Episode #175: Unprofessional Professional Salespeople

What happens when “career sales pros” in Japan skip the basics?

Salespeople in their forties who’ve spent decades in selling should be professionals. In most markets, that much experience usually means strong product knowledge, solid questioning skills, and a disciplined sales process. But Japan (日本 / Japan) often breaks that assumption.

Here’s a real example from a major multinational insurance company operating in Tokyo (東京 / Tokyo). Two seasoned reps arrived to complete a cancer insurance policy—then smoothly shifted into a cross-sell.

Mini-summary: Long experience doesn’t automatically equal professional selling, especially in Japan.

After the cancer insurance paperwork was done, the reps introduced an annuity-style product. They didn’t label it that way, but the structure was obvious to anyone familiar with Japanese retail banking and investment products.

In Japan, annuities can be a sensible option because of demographic reality: fewer young people paying into the pension system now means retiree support risks weakening later. That makes retirement planning a serious, practical concern for many families.

Mini-summary: The product choice made sense for Japan’s aging society, so the sales process should’ve been sophisticated too.

They launched into a clean, polished pitch:

• Immediate brochure walk-through

• Heavy focus on dollar-cost averaging

• Graphs and tables to reinforce the logic

• A short quiz designed to “prove” the benefit

The quiz asked which of three outcomes dollar-cost averaging would likely produce using a fluctuating performance chart. The largest return was correct, and I was congratulated for being only the second person they’d met who got it right.

That felt good—but also raised a bigger question: when would they start asking about me?
Mini-summary: Presentation skill and tools were strong, but the reps still missed the core of professional selling: the client.

What critical questions did they not ask?

Not once did they ask about:

• Investment goals

• Retirement timeline

• Family financial structure

• Current allocations

• Tax and inheritance planning

• Risk tolerance

• Liquidity needs

Instead, it was a one-way pitch about 10-year returns—returns that looked minor in Japan’s ultra-low interest environment.

Professional salespeople don’t sell solutions to generic people. They qualify, diagnose, and connect value to a client’s real future.
Mini-summary: Without discovery and qualification, even a “good” product pitch becomes amateur hour.

How did their product knowledge fall short?

While they claimed their company managed the fund, the brochure showed it was actually a fund-of-funds structure. That’s fine—if you can explain what’s inside it.

But there was no clear discussion of underlying fund composition, and when I asked about fees (including trailing fees), it was instantly clear they had never studied that section. Two experienced reps, selling a sophisticated financial product, didn’t know their own cost structure.

That’s not professionalism. That’s risk.

Mini-summary: If salespeople can’t explain structure and fees, they can’t earn trust for long-term financial decisions.

This isn’t about two individuals—it’s a broader pattern. In Japan, many sales forces are woefully under-trained, even inside major Japanese companies (日本企業 / Japanese companies) and multinational firms (外資系企業 / multinational companies).

Experience alone doesn’t build:

• Product mastery

• Consultative questioning

• Needs-based selling

• Ethical financial recommendation

• Long-term client relationship skill

So if you assume your veteran salespeople “must be pros,” Japan may surprise you.
Mini-summary: Japan often rewards tenure, but tenure without training creates false confidence and weak selling.

• In Japan (日本 / Japan), long sales tenure does not guarantee professional sales behavior.

• Sophisticated products require deep product knowledge and discovery, not just a polished pitch.

• Consultative questioning is non-negotiable for retirement and financial planning sales.

• Under-training in many Japan-based sales organizations leads to missed trust, missed value, and missed revenue.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office (東京オフィス / Tokyo office), established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.