Episode #382: Selling To Sceptics On The Small Screen In Japan

Why are online sales calls still a problem for business development?

Online meetings via Teams or Zoom are efficient, but efficiency isn’t the same as effectiveness. Buyers can pack more calls into a day, and salespeople save travel time. Yet the small screen changes the quality of trust-building, persuasion, and diagnosis that strong sales depend on.

In high-stakes B2B selling, the medium shapes the outcome. Convenience can quietly reduce clarity, connection, and commitment.

Mini-summary: Online calls save time, but they often weaken the very elements that close complex sales.

When you sit with a buyer face to face, you gain three powerful advantages:

1. Deeper communication: You can read body language in detail and adjust your message in real time.

2. Stronger trust: Buyers are naturally cautious and risk-averse. In person, they can sense your sincerity through consistent verbal and non-verbal alignment.

3. Better control of the sales process: The meeting stays synchronized—especially when reviewing documents or proposals together.

Online, those advantages shrink. The screen filters out subtle reactions and softens the emotional impact of your presence.

Mini-summary: In-person meetings multiply trust, alignment, and control—three pillars of effective selling.

Why does shared material work better in person?

In a physical meeting, you can guide a client through materials page by page. You can make sure they’re focused on the same section you’re explaining. That alignment matters: your words must match what the buyer is seeing.

Online, buyers often scroll ahead. The result is mis-timed commentary, lost attention, and reduced persuasion.

Mini-summary: Being together lets you control pacing and attention, which makes your explanation clearer and more convincing.

What makes reading buyer reactions so hard online?

In multi-person online meetings, buyers become tiny boxes on screen—and even smaller once you share documents. It’s hard enough to read one person remotely; it’s far harder to read three.

In person, you can sense:

• agreement vs. hesitation

• differences of opinion within the group

• silent resistance from one stakeholder

On screen, those signals are muted or invisible.

Mini-summary: Online meetings hide group dynamics, making it harder to manage consensus and objections.

Virtual platforms force a trade-off:

• look at the camera and lose your audience’s reactions

• look at the audience and lose eye contact

Because the camera is usually above the faces on screen, true eye contact is impossible without giving something up.

Still, direct camera focus helps buyers feel you are speaking to them. Interestingly, this can work better online in Japan, where intense direct eye contact is often avoided in person. Japanese culture tends to soften eye contact by looking near the face rather than directly into the eyes.

This means virtual eye contact can create trust without the social tension it might produce face to face.

Mini-summary: Camera eye contact builds trust online, and in Japan it can feel more comfortable than in-person staring.

Is the time saved online worth the influence we lose?

Yes, online meetings can cut a three-hour round trip down to one hour. But persuasion is not a time-per-meeting game.

That one hour in person often gives you:

• higher credibility

• faster trust

• clearer pushback detection

• stronger close momentum

Online, sellers tend to overcompensate by talking more, adding extra energy to overcome remoteness. But enthusiasm is not a substitute for presence.

Mini-summary: The time savings of virtual calls often cost more in persuasion, clarity, and closing power.

Why should we push for face-to-face meetings going forward?

Buyers today often work from home and may prefer online meetings. But remember: for buyers, not buying is the safest option.

Sales professionals have a responsibility to choose the medium that best supports decision-making. For most complex sales, that medium is face to face.

Especially in Japan’s relationship-driven business culture, presence still carries weight.

Mini-summary: If your goal is real commitment—not just a polite conversation—face to face is still the best default.

To serve Japanese and multinational clients, sales teams must balance digital convenience with cultural effectiveness. This is especially true across:

• 日本企業 (nihon kigyō / Japanese companies)

• 外資系企業 (gaishikei kigyō / multinational or foreign-affiliated companies)

• 東京 (Tōkyō / Tokyo)

High-impact capability areas include:

• リーダーシップ研修 (rīdāshippu kenshū / leadership training)

• 営業研修 (eigyo kenshū / sales training)

• プレゼンテーション研修 (purezenteshon kenshū / presentation training)

• エグゼクティブ・コーチング (eguzekutibu kōchingu / executive coaching)

• DEI研修 (DEI kenshū / diversity, equity & inclusion training)

Mini-summary: In Japan, culture and credibility amplify the value of in-person selling—especially for leadership and sales excellence.

• Online sales calls are efficient, but they reduce trust, clarity, and influence.

• Face-to-face meetings improve synchronization, persuasion, and objection handling.

• Group dynamics and pushback are far easier to read in person than on screen.

• In Japan, physical presence remains a critical trust signal in B2B relationships.

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.