Aligning businesses with different cultures

Empathy is the ability to understand other people.

Empathy Connects

The power of empathizing with your clients has a direct link to your business success.  When you understand your clients you are able to sell your products directly to their needs.

How can empathy improve your sales?

Let’s look at this example:

A simple thing as adapting the vocabulary in your email subject line has a direct impact on whether your email campaign is successful.

When you have a deep understanding of your audience, you know what to write.  You are able to find the words to get your reader to open his email.  You write for your audience.

Your readers perceive empathy.  And they can also easily pick up any lack of empathy.

Empathy creates a connection.  A connection that is vital for sales.

Empathy Crosses Barriers

In international business, it is usually harder to empathize with your clients.  Cross-cultural barriers can make it difficult to understand your international clients.

When you strive to empathize with your foreign clients you end up perceiving different cultural points of view.  And the more you try to understand your foreign clients, the better you know how to sell to your international markets.

Sales and marketing professionals in first time international business development need to make a consistent conscious effort to empathize with their new clients.

Because…

• if you do not learn to understand your new international clients well,
• if you do not connect with your international clients, and
• if your communication does not cross any cultural barriers,

…you could make a fundamental error of building an international business strategy on the wrong foundation.

More From Cindy

Interested in reading more on my personal opinions and experiences with cultural communication and international sales?

CindyKing.biz on cross-cultural communication

Read the whole story

This is part of the Get International Clients Business Guide 5 Connect With Your International Markets Be sure to check out the other useful tips to connect with your international markets.

Need Help?

Need instructions?

• Instructions on how to use Your International Sales Road Map

Need to see where this fits in?

• A complete list of current Core Business Guides & Sub Guides for Your International Sales Road Map.

Still confused? Review your answers in the first Core Business Guide

• Core Business Guide 1 - Discover Your International Business

Simply click on one of the 8 different color coded boxes immediately below to access other core business guides.

Readers often ask me for my opinion on whether they have an international market or not.

The short answer is that no matter what anyone thinks, you are the only one that can find the answer that question.

Here are a few guidelines to help you:

Elimination

First eliminate the obvious restrictions on international trade.

• Lethal products have restrictions

But do not automatically exclude international sales.

• It is usually not viable to sell fresh baked bread to foreign country, but a bakery would easily sell information products to international clients

This step requires a minimum level of common sense and some basic research.

Research Possibilities

Next, research some possibilities.This is a wide sweeping exercise.

• What do you have to sell?

International sales implies international clients.  And this means that you have something to sell to them.

• What would other people in other countries be willing to buy from you?

This is a tricky question, because you may not know what expertise or products you have that interest people in other countries.

When in doubt:

• Get on the phone and ask questions
• Research
• Test your idea

Test Your Idea

The best way for you to know whether you have an international market is to carry out a small test.  Rub elbows with your foreign clients.

The type of test you run depends on your business.

Ideally you need to get direct feedback from your international clients on your products.

If this is not possible you may decide to approach professionals that import similar products and get feedback at this level.

The Actions You Take Will Give You The Answer

There are many examples where people succeed in selling products into foreign markets, and there are also examples where people fail.  This is understandably why people are cautious.

The truth is that only your actions will tell you whether you nave an international market.   As you take action there are a few variables:

• Your product
• The country you are selling to
• Your timing

And there are also many other variables within each of these.

Test your idea on a small scale, and you will learn how to manoeuvre these variables in selling to international markets, whether you start off with an excellent product match or not.

More From Cindy

Interested in reading more on my personal opinions and experiences with cultural communication and international sales?

CindyKing.biz on cross-cultural communication

Read the whole story

This is part of the Get International Clients Business Guide 1 Discover Your International Business Be sure to check out the other useful tips to discover your international business.

Need Help?

Need instructions?

• Instructions on how to use Your International Sales Road Map

Need to see where this fits in?

• A complete list of current Core Business Guides & Sub Guides for Your International Sales Road Map.

Still confused? Review your answers in the first Core Business Guide

• Core Business Guide 1 - Discover Your International Business

Simply click on one of the 8 different color coded boxes immediately below to access other core business guides.

Culturally Customized Content

When businesses embark on the creation of country specific websites, and culture specific content, they often need to set a budget.

And the budget for translation looms as vague and difficult to pin down.

This begins a whole series of questions…

• Can we get away with English content?
• Do we need to translate everything we have?
• What sort of translation budget do we need?

So when will you need translation?

In-Depth Market Research

In previous articles, I have shared my view that you should use free translation tools to jump into international market research.   This can help you a lot.  But sometimes you will need more accuracy.

Many companies will follow up key online market research with a human translation.

• They use the free translation tools to identify key resources.
• And then they follow up with human translations when necessary.

This depends largely on the business environment you are in.

Sales Communication

Yes, you must get all of your sales communications written by a human being.

But I have put this after market research…

Because…

You need to have sufficient international business intelligence to get your sales message right.

So you might want to look at creating sales communication in different stages.

The person most capable of writing your sales communication in a foreign language is a person who already does that in your target country.

You often need time to find this person.  It is almost like searching for the “sheep with 5 legs” as they say here in France.

Give yourself time to find the right message and the right person to translate that message.

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you get your main communication translated, remember to provide a series of well thought out Frequently Asked Questions…and their answers.

This usually provides a good return on your investment.

If you have many different languages to deal with, you can test “before FAQ” results with “after FAQ” results to establish viability for one country.

Most businesses do get good results with FAQs in foreign languages.

A Balancing Act

Planning budgets for future translation needs can be tricky.

Keep the points above in mind.

Start early to look for the right person to translate your particular communication needs.

Do not jump into translating all of your current marketing and sales communication - you will probably end up with more targeted communication needs in 6-12 months.

Carefully plan the content you need to translate.

Culture customized content builds stronger connections.

Read more on Culturally Customized Content in these articles:
- Morphing Into A Foreign Culture
- Translations, Foreign Language Content and Culturally Customized Content
- Customize Your Content For Different Cultures
- What Is Your Culture On The Social Web?
- Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content
- The 2 Main Reasons Why Companies Do Not Have Good Foreign Language Content
- Multicultural Marketing And Colors
- The Phases Of Cultural Communication You Go Through To Increase International Sales
- Info-Products - Writing For International Readers

Here are a few more Translation Tools articles:
- Translation Friendly International English
- Translation Software - It Is Time To Question Old Truths
- Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet
- Translation Agencies’ Narrow Vision
- Translate Server Error
- How To Use Online Translation Tools
- Translation Widgets - A Small Step Towards Website Globalization
- Online Translations Tools Write Bad Sales Copy

And read even more in the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map

Culture Customized Content Guide • What is the secret to effective international business development? Read more in this Get International Clients Business Guide

Book Review

All of the book and product reviews here are totally unsolicited… spontaneous …and without affiliate links. These are books and products I share with close friends. So all of the reviews you find here will be about things I highly recommend.

It was a sunny afternoon here, south of Paris, today. Something we have not had many of recently. So I decided to read a book I bought earlier this summer.

• Online Competitive Intelligence, Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence, by Helen P. Burwell.

Yes, I know it sounds like heavy reading for a lazy afternoon in the sun.  But I have some serious business research scheduled later this month, and I wanted to see if I could find a few new ideas on how to approach it.

And In the beginning, it was just for good conscience…

When I took this book outside in the sun to read, I also had a second “lighter” book with me.

I thought I would simply flip through Online Competitive Intelligence. Highlight a few places to search and then move on to a more entertaining read.

But, I found this book very useful… and full of inspiration.

Ideas were flying around in my head of places to go, angles to look at, questions to ask… every couple of pages.

A “why didn’t I think of that” came out a few times.  And I actually read through the main substance of the book - the lists of resources are for later this week. [click to continue...]

Product Reviews

All of the book and product reviews here are totally unsolicited… spontaneous… and without affiliate links. These are books and products I share with close friends and highly recommend.

I did have a book I wanted to talk to you about today. But it rained yesterday. So I did not take the book out in the sun to read. Instead, I stayed inside and watched a new video product I just got from Michel and Sylvie Fortin.

• Marketing E.S.P. – How To Pinpoint Hot, Hungry, And Highly Profitable Markets

Luckily, I started listening to the videos in the morning. It was so good, I just did not want to stop. I finished all of the videos yesterday in one long sitting. [click to continue...]

Get International Clients is a resource center for:

• online businesses just starting to develop their international business strategy
• brick and mortar businesses starting to develop their international business and who want to harness the power of international internet marketing

Although Get International Clients covers some of the topics I write about here, it has more detailed articles and instructions than here on CindyKing.biz. CindyKing.biz is my personal blog. And Get International Clients is where I put information to really help companies get international sales. [click to continue...]

International Market Research

That’s a great question. And one you should be aware of if your business has foreign online prospects.

The answer is not always easy to find.

If you are a small business targeting international clients actively, you should take this into account when analyzing your web analytics and testing for better conversion.

Different countries have search engines that look and feel different to the user. This is due to cultural differences. [click to continue...]

• Are you committed to developing your international business?
• Do you know what you need to do to get more international clients?
• Do you want an easy to follow action plan?

Then you will be happy to read about the up-coming changes here at Get International Clients.

Starting September the Get International Clients Newsletter will become the ideal companion to follow the International Sales Road Map.

But don’t worry, the Get International Clients Newsletter will still be FREE.

The weekly newsletter will only change its format slightly.

You see, I am tired of hearing the excuses from the brick and mortar companies. I am tired of seeing small internet business owners with great international potential making the same mistake:

NOT taking the right action to develop international business is the biggest barrier to international business success.

Developing an international business takes work.

The key to success is to take small steps consistently. You do not need to spend months and months wondering what to do, and trying to figure out what budgets you need.

In any case, you will not be able to answer these questions accurately prior to jumping into action.

So don’t waste your time. Take action today. Even small actions. And continue taking action regularly.

Sequential Newsletter Gives You Easy Steps To Follow Every Week

If you are already a subscriber, you will know that the current format of the weekly newsletter already gives you useful tips and action steps. What will be different? Up until now, the newsletter is issued every Sunday evening my time and everyone gets the same newsletter every week. The new format will be sequential. Your newsletter will still be published every Sunday evening. But the newsletter you get will depend on when you signed up. So if you subscribe in September or in December or sometime next year, your first newsletter will be the same. The new format gives you easy action steps in the sequence you need to develop your international business.

• Each week you will go through a different step.
• So you will complete the 8 steps in 8 weeks.
• And then it starts again.
• The next 8 action steps will take your further along the path of developing your international markets.
• And this process will repeat itself every 8 weeks.

Get the action steps you need to open up your business to foreign markets.

Get the motivation you need to take action right now and create the international business development process best suited for your business.

The International Sales Road Map is for all business owners and marketing professionals who are not doing anything specific to develop their international business. This includes companies without any international clients at all, and companies with accidental international sales. Brick and mortar companies and online businesses.

This means you have to start right from the beginning in the first 8 weeks.

And then during each 8 week cycle we will review the International Sales Road Map process, adding on additional action steps, so you can improve your strategy.

Every week you will receive an action step and a homework assignment for you to take that week.

To get the most out of the Get International Clients Newsletter you must commit to taking consistent action.

Additional Current News During The Week

In addition to the Get International Clients Newsletter I will send you each Sunday evening, I will also send you an email or two during the week if I have been working on something that I want to share with you.

For example, when I notice any trend in the questions coming in, I will share my answers with everyone.

This way you get more current information.

But I have to warn you, some weeks the work I get paid for will be keeping me too busy for these extra current news bits. So I am only going to send them to you when I can.

In-Depth Special Reports Answer Your Questions In Detail

This is also where the free monthly reports come in handy. You can read them when you have time.

You can stay focused on taking the small actions you need to take each week, and keep your momentum feeding your international business development.

The special reports are there when you have more detailed questions.

All newsletter subscribers will get one monthly report free with their subscription.

The free monthly reports start in September too, and they will go further in depth into one of the actions covered that month.

By the way, these same reports, free for the Get International Clients weekly newsletter subscribers, will be available for non-subscribers, but at a price of $29.99.

I could say there are two reasons why you should sign up now for the Weekly Newsletter.

• It is true, when you see the value of these free reports when they are published in September, you will want to sign up immediately.

But, the real reason why you should sign up for the International Sales Road Map Weekly Newsletter is very simply to start taking action today.

Let me guide you through the steps you need to take to develop your international business.

The sooner you start to develop the skills you need to communicate effectively with your foreign markets, the sooner you will get international clients.

Don’t wait and let others get the competitive edge you could have today. Sign up below.

An international marketing strategy requires sustaining an international mindset. Setting up an international marketing strategy requires a more intense focus than for a local marketing strategy. There are so many more factors to take into account.

If you have markets in several countries it can be a challenge to remain open to all of their different cultural requirements. You must be open to understanding the different markets in each country, with the different parameters specific to each country. And yet you must stay focused on each marketing strategy. [click to continue...]