Selling to Overseas Customers

Part II: Handling Customer Concerns

In tough economic times, companies survive and thrive based on strong customer relationships with customers around the world. This is the second part of a three-part series that examines several key challenges faced by salespeople working in a cross-border context:

• Initial contacts
• Handling customer concerns
• Closing the sale

Questions & Concerns

Even after a salesperson has passed the tests posed by an initial face-to-face meeting, the deepest concerns held by customers may not be expressed directly. In many countries there is a hesitancy to broach awkward subjects with foreign "guests." Local employees often report their disappointment that the foreign sales manager or executive has come away from a customer meeting thinking the relationship is in great shape shortly after the same customer has just raked them over the coals. It is essential to recognize the meaning behind common probes, ask questions that get at underlying issues, and respond in a way that addresses the real concern.

The previous newsletter listed eight types of questions or concerns commonly raised by customers abroad. Here are possible responses to several of those concerns:

Customer: How often do you plan to come here?

[Underlying concerns: Do we really matter to them or are we just another sale? How much of a priority for them will our company be if they have customers all over the world?]

 

Seller: My current plan is to travel here once each quarter. In addition to our quarterly meetings, my colleagues here will contact you on a weekly basis. If you like, we could also set up a regular telephone conference every two weeks or every month that would include all of us. Does this sound okay, or do you feel that more frequent meetings would be useful?

 

Customer: How will we handle problems that come up?

[Underlying concerns: Will they be available to help if we have trouble after the sale? Are their local representatives competent and trustworthy?]

 

Seller: First, please contact [Mr. X], who has local account responsibility. He and I communicate on a daily basis, and I depend on him because he has strong technical skills and knows the people in our main overseas factory quite well. Let me also give you my cell phone number so that you can reach me if there is a serious issue and Mr. X is not available. He or I can contact the right people immediately if there are any problems. Our job is to make you feel as if we were manufacturing product for you right here.

 

Customer: What are your company's plans for investment in this country?

[Underlying concerns: Are they going to be a long-term player in this market? Can I trust them or are they going to try to exploit my company, my country, or me?]

 

Seller: As Mr. Y may have mentioned to you when he introduced us, we are planning to build a permanent presence here. We have a small manufacturing presence now that we expect to expand as the demand for our products increases, and we have established a relationship with the university here to donate equipment and employee instructional time. In exchange, we hope to be able to attract more first-rate employees from the university. What are your own long-term goals? Perhaps there is some way that we can work together to achieve them.

Selling: Comparative Styles

In order to better understand the concerns a customer might have when working a foreign salesperson, it is also useful to recognize our own preferred style of selling and how the expectations of buyers in other countries might differ. The following table lists some common contrasts that are useful to keep in mind when planning your approach to customers abroad.

If you're not sure where you or your customer lies on these continua, take the Self-Assessment survey in GlobeSmart and it will plot your position on four of these themes. (Go to www.globesmart.com, register as a New Visitor, and click on the Self-Assessment Profile at the top left of your screen. Completing the survey will take less than 10 minutes of your time.)

Given the differences outlined here, an apparently simple question such as, "Who is the decision maker?" can lead to unanticipated results. It might be seen as brazen and overly direct when the salesperson has been assigned without knowing to a specific counterpart within the customer's hierarchy. It could also be naïvely simplistic in a culture where there are multiple interlocking groups of stakeholders who must all be satisfied before the transaction can move forward. A better question that accommodates different cultural perspectives is, "Could you please tell me how the decision will be made?"

In a global business setting, so-called common sense can easily be reversed: customers may be focused on the past rather than the future; they may react better to questions aimed at their personal rather than business interests; and, instead of becoming a partner, they may expect to be treated as royalty. Keeping in mind such differences and their practical implications helps us to listen for the unexpected. To discover real customer needs and concerns it is necessary to both ask the right questions and be able to hear and deal with the response.

If you are interested in Part III of this series, "Closing the Sale," please click here.

This article has been excerpted from an upcoming book by Ernest Gundling, co-managing director of Meridian Resources, entitled "Working GlobeSmart: 12 People Skills for Doing Business Across Borders". "Working GlobeSmart" is scheduled to be published in May 2003 by Davies-Black Publishing, a division of CPP, Inc.