Building relationships with partners and clients really is not critical . . . IF all of your international transactions always go smoothly. This article provides practical advice for the other 99% of international business professionals who, despite best efforts, occasionally have to rely on a working business relationship to get through an unexpected trade issue.
Trade professionals often have the additional burden that we seldom meet our clients or partners face to face. When we need to develop a professional relationship, we have to depend on the tools at hand, including phone and email, to create a basic rapport. We then rely on that rapport to work through trade challenges with the relationship intact. Here are a few insights that I hope might help along the way.
Keep Company Representatives Constant
Most of the non-Western world does business on a person-to-person rather than company-to-company level. This means that when an employee is switched to cover other responsibilities (or worse, an employee leaves the company) that business relationship goes with them. The greatest danger is when a former trade or finance specialist goes to work for a competitor. There are legal means to mitigate this risk. But retention of relationship-bearing employees even at the mid-to-lower levels of a company can mean the difference between retaining and losing clients. Account ownership is normally individual, not corporate.
The same holds true for promoting or changing account contacts. If there needs to be a transition from one account manager to another, then a slow, gradual change over to the new contact may save the company from losing that client or supplier loyalty.
Alter Your Style to Match
People connect better with those with whom they feel comfortable. If you seem very foreign and difficult to read, then building trust will be that much more challenging. There are simple adjustments to make in terms of style. If your Indian counterpart seems very formal with a high emphasis on politeness, then adjust your style to reflect some of this as well. If your Egyptian counterpart makes emotional appeals, you can do the same. If your Brazilian counterpart always asks about your family's well-being, then by all means reciprocate. The point of all of this is to develop a trusting, flexible relationship that can weather the inevitable bumps and bruises of shipping, forms, regulations and the occasional unmet expectation.
Build Personal Relationships Along Side Professional Ones (Yes, Mexican Soap Operas)
Matching styles happens on a fairly superficial level. To improve a particularly important working relationship and maximize its professional potential, you need to invest and connect over a longer time period. Much of the world assesses business not by transactions but by relationships measured in years if not decades.
A friend of mine works for a mid-sized company and manages an internationally dispersed team. She was struggling to get her team to open up to her and to tell her what she really needed to know to be an effective manager. One part of the team that gave her the least input was a group of Latin American female managers. Now Mexican soap operas are very popular throughout Central and South America. To break through the cultural barrier and to take the first step toward a much closer working relationship, my friend began to follow a popular Mexican soap. Asking her team questions about the characters in the soap broke the ice and soon they were getting to know each other personally as well as professionally.
Finding common ground by taking an interest in someone else's interest is a great first step. Once you've learned the names of popular Chinese athletes competing in the next Olympics or checked to find out what's hot in Swedish popular culture, then take it to the next level. You are looking for values and experiences that you share with this person. This may be a strong work ethic or a sense of humor. This investment in strong professional rapport can mean the difference between a client bending a bit to accommodate a late shipment and the client who switches vendors based on a competitor's short-term price cut. ( linda )21 Feb,2012

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