Episode #336: The Four "Excellents" For Salespeople

Top salespeople don’t avoid training—they seek it out. If you look at any strong 営業研修 (sales training) room, the front row is usually filled with high achievers who are still hungry to improve. Meanwhile, struggling or average performers are often absent—or present but mentally resisting change. This gap in attitude is one of the biggest predictors of sales success in Japan and globally.

So what separates the front-row pros from everyone else? Four core attributes come up again and again: Coachability, Urgency, Resilience, and Curiosity. These qualities sound obvious, yet they’re rarely practiced consistently.

Top salespeople treat improvement as part of their job. They actively seek training, books, podcasts, and even competitor sessions — not to spy, but to learn. They know that sustained performance comes from sustained growth.

Mini-summary: The best salespeople don’t wait for motivation. They put themselves where learning happens — and they stay there.

Coachability sounds obvious: “be open to learning.” But real coachability only shows up when someone is willing to change habits.

Many underperformers say they want to improve, yet resist new approaches. They stay inside a comfort zone, even when that comfort zone is producing weak results. They might defend old methods, avoid feedback, or dismiss training as “not my style.”

Coachability is the ability to:

• accept feedback without ego,

• test new behaviors,

• replace bad habits with better ones,

• and keep adjusting until results follow.

In Japan — with a shrinking workforce and fewer available sales professionals — organizations can’t just replace weak performers. They must develop them. Coachability becomes a core hiring and training priority.

Mini-summary: Coachability isn’t liking training — it’s changing behavior because training reveals a better way.

Urgency is speed + priorities + discipline.

Sales is never “done.” If you have deals, you’re busy delivering. If you don’t, you’re busy prospecting. Disorganized salespeople stay disorganized — and their results suffer.

Most struggling salespeople suffer from weak time management. The fix isn’t complicated:

• Work in Quadrant Two (Not Urgent but Important) first: planning, preparation, follow-up design, pipeline analysis.

• Then execute in Urgent & Important with real focus.

Urgency means:

• planning your week before it starts,

• matching time to priorities,

• and acting fast on what matters most.

Without urgency, sales becomes reactive — and reactive salespeople lose.

Mini-summary: Urgency is not rushing. It’s planning first, then moving fast on the right actions.

What does “Resilience” look like in everyday selling?

Sales is a rejection-heavy profession. Even great salespeople lose far more often than they win.

Resilience is the ability to keep believing in yourself while the market says “no.” It means remembering:

• You are not being rejected as a person.

• Your current offer is being rejected in this cycle, at this price, under their current priorities.

A useful mindset:

• Reflect on failures to learn.

• Don’t punish yourself into paralysis.

• Reset quickly and re-engage.

Resilient salespeople:

• study more,

• practice more,

• prospect more,

• role-play more,

• and stay in motion.

As Churchill put it (paraphrased): success comes from moving through failures without losing enthusiasm.

Mini-summary: Resilience is optimism with muscle — you learn from rejection and keep moving.

How does “Curiosity” create better sales conversations?

Curiosity is a buyer-first mindset.

If a salesperson only talks about features, they’re not selling — they’re presenting. Curiosity means:

• asking strong questions,

• digging into the buyer’s world,

• identifying real pain and goals,

• and deciding quickly whether you can solve them.

Curiosity protects your time:

• If they’re not a fit, you move on.

• If they are a fit, you diagnose deeply and tailor value.

Real curiosity cannot be faked. Buyers feel the difference between scripted interest and genuine exploration.

And true curiosity shifts the goal:

• not “get the sale,”

• but “earn the reorder,” by becoming a trusted partner.

Mini-summary: Curiosity turns selling into problem-solving — and problem-solving builds long-term clients.

For sales teams in Tokyo (東京 / Tokyo) and across Japan, these traits are training priorities, not personality luck.

To develop them:

• Build strong coaching culture.

• Teach repeatable time-management systems.

• Normalize rejection as part of growth.

• Train consultative questioning.

• Reinforce learning through role play and feedback.

These are exactly the capabilities strengthened through Dale Carnegie’s sales training (営業研修 / sales training) and related programs in leadership, communication, and performance.

Mini-summary: These four traits can be trained — when leaders reinforce them consistently.

• Top salespeople win because they keep improving — not because they start perfect.

• Coachability drives growth; resistance locks in mediocrity.

• Urgency makes execution consistent and pipeline healthy.

• Resilience and Curiosity turn rejection into learning and conversations into partnerships.

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, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.