Monthly Series – International Sales Best Practices
Where does trust start? Don’t forget that trust begins first within ourselves. Here is something to think about:
- Trust yourself first before you can trust others
- Show others trust before they trust you
For most of us, it is good to remember this before taking action to build trust for international sales. Although we seldom fail to notice the difficulties others have especially when they come from different cultures, we often overlook what we have to do ourselves.
Building Trust In International Sales – Tip 3
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. – Indira Gandhi
International Sales Best Practice
- Take The Time To Build Trust
The truth is that it takes time to build trust in international clients. And it is not only a question of building a relationship… even if this is important. Let’s look at the different places you need to invest your time to build trust with international clients.
Prepare Yourself For Trust
There are a few places where you need to work on yourself…
- As I said above, you need to first trust yourself before you can trust others.
- In addition to this you also need to cultivate your trustworthiness. Trust is often earned. What have you done to earn trust?
- You also need strong cultural skills to make sure that others perceive you as trustworthy, despite any cross-cultural differences.
Give Time For Relationships To Develop
Sometimes people need time to get to know each other. There can be multiple reasons for this.
In cross-cultural encounters people may need different time scales for trust to happen. It is always a good idea to keep this in mind. Many cross-cultural sales are lost because the seller thought the buyer was indifferent when in fact he simply needed more time.
There are different business practices. In some cultures the decision process goes through a different cycle… other people may need to take part in the process and trust might be conditional to a group consensus. It is important to give enough time for this to take place.
People have different levels of cultural skills. Some people may need more time to adapt to cultural differences more than others. You need to allow time for people to go through their own process for finding the foundation of trust they need.
Spend Time To Earn Trust
Cultural perceptions of time vary greatly. What is quick for one culture may be slow for another. This is part of the reason why there are no real guidelines for how long it takes to build trust.
In last month’s Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge to build trust, I shared why people with strong cultural skills continually work on building, nurturing and maintaining trust. It is ensures a good working cross-cultural relationship.
When you are faced with working with cross-cultural differences, it’s easy to lose focus… don’t forget to spend time to earn trust. The effort you spend on earning trust might be the deciding factor that gets you the international sale.
Now it is over to you…
- Do you take time to earn trust from your international clients?
- Do you give your international clients the time they need to build trust?
- How quick are you to establish trust with international clients?
Please share your stories in the comment section below.
More Cultural Skills For Today’s Tip
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Last month’s Cross-Cultural Communication Tip - Explain things when others find them “foreign” |
This month’s series takes reviews last month’s tips to build trust in cross-cultural communication and adds 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 trust. Get the complete International Sales Best Practices series here.
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All International Sales Best Practices
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