International Sales Best Practice – Reduce Risk

International Sales Best Practices

I live in an area south of Paris with a large number of small and medium-sized businesses. When I meet people locally, they often tell me they want to develop their business internationally. And the next sentence invariably has something to do about risk.

Today’s best practice is of great importance in international sales.  It is about dealing with risk.

International Sales Success

Good salespeople know how to reduce the risk for the customer. International sales often create a higher perceived risk for most customers.

Quote From Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book Of Selling

Principle of Sales Greatness Reduce their risk, and you’ll convert selling to buying

Last Month’s Cross-Cultural Communication Tip 20

Allow for extra time to get things done in international sales

Need Extra Time To Identify Risks

You often need extra time to determine the risks perceived by your international customers.

• These risks may not be the same in different countries
• International customers may not show their emotions as you would expect

In addition to extra time, you must also listen actively and ask smart questions in order to find out the best way you can reduce these risks.

Need Time To Create Trust

In many cases, you also need to establish and constantly maintain trust in parallel to reducing risk. In international encounters a lack of trust is a very common cross-cultural barrier.

There are two main lines you must always maintain to build trust with cross-cultural encounters.

• Clarity
• Consistency

People with strong international skills take clarity and consistency to whole new level.  The idea here is to never assume that you have achieved 100% clarity and consistency.  You must constantly work at it.

The biggest barrier to a sale is the unspoken risk that a prospect perceives – Jeffrey Gitomer

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Tagged as: best practice, ccc, Cross-Cultural Communication, cross-cultural sales, cross-cultural selling, global sales, international competence, international negotiation, International Sales, international sales best practices, international sales skills, international selling, international skills, jeffrey gitomer, march challenge