executive impact

A smart approach to sales training

7 Comments
By Chris Betros

Want to earn more and go home early? After spending an hour chatting with Jason de Luca, you’ll be on your way to achieving that goal. As managing director of Smart Partners KK, de Luca leads a team that offers sales training, consulting, business strategy and financial planning advice.

Established in February of 2007, Smart Partners has already made its mark as an industry expert, thanks to the driving force of de Luca who comes from California. Japan Today editor Chris Betros visits de Luca at his office in Ginza to hear more.

When did you first come to Japan?

My first exposure to Japan was when I was 19. I couldn’t speak a word of Japanese and went to Okayama for a homestay. I spent a couple of years in the middle of nowhere. It was a great experience. Then I went back to San Francisco State University to study Japanese. After two semesters, I returned to Japan in 1997 on a one-year exchange program to Waseda. I stayed a bit longer, before graduating in the States. I applied to Waseda graduate school and came right back. As part of the course, you had to spend one year overseas to complete your studies. I wanted to do something totally different, so I went to Vietnam.

Where did you start working after graduation?

In 2001 I got a job at Panache as a salesperson in their website and design division. I was there for about 9 months. I had never had a job before and did project management and sales, a real eye-opener. Then I moved into Panache’s temp staffing division for a couple of years. The market was horrible back in 2001 and 2002, but I survived. In 2004, I joined Skillhouse and helped build up their sales.

Why did you decide to start your own company?

I really loved the sales consulting process and helping my staff to see working as a way to improve themselves. I thought the best way to focus on my favorite parts of that people business would be to start my own company. I knew I could do it. There never was a hint of hesitation that I would be successful.

How was it at first?

I was in the black from day one. I had already lined up a bunch of projects. Clients came through networking, word of mouth, while some were my former contractors who got fulltime jobs in senior positions and brought us in for work.

You didn’t advertise?

We have just started advertising now because I believe that you shouldn’t advertise until everybody knows who you are. I wanted to build up a reputation first.

How’s business?

Business is fantastic. I now have 10 full-time consultant staff (including myself) and a network of another 10 or so whom I can pull in on a subcontracting basis. Many full-timers work on site or I pay them a monthly retainer and we engage project by project.

What services do you offer?

Essentially what we do is business consulting across the board for mid-sized to small businesses. I’ve got some people who can help a company with M&A work, with strategic financial planning, writing a proper business plan, sales strategy, or marketing. Business and sales consulting by far forms the majority of our work. In the current economic climate, many companies are trying to make more money or expand on their current client base, or train new people to get them selling quicker.

Who are your typical clients?

Most clients are foreign-owned companies because I would rather work with foreign-owned companies. It’s easier to get to the decision maker and learn about issues they are struggling with. They understand value before price.

What sort of company needs your services?

Clients who want to take a new approach to how they are doing business and how they engage their clients and manage their client-facing staff. It’s simple stuff. I don’t have to be there forever. I have been involved in projects where I just went onsite for two weeks out of a 2 month project and said I’m done.

How do you start your training?

You have to get people to buy into the learning process and the only way to do that is to show them from personal experience. The first thing I say to everyone is “I’m not a trainer and I’m not just a consultant. Actually, I’m a sales guy who knows how to sell and I like to help people increase their results.”

Sometimes, they’ve had the experience of a consultant blow in, who doesn’t know anything about their industry or how to speak the language. He just gives them a PowerPoint presentation and some rough ideas. I study their jobs, internal relationships with other teams and understand their issues and convince them that if what they are doing up until this point is not working, then we should try something else. Then I show them that work can be fun while being effective.

What are your core values?

We always think of the individual first and we believe sincerely in a simple basic set of principles. The first thing is we always do the right thing in helping people. We believe in value first. If I meet a client for the first time, I might sit there for 30 minutes and give them some tips on their business, then walk away and maybe never see them again. I truly believe that the best way to run a business is to think of other people first. That puts us in the top 1% of the market because everybody else is just trying to run around and gouge their clients for as much money as they can get. The others are to politely manage people’s expectations and always keep your word, no matter what.

Which language do you train in?

I can do training in both English and Japanese. When I speak Japanese, I put a different tint on things. My facial expressions change, I speak slower and am not as aggressive. I never talk about Japan or Japanese culture/work habits in a negative light. I always show a lot of respect for Japanese culture and Japanese people whom I work with onsite.

I was a traditional karate student for 17 years. I lived in a Buddhist temple for six years. If you combine a Western-style approach to business with the Japanese sense of respect for human relationships and obligation, you’re bulletproof. The problem with a lot of foreign consultants is that they’ll see some inefficiencies with some of the things Japanese people do and throw everything out, saying everything they do is bad. They are wrong. There are a lot of things Japanese do very well.

What advice would you give potential clients before they contact you?

I would say first call other companies who advertise to do the same thing we do. Get their rates and ask them how much sales work they have actually done personally. Ask for a list of references so they can talk to their client’s CEO. Then they should talk to me.

Have you had to turn down business?

Yes. You shouldn’t worry about too much business, as long as you know that the service you are currently doing is top quality. People will wait. You can always delay projects and work out limited engagements and come back in a few months later to fix the core problems. If the quality is good, people will wait for more.

Are you planning to expand your team?

I don’t want to expand too much because I want our company to be a fun place to work where people can make lots of money and not have to worry about more then their own unique lifestyle. When you get too much overhead, you can’t take off for a sudden vacation, overseas training retreat or day at the gym.

Tell us about your staff.

We have three foreigners and the rest are Japanese. We are all passionate about working and studying as part of constant improvement. Everyone has several years of hands-on experience in the areas they consult, so clients know they are getting top-notch help for the problems they are trying to identify and fix.

What is a typical day for you?

If I am working onsite, I’ll go there early before the clients start their work day. Otherwise I come in here about 9 and finish at 3 or 4. Normally, Wednesdays are basically off. I go to the gym in the morning and swing by the office. I don’t like to work more than four days a week. I believe Wednesdays should be half-days for doing whatever you like.

How do you like to relax?

I play video games, read books and have two dogs at home. I have two black belts in karate and also do Thai kick boxing. I like to go to Thailand once or twice a year for training. I don’t believe in a vacation where you come back fatter and lazier than when you left.

What is the relationship between martial arts and sales training?

All of the sales training we do is often explained in boxing/competitive sports terms. My orientation is that I treat a sales team like an athletic group. Thinking of sales as a mental-athletic exercise as opposed to a boring job you have to do everyday makes you more effective and happier as you grow.

Are you involved in charity work?

Yes, we donate to charities such as Hope and the Tyler Foundation. We also sponsor some athletes in Japan and a young English fighter in Thailand.

How do you think the current economic turmoil will impact on sales professionals?

Anytime there is a release of energy in the market, someone is making money. No matter what happens in life, whenever there is a crisis, someone is benefiting from it somehow. Salespeople have to sit back and look at their lives and ask themselves where are there opportunities for them to use their wits in this crisis. They have to keep their mental and moral compass straight, because a lot of these people are doing a bad job of trying to organize their schedules, pipeline and projects due to panic and wasted worrying. If they stay true to their principles, they will always be able to ride a crisis out. When other people are freaking out and panicking about this, it just reminds me of how much need there exists in this market for consulting and sales counseling. Stay focused & positive, engage your customers, talk to more potential clients is my advice.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Probably to continue working a couple of days a week with clients. I want to go back to college for a PhD and would love to teach history at high school. I want to work with kids whose parents are blue collar, and prepare them for getting a job or owning their own business some day.

What happens to the company if you’re away?

I work with excellent people. I don’t give them any crap. They can come and go as they please. We’ve got a certain number of projects, obligations and tasks to do each week. If they do all of them, even if it only takes three hours in the day, great. I don’t need to see them here. They work with me, not for me. Smart Partners is actually a collection of very talented individuals and I am just like the main cheerleader … or the biggest loudmouth.

For more information on Smart Partners, visit http://www.smartpartners.co.jp

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


7 Comments
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release of energy in the market,

I can tell you its a bit more than that.. people have been sunk!

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Jason here looks amazingly like Nagasawa-kun in Chibi Maruko Chan.

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Wednesday as a half-day, that's the best idea I've ever heard in my life! Gonna try to do it.

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ronaldk - Rotsa ruck!

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Want to earn more and go home early?

A lot of spam I get starts out that way

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Your hard work and persistence, not to mention visionary outlook, has got you where you are today! You make it look easy, because for you it is now easy. Everyone else can't do this- you are so unique, and have the right temperment too. Congratulations on your past (and many future) successes!

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Great advice and viewpoints.

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