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Published:
November 18, 2008

Cross-Cultural Selling For Dummies

Overview

Want to reach out to multicultural customers? Cross-Cultural Selling For Dummies is packed with everything you need to know to tap into multicultural markets, from establishing solid relationships to adapting your advertising to meeting the needs of your new clientele. You’ll acquire key cross-cultural skills and build a coordinated effort that engages all aspects of your business.

This practical, easy-to-understand guide shows you how to measure the purchasing power of other cultures and change the way you market to them. You’ll learn how to do multicultural research, develop a marketing campaign with wide appeal, pick the right media, tune your materials to the market, and establish a presence in the community. You’ll find tips on identifying generational differences with in a culture, pronouncing names correctly,

and determining customer motivation. Discover how to:

  • Reach out to multicultural customers
  • Develop strong relationships
  • Adapt your sales presentations and techniques
  • Clear language barriers
  • Boost your street cred
  • Present appealing financing options
  • Create a foundation for long-term success
  • Handle negotiations with skilled hagglers
  • Recognize and overcome objections
  • Adopt techniques to close the sale
  • Create a strong referral base
  • Avoid cultural conflicts
  • Maintain a diverse sales team

You can realize the incredible untapped potential of the multicultural market to send your sales soaring and your profits off the charts. Cross-Cultural Selling For Dummies shows you how!

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About The Author

Michael Soon Lee, MBA, is a nationally recognized expert in selling and marketing to multicultural customers. He is a diversity consultant and speaker, an award-winning salesperson, and the author of several books.  

Ralph R. Roberts is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed real estate agent, speaker, sales coach, consultant, and author.

Sample Chapters

cross-cultural selling for dummies

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Articles from
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Service with a smile is always important for your business. To every customer you greet, your sincere facial expression should say, “I’m so glad to see you!” Walking into any store or office for the first time can be a frightening experience for any customer. This is your turf, not theirs. They’re unfamiliar with the products and services, where things are located, and the person with whom they’re dealing.
Puerto Ricans may require your attention as a business owner. Your business may have Puerto Rican customers, or you may work with Puerto Rican-owned businesses. Here's how to behave in business with this cultural group: Common greeting: Shaking hands is common for both men and women. Men and women who are friends may kiss each other on the cheek.
You may have the opportunity to do business with Mexican or Mexican-American individuals, a particular culture group that's common in the United States. Mexican business customs follow these cultural norms: Common greeting: Shaking hands or giving a slight bow. Shake hands with a Mexican woman only if she extends her hand first.
When creating business advertisements targeted to a particular cultural group, you need to design your ads with images and messages that appeal to that culture. Here are some ways to attract the attention of people within a specific cultural group: Put people in your advertising photos who are in the same ethnic group (not sort of the same) as the people you’re targeting.
When dealing with a business customer who doesn't speak English (or doesn't know much of the language), you can overcome that customer language barrier in a number of ways: Show some emotion. Most emotions, such as excitement, joy, fear, frustration, and anger, are universal. Just remember that some cultures are more or less restrained in their expressions, so stay within your customers’ comfort zone.
People who don’t get to meet many U.S. citizens sometimes have a distorted view of Americans. By becoming aware of how people from other countries and cultures may perceive you, you have a better chance of breaking through those misconceptions to develop stronger and more meaningful relationships with your business contacts: Americans are ethnocentric.
African American consumers and businesspeople aren't all the same. You can differentiate the African American community with which your business interacts by factors such as economic status: Common greeting: Shaking hands for both men and women is commonly practiced. Be formal at the beginning and never call an African American by his or her first name unless the person invites you to do so because this could be extremely insulting.
Referrals to your business from satisfied customers don’t just happen; you have to have a plan to generate referral business. You can develop a systematic strategy for generating referrals by following some basic steps. Set a target. Set a clear goal with a timeline for referrals, such as a 10-percent increase in referral business over the next eight weeks.
Business owners often pledge support to activities and events that demonstrate the business's commitment to the community in which it operates. By serving as sponsors, volunteers, fund-raisers, or educators, local businesses can help make their communities better places to live and work. Here are a few opportunities to connect with the public within a community: Social service organizations: Programs such as Catholic and Lutheran social services, Goodwill Industries, and others already provide various services to underserved populations.
Native Americans, also called American Indians, may play a part in your business, either as business customers or business contacts. Native American culture shapes the way that this cultural group interacts in business situations. Common greeting: A very gentle handshake. Personal space: Greater than for other North Americans at 2 1/2 to 3 feet.
When introduced to a business contact, make sure you pronounce that person's name correctly. If you don't determine the right way to say his or her name, you can ruin a good business relationship by mispronouncing the contact's first or last name over and over. Get a new contact's name correct right from the start: If you have a notepad handy, ask the person to write out his or her name for you.
Customers, especially customers from other cultures, love to haggle. They often revel in the negotiating process and look forward to haggling with a challenging businessperson. To put yourself on an equal footing with some of the world’s best negotiators, keep the following tips in mind: Haggle with the hagglers.
When you're talking with a potential customer, that customer may raise objections to completing the sale. Here are the most common objections you're likely to encounter, along with suggestions on how to overcome them: Your customer doesn’t need your product or service. A primary objection that customers raise is that they don’t really need what you’re selling.
Doing business with sensitivity to cultural differences may require staff training and education. Employees who interact with publics from a variety of cultures should be competent in their cultural awareness, along with their other business skills. Here are some key areas in which business people should be in touch for cultural competency: Development of culture: How cultures develop and their impact on the workplace, including relationships with customers and other businesspeople.
Knowing Anglo American (Caucasian) cultural norms gives Anglo American businesspeople a clearer understanding of the differences between “us” and “them,” and also provides immigrant businesspeople with advice and insight on how to sell effectively to their Caucasian customers: Common greeting: Firm handshakes for men and women.
If your business has Filipino customers or Filipino business contacts (meaning people from the Philippines), knowing some Filipino cultural norms can keep your business culturally sensitive. Common greeting: Men and women shake hands with everyone present at a business meeting or social occasion and when saying goodbye.
If you identify the ethnic products and services your multicultural customers want or need to buy, you'll be able to stock up on their preferred selections — and succeed in sales with a diverse inventory. Offer everything, and then some. You can often attract customers from other cultures and boost sales by offering them everything they can get from your competitors, and then some, all in one convenient location, so they don’t have to run around so much.
Developing a marketing and sales strategy that’s both effective and profitable requires a good sense of your marketplace’s cultural makeup. You can gather data on the multicultural composition of a market through several sources. Get free data from the Census Bureau. Why pay for data if you can get it for free?
When meeting any customer or business contact, let that person set a comfortable personal space. If the person's tendency to move in close or stay removed physically doesn't correspond with your personal space preference, accept the fact that you’re not going to be operating in your comfort zone. You can become more accustomed to different comfort zones by practicing this exercise: Stand about 6 feet away from your partner.
If your business has Cuban contacts — either Cuban customers or Cuban business associates, you should familiarize yourself and your business's employees with Cuban cultural practices when it comes to business interactions. Common greeting: Shaking hands is common for both men and women. Men and women who are friends may kiss on the cheek.
Customers give you contextual clues about the meaning behind what they're saying — or not saying. You just need to interpret those contextual clues to best serve your customers. Listen closely to both what the person says, and how he or she says it. Tune in to the feelings behind the words being said. Note who’s talking.
Sharing information about your products or services builds trust with the people who purchase from your business. Your helpfulness can boost their confidence in your abilities, knowledge, and motives. An educated customer is an appreciative customer. To be an effective educator, recognize that not everyone learns the same way, and culture can affect the way people absorb information: Auditory-verbal: In the United States, most sales presentations are delivered verbally — the salesperson talks to the customer, and the customers listens passively (hence the term auditory-verbal).
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