Access to social media has really democratised salespeople’s ability to sell themselves to a broader audience.  Once upon a time, we were reliant on the efforts of the marketing team to get the message out and, in rare cases, the PR team to promote us.  Neither group saw it as their job to help us as a salesperson, and they were more concentrated on the brand.  Today we have the world at our beck and call through social media.

We can promote ourselves through our intellectual property.  We can post blogs on areas of our expertise.  We can do video and upload that to YouTube, one of the biggest and most powerful search engines.  There are so many paths to the mountaintop, and they are all free.  Of course, the platforms are looking for money and so they shaft us and only show our stuff to a minute section of our followers, but the price is right.

I was making this point in a recent speech to the American Chamber here in Tokyo, which you can see on YouTube.  One question following my recommendation to salespeople to get out there and promote theirexpertise and experience, was “what about the haters?”.  It is a good point and if you are delicate and sensitive, then social media could be a bruising encounter for you and your content.  Or like me, you can just ignore it and work on the basis that people who get it know you are an expert, because they consume your content and they will ignore the haters as well.

Let me provide a real life case study for you. I was recently involved in a thread on LinkedIn responding to a post by the author about promoting your credentials when speaking in Japan, otherwise the audience won’t trust what you say.  I didn’t agree with the way this was characterised by the author and so added my “expert” comment.  Most people just ignored what I was saying, because they had what they wanted to say as their main interest and fair enough.  One person though said, “master trainer and executive coach coming in to bash an entire 125 million people country as non-professional in a single comment and blatantly disregard any suggestion on how to customize the message to appeal to a specific audience. Excellent communication strategy! 笑”.

So what would you do with this type of criticism? 

We can ignore it, as I suggested during my AmCham speech, or we can choose to expose it.  On this occasion, I decided to expose it.  This was my reply, “tell us your experience and share your insights. I am relating mine based on my experience here since 1979 and over 550 public speeches in Japan. Your comment doesn’t match with what I am suggesting from what I can see. What do you suggest that is diametrically opposed to what I am saying? I have published 373 blogs on LinkedIn on presenting in Japan and the same number of recordings for my podcast The Japan Presentations Series and published my book Japan Presentations Mastery as well as teaching the High Impact Presentations course. How about you - tell us what you have done?”.

As you see, I am heaping on my own credibility in my reply and asking the critic to pony up and tell us their credentials.  I chose this route for a simple reason. I have a very high profile here because I have published 7 books, including three best sellers, and release six audio podcasts and three video podcasts a week. I also pump out four additional videos a day through LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram and Threads.  You may not have this type of onslaught happening and can simply ignore the irritation.  I didn’t plan it this way, but I also drown out any critics, because of the constant flow of content I keep posting every day.  Their previous negative posting gets pushed down the fold in the screen and just disappears.  It remains high in their postings on their page, but is crushed by my new posts on my page and is soon forgotten.

In my reply, I made a special point of not criticising the person making the negative comment, but challenged them to put up and tell us what they would recommend.  This reply comes across as reasonable and not getting bogged down in the mud and the blood of personal recriminations. Never go there, because this is our public profile and we have to maintain our professional decorum.

Will I keep going in my responses, if they keep adding criticisms?  Probably not.  They have been challenged to show what they know. If they go the personal attack route, it is better to stand above the riffraff and ignore their salvos.  People reading the thread will see they have got no experience or expertise and will discount what they say as mere opinion.

As salespeople, we should use social media etc., to get our expertise out there for potential buyers to find us and to assure potential buyers we meet, that we are the real deal.  Today, buyers will search us out before they meet us to better understand who they are dealing with. 

Now, if they searched on you, what will they find?  In my case, everything is business.  I chose to not to mix business with personal on social media. I want to present myself as an expert in leadership, sales, communications and presentations because as a training company, that is what we provide to our clients.  It is always congruent. I don’t stray from those areas because I am conscious I have a limit to my time and my expertise.  I try to control what the potential buyer sees from me.  In this way, I can control my personal and professional brand.

Japan is facing a serious shortage of staff in many industries.  The job-to-applicant ratio rose to 1.28, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced recently. The ratio means there were 128 job openings for every 100 job seekers.The figure has not yet reached the pre-pandemic level of 1.6 in 2019. The hospitality sector in particular, lost a lot of part-time staff during Covid and they haven’t returned in numbers sufficient to match the needs of employers.  Hotels are getting back to pre-Covid occupancy rates, but they worry they don’t have enough staff to clean rooms and run the Hotel at the standards they adhere to.  In July, the Japan Times noted 75.5% of surveyed hotel operators said they face shortages of regular employees while 78% said they lack part-time and other nonregular workers.

The Immigration Services Agency recently announced the total number of foreigners in Japan has topped 3 million for the first time. The Japanese government has created a new skilled workers No. 2 visa category, just for the construction and shipbuilding industries. The Nikkei Asia in April quoted the Japan International Cooperation Agency estimates that, given Japan’s labor shortage, reaching the government’s economic growth target for 2040 would require nearly quadrupling the number of foreign workers to 6.74 million.

This is a profound change for Japan, which as a society highly values conformity and harmony.  No “melting pot” for Japan. Foreigners in large numbers may threaten that harmony, because they don’t appreciate how things work here.  The Government is facing that labor shortage head on though and creating more visa availability for foreign labourers to enter Japan and do the jobs locals don’t want to do. 

In the white collar world, the language barrier and the weak yen, both guarantee that there won’t be a rush of foreigners coming here to take up jobs.  That means that for most multi-national companies, there will continue to be a war for talent for Japanese staff.  If you require English as well, the pool of talent available becomes tiny.  If you are a large corporation, you will have deep pockets and can offer large base salaries to attract people to join you.  If you are a small to medium size business, then the nightmare has already started and will only get worse.

The Council for the Creation of Future Education, chaired by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, has the goal for Japanese students studying abroad to reach 150,000 students seeking to earn degrees by 2033. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengō) conducted a survey in 2022 which showed 30% of new employees quit their jobs in the first three years. This more mobile younger group, called the Dai Ni Shinsotsu (second stage fresh graduates) will be attractive to target, especially those with international exposure, better English and a few years of work experience.  They will still need extensive training, though.

In the world of sales in Japan, the picture is very grim.  If you need English speaking capability, the pool of talent available is very shallow and we are all competing fiercely for a limited resource. In my hiring experience, I have noticed over the last seven years that salespeople are becoming more expensive and certainly very expensive relative to their ability. The vast majority of salespeople everywhere are untrained and they are working it out by trial and error.  Japan is just the same.  Assuming that someone knows what they are doing after working for a number of years in sales is too optimistic in my experience.  Bosses need to accept that they will need to give these salespeople training to get their skills to the levels required.  We teach a lot of salespeople here and we notice some common trends. They need particular work on asking questions to fully understand the buyer’s needs rather than just delivering their pitch. Also, they need help on handling pushback from the client on pricing in Japan. The typical response here to drop the price by 20%, when confronted with the buyer’s “your price is too high” statement, isn’t the best choice. They need to be taught how to handle objections properly.

The sales staff supply shortage moves the locus of power to Japanese salespeople.  They know they are in strong demand and they can be very picky about who they join.  The resume flow is also very brittle and thin.  The range of choices is not there and if you get to interview someone, you are thinking this is a good day at work.  Like me, if you have been hiring people on and off over many years, the first thing you notice is the quality is going south at a rapid clip. 

Facing sub-standard talent, we have to make some serious adjustments.  We have to totally rework our on-boarding process and make it much longer, more comprehensive and intensive.  We need to really train people hard during the Probation period, so we need a longer period of six months. The quality of people we will meet will likely stay low and more often than not, they are the dregs of this Japan sales life. 

We have to get someone, so we will hire the upper echelons of these dregs of the sales world here in Japan. They are going to need serious, professional sales training and considerable constant coaching to get them up to speed.  This is going to be resource heavy. The improvement process won’t be fast either, so we have to accept that additional burden on our small businesses.  Our old idea that we can just hire them in and then fire them when they don’t perform is well out of date.  Current entry funnels are too shallow and so we will have few choices.

Our future Japan sales staffing prospects look bleak, choices are few and we must make legendary compromises. The answer is to invest in training our salespeople in order for us to survive.

Sales people are in massive competition today, with all the distractions that are out there for the client’s attention.

We want to get our message across about how we can help build the client’s business, but it is a tough row to hoe because of all the competition we face from meetings, emails and social media. There are so many things that are occupying the minds of our clients and our buyers before we get to talk to them. We have the appointment, we have their time; we turn up on the day. But inside their minds, there’s a lot going on about what has already happened in the day and what is going to happen in the day. They are thinking about many things, but not about us.

There’s a great little acronym, C A R E S  cares, which will help us break through some of that competition we have for their attention.

C stands for compliment. When you go to someone’s office, there might be something there that’s really spectacular or something that’s very impressive, so pay them a compliment. But don’t pay them the sort of compliment that every other salesperson coming through the door is giving them.

There’s a company here who have a very beautiful foyer entrance wall.  It is a very spectacular wall feature. Now, I know every single salesperson who goes there will say, “Oh, what a spectacular wall feature”. We have to do better than that. We can go in say, “You have a beautiful office.  Have you found that it has really impacted the motivation of the team since you moved here?” We have to say something a bit more intelligent. We are now asking about the impact of the feature on their business. Importantly, we are now on a business topic.

A is for Ask.  We ask a question. It might be something like, “how have you found things going with the prospect of a rise in taxes. Is your company confident that this is not going to have a big impact on your business?” So we get them into a business discussion straight away about where their business is going, getting them to talk about how they see the future. This is good for us, because we get an idea, a glimpse, into where they’re going.

R is for referral. Now a referral could be someone who’s introduced us to them or someone that maybe we know mutually. “I was talking to Takeshi the other day and he said you guys are doing a great job over here. He suggested, maybe I should come and talk to you, and so here I am today. I’d like to really find out a bit more about your business. Let’s see if there is any possibility where we we can help you take your business even further”. We can say something like that to get into a business discussion.  We break into what they have been thinking, to move them to where we can go with our conversation today.

E is for educate. Now as salespeople, we often turn up, and we have this great questioning model. We want to ask a lot of questions. We want to find out about their business, where they want to go with it, what is stopping them, what is it going to mean for them if we can see some success, etc. The problem is, this is all very much one way traffic in our favour.

It is more important that we can come in and talk about something which is really valuable to them. We can share some information we’ve picked up in the market, something we have seen in the media or something we have seen that is relevant to their industry or their sector of the industry. We can talk intelligently about these topics because when we are in sales, often we are dealing with a very broad range of industries and companies. We will see something working in another industry which might have some good benefit to them in their industry. When we connect the ideas together, they see a benefit in talking to us because they are being provided with some information they didn’t have to help grow their business.

Lastly S is for startle.

Now this is a technique where you can break through all the competition going on in their minds, which is conflicting with our delivery of the message. We need something which is really going to make them sit up and take notice. For example, “The youth population in Japan has halved in the last twenty years. It is going halve again in the next thirty years.  We are going to run out of people for staffing our companies. We will run out of clients. What do you think about this for your company? What are your specific market demographic prospects? How are you going to deal with this major change?”.

From the very start of the conversation, we get them on to a business topic.  We get them thinking about business with us. From this point, we are going to move along the sales cycle and go into the sales questioning phase. The bridge to our solutions explanation will be our credibility statement.

 This CARE formula is useful to get a little bit of conversation going, so they start to feel comfortable with us. They will like us, and trust us, so we that can ask for permission to ask questions to really dig in and fully understand them. CARES is a great way to break into a very packed day for a very busy buyer and get them to concentrate on our conversation. We slay all distractions.  If we can do that, then we will have a much better sales conversation. This is how we can get great outcomes, which will work for everybody.

Our circle of friends will usually be people with whom we share a lot of commonalities.  Our viewpoints merge, our interests are similar, we like the same types of things.  We get on easily.  Life however throws us many curved balls, as meet new people who are not like us. Often we struggle when dealing with them.  There are nine tried and true human relations principles we can use to improve our ability to get on with everyone, rather than just a select few who are more like us.  I am going to analyse some different types of people we are likely to run into and align the principles with each type.  This will create a handy guide on how to do better with people – all sorts of different people. 

Some of these principles in the wrong hands can stray into manipulation, but that is not the goal here.  We want to be able to form a good relationship with people who are different to us, so that means we have to make some changes to how we communicate with different types of individuals.  You can have one mode of communication and be great with people like you, but you lose all of the others and we don’t want that.

The easiest type for me to deal with is the “time is money” type because that is how I am wired.  This type is busy, businesslike, interested in outcomes, results, revenues, tolerates no excuses and is driven hard by their own standards and self-expectations.  Don’t ever whine to them about anything, because they don’t care and they hate negativity.  Don’t bother giving them appreciation because they sense flattery and doubt it. They don’t care what you think.  They are driven by their running theirown race and your opinion is irrelevant.   

They are perpetually interested in doing better, so we can arouse in them an interest in doing new things which will get them to their goals.  You can try and become genuinely interested in them, but actually, they don’t care because they are totally self-contained.

Smiling is good, but they don’t tend to do a lot themselves because they are serious people, focused on winning.  Using their name is good because they like to hear that magical sound, but don’t overdo it or they will think you are conning them.  

Be prepared to listen to them pontificate and tell you what they think.  Don’t interrupt them, cut them off or finish their sentences – they hate that when they are talking. Your role is to sit there quietly and listen.  They have a lot to say so get them talking, especially about themselves.   

Talk about the things they are interested in and despite how busy they are they will make time for you.  You are warned beforehand that you only have fifteen minutes, because they are so busy.  In fact, you spend ninety minutes talking with them because you found a topic which excites them. You don’t have to say anything to make them feel important – they already know they are and don’t care what you think.

The opposite type is the most difficult for me to deal with and these are the quiet, thoughtful, reserved people who border on timidity.  They like to have a cup of tea to get to know you before they can open up to you. My energy overwhelms them, so I have to really tone it down when dealing with them. 

They like people so don’t criticise others to them because they want to see the best in everyone.  They do enjoy honest appreciation, so share that with them.  They are interested in people, so if you have something in mind which benefits others, they will become interested in learning more. Smiling is good because they like to smile too. Using their name is good but again don’t overdo it.

Be a good listener and get them talking about themselves. They enjoy sharing their experiences and insights. Let them to do most of the talking because they feel comfortable when they are in control. Talk about the things they are interested in and they will grow close to you, because they feel the simpatico. 

Make them feel important but do it sincerely, honestly.  Everyone is an expert with flattery so don’t go there.  Find things you admire about them and express your feelings to them openly, genuinely.

Another personality type I struggle with is the person who likes data, proof, evidence, testimonials and numbers to three decimal places.  Don’t bother criticising anyone to them because unless you bring overwhelming evidence, they don’t believe it and basically they don’t care anyway. 

Don’t bother giving them sincere appreciation, because words don’t count with them. You need to stump up the evidence before they are going to take any notice. You can get them interested in topics as long as you are supplying the proof and data. They will want a lot of it, because they have an insatiable appetite for information. They are not interested in you becoming interested in them.  That is a diversion away from the numbers and they are not excited by what you may think about them. 

Smiling is not a bad thing, but they don’t do much of it themselves, because they are serious people. Using their name isn’t important to them, so don’t bother. You will have a lot of difficulty getting them talking about themselves, because that has nothing to do with the business at hand. It feels invasive for them.

The topics you should address should only be those of interest to them. Find out what they are interested in or concerned about and go deep there. Don’t bother trying to make them feel important – your opinion is worthless.

The opposite type is the big picture, don’t drag me into the weeds, very outgoing person who enjoys people and parties. Don’t criticise anyone to them because they are doers and love positivity. They enjoy sincere, honest appreciation because they have a high self-image.

If you find out what they want and what they are interested in, they will enjoy talking about those items until the cows come home. They want people to be interested in them so they are happy to share a lot about themselves to everyone.

Smiling is easy for them and they like it when you do the same. They love the sound of their own name but again don’t overdo it. Be a good listener because they have a lot to say and will willing share a lot of information with you about them. Find the topics they are interested in and talk about those and they will be very happy. Make them feel important in an honest, sincere way that doesn’t smack of flattery or sycophancy. 

As I mentioned, some of these principles in the hands of evil people can be used for manipulation.  Our goals is to get on well with all types of people. With that goal in mind, we switch our communication style from what we like to what they like.   We stay the same personality style but we speak different languages, depending on who we are speaking with. 

Of course you can say, “I am me. Take it or leave it”.  That is fine and you will get on with all of the people who are similar to you. If you want to get on with people unlike you, then try these principles with the various types you meet and see the results.