International Sales Best Practices
The next five posts are how to explain yourself to improve clarity in cross-cultural communication and get more international sales. Today we start with the basics because international salespeople need strong cross-cultural communication skills.
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CCCC Tip #21 -
Try to rephrase key points and difficult concepts to make them easy to understand. |
This month’s series takes last month’s tips to get extreme clarity in cross-cultural communication and brings them into an international sales perspective. Remember to download the free calender for an easy reference to all of the 30 Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge Tips on clarity. Get the complete International Sales Best Practices series here.
Many cross-cultural communication difficulties begin simply because something is not explained well enough. This sounds silly, I know. And yet, it happens all the time.
The problem is that it is not always easy to know what you need to explain in more detail and how to explain it properly.
Here is some basic advice to keep in mind:
- Listen to the person from the other culture. Listen actively.
- Take things one step at a time. Be logical and do not confuse things by talking about more than one topic at one time.
- Ask questions to verify mutual understanding at key points during the conversation.
Cross-Cultural Communication Skills & Sales Best Practices
Let’s look at another aspect with this quote from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book Of Sales Answers.
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“The best way to get information to a prospect is to make the information a “must read” once it’s in the door. ” – Jeffrey Gitomer |
In international sales, salespeople do not simply explain things, they also get people to want to listen to them. They rely on strong cross-cultural communication skills. They need to find out when to bring up certain subjects and how to bring them up. These skills are slightly different with different cultures.
For example, here in France you often need to stimulate the intellectual argument in a certain way, a “French” way. Timing is also very important. Get this wrong, or miss a step, and you will not get the attention you need.
When to approach different steps of the sales cycle also differs from country to country.
The explanations you need may not be the same as the ones needed by your international clients. They may need explanations delivered:
- In a different format
- In a different sequence
- At a different time
- To a different set of people
As you can see there are different variables involved. International salespeople learn to develop cultural skills to evaluate when and how to deliver information and explanations to different cultures.
What Is Your Experience Of This In International Sales?
- How do you adapt the information you deliver to different international clients?
- When do you need to explain things in international business?
- How do you know what information you need to give your international clients for them to make their buying decision?
Please share your comments below. I’d love to hear your stories!
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All International Sales Best Practices
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She is who I turn to when I have questions and you should too"
-- Chris Garrett, co-author of the "Problogger" book
