dwelling simply runs the same unhappy film again. This matters in Japan as much as anywhere else, where managers may feel strong responsibility for team outcomes and professional reputation. Responsibility is useful when it prompts corrective action; it becomes a burden when it freezes us. Put the lesson in one compartment and leave the emotional replay there. Then return to the work in front of you. Do now: Write down one lesson from a past setback and one specific decision it will improve. What does it mean to become your own first responder? Being your own first responder means taking the first practical steps to improve your situation rather than waiting for someone to rescue you. When an emergency occurs, first responders do not stand around admiring the problem. They assess the situation, establish priorities and act. We need the same attitude when our confidence slips, our career stalls or our business faces a difficult period. Other people can help us, and good leaders should ask for support when it is needed. But the first move is ours. We must decide that the situation deserves attention and create a workable rescue plan. For a sales manager, that might mean reviewing a weak pipeline and scheduling more client conversations. For a team leader, it could mean tackling an unresolved conflict instead of hoping it disappears. Self-sufficiency is not isolation. It is ownership of the next move, even when the full solution requires colleagues, advisers or mentors. Do now: Name your most pressing obstacle, then take one concrete first-responder action within 24 hours. Why is time a leader's most valuable personal resource? Time is the resource every leader can choose to allocate, even when money, status and circumstances are outside their immediate control. We cannot recover yesterday's hours. We can decide what happens to the next hour. That makes time a powerful starting point for self-sufficiency. Senior executives may have larger budgets and more staff than emerging managers, but both must decide where their attention goes. A calendar crowded with low-value meetings leaves little space for coaching, planning or improving the business. A leader who protects even a modest block of time for important work can change that pattern. The point is not to become obsessed with productivity or to pretend everyone has identical freedom. Family obligations, workload and organisational constraints are real. The point is to find the portion of time we can direct and use it deliberately. Small amounts of focused time, repeated consistently, create possibilities that endless comparison never will. Do now: Reserve a realistic weekly block of time for one activity that strengthens your future. How do vision and realistic goals create self-sufficiency? A clear vision gives direction, while realistic goals turn that direction into actions we can take now. A vague desire to be more successful is not a plan. What would success actually look like? Perhaps ...
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    8 min
  • Don't Be Flat When Presenting In Japan

    Don't Be Flat When Presenting In Japan
    Oct 15 2026
    "The good is the enemy of the great" applies nowhere more directly than the podium: a competent, well-prepared presenter can still deliver a talk that's instantly forgettable. As of 2026, with audiences arriving at conferences and client meetings already fatigued by notifications and back-to-back video calls, the margin between "solid" and "memorable" has narrowed to something specific and learnable — the missing "ten degrees of heat" that separates adequate content delivery from a presentation people actually remember. Why do competent, well-prepared presentations still fall flat? Covering content, answering questions, and finishing on time is not the same as delivering an impactful presentation — that requires an extra intensity most speakers never add. A technically sound talk can still fade from an audience's memory within minutes if it never breaks through the baseline noise of a busy day. This gap between competence and impact shows up across formats, from internal team briefings to keynote conference slots, and it's rarely a content problem — the material is usually fine. What's missing is the deliberate injection of energy that signals "pay attention now" rather than "here is information." Do now: Rate your last presentation's opening 30 seconds on energy alone, separate from content quality. Why does a lackluster opening doom an otherwise strong presentation? When a speaker begins at the same energy level as pre-talk small talk, the audience never receives the signal that something worth their full attention has started. Audiences arrive distracted, minds already full from meetings, commutes, and phones, so an opening that blends into ambient chatter fails to interrupt that distraction. This differs from a strong opening, which forcibly resets attention through pacing, tone, and content choice. Presentation coaches across markets — from Tokyo boardrooms to Silicon Valley pitch sessions — consistently flag the first thirty seconds as the highest-leverage, most under-used moment in any talk. Do now: Rewrite your opening line so it couldn't be mistaken for small talk if overheard out of context. What makes an opening "hook" actually work? A vivid story, a striking statistic, or a compelling quote works because it interrupts the audience's default state of passive half-attention. These hooks succeed by creating an immediate question in the listener's mind — what happens next, why does that number matter, what does that quote mean here — which pulls focus forward rather than letting it drift. This is different from simply stating the topic or agenda, which gives the brain nothing to hold onto. Speakers who consistently open this way, rather than with logistics or thanks, report noticeably higher audience retention through the rest of the talk. Do now: Draft three possible hooks — a story, a statistic, a quote — for your next presentation and pick the strongest. How do voice, eye contact, and gestures amplify a strong opening? A strong voice, deliberate gestures, and sustained eye contact turn a good opening line into a physically felt moment of attention. Eye contact matters even with large audiences — holding focus on individuals for roughly six seconds at a time creates a sense of shared attention and personal accountability, rather than a vague, unfocused gaze across the room. Voice modulation and gesture reinforce the verbal hook, making the physical delivery match the intensity of the content. Skipping these physical tools, even with excellent scripted words, leaves a hook underpowered. Do now: Practise your opening line out loud with deliberate eye contact on an imagined six-second cycle. How does physical positioning add authority and connection on stage? Moving closer to the audience or adjusting stance and posture can visibly shift how much authority and warmth a speaker projects. Standing over a seated crowd, for instance, adds a subtle sense of power to a speaker's presence, while closing physical distance can build warmth and connection depending on the moment's intent. These positioning choices work alongside vocal dynamics and eye contact rather than replacing them — non-verbal cues compound, they don't operate in isolation. Presenters who plan movement deliberately, rather than staying rooted at a lectern, tend to hold audience engagement longer. Do now: Identify one moment in your next talk where moving closer to the audience would reinforce your point. How do speakers sustain the energy of a strong opening through the whole talk? Vocal variety, well-placed pauses, and consistent energy levels are what prevent a strong start from sliding into monotone by the midpoint. Pauses in particular do double duty — they build anticipation before a key point and give the audience space to absorb it after, both of which reinforce memorability more than continuous, even-paced delivery. A powerful beginning makes sustaining energy easier because it sets the audience's ...
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    9 min
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