Building Trust With These 3 Changes In Your Communication Will Get International Visitors To Listen To You
May 7, 2008 by 
cindy
Building Trust With These 3 Tiny Changes In Your Communication Will Get International Visitors To Listen To You
It is often said that working in international business is like working in a minefield, where the mines are cross cultural communication blunders.
There are not really minefields online. It’s more like quicksand or a scene from a horror film where your friend, or in this case your international prospects or clients, just vanish without a trace.
Since the first time one culture tried to communicate with another there has always been at least one major stumbling block in cross cultural communication:
Trust
Trust is something businesses strive to create with Read more
Internationalize Your Website 3 - Show The World Your Location
February 19, 2008 by cindy
Last Updated 17 August 2008
Decent cross cultural communication depends on breaking down the natural barriers of mistrust inherent in all inter cultural relationships.
Good cross cultural communication is built once trust has been built between the two cultures.
First Steps To Website Internationalization
One of the key elements of internationalizing your website is trust.
First you have to look at all of the different barriers to trust on your website. One very simple barrier and very big barrier to trust in cross cultural communication is an absence of stating your location.
What is the one of the first things two people do when they meet each other? They ask where they are from. This question comes up even faster when you know you are speaking to someone from another country. The question is inevitable.
Tell The world Where You Are From
Some companies don’t put their address online. Some companies do not put it up clearly. Some companies think they have their address clearly indicated online, and yet their international readers don’t find it quickly enough.
Internationalizing your website means making your website friendlier to all international visitors. You need to put up your address and then need to find it when it suits them.
First let’s look at what not to do. Read more
Website Internationalization Before Localization
February 14, 2008 by cindy
Last updated 20 August 2008
An Easy To Read Website For Your International Visitors First Impression
Creating a localized website will be a lot easier if your website is already easy for your international visitors to read. Ensuring your website is easy to read for foreign visitors to your website is an important step in internationalizing your website.
So how can you do make your website easy to read for your international visitors?
Most of the reasons why national websites fail to communicate with their international visitors are directly related to not implementing all of the standard best practices in creating a good website.
You have probably heard of most of these guidelines when creating your company website for your original market. But did you really apply them as best you could? Simply failing to implement a few of these will turn your international clients away and leave them with a bad impression of your company. Read more
Your Guideline For Successful First Time Cross Cultural Negotiations In Any Culture
February 6, 2008 by cindy
Do you have an international sales negotiation coming up? Are you nervous about how it will go?
Most people don’t give much thought to the actual cross cultural communication process prior to their first real cross cultural negotiation. They get obsessed with secondary details.
Cross Cultural Negotiation Skills
Imagine you are in a long line of people waiting for a taxi at the busy Paris airport. With people swarming everywhere. The noise of the street traffic competing with the noise from the airplanes in the background.
And then you hear such a large commotion, right up at the front of your taxi line. You think it is yet another bomb scare and crane your neck to get a closer look with your bags in your hands ready to move. But out of the confusion you hear laughter.
What happened? Read more
Communication Across Cultures Is Better With A Whole Brain Approach
February 5, 2008 by cindy
Cross cultural communication is not an exact science. When you begin a cross cultural business conversation for the first time, you cannot be sure where it will end. Within cultures people are different. There are different ways of saying hello within the same cultural group.
Most people do not fully understand the way how differences in cultures impact communication. Some people enter a cross cultural conversation without making any concessions. Some go as far as behaving as if everyone is from their home town.
Other people are excessively studious and read up on specific local habits. They will want standardized answers on what to bring if you are invited to dinner, how to dress, when to arrive, what to say.
How can you prepare for your first inter cultural meeting? Read more
Case Studies - Best Small Business Tool For Building Trust In International Clients
February 4, 2008 by cindy
Last updated 20 August 2008
What international business development tool is so powerful it calls your prospects and clients to action… and can demolish the biggest stumbling block of all in international business?
A Case Study
You see, telling a story is a very powerful communication tool. It speaks across cultures, across language levels. A case study is a story. The story of how one of your clients had a problem, how he chose your product as the solution, and the results he has had.
A case study often has more selling power to international prospects than any other promotional document because the case study tells the story of someone else resolving the same issue your client has.
If you have a success story with any foreign client it is a fantastic tool throughout all of your international markets and you should make a case study do describe that success. If the success story is with a client located in the country you are targeting it is even better. If you don’t have an international client case study but you do have local client case studies, don’t let that stop you. Your story will still have great pull because it still shows a problem and a solution. Read more
Case Studies - Easy Small Business Strategy Strengthens International Client Relationships
February 3, 2008 by cindy
Last updated 20 August 2008
Why a systematic case study plan at time of sale is important to your international business development.
If you implement a systematic case study plan at the time of sale, you will get several case study elements. Some of your clients may not be willing to commit to a full case study. Not to worry.
There are three variations of the case study. Read more
Is Your Website Sabotaging Your International Business Development?
January 27, 2008 by cindy
Last updated 20 August 2008
Well, your website probably is sabotaging your international business development. Especially if you have not given thought to your international visitors.
This is one of the first trials small businesses face when reaching international markets.
You see, when you first created your website you probably made it for the market you know well. And that’s normal. Nothing wrong there. The thing is, as your website grows you attract a wider audience. An international audience. And this international audience, well, it will not respond to your website the same way as your current audience.
Your website can even create negative effects on your international readers. This is all about the intrinsic barriers in cross cultural communication.
Business practices are different in different cultures. We are all used to doing things in a certain way. We all get used to doing business this way and it is easy to think that it’s the best way and everyone does or should do things the same way.
Your online business is visible to people with different business practices and expectations.
No More Sabotage
Here are a few frustrating experiences international prospects have when visiting online businesses in different countries: Read more
