Rethinking Sales Materials in Japan — How to Turn Tools into Revenue Drivers

Salespeople often receive flyers, catalogues, slide decks, proposals, and invoices from marketing, but these tools are usually generic and flat. Pages are evenly arranged, with no priority given to best-selling products or critical data points. Marketing doesn’t know which sections matter most to buyers, and salespeople rarely request changes.

Mini-summary: Standardized materials ignore buyer psychology and sales priorities.

Not all products have equal weight. Salespeople know which items are most relevant. Materials should:

• Place top-selling products at the front.

• Highlight key words, paragraphs, or data with larger fonts, bold text, or color.

• Add visual cues (tables, diagrams, photos) to guide buyer attention.

During meetings, salespeople should control buyer focus — spinning the page, using a pen to emphasize critical sections, and leaving behind materials that already guide the buyer’s eye.

Mini-summary: Highlighted, prioritized content makes materials persuasive, not passive.

It’s true that buyers vary, but typically 20% of the information applies to 80% of clients. Highlighting that 20% ensures materials resonate with most prospects, while salespeople can customize conversations for the rest.

Mini-summary: Focus on universal key points while adapting live for individual buyers.

These are often overlooked, yet they pass through the hands of multiple stakeholders inside the buyer’s company. Each document is an opportunity to market:

• Add ads, QR codes, or links to drive traffic to product pages or services.

• Design proposals with balance — avoiding both excessive decoration and blandness.

• Use visuals and photos of people to increase engagement.

Mini-summary: Every sales document can double as a marketing channel.

Salespeople know what works in the field, while marketing has design expertise. Collaboration can turn flat documents into strategic sales enablers, ensuring proposals, invoices, and flyers actively support closing deals instead of just delivering information.

Mini-summary: Joint sales–marketing efforts maximize the impact of sales tools.

• Generic sales tools waste opportunities to influence buyers.

• Highlighting top products and key data directs buyer attention.

• Quotations and invoices can act as hidden marketing tools.

• Sales–marketing collaboration turns materials into revenue drivers.

Request a Free Consultation to learn how Dale Carnegie Tokyo can help your team transform sales tools into high-impact client engagement assets.

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.