Selling Across Cultures: The Role of Relationship and Trust
B2B selling across cultures is invigorating but it can be frustrating if you do not have fluency in “Cross Cultural Selling Competence. “ This can be defined as “your attitude, knowledge and skill to develop win-win relationships with people and organizations of different cultures to achieve mutually beneficial business goals.”
The best resource I have found, other than personal selling experience, in developing my Cross Cultural Selling Competence is found in the book “Riding the Waves of Culture” by Dr. Fons Trompenaars and Dr. Charles Hampden-Turner. This book explores the 7 Dimensions of Culture and how they impact business relationships, communication, problem solving and of course sales to cultures different than your own.
B2B selling is a communication process of sharing information, building trust and demonstrating value in your solution to solve your customer problems to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for your customer, you and your organization. This is always across cultures!
The one dimension of culture that gives sales people the most difficulty is called the Specific – Diffuse Dimension. Trompenaars developed this dimension based on the work and observations of Dr. Lewin. Shortly after World War II ended, Dr. Lewin emigrated to America. After he arrived, he was immediately captivated by the different style of how Americans shared information, established trust and quickly developed relationships in both the business and personal situations compared to his European experiences. He observed that many relationships were just that – situational, where as in his birthplace, relationships were developed over time and tended to be more long term. He created the Lewin Circles to visualize these two styles of relationships. Trompenaars has employed these concepts and circles by making the continuum called Specific – Diffuse.
From a B2B selling perspective, let’s review the two ends of the Specific - Diffuse continuum. First, the characteristics of “Specific” B2B customer relationships are below.
More Specific Customer Cultures
Relationships are Situational
Work and Personal Life are Separate
Mutual Trust based on the Shared Activity
Sales People and Customer Relationships
“The More Information I Share the Better Deal I Get”
“Make the Sale, Get the Deal, and, if Time we make a Relationship”
“Just be Professional and Know Your Product”
Networking across community by mutual interest
Prospecting is issue or need based
Minimal small talk
Selling is like Speed Dating your customer
Triangulate the problem or business issue
Fixed pricing
Customer Loyalty is fleeting as situations change
Now let’s view the “Diffuse” B2B customer relationship.
More Diffuse Customer Cultures
Relationships are Developed over Time
Work and Personal Life are Integrated
Trust based on Personal Connection over Time
Referrals by Relationship are Crucial
Sales People and Customer Relationships
“The More Information I Share, the More Likely I Get Taken Advantage of”
“We take Time for a Relationship First, then Agree on the Deal/Sale Later”
“Be Likable, Trustable so I can Trust buying your Product”
Networking is by Personal Referral or ‘Guanxi’
Prospecting is difficult
Small talk to check each other out
Selling is like Learning to Tango with your Customer
The problem, issue and me, my image are inseparable
Barter Pricing
You have a Customer for life because of trust and mutual deep relationship
Let’s now have some insight of national cultures based on the 20 plus years of research by Trompenaars across more than 120 countries. Can you make a guess?
What countries are most ‘Specific’ and which ones are most ‘Diffuse?’
USA, Canada and Netherlands are tops on specific cultures and South Korea, China and Taiwan are most diffuse. I came to realize why my Chinese wife says all Americans seem to not want deep long lasting friendships (except her wonderful husband – a bit of blog humor), and, why ‘guanxi’ is so important in East Asia after listening to Dr. Trompenaars explain this dimension.
For a Specific Diffuse Continuum of over 20 countries, download the Cross Cultural Selling through Relationship file.
In my next blog, we will explore the skills and tactics to use to effectively sell from a Specific to Diffuse perspective and vice versa. You can though see some key areas of possible frustration already from reading above. Till my next blog, do some research on Lewin and Trompenaars and discover the world of Cross Cultural Selling Competence.
