You don’t have to memorize long lists of rules to get better at communicating with your international clients. Just be open to the process and willing to learn, says marketing expert Christy Murdock. You probably can’t master every cue, but you can keep yourself on firm footing by following these tips.
Are you receiving Inman’s Agent Edge? Make sure you’re subscribed here.
You’ve put in an offer for your client’s dream home, and you sure hope they get it. What do you text to them? Maybe the 🙏 emoji — or a row of them.
Although your buyer from the U.S. may interpret that as you do — as an indication that you’re hoping and praying to get the house — your Japanese buyer might see it as saying “please” or “thank you” without a religious connotation. Your buyer who is Muslim may not use this emoji in the context of prayer because joined palms are rarely associated with prayer in her culture.
Even good friends from the same background and generation can get their wires crossed. Now, imagine texting, emailing and chatting with buyers from a different country and culture, and you’ll see that there is plenty of room for misunderstanding. That’s why it’s vital to develop sensitivity to the way others perceive the world and communicate about it.
Cross-cultural competence involves the ways we communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds, and it can make or break your business relationship. From giving away your power in a negotiation to committing rudeness in interpersonal relationships, a lack of cross-cultural competence can undermine a deal before it even begins.
What keeps us from understanding other cultures?
According to SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), there are many personal barriers that keep us from communicating effectively with other cultures. They identify six stages of development in how people conceptualize cross-cultural differences, as outlined by Brian Schroeder, Head of Culture and…