Developing Cross-Cultural
1. Recognizing any lack of awareness
2. Acknowledging differences between your native culture and others 3. Acknowledging your need to acquire more information and knowledge
about other cultures
4. Actively seeking the knowledge you need 5. Adapting to other people’s native cultures
6. Continuing to learn, adapt, and practice so your actions and behaviors feel more natural
As a citizen and longtime resident of the United States, you may have a knee- jerk reaction to resist change. After all, this is your country. Why should you have to change to accommodate the differences of people from other cul- tures? If they want to deal with you on your home turf, they should change, right? Wrong!
First, realize that common courtesy demands that whenever someone visits your home, you should make accommodations to make them feel comfortable.
Second, resisting change is counterproductive — it only makes your job more difficult. Change is going to occur despite your best efforts to resist it. (See the later section, “Embracing Change,” for more details on this concept.)
Step 1: Recognize any lack of awareness
Everybody starts out pretty clueless in terms of recognizing racial, ethnic, and cultural differences between themselves and others. When people are growing up, family members and friends are the only point of reference.
Playmates are just that — kids who live in the same neighborhood and pretty much share the same experience of growing up. For example, I (Michael), an Asian American, grew up in a very White neighborhood. As a result, until I started going to school I thought I was White. Who knew?
Whenever I begin assisting someone in developing cultural competency, this is exactly the premise with which we begin: Being ethnocentric doesn’t necessarily imply that you’re prejudiced or discriminatory. It simply means that certain racial, ethnic, and cultural differences lie outside your realm of experience. Increasing your exposure to different cultures can begin the process of transformation from ethnocentric to cosmopolitan.
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Step 2: Acknowledge the existence of cultural differences
After becoming aware of other cultures, many salespeople choose to over- look or dismiss any cultural differences and instead choose to deal with the situation by “treating everyone the same.”
Of course, this approach is ineffective at its best and counterproductive at its worst. Why? Because although you may be able to overlook your cultural differences and minimize their importance, prospective customers may be unable or unwilling to do the same. Their customs may be very important to them and so ingrained that “treating them the same” can make them very uneasy and perhaps even turn them away.
Acknowledging cultural differences and then investing the time and effort in adapting to those differences is crucial if you want to appeal to multicultural clientele. The penalty for failing to develop cultural competency is loss of busi- ness and market share.
Step 3: Acknowledge a need for knowledge
According to a proverb often attributed to the Chinese or Persians:
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool . . . shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a child . . . teach him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep . . . awaken him.
He who knows and knows that he knows is wise . . . follow him.
Step 3 requires that you become like a child — someone who is aware that you don’t know much about other cultures but are ready, able, and eager to discover all sorts of useful and fascinating customs. Because you’re reading this book, we conclude that this is the stage you’re currently at.
Congratulations! You’re halfway through the transformation process.
Even if you’re not an Anglo American, you can benefit from multicultural training. Just because you grew up outside of White, middle-class America doesn’t automatically make you an expert on cultures outside your own.
In fact, you may need training to understand how your Anglo American customers think and act.
The first step in the quest for new knowledge is to put your ego aside and be willing to seek assistance. Becoming sensitive to cultural nuances isn’t a skill that most people can pick up on their own.
Step 4: Actively seek knowledge
Everyone has cultural blind spots — certain beliefs and behaviors in other cultures that a person either doesn’t see or simply can’t comprehend. The tendency is to judge these beliefs and behaviors in terms of right and wrong instead of trying to understand them.
To open your mind to cultural differences, you must constantly challenge your own beliefs. One of the most effective ways to gain knowledge is to ask people about their culture, food, language, and beliefs. Trust us, they won’t be offended. In fact, you’ll usually find that people are more than happy to edu- cate you about their culture. They would much rather spend some time shar- ing their insights with you than become the victim of false assumptions. (See the later section, “Asking the Experts,” for additional information.)
Exploring cultural differences doesn’t have to feel like work; it can be fun, fascinating, and delicious, as we reveal later in this chapter. It’s usually quite exhilarating to discover the truth behind many cultural myths. For example, did you know that fortune cookies were invented in the U.S., not in China?
Were you aware that burritos aren’t a common food in Cuba?
Of course, as a salesperson or business owner who wants to expand into the multicultural marketplace, you’re probably looking for more practical and useful facts than trivia about fortune cookies and burritos. As you explore different cultures, you’re going to discover information that can be very valu- able in helping you hone the following skills:
Meeting and greeting customers without offending them (see Chapter 8 for more details on this process).
Explaining the benefits of your products and services in a way that cus- tomers appreciate (see Chapter 11).
Avoiding going into panic mode and actually celebrating when custom- ers start talking in their own language (see Chapter 10).
Negotiating effectively with born-and-bred hagglers (see Chapter 13).
Increasing your referral business from your multicultural clientele (see Chapter 15).
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The skills you develop in working with customers from other cultures will enhance your relationships with your traditional customers as well. Through this process, you’ll become more perceptive to the unique needs and behav- iors of every individual you meet during the sales process.
Step 5: Adapt to other people
Knowing how to do something and being able to do it are two entirely dif- ferent animals. You can know how to golf, for example, by watching Tiger Woods swing a club, but going out on a golf course and actually shooting under par is the real challenge.
As soon as you have an understanding of your multicultural customers’ back- grounds, start putting it into action by practicing what you’ve discovered.
Sure, you’re going to make some mistakes at first, but the more you practice, the more natural you become and the fewer mistakes you make. When people recognize that you’re making an effort to accommodate their cultural differ- ences, they’re going to be very forgiving and are usually willing to meet you at least halfway.
Adapting to other people doesn’t mean forsaking your own beliefs and behav- iors, but instead tweaking your actions to help others feel comfortable. It’s no different than when you have your extended family over for a party. You may refrain from smoking because Aunt Liz is allergic or avoid discussing politics with Uncle Bob because it always ends in a shouting match, but you can still enjoy yourself in spite of having to make these adjustments.
Step 6: Continue your education
As the old saying goes, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning anything.” The key to developing cultural competence is to be open-minded, willing to forgive your own mistakes, and dedicated to keep trying.
Culture is complex, so don’t expect to develop a mastery of all cultures over- night or simply by reading this book. Even the most globally astute salespeople are always in the process of discovering new cultural differences they were unaware of and making adjustments to how they treat their customers. It’s truly a lifelong process. Pick up a little bit every day. By the end of the month, you’ll have made an incredible amount of progress, and you’ll be light-years ahead of your competition.
Changing Your Vision to Reach beyond Cultural Stereotypes
You can’t judge a book by its cover, nor can you judge a person solely on looks or the way the person dresses, speaks, or acts. Some eccentric people who prefer to dress down have plenty of money to spend and really have their acts together, as you discover if you spend a little quality time with them.
Unfortunately, the human tendency to jump to conclusions can often be counterproductive to business. In the following sections, we explain the limits of stereotypes and the dangers of language elitism; we also show you how to expand your vision by becoming more aware of certain cultural tendencies.
Understanding how stereotypes can limit your vision
Making general observations and noting tendencies can be a useful first step in developing an understanding of just about anything. As children, for exam- ple, we first discover how to identify dogs and cats and birds. Only later do we discover the differences between a German shepherd and a toy poodle or the unique personality and behaviors of the family dog. Only with experience do we realize that every animal is unique, although the general classifications still continue to help us identify and understand them.
The same is true when we become adults and begin to encounter people from different backgrounds. At first, we can be almost blind to the fact that every person in a culture is an individual. We tend to base our expectations on and judge individuals by our limited understanding of the group. As you may expect and can readily observe in the real world, this can be a dangerous approach to dealing with people, resulting in negative stereotypes that can lead to misunderstandings.
Throughout this book, we point out some general inclinations within certain groups, but we have to warn you not to get too comfortable with these clas- sifications. They’re just a first step toward the ultimate awareness that every human being is unique. Stereotypes can compromise your relationships with customers and kill sales. Be sure to avoid the following actions:
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Try not to judge people by how they’re dressed or the vehicle they drive. Looks can be deceiving, as we point out in the nearby sidebar