How to do business with people from different cultural backgrounds?

As the saying goes, a hundred kinds of rice raise a hundred kinds of people. International trade means that people from different cultural backgrounds do business with each other. In actual business activities, orientals often think that westerners are too sincere and not accommodating, and even think that sometimes "kindness is regarded as a donkey's liver and lung by the other side", while westerners may think that orientals are too smooth, have no sense of time and are not rigorous in doing things. Therefore, in international trade, only by understanding different cultural differences can we understand each other's actions, seek common ground while reserving differences and seek common interests. Therefore, cross-cultural business communication is an essential basic skill for us to do foreign trade. No matter what kind of cultural differences, first of all, let's understand two "iron laws" in international business: the first iron law: in international trade, the seller mainly adapts to the buyer. Article 2: In international trade, tourists should abide by local business practices. China has a saying that "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", which is what it means. In other words, when you enter a place, you must abide by the principles of local people. This is a very old view. If we are tourists, we don't have to imitate or copy the behavior of local people. On the contrary, we should have our own characteristics. Of course, "having its own characteristics" should include understanding local sensitive topics and respecting local customs and traditions. We can divide cross-cultural business behavior into four modes: business orientation and relationship orientation, formal culture and informal culture, punctuality and flexibility culture, emotional extroversion and emotional conservatism culture. Below we will analyze the characteristics of people's business behavior in different countries and cultures through a large number of cases, which will be of great help to our better communication with each other. Career-oriented and relationship-oriented people are task-oriented, while relationship-oriented people are people-oriented. Of course, no matter where you do business, relationships are very important. Here, the difference lies in the degree. For example, business-oriented people need to understand that in a relationship-oriented culture, you need to be friendly and kind before negotiating. Business salesmen who don't understand these differences often have some conflicts when trying to do business with relational potential customers. Many relational people find that business people are enterprising, competitive and straightforward. On the contrary, career-oriented people sometimes feel that relationship partners are procrastinating, ambiguous and difficult to understand. In the Arab world and most parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific, people try not to do business with strangers in these markets. They often get business through intricate interpersonal networks. They prefer to deal with family, friends and familiar individuals or organizations, and they think these people can be trusted. When doing business with strangers, especially foreigners, they will feel uncomfortable, they will feel insecure and it is difficult to trust each other. People in northern Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are relatively open and willing to do business with strangers. It belongs to a typical business culture. Because business people are more open when doing business with strangers, in such a market, overseas businessmen can usually sign contracts directly with wholesalers or customers. Take the United States as an example This is a highly immigrant country, and most Americans are willing to negotiate business with strangers. The success of inter-enterprise telemarketing illustrates the advantages of this openness. Every year, the United States buys billions of dollars worth of goods and services from strangers all over the world. There is no doubt that America is the hometown of making strange phone calls! Generally speaking, in the United States, as long as you can provide normal goods and services and conduct correct market research, it is faster and more convenient to do business, because the United States is a typical business-oriented market. On the contrary, telemarketing is not so effective in a relationship-oriented market. For example, in Japan, telemarketing refers to calling existing customers, which is usually called relational customers by relational enterprises, while calling strangers is considered as a strange behavior in Japan. The same is true in China, where it is often difficult to get the recognition of the other party by strange phone calls. How to approach your customers? First, the best way to deal with relational enterprises-be introduced. Relational enterprises are not easy to do business with strangers. If you want to open the market in the relational field or enter the relational enterprise, a good way is to arrange suitable people or organizations to introduce you. This third party will build a bridge between you and each other for you. Who will introduce you? The ideal introducer is an authoritative person who is familiar to both sides. So, if you happen to be friends with a retired and beloved official, and he happens to know the representative of the other side, it will be very effective! However, such good luck is rarely encountered in global international trade. If there is no way to get to know any authoritative person, another good way is through the commercial function department of the embassy of the country in the target market country. Don't worry about whether the other party's status is too high. You know, first of all, ambassadors are the authority in relational culture, and promoting exports is also part of their work. In addition, you can also use your personal relationship to "pull relationships". I believe everyone has seen Hong Kong dramas such as Jewellery. Businessmen make new friends and discover new business opportunities in various social occasions such as art exhibitions, charity auctions and golf courses. Suppose your golf partner's company has offices in Seoul, Tokyo or Jakarta. Maybe they will put in a good word for you. In addition, freight forwarding companies, shipping and air transport companies and international legal accounting companies are also effective introduction places. In short, to do business with enterprises with relational culture, we must first win the trust of the other party, and the most favorable first step is a reasonable introduction. We should give full play to our potential and do everything possible to "pull relationships." In a relationship-oriented culture, third-party introduction is very important. For example, in Japan, proper introduction is very important. Therefore, professional consulting companies came into being, whose main function is to introduce innovation for Japanese enterprises. In a strong relationship-oriented market, you can only do business there if you can meet the right people or be introduced to them. It is almost impossible to do business cooperation in China, Japan, South Korea and other markets without connections or relationships (using other people's personal relationships). It seems that the introduction is very laborious, so you can also participate in international exhibitions. Buyers can find suppliers, exporters can find importers, and investors can find partners. It is easy to establish trust and cooperation between enterprises. This is also the best way to approach relational culture-oriented enterprises. Another effective way is to join the official trade delegation. Governments and trade associations around the world promote exports by organizing delegations to visit new markets. These official introductions are helpful to break the deadlock and promote trade development. With the help of reputable intermediary organizations. If there are no related expositions or official delegations in the next few months. Then in the relational market, you can promote the first business through local intermediaries with good reputation. Second, how to deal with operating enterprises. In a business-oriented culture, salespeople can usually sign the first contract with the buyer without any relationship contact. It should be pointed out that when dealing with people with business culture, being introduced can add points, which is helpful to business and not essential. In front of business people, because the other person is usually more open, you can usually start talking about business after a few minutes of short communication with the other person. And you can get to know most of your business-oriented partners in a few days, unlike in a relationship-oriented culture, such as China and Saudi Arabia, which takes weeks or months, and you have to go through countless meals and drinks. Business-oriented buyers and sellers also socialize by drinking, eating and playing golf. However, they can also establish an appropriate relationship at the negotiating table where an agreement is reached. Of course, business-oriented importers and exporters also want to know more about each other when signing distribution agreements. However, these can be done later. At the same time, when discussing the price, payment terms, description, quality, quantity and delivery date involved in the distribution agreement, they also estimate and judge each other. They talk about business first and get to know each other in the negotiation. Because businessmen with business-oriented culture are usually straightforward, as long as they can clearly introduce the advantages of their own companies and products and talk openly about problems, communication is a relatively easy process, while communication with relational people is a much more complicated problem. Let's give you a detailed introduction. Bring each other closer. Good communication should be based on how to shorten the cultural differences and bring them closer. Westerners (mainly business) often don't understand why they want to do business with orientals. Most business is discussed at the dinner table, and they always have to "bottom up". In Southeast Asia, getting drunk together is a recognized way to get closer to each other (but it is usually limited to men). Women are generally not suitable for this kind of communication. Before doing business with Arabs, Africans, Latin Americans and most Asians, it is best to establish an atmosphere of mutual trust with them. In a relationship-oriented market, the first task is to make friends, followed by doing business. In a relationship-oriented market, it is very important to establish personal relationships. In addition to business dealings with business partners, there are also some important personal relationships, which we usually call "personal relationships". Therefore, when dealing with people with relationship-oriented cultural background, personal relationship is crucial to the success of business. Business negotiation process The business negotiation process of relationship-oriented culture is usually very long for two reasons. First of all, before the negotiation, we should spend more time in indirect contact with each other. Secondly, the process of building trust and developing personal relationships is very long. In a relationship-oriented market, the third party (bureaucratic inertia) often plays a role in negotiations with government officials and public sector groups. In a relationship-oriented culture, dealing with strangers, especially foreigners, often makes officials more hesitant. That's why Volkswagen had to negotiate with the China government for nine years in order to open a car factory in Shanghai. Why did McDonald's make its first gold asset investment in Russia and reach an agreement with the local government two years after applying for/kloc-0? When preparing to do business in a relationship-oriented market, tourists must prepare a lot of patience in their briefcases. The importance of face-to-face contact Telegrams, faxes, emails, telephone calls and video conferences enable us to keep in touch with international business partners. However, these technologies cannot replace the need for face-to-face contact between people. Relationship-oriented businessmen are not used to discussing important things through documents or telephone calls. Therefore, when dealing with relational people, don't rely too much on email, because the other party may not pay attention to email at all, even if the other party explicitly announces the contact email address. For a simple example, in the coastal areas of China, such as Shenzhen and Shanghai, electronic information is paid more attention, and there are many e-mails. A lot of recruitment is achieved directly by submitting resumes online. In mainland cities, if candidates simply rely on the internet to submit resumes to recruitment companies, they often don't get any response from the other side. Many times it's not that they are unqualified, but that the other party doesn't pay attention to checking emails at all. So in these places, running job fairs is often more effective than submitting resumes online. Therefore, when dealing with relational enterprises, try to create opportunities for face-to-face contact, and the chances of success will be higher. The role of contract Business businessmen mainly rely on handwritten agreements to avoid misunderstandings and solve problems. When there are differences and disputes, American businessmen will especially adopt an impersonal and legal contract method. Many American companies will bring a lengthy draft contract and a lawyer to the negotiating table. Then speak out the agreements in the plan one by one, and consult a lawyer at any time if you have any questions. This way is very meaningful in the United States, which likes litigation the most in the world. However, in a relationship-oriented culture, this method may not work because businessmen rely more on interpersonal relationships than lawyers and detailed contracts. In a strong relationship-oriented market, the best way is to keep lawyers behind the scenes until there is a conflict at the end of the discussion and meeting. Differences in understanding of contracts can also lead to misunderstandings between relationship-oriented culture and business-oriented culture. For example, after the situation changed, Korean partners wanted to renegotiate some terms of the contract, even though the agreement was just signed in new york a month ago. Koreans hope that their closest partners in the United States can facilitate such negotiations. On the other hand, new york people will misunderstand the Korean partner's reaction to the change of the situation, and think it is a signal that his partner is cunning and fickle. Relational culture mainly relies on relationships to avoid difficulties and solve problems, while commercial culture relies on written agreements to play the same role. As more companies can gain experience in global trade from two different aspects of this divergence, we can foresee that this misunderstanding will gradually decrease. However, at the same time, businessmen need to be alert to this cross-cultural difference, otherwise it will ruin the most promising international business. Direct language and indirect language have different ways of communication in business culture and relational culture. Business negotiators pay attention to direct evaluation and use frank and direct language, while relational negotiators often take indirect and subtle circuitous ways. This difference in communication is the most important reason for misunderstanding between orientals and westerners. For example, negotiators from Germany and the Netherlands are famous for their blunt language. On the other hand, Japanese and other relational negotiators, their first consideration is to coordinate and promote interpersonal relationships. Because it is very important to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships in a team, relational businessmen should carefully observe their words and deeds and try to avoid offending and embarrassing others. Most negotiators in Japan, China and Southeast Asia regard the word "no" as an inappropriate word and are used to avoiding giving negative answers directly. They will whisper "this is difficult" or "let's study it again" The most commonly used modifiers are "possible" and "if it is convenient". For example, in real life, I have a good friend who communicates with her Japanese boyfriend in English every day. The Japanese teenager's English level is also very poor. After a while, my friend found that Japanese young people often nodded frequently in communication, and there was an epiphany on their faces. In fact, he didn't understand it either. The expression of nodding and epiphany is the so-called "respect for each other and humility" in Japanese culture. So, his friend warned him that if he didn't understand in the future, he must say it, and he couldn't keep nodding and fooling her. See, this is the communication misunderstanding caused by cultural differences. In another true story, a Canadian clothing company placed an order for nearly 60,000 pieces of clothes with a Guangzhou clothing factory (Evergreen Company), and Jiafa proposed that all clothes sold in Canada must be marked with fiber content and washing instructions in French and English. This requirement has attracted the attention of the Chinese side, because they lack French experts, so they strongly hope to use only Chinese and English. Manager Wang of Evergreen Company said with a smile, "Mr. Martin, I'm afraid it will be difficult to fill in the supply label in French and English. This issue needs further study. " Canada has repeatedly stressed that Canadian law requires that labels must be bilingual in English and French. "Please understand that we have no choice at this point. This is the law. " After a brief discussion with his team, Mr. Wang smiled and said loudly, "Sir, we will seriously consider your request. Although it will be difficult, we will try our best to solve this problem. " Later, this batch of clothes arrived in Canada smoothly. When I opened the package, the labels of the clothes were all in English and Chinese! In the end, the Canadian side demanded a full refund, and the Chinese side suffered heavy losses. Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle. As a typical relationship-oriented culture, China people can communicate better when doing business with Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian and other countries that are also relationship-oriented.