Cross-Cultural Selling: Initiating Contact with Prospective Clients

As translation salespeople and account managers find themselves increasingly engaging with cross-border clients, the importance of understanding and adapting to cross-cultural nuances cannot be overstated. While professionals in our industry tend to be more culturally attuned than many others, overlooking these nuances can still jeopardize sales opportunities and business relationships.

In this edition of my cross-cultural blog series, I’ll delve into the cross-cultural differences inherent in the sales cycle itself. How we engage with clients throughout the sales process can vary significantly across different cultures, which is often overlooked in mainstream sales methodologies.

Traditional sales methodologies often present sales as a linear process typically involving the following steps: 

Initiate contact-> Build trust-> Identify needs-> Present solution-> Negotiate-> Close

However, initiating contact before building a trusting relationship with a prospective client is unlikely to yield success in many cross-cultural contexts. For instance, while direct contact methods like LinkedIn messaging or cold calling may be effective in Western cultures, they can be perceived as intrusive or inappropriate in many other parts of the world, particularly in Asia.

Reflecting on my own experiences in the language services industry, I’ve encountered numerous instances highlighting the importance of adapting sales approaches to different cultural contexts in Asia.

This point has been driven home to me throughout the course of my language services career:

• During a Customer Centric Selling course, a colleague from our LSP’s Tokyo office said he could never approach customers the way the instructor suggested, emphasizing the need for significant relationship building before initiating any sales conversations.
  
• Similarly, in a pan-Asian training session I conducted a few years ago, I realized the necessity of modifying my sales methodology to prioritize trust-building as the initial step, with sales discussions deferred until later stages, much to the attendees’ relief!
  
• The Shanghai-based sales team I currently manage consistently reinforces the importance of prioritizing relationships over immediate sales pitches, emphasizing its significance in Chinese business culture.

The differences in how to initiate contact with clients is only one example of the many cultural differences that exist throughout the entire sales cycle for selling, not only into Asia, but also the rest of the world. 

Looking ahead, I’m excited to announce an upcoming cross-cultural selling course tailored specifically for LSP salespeople, global account managers, and senior project managers with international client portfolios. Stay tuned for further details, or feel free to reach out to discuss your specific cross-cultural training needs. Together, we can unlock the potential of cross-cultural selling in the translation industry.