Three sweet ways to help you optimize your business relationships
Posted on February 15, 2009
Filed Under Strategy |
It is quite clear that the current economic environment is not the easiest one for just about every company. Almost every day one can read in the news about layoffs, or even big multinationals shutting down.
Established is also the fact that, in order to improve margins and optimize processes, in the nowadays existing picture a company cannot remain isolated from the rest of the world. Kofi Annan already said eight years ago that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.
If you are thinking about taking the big step and becoming an international company, there are some basic steps that are sometimes obviated and should never be forgotten:
- Never forget your customers.
This looks like a dumb thing to say, considering that we have all been dealing with clients in the past, but it is not that foolish to say that, from my own experience, not many people follow it.
Working internationally means that, many times, your customers will not be located in the country where you are. That means that you will not be able to invite them for a drink or pay them a visit at their office, and the only interfaces available in order to interact with them are usually e-mail and phone, creating most of the times a weak link between both parties that, like a toddler, has to be fed quite often if you want to make it grow (otherwise you will have them either crying or looking for new parents). Don’t let yourself getting scared if you feel that the size of your inbox goes up like an air balloon: even if you are just able to answer few of your customers’ questions, send them an answer saying that you are studying the proposal and you will, for sure, experience an increase in your level of customer satisfaction.
- “An Indian would not be an Indian if he would not act like an Indian”.
In few words, don’t assume that the people on the other side (partners, customers, providers) will act and react in the way you are used to. To mention some examples
- try to appoint a face-to-face meeting if you want to deal with Japanese people, it will be much easier to negotiate with them if they can remember they way you look;
- be patient when requesting information from Indians and try to create a win-win situation in your business together;
- understand that the US market is centralized, and their idea of exchanging money with a foreign party is still quite suspicious for them;
- don’t be offended if someone in the Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia sends you an offer or a contract that seems to be fooling you. Many times the local regulation is so stringent that workarounds have to be found before closing a deal;
- you can address a Spanish partner by his or her first name, but a Latin American may be offended by such treatment, at least during initial negotiations. Same language does not mean same culture.
- It’s better having a bird in your hand than hundred of them flying away.
Focusing on expanding your brand worldwide is a good -and probably necessary- initiative, but don’t leave behind the ones that have been trusting you in the past. Instead of trying to grab as many parties as possible in the biggest variety of countries and environments, push first an extra effort in letting your existing customers know about your strategy and find out if they may be interested in using your services abroad, as well -unless you have enough resources to keep both threads active, of course. At the same time, don’t let them think that the local market is not important anymore for your company, and offer them added value services and extra care. Remember that, indirectly, they can be your marketeers in other countries!
If your company is struggling to enter a new market, don’t just blame the relentless economy, take first a good look at your own organization. Those may seem quite obvious steps, but they are many times assumed and not reviewed, specially by our standardized European minds.
At the end, is there anyone still believing Jimmy Carter´s thoughts on globalization, such as the ones mentioned some time ago?
Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
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Nice approach!