How To Navigate Different Perspectives To Close International Sales

Cross-cultural selling has unique challenges.  And selling to people in a culture that is not your own is never an easy task. International sales professionals rely on a series of different skills.

One of the first cross-cultural skills you pick up in international sales is learning how to look for different perspectives other than your own.

Wondering why this is one of the first skills you pick up?

Different Perspectives Impact Business Basics

It all starts with the basics of doing business.  Cultural differences create different perspectives across some of the most fundamental business basics.  Here are two examples.

Benefits

When selling the same product or service in different countries, you’ll often need to change your sales and marketing materials.  Different people see your product differently and what they like about it may be something unexpected.  Before you can sell anything to a different culture you need to find out the benefits a different culture sees in what you are selling.

An American hotel close to a popular tourist location realized their hotel was full of German tourists some years and not others.  This German clientele obviously followed a different pattern. They responded to different benefits offered by staying at this hotel.  The hotel eventually found out why. The Germans didn’t come to see the local attractions everyone else came to see. Instead they came to go bone fishing nearby.  But they only came as a second choice. They came when the weather was not optimal in their favorite location for bone fishing.  Once the hotel figured this out they were able to market to this particular clientele and brought in more sales consistently each year.

Needs

Cultural differences also bring about different needs.  This can impact all aspects of your business.  And it’s worth taking the time to understand different perspectives to uncover different needs which can also open the door to different business opportunities.

There are a few stories of how washing machine manufacturers adapted and improved their machines to provide for the different needs of different cultures.  They found this out when learning of the challenges faced when their clients in India tried washing thin saris in their machines without success. And also when they realized rural Chinese people were using washing machines to wash potatoes.  In both cases listening to and understanding the different market perspectives led to product improvements and new market opportunities.

Different Perspectives Change The Sale

It’s easy to see from the examples above how different cultural perspectives can change the basics of doing business.  But different perspectives continue to impact the sale throughout the whole sales process.  Here are some of the main areas where different perspectives impact the sale:

Approach

Different cultures require a different sales approach. Some people need to establish a relationship in a certain way. The decision makers do not always have the same job function in different countries.

Timing

Different cultures have different perspectives on when things should be done. North Americans like to get straight to the point, but other cultures need more time.  Timing also comes into play with trust building and credibility building.

Expectations

Different cultures can have different expectations on just about every portion of the sales process. These differences in expectations can crop up unexpectedly and can easily jeopardize your sales success.

What Can You Do?

The most important thing to do is to have a clear understanding of what your basic business objectives are and the very basic framework within which you must navigate in.  Always keep this at the back of your mind.  It’s not always easy to identify how you can adapt your basic business objectives to fit into different cultural framework.  The simpler the framework the easier it will be to adapt to different cultures.

Next, you need to open up to different perspectives, different people, and different cultures.  This is one of the basic international skills. You simply need to develop strong listening skills to pick up any differences in perspectives

And finally remember, in all sales and particularly in international sales, it’s about creating the right connection with real people.  You’ll do well if throughout the whole sales process you try to understand and connect emphatically with your clients. You may start off with different perspectives but strong people skills will help you to connect with people and bring in the sales.

What about you? Do you have any stories to share about how different perspectives impact the international sale? If so, please share them in the comments below.

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