A balanced approach to high integrity international selling must include a healthy investment of time to fully understand the cultural differences, which exist relative to your target market. Below is a summary of the most important cultural sensitivities to remember when conducting business overseas.

1) Each country utilizes and values space differently - U.S. business people demonstrate their respect for each other’s personal space by maintaining more distance from each other than do people in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. This is why U.S. business people often feel overcrowded and not respected in these countries.

2) The concept of time varies around the world – U.S. business practices place time as extremely important and something that is limited and should not be wasted. This means that tasks should be completed in the minimum amount of time possible. In other countries, the more important a decision is, the more time one should take to get something done. This often also means that American deadlines are seen as unacceptable, confusing and insulting.

3) The purpose and meaning of friendship is different – Friendships in the U.S. are formed relatively quickly in relation to those in the rest of the world and tend to be based on favors and obligation. Friendships in most other parts of the world take more time to develop and are not based on favors.

4) The value placed on material possessions varies among countries – In the United States, we tend to use material possessions to demonstrate their socio-economic status. In many other cultures of the world, family values, connections to key people and knowledge of one’s inner self rank higher than possession of material things.

5) Negotiation strategies are different among cultures – U.S. businesspeople rely greatly on the written, signed contract. In other parts of the world, the verbal agreement is often binding and actually more binding than the written contract.

For more information on cultural issues or training resources, please contact us at 314.615.8141.