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Networking Strategies / Joint
Ventures
How to Alienate Your On-Line Client Base In One Easy Step
By Nancy Roebke
You've spent a great amount of time finding your contacts on the Internet.
You've starting participating in the places they are. You're ready to take
on the world now. Stop. Without a thorough understanding of the following
concept, you can potentially lose your client base.
*Everyone in the fields that you want to make contact with WILL NOT do business
in the same manner as you do, PARTICULARLY if they are not from your own
country.
What does this mean? It means that the little things that you do every day,
could potentially cause you to lose your online contacts. It means that you
need to learn a whole lot more about customs and traditions before expecting
to build strong, solid relationships. It means you may make a mistake or
two, but you need to be prepared to go through a tremendous learning curve.
True life story. I'm borrowing from a popular current trend here in the US
when I write about this story. The countries involved are Mars and Venus.
(Here in the US, those are men and women, but in my story, they are actually
persons from different countries).
Mars joins an e-mail list that is composed of mostly business professionals
from Venus, but are a great potential client base. On Venus, things are done
differently than on Mars, even though both countries speak the same language.
Mars reads the list for a while (months, in fact).
After months, Mars begins to post informational posts to the lists- resource
tips and business development information gleaned from various Internet sources.
Keep in mind, this particular information was not specifically ASKED for,
but in the spirit of sharing, Mars thinks this is a good thing to do- after
all, sharing is good. AND Mars has been sharing the same information on OTHER
e-mail lists and hearing how valuable it has been to people from THOSE countries
(Like Saturn).
Venus becomes upset. First, because 7 posts arrive from Mars in one day.
All different, but still *7* posts!. Then Venus is upset with the content
of the posts. Does Mars think that Venus does not KNOW this information,
or worse yet, does not know where to find it? And who said Venus NEEDED this
information, anyway? What a totally Un-Venetian thing to do!
The rest, as they say, is history. In this example, there is proof that doing
the same thing in the same way WILL NOT necessarily get you the same results.
The main variable here, is the fact that the two participants were from two
different countries with two different cultures. Both styles work in their
homeland but will they work on an International basis? That remains to be
seen.
Help With Understanding Other Cultures
To aid you in understanding the various cultures YOUR client base may be
composed of, the following is suggested:
1. Check out the following International Links:
International Marketing Resources-
http://www.profnet.org/intermar.html
Culture Page Index-
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/8363/
The Web Of Culture-
http://www.worldculture.com/index.html
International Recommended Readings-
http://www.inc.com/international/recommended_readings
2. Befriend someone who is a native in the area you are looking to expand.
Ask questions and LISTEN to what the answers are. Find out how your actions
would be perceived by natives of that culture.
3. Expect to make mistakes as you learn about each culture. Plan on varying
YOUR style and methods to accommodate your potential client base.
4. Help those of other cultures understand YOURS. If asked, offer advice
and suggestions on how YOU would have handled the same thing in your culture.
What path would you have taken to the get to the same place THEY want to
go?
Working on the Internet exposes us all to the world. We need to learn more
about that world to be effective and productive. We still cannot say that
EVERYONE from Mars acts the same way, and so does EVERYONE from Venus. But
STYLES that are common in each culture often come through as inappropriate
for other cultures. Don't lose your client base because of YOUR style.
Lesson 5
Copyright c 1998 Nancy Roebke
Nancy Roebke
Execdirector@Profnet.Org
http://www.profnet.org
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