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Selling Across Cultures? Here are four points to consider..

How does culture shape what your clients need from a sales relationship?


In today’s global business marketplace, having the ability to recognise culturally based behaviours and adjust your selling style accordingly is crucial. With this in mind, I have outlined four key intercultural skills and strategies you can develop to help you to sell more effectively and create stronger customer relationships across cultures.


Growing Trust



“Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely co-ordinate or at best, co-operate”

Steven R. Covey, “The Speed of Trust”






Photo by Cytonn Photography at Unsplash


Cognitive trust (also known as transactional trust) can be contrasted with affective trust (also known as relational trust). In cognitive trust, the person building the trust will think: “This person is good at

their job and has reliably delivered work for me in the past, therefore I trust them”. It is important for this person to have a professional relationship with a client, colleague or peer who can demonstrate through their work that they are capable, reliable, consistent and transparent.


Affective trust on the other hand, arises from feelings of emotional closeness, friendship and empathy. In this form of trust building, the person building the trust will think: “This is a nice person; I enjoyed working with them, therefore I trust them”. It is important for this person to have a personal relationship with their client or colleague, one that is built through sharing personal time together, before they can start to trust that person in a working relationship.


In relationship-based cultures, such as Saudi Arabia, India and Nigeria, cognitive and affective trust are woven together in business. Work relationships are built up slowly, over the long term, and are founded on deeper, emotional relations. This is in contrast to task-based cultures, such as the US, The Netherlands and Germany, where people tend to rely more on cognitive trust for work relationships.


Strategies for building trust across cultures


· It is worth investing that extra time into developing a relationship-based approach when working with people from different cultural backgrounds. It will save you time in the long run. With an affective relationship comes loyalty and openness and people are also much likely to be forgiving of any cultural missteps you make. Organise your time to communicate as much as possible in informal settings.


· Consider your communication medium. If you are working with someone from a relationship-based culture, it is sometimes worth making that extra effort to pick up the phone rather than automatically sending an email. Remember also that in relationship-based cultures, people often don’t respond to emails from people who they have had no prior contact with.


· Don’t be afraid to show your non-professional self when working with colleagues and clients from relationship-based cultures. Try to find common ground with the other person, whether that is through sports, family or music, and take the time to really get to know them.



The Art of Persuasion


“Though most people are unaware of it, the ways you seek to persuade others and the kinds of arguments you find persuasive are deeply rooted in your culture’s philosophical, religious and educational assumptions and attitudes”

Erin Meyer, “The Culture Map”





The ability to persuade others is one of the most highly valued business skills. Whether it’s a simple email request to a colleague or a carefully planned sales pitch to a prospective client, we frequently need to draw on our ability to persuade and convince others in our professional lives. However, the art of persuasion is not universal. As Erin Meyer described above, our own cultural makeup plays a significant part in shaping both the approach we take when seeking to persuade others and also how we ourselves respond to different approaches.


Meyer’s principles-first/applications-first scale is a particularly helpful guide here. She explains how in principles-first cultures, such as France and Italy, it is important to lay out the theory or concept before presenting a statement, opinion or recommendation. Before you make the final statement, you need to present how you got there. Applications-first cultures, such as the US, Canada and Australia, on the other hand, tend to begin their message with a fact, statement or opinion and only then move on to explain the data behind those statements.


Of course, we need to remember the importance of cultural relativity in all of this. It doesn’t matter so much where an individual country falls on the scale but more so where two different cultures fall relative to each other. For instance, the United Kingdom is a relatively applications-first culture when viewed through the lens of other European cultures. However, when it is measured against the United States, it appears strongly principles-first.


Strategies for persuading across cultures


· Consider your audience and tailor your approach accordingly. As we saw earlier, people from principles-first cultures generally want to understand the why behind a concept or a request to take action before they are prepared to proceed. Applications-first cultures, on the other hand, are less concerned with the why and more focused on the what or the how. What about your audience? What is their preferred reasoning style?


· If you have an audience with a mix of principles-first and applications-first reasoning styles, try shifting back and forth between theoretical principles and practical examples. Provide practical examples to capture the interest of your applications-first listeners and also take the time to answer more theoretical questions fully.


· Think about all modes of communication, including the written form. Try and avoid very lengthy emails with lots of explanations, for instance, if you are communicating with an individual or group from a more applications-first culture.



Building Rapport


“We are more likely to buy from, agree with or support someone we can relate to rather than someone we can’t”

Csaba Toth, “Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times”






Photo by Krakenimages on Unsplash


Rapport is defined as a relationship that is marked by mutual harmony, affinity, trust and understanding. Sometimes rapport happens naturally. We have all had experiences when we have just “clicked” with another person without having to try. However, rapport can also be built and developed consciously, by being open and adaptable and by emphasising commonalities.


Strategies for building rapport across cultures


· Take a step back and consider the other party without judgement. What is important to them? What are their values? What are they trying to achieve or avoid? How does this influence the way they see the world?


· Emphasise commonalities, not differences. Through doing this, you become more attuned to the particularities of the specific person you are interacting with, enabling them to feel seen and heard for who they are. Resistance and antagonism generally disappear, and co-operation improves.


· Take time to observe the other person’s behaviour and try and reflect this a little in your own behaviour, in a way that is authentic to you. For example, if a person is talking slowly, slow down. If they speak softly, try and lower your voice. The aim here is not to copy the other person in a contrived way or to try and manipulate them, it is more about “meeting them in their world”.



Communicating your message

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked while the bamboo or the willow survives by bending with the wind"

Bruce Lee




When we say that someone is a good communicator, what does that actually mean? The responses vary widely from society to society. It can be helpful to compare cultures along a scale by measuring the degree to which they are low- or high-context, a metric developed by the anthropologist Edward Hall.

Low-context cultures (including North America and much of Western Europe) tend to focus on individual accomplishments. They are logical, linear and action-oriented. Decisions are based on facts rather than intuition and communicators are expected to be straightforward, concise and efficient when describing what action is expected. Individuals from low-context cultures strive to use precise words and intend them to be taken literally.


By contrast, communicators in higher-context cultures (including much of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America) depend less on language precision and legal documents. Individuals from high-context cultures tend to place a larger importance on long-term relationships and loyalty and have fewer rules or structure implemented. There is a lower reliance on written communication. Businesspeople from higher-context cultures may even mistrust a contract and be offended by the lack of trust it suggests.


Strategies for communicating your message across cultures


· Practise active listening, particularly when working with higher-context colleagues. This means reflecting more, asking more open-ended questions and making an effort to be more reflective to non-verbal gestures or cues. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification if you are not sure you have understood.


· When working with lower-context cultures, Erin Meyer offers the following advice: “Focus on recognising when you are expecting the other person to read your intended message between the lines and get into the habit of conveying it more explicitly”. Start by setting out the main idea, then make your points clearly and finally recap what has been decided and what will happen next.


It helps to interpret communication style on a continuum. Know your own preference on the continuum. If the interaction you’re experiencing is different to your own, flex and adjust your style accordingly in order to accomplish your goals. Cultural self-awareness is key here. Developing self-awareness will help you to understand what you might need to do to adapt both your work style and your expectations of others.

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