Avoid Cultural Assumptions

Assumptions are the source of many cultural blunders.

If you enter international business with wrong assumptions, and you do not correct them, then you have little chance of success.

If you make a wrong assumption during an international sales call, you can lose the sale.

Wrong assumptions lead to poor cross-cultural communication.  They slow down your international sales process, and can even jeopardize your success.

The problem is that it is easy, almost natural, to make assumptions when you first begin international sales.  It takes time get to know different cultures and to adapt your sales process.  And before you learn to adapt your sales process, it is easy to make assumptions.

There are a few ways where assumptions seem to pop up more than others.

Lack Of Effort

If this is your first experience of international sales, you may not realize how important it is to get to know your new foreign markets.  You need to adapt your business tactics to different cultures.

A lack of effort in getting to know who your international clients are leads you into all sorts of wrong assumptions.  And your chances of making many international sales go slowly down the drain.

The difficulty is that we may not even know that our assumptions are misleading us.

False Perceptions

A more covert form of miscommunication pops up when we allow our own cultural perceptions to give reason to our assumptions.

When we base assumptions on our own perceptions meaningful communication is impossible.

The trouble starts here starts within ourselves. We perceive things, but interpret them wrongly.

Cultural Generalizations

Assumptions can also pop up due to accepted cultural generalizations.

We usually acquire these generalizations from our environment.

Avoid Cultural Assumptions

So, how can you avoid falling into the trap?

The easiest way to:

• First, refrain from reacting emotionally
• Then, get curious
• Turn to your international prospect, client or market
• Ask questions

More From Cindy

Interested in reading more on my personal opinions and experiences with cultural communication and international sales?

CindyKing.biz on cross-cultural communication

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This is part of the Get International Clients Business Guide 5 Connect With Your International Markets Be sure to check out the other useful tips to connect with your international markets.

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Pre-qualification - Not Prejudgment

One of the barriers to your international business success will be something on a personal level.

It is about the people, your team, that help you work towards your business expansion.

Cross-cultural communication and international blunders, big and small, often happen through human “mistakes”.

And you might not perceive these “mistakes” as real mistakes.  In other words, some of these “mistakes” would not be considered mistakes in your own business environment.

But cross-cultural differences make certain things come out wrong.

Prejudgment

It is very easy to let automatic assumptions pop into international business decisions and practices.

These automatic assumptions, or prejudgments, can:

• Slow your expansion process - it takes you longer to get it right
• Cost your business more money than necessary - through business mistakes and wasted time and effort.
• Interfere with your international success - what happens if you never correct your false assumptions?

The thing is, you may not even be aware of the prejudgments you have.  Your prejudgments and assumptions directly interfere with how you listen to your international markets.

And if you are not listening properly you will not always hear everything you need to hear to create the best international business development strategy for your business.

On a side note:

Have you ever taken the time to think about the association between prejudice and prejudgment?

We often think of prejudice when looking at differences between two cultural groups living in the same environment.

And… what about prejudice between two different cultures in two different countries?

And… going one step further, how does one country’s over exaggeration of its own national pride effect that culture’s prejudgment of other cultures?

There is something you need to recognize…

Everyone has prejudgments.

…Sure some of them may not be nice.

And some prejudgments have nothing to do with being nice or not.  They are just natural assumptions.

Prejudgment is part of our human nature.  It is also part of the culture we live in.  And no matter how hard we try, we cannot get rid of all of them.

So prejudgment is something employers cannot control in their employees.

The best international companies cultivate their staff to work together in a way that limits prejudgment.  These companies also stimulate  pre-qualification.

Let’s now have a look at…

Pre-qualification

But there is something you can do…

Something that will help you eliminate “mistakes” through prejudgment.

• Pre-qualification

Pre-qualification is absolutely essential in international business.  This is what you need to do, consistently, to get beyond your own assumptions and prejudgments.

…So what is pre-qualification?

It is rather simple…

Pre-qualification is simply how you:

• Check and cross-check your information
• Ask questions - lots of questions, from all sorts of angles
• Get feedback - as much as you can, and take note of even the smallest elements of feedback
• Look at what you do not have - absence often speaks louder than words
• Dig for truth, meaning - until you see the full picture

When going through all of the steps in your international business plan, you need to include pre-qualification throughout all of the different processes and before any decision you take.

• Pre-qualify all of the information you get
• Pre-qualify any decisions
• Pre-qualify your actions
• …All aspects of your international business

Some people go overboard and use pre-qualification as a form of procrastination.  Pre-qualification does require action.

In fact, you often need action before you can finish your pre-qualification process.

Now…

There are many times:

• When you will need to take action first
• Where you will need feedback first
• …Before you can do anything

This is fine.  This is actually to be expected.

When you have nothing to go on, you need to create something to go on.  You need to get feedback on something concrete.

…Yes, you might well get it wrong the first time.  This does not matter.  You now have feedback, information.  And you can start again.

Just make sure you verify your results and the feedback you get. Then use a process of pre-qualification to get where you want to go.

Pre-qualification is about asking questions, getting feedback, uncovering the real situation, needs, or facts.

Get The Right Mind-Set

Where prejudgment is based on personal outlooks, thoughts and beliefs…

…Pre-qualification is based on the truth outside of personal assessments.

This process of recognizing your own prejudgments and opening yourself up to taking pre-qualification actions systematically…

…It is all part of the right international mind-set you need for international success.

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This is part of the Get International Clients Business Guide 3 - Design Your International Visibility This is where you can read more on how to connect with your international markets.

More On International Market Research

International Market Research • Pre-qualification is actually part of your international market research Find out more here.