Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan and master trainer in sales, presentations and leadership provides further insight into his extensive career in sales in Part Two of his interview with Andrew Hankinson.
“I love the fact that sales makes the wheels of commerce turn. Without sales, there’s no business…it’s such an important role” explains Dr. Story. Yet he points out many companies do not invest in their sales team. Realizing a need for training, in 1939 Dale Carnegie pioneered a series of public sales training courses with Percy Whiting. Dr. Story himself struggled starting as a salesperson at 16 years old selling Britannica encyclopedia door to door and reciting a 25-minute pitch. He claims: “it was only later when I got the training that I realized I could do this because before that I had no confidence.”
Dr. Story has released over 250 episodes of sales-focused podcasts titled The Japan Sales Series and has published two books, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery, in addition to 5 more podcast series. The Japan Sales Mastery breaks down the sales techniques taught in the Dale Carnegie sales training programs and how they can be used in the Japanese business culture. In Japan, Dr. Story claims, one needs to get permission to ask questions to understand client needs in order to persuasively sell a suitable product or service. In reality, he has seen many salespeople waste valuable client-facing time by creating a one-way presentation. The Japan Business Mastery provides an overview of the Japanese business landscape for senior-level leaders who are planning to work in Japan yet do not know about the unique business culture. Dr. Story’s new book, Japan Presentations Mastery will be coming out soon in 2022.
Networking is also a key event for salespeople, but Dr. Story has seen many people in Japan not maximizing on the business opportunities networking provides. He explains it is vital to talk to as many people in such events as one never knows who can turn into a potential client. When attending networking events with his team, Dr. Story is usually the one to walk up to other attendees, handing out his business card. Afterwards, he introduces his staff and encourage them to connect. As the President of Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo, Dr. Story also uses the opportunity to gain access to other executives which his staff do not have.
Dr. Story notes connecting with decision-makers and clients in the post-COVID world will become more and more complex. Doing cold calls, getting referrals, networking and even meeting existing clients will become more difficult in the virtual environment. Dr. Story asks, “the problem though, is how do you engage the buyer in that limited environment?” He suggests using small talk before going into the main topic in order to have a human connection, even through online meetings. He adds: “And that's why that trust is so critical. Your capacity to understand the client's needs being very precise, about expectations management, about follow-up, about keeping in touch. These things are critical. Japan in a sense it's very demanding, but if you know what is demanded, then you can supply that demand.”
When telling a story, Dr. Story advises to use the CIR formula – context, insight, and relevance. He says: “you start with the background and then pull out an insight from that and why that would help us as a relevancy…you can disagree with my conclusion, but you can't disagree with my context because my context will come from my experience. It's based on my reality…If I tell my story well, enough, you are leaping ahead of me. As you hear the background, as you hear the context, your brain is going well, we should do X. And when I get to the point where I say, we should do X…you already got there ahead of me.”
Dr. Story’s favourite Japanese word is zanshin残心 – zan means to “remain” and shin means “spirit” or “presence.” He further explains: “when you strike your opponent, you are 100% concentrated even after the blow. That alertness of spirit, that is zanshin…so that spirit of karate remained with me my whole life. The zanshin of karate training took a very shy young man who had nothing going for him…the spirit to fight and to challenge…it’s like a reverberation of your spirit that goes beyond the striking of the bell. So when I’m gone, I’m in another place, I hope I have left something on this planet that will be good and help people reverberate beyond my life.”
