237: Do You Have Enough Grey Hairs In The Sales Team In Japan

<p>Japan is a very hierarchical society.  I am getting older, so I appreciate the respect for age and stage we can enjoy here.  Back in my native Australia, older people are thought of having little of value to say or contribute.  It is a youth culture Downunder and only the young have worth.  “You old so and so, you don’t know anything” is reflective of the mood and thinking.  As a training company in Japan, we have to be mindful of who we put in front of a class and in front of clients.  If the participants are mainly male and older, then it is difficult to have a young female trainer or salesperson allocated to that company. </p> <p> </p> <p>That young woman is going to be talented and effective as a trainer because our trainer development system is so demanding. She is also going to be highly skilled in sales, because we teach sales. It doesn’t matter. The HR people or the line manager complains, because the class members don’t feel young people have anything to teach them or are qualified to sell them anything. </p> <p> </p> <p>I was reminded of this recently when trying to allocate trainers and salespeople for certain companies.  We have a lot of internal trainers and salespeople who are under 35 and a few who are over 45 and so there is an imbalance.  One of my senior guys has suddenly quit.  He was performing both functions, so it is a double loss.  As our older team members age, they have seen their kids leave the home and then have their aged parents to worry about.  The life of a small business owner is always like this.  There is never an equilibrium or a period of extended stability with staffing.  Just when you think you have it working like a smoothly oiled machine, in goes a wrench and the whole thing comes to a shuddering halt.</p> <p> </p> <p>The transfer of responsibilities for clients between staff is not that easy.  It goes both directions too.  We have staff who build strong personal relationships with counterparties and then their interlocutor is moved to another function and a replacement