Mid America Health

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

When developing your international business, one of your first challenges will be creating trust with your foreign prospects. You may not recognize this as a challenge. You probably do a great job in creating trust with your current customers.

But there is a big difference. Your definition of trust will be different to your prospect’s definition of trust if he lives in a different country.

I had a very inspiring conversation with Liz Strauss on the use and misuse of translation online. Liz is the best person I know capable of inspiring interaction on her blog. She also knows a thing or two on the differences in the interpretation of the meaning of trust.

One of the things you are confronted with when you live in different countries, is different interpretation for a few common words. You may be able to translate them, but they have totally different guide books on how to apply them in different cultures. Nothing you can learn in a book can teach you everything.

Some of the words are always a challenge to apply and identify an accurate meaning:



Politeness

Friendship

Trust



Every time you change country the interpretation for these words changes. If you stay in a foreign country long enough you will pick up the new definition.

But one of these words, trust, is an essential part of developing your business.

So what do you do if you want to create an international business but cannot learn by traveling yet?

This is a question you need to ask yourself right from the start. In international business developing trust is critical to your success.

Luckily trust is often easier to create than you think.

Primary Factors In Creating Trust

To build trust in different cultures you need optimize two things:



Clarity

Consistency



This is simple enough. The hitch is that you must do both of these throughout absolutely everything you do.

Strive for clarity and consistency in all your communications and all your actions. And then review everything. Is there anything that is not clear and consistent?

A lack in these two factors is the first place where you lose trust. You will often lose trust from lack of clarity and consistency immediately and without any tell-tale sign. This means you may not even be aware of losing trust.

Other Trust Tools

I’ve just finished a two and a half month long series of cross-cultural communication web tools on Get International Clients. This series identifies specific cultural preferences for dozens of web tools.

For example, how you highlight your guarantee depends on the culture you are targeting. With so many North American internet marketers it is easy to see the type of guarantee that stimulates trust in these cultures.

But a French marketer would not use the same type of guarantee in the same way. Of course French people also need to have certain buttons pushed to incite trust. It’s just that the buttons are just slightly different, placed differently, and highlighted differently. The priority of how to hit all the emotional buttons is also different.

The way you communicate with your prospects can also create trust. Here are some things you can provide to help build trust:



International Case Studies, or Success Stories

Regular and consistent communication: newsletters, ezines or blogs

Glossary



The Perfect Trust Tool

There is no perfect trust tool you can learn about and use in all situations. The cross-cultural web tools are based on the five different recognized cultural behaviors. Countries can be rated or compared in these different scales.

Unfortunately my experience does not prove that you can use a cookie cutter tool for effective cross-cultural communication. This is why I do not advise you to sit down and compare ratings per cultural behavior and simply put all of the tools in place on your website.

You need to adapt these web tools with your specific and unique market. The web tools are a good guideline. But your market might have other overriding cultural differences, barriers or opportunities.

Find The Right Definition For Trust

Creating trust is often a very delicate balance. Especially when you are trying to create trust between two different cultures.

Here is how you I think you should go about finding trust-building web communication for different cultures:



Concentrate primarily on clarity and consistency in your communication and your actions

Get to know your international clients, go out of your way to communicate with them

Then slowly tweak how you highlight the different web tools appropriate for the country you are targeting

Consistently reach out to your international audience and evaluate your communications



Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map

Would you like to develop your international business?

Are you a beginner at international sales and marketing?

Read the Beginners Guide Discover Your International Business

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural eMarketer & International Sales Specialist, aligning businesses with different cultures. She has over 25 years field experience in international business development and helps mid-sized business owners create international business development strategies that shorten time to profitability.

It is easier to remain in touch with friends, relatives and loved ones domiciled in different parts of the world through international telephone calls.

New contacts and relationship and partnerships can be created and nourished via telephone conversations. To effectively tap into the experience of international telephone activities it is imperative to obtain not just the most up to date information in this service

sector but also the basic information that will enhance your participation.

Primarily, all telephone calls outside your local boundary falls under the broad domain of international calls. Yes, that even means a call from South Africa to Botswana explicitly falls under the category of

international calls. Therefore, to make any call outside your national boundary it is incumbent to know the country code of your call destination. The most common country codes include, +1 for the United States, +44 for the United Kingdom, +49 for Germany, +233 for Ghana and the list goes on and on. After dialing the country code, it is necessary to know the city or town code of where your call will be going. Another illustration, making a call to a friend in

Ukraine, living in the city of Ternopil will be in this format, +380 for the country code of Ukraine then proceed to (0352) the city code of Ternopil.

If the call you are making is to a cell phone user, then the difference will be in the code of the operator or network in question. A popular network in Africa is MTN, so when calling to a national MTN operator say in Ghana, the network code to use is certainly 0244 or 0243.

Another important factor to consider is the issue of time variation. The global time is not uniform across all countries in the world therefore factor that before making any call. If this is overlooked,a

possible consequence is that, for instance you be making an official call to say, a call destination in New York from Lagos in Nigeria, which has an approximate time difference of ten hours. Chances are that your call will be made at a time that is outside the business working hours, hence you risk not receiving attention for your agenda. The Greenwich Mean Time often abbreviated, as (GMT) has become known as the global standard time in which all other times are made in reference to the GMT.

A person in a different location may be said to have either a plus or minus time with reference to GMT.

Finally, just enjoy your international telephone call experience by following the outlined steps and other equally informative resources and your nightmares will be over.

 

Design professionals are your resource to the latest trends, best products and ideas to help assist you in the best possible way to achieve your goals. The designer will do the footwork for you while providing the very best for your budget. They can save you hundreds of dollars on just one project by helping to prevent costly mistakes. The agreed upon fee can be by the hour or by the project depending on the client\’s needs. Below I have outlined some tips for choosing a designer:

 

1. Interview several designers to find the best fit for your project.

2. A professional will be upfront about the fees and cost so there will be no hidden fees that will surprise you in the end. Ask questions!

3. Find a designer that fits your budget and project. Some professionals only deal with certain aspects of design and have a minimum charge. Interview over the phone first and get some pricing upfront.

4. Be sure to express your feelings to the designer and keep the lines of communication open.

5. This should be an enjoyable experience! If not, then choose another designer. Any recommendations you can get from other clients are always helpful.

6. A true professional will be able to buy at wholesale and save you money!

7. Get references! A professional will have references and photos that show projects that have been completed. Ask detailed questions about any concerns you may have about the projects completed. Actually check the references from the portfolio.

8. Address any concerns about the time that you have appropriated for the project, monies involved and the overall schedule that you must meet.

9. Discuss the quality you expect and what you hope to gain from this project.

10. Get any details in writing that you feel necessary. Such as: project time limits, monies to be paid to the designer, contracts, agreements and the scope of the work.

 

Remember that your designer is a complete resource for the creation of the lifestyle that you want to bring to your home or office. Hiring a designer can be one of the best decisions you ever make!