295: Wasting Salespeople

<p>Useless salespeople who cannot sell get fired.  But are they really useless or are their sales managers useless or their companies useless?  There are some industries which are notorious for the up or out mentality and recruiting certainly comes to mind.  There is a lot of rhetoric floating around about saving mankind, through matching the buyer and seller of services, but the reality inside these companies is brutal.  These are corporate meat grinders, who have massive churn because the targets are high, the profitability enormous and the degree of patience miniscule.  This modality worked when there were sufficient people to throw into the metal teeth of the machine, but we are running out of bodies here.</p> <p> </p> <p>The number of young Japanese going overseas to study in the US for example, dropped off from roughly 80,000 per year to 50,000.  It crawled back to 60,000 a year when Covid stopped that flow for the last couple of years.  The types of stay have also changed away from four year, full immersion studies to shorter less comprehensive experiences.  For the last seven years or so, Japanese domestic companies have become competitors to hire these English speaking, western culture exposed young people, where once the multi-nationals had the field to themselves.  So if you want to hire an English speaking salesperson in Japan, brace for impact!</p> <p> </p> <p>The salesperson training system inside Japanese companies is also broken.  The OJT or On The Job Training regime still exists in name, but the actual content and quantity of the coaching has diminished.  Bosses are doing their own email these days, often have their own player/manager targets and generally are busy, busy, busy.  Having the time to coach new salespeople, isn’t as available as it used to be.</p> <p> </p> <p>Are these companies doing anything about training these salespeople, given their bosses are too preoccupied?  Basically “no”.  The penny hasn’t dropped yet, that there is a big gap between what the company thinks is happening w