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StreetSmart: Global Negotiation
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In this episode, Brian Dietmeyer talks to Carrie Welles about global negotiation strategies. They explore the nuances of negotiating across different cultures and how focusing on similarities rather than differences can lead to successful international business dealings. With anecdotes from their extensive experience in over 47 countries, this discussion provides valuable insights for anyone looking to enhance their negotiation skills on a global scale.
Click here for Brian's LinkedIn article on Global Negotiation.
Timestamps:
00:11 - Introduction to the topic of global negotiation.
00:37 - Brian shares his initial experiences and insights on global negotiation.
01:09 - Discussion on cultural similarities in global business.
02:14 - Carrie prompts Brian about his first international negotiation consulting assignment.
03:56 - Exploring the preparation differences in global negotiation practices.
06:18 - Discussion on the importance of understanding cultural nuances in negotiations.
08:05 - Concluding thoughts on effective global negotiation strategies.
10:08 - Closing remarks and cultural sign-offs.
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Transcript
Introduction to Global Negotiation
00:00:01
brian
Welcome to another episode of Street Smart, the negotiation podcast. I'm Brian DIetmeyer CEO of Think Inc. Business Negotiation Redefined.
00:00:11
Carrie Welles
And I'm Carrie Welles partner with Think Inc. So hi, Brian and all of you who are listening or watching. So today we're talking about global negotiation, which is a really fun topic. and And I know Brian's got a lot of good thoughts on that.
00:00:25
Carrie Welles
So Brian, and let's just kick this right off. So we've worked in 47 different countries for over 20 plus years. So what has that taught you about global negotiation?
00:00:36
brian
Yeah, first of all, I do love this topic. And I learned about this even before we did all that work.
Focus on Similarities in Global Business
00:00:45
brian
And one was, I was lucky enough to be in Napa Valley at a conference, right?
00:00:51
brian
Some nice wine tasting is happening. And oh, by the way, there were some speakers. And one of the speakers was a professor of international business from INSEAD in Europe. And so she she told this story and I'm going to date myself with the story.
00:01:05
Carrie Welles
Thank
00:01:08
brian
She said, let me explain to you what a morning is like in my house in Switzerland. My two children put on their Gap clothing. They have their Mickey Mouse lunchboxes.
00:01:19
brian
They have their iPods playing Disney music. And her entire point was, I sort of checked out after that because I got it. She was just like, Focus on the similarities.
00:01:30
brian
Like the global business world is becoming more similar. You can scale focusing on similarities. Don't focus on the differences because the differences are becoming less, which, yeah, I really, really appreciate
Defining National Negotiation Styles
00:01:43
brian
it.
00:01:43
brian
And Kerry, I said to you, as you and I were prepping for this, that if a Chinese company were to call us and say, hey, can you come to China and tell us how Americans negotiate? I don't know if you could.
00:01:53
brian
couldn't. We've been doing this for a long while. I've written multiple books on this. I could not say here's the difference between Chinese negotiator and Americans and forget even Chinese. This is this is how Americans negotiate.
00:01:53
Carrie Welles
Yeah.
00:02:08
brian
It can't. It's just not a thing.
00:02:10
Carrie Welles
I
00:02:10
brian
So I think the notion is little off
00:02:13
Carrie Welles
yeah agree. I agree. I agree. So, so talk to us about your first conversation. International Negotiation Consulting Assignment.
00:02:24
Carrie Welles
And how did you prepare? I know that was way back when I did. I know you remember it, but
00:02:27
brian
Yeah.
First International Consulting Experience
00:02:27
Carrie Welles
how did you prepare?
00:02:27
brian
Oh, i I do remember it because of like panicking. So it was a firm that worked in the semiconductor space and in Silicon Valley and 60% of their sales came from Japan and they were just getting ready to sign up with us and they wanted Japanese references.
00:02:45
brian
Nope. Except for a couple Japanese people I know, i have no business references there. So they they were nervous. I was nervous and wondering, you know, what are, what are stuff scale?
00:02:55
brian
yeah right? does Does it work? This notion of negotiation blueprinting, right? A very systematic process. So just on a whim, asked if I could interview a few of their executives.
00:03:06
brian
And Kerry, I spoke with three American nationals who are now in Japan at the headquarters.
00:03:11
Carrie Welles
Yep.
00:03:12
brian
And I asked those three American nationals, hey, now that you're in Japan, what's similar to the way Americans negotiate? What's different than the way Americans negotiate? So I got you know, what what what is that? That's that's maybe, six you know, six different answers.
00:03:27
brian
Now I went to three Japanese nationals who were at the American headquarters and asked the same question. So we've got 12 data points. There was not one intersecting data point on what's similar and different from both sides of the fence.
00:03:41
brian
and And we just literally laid bunch of their answers up on a screen and said, your Your team, there there isn't, there isn't, but let is, again, let's focus on what is similar because, you know, and then they did, you and I, think I think you're going to talk about this.
00:03:54
brian
They, there was some cultural stuff, which I think is important.
00:03:59
Carrie Welles
Yeah. OK, we will get to that.
Challenges in Cross-Cultural Negotiation
00:04:01
Carrie Welles
but But let's talk about your experience with how you see how you see reps around the world preparing for negotiation. So do you do you see differences?
00:04:12
brian
No, not not really. And the only way I think I can make this come alive is to tell a quick story. When we were in Japan, i was aware, of course, of who the top sales rep in Japan was, and he was in the class.
00:04:25
brian
And the president of of this company was you know next to the rep. So the rep had the seat of honor, right? It's in Japan. So you're the top rep. The president's going to sit right next to you. And we're well into well into the workshop and I think he's you know going, oh, so there's American consultant up there.
00:04:36
Carrie Welles
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:04:40
brian
He knows nothing about doing business in Japan. And so he challenged me and and literally stood up to ask this question to this day, I remember, because that's a fairly aggressive move for anyone who's done business in Japan.
00:04:53
brian
And he said, and at the time I was talking about the agreement zone, the place where buyer and seller preferred agreement to impasse. And he stood up and said, there is no agreement zone in Japan.
Global Negotiation Strategies
00:05:04
brian
Right. and And then further, he said to me, buyer is God in Japan, sort of like you you don't get it. Americans don't know how they negotiate. And and so this this may have been, i think, took a little bit of a risk. And I said, so you're the top sales rep in Japan. He said, yeah, I am.
00:05:21
brian
Probably. i said, so if if if you did whatever you did last year, 90 million in sales, you know, So you either got customers to take a bunch of bad deals if there's no agreement zone, but yet you sold all that stuff, or you took a bunch of bad deals for your company.
00:05:36
brian
you know which Which one was it? And one of my favorite moments of this was the president who was sitting put his hand over his face because he was laughing.
00:05:44
Carrie Welles
Oh, boy. Hmm.
00:05:46
brian
He's like, you and for me, culturally, it was whew, I got butt. I was like, this this guy was aggressive. But you know the the moral of the story is, First of all, buyers are not gone anywhere. Buyers are tough. They're tough in Japan. They're tough here. Again, it's the similarities and other differences.
00:06:01
brian
And so people have this idea. This guy had this idea that it's all different all over the world. And it just, it isn't.
00:06:08
Carrie Welles
It isn't. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. So let's talk about cultural differences because I, I know you, we have a point of view on cultural differences.
00:06:12
brian
Yeah.
00:06:16
Carrie Welles
So talk to us about that.
00:06:16
brian
Yes. That is a thing, right? So that the the planning and the execution of negotiation the
00:06:20
Carrie Welles
no
00:06:24
brian
again, this this blueprinting approach that kind of follows patterns, buyer tactic follow patterns, all that does, back to that NCI professor, focuses on the similarities, right? We can now scale a planning approach for doing deals internationally. However, if you haven't done business globally, understanding cultural nuance, right? For sure, I just did did some business in India, and had to learn that the Indian...
00:06:49
brian
you You just got back from yeah your son's wedding in India. And and it's like, what what does that mean? That head waggling? It's neither yes nor no. Right. It's just a thing. And yeah you all might remember the book, Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands.
00:07:03
brian
Right. And that was one of the first books that came out about doing business globally and being aware of cultural sensitivities. Right. There is, there is believe it or not, if if you haven't done business globally, I think one of the best ways to get smart on cultural sensitivities is something called the Rood Meter.
00:07:19
brian
Rood Meter dot com. And Rood Meter dot com will show you on a scale of one to ten. What is culturally rude in in different environments? In fact, if if you look at middle Middle East and India and a couple other places on a scale of one to 10, showing the soles of your feet is a nine.
00:07:36
brian
And anyone who's done business there knows that, right? You just don't do it. Those things are terribly important. So anybody, forget negotiating, anybody who's doing business internationally should be aware of cultural sensitivities.
00:07:47
brian
That's different than the structure of the way business deals happen.
00:07:49
Carrie Welles
Sure.
00:07:51
Carrie Welles
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Cultural etiquette, behaviors, human behaviors that are that are born to that culture.
00:07:56
brian
Yeah.
00:08:00
Carrie Welles
Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. So so then let's end our podcast today because our listeners could be all over the globe. So how do we suggest that they prepare?
00:08:11
brian
Yeah. but Back to the professor focus on what's similar, and not different focus on stuff you can scale. You know, we, we, In all these podcasts, I've talked about negotiation being a repeatable process. 97% of what the buyer is are going to do falls into two categories. That scales all over the world.
00:08:28
brian
Again, we you and I have interviewed sales teams or surveyed sales teams all over the world about what do you hear from your buyers? It always follows the same category. So if if we want to if we want to be a global negotiation firm, we need to focus on what is scalable what follows patterns so we can prepare and execute properly.
00:08:47
brian
And so we know that everywhere in the world, the buyer's likely to focus on his or her alternative and try to commoditize you, or at least devalue you some, and and then put pressure on you to give something away, give up on price, give up on legal terms, add more services in for free.
00:08:55
Carrie Welles
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:09:04
brian
And, and there's, we, we have multiple, you and I have multiple podcasts talking about exactly how to do that, but it's, it's basically the the same approach and yeah, go Go to Rude Meter, pick up an article. you know If you're going to India, get a sense of the top few cultural no-nos and be aware of those. But that, to me, is different than getting deals done.
00:09:25
Carrie Welles
Right, right. OK, that. Yeah. So that that's a good way to end this, Brian, if I were to sum it up. It's a negotiation discipline that we teach and we hope all of our listeners will will do better at following a systematic framework that you can proactively forward.
00:09:32
brian
Okay.
00:09:44
Carrie Welles
you're thinking through any negotiation. So organize your thinking and then organize the other side's thinking. And that's the whole goal, that it can be systematic, it can be repeatable, and it's a it's a really solid framework, no matter where you are in the globe and no matter what culture you are negotiating with.
Conclusion and Thank You
00:10:01
brian
Arigato and sayonara. when i yeah or Or, and tie, kapun kap, I think is thank you.
00:10:01
Carrie Welles
Good deal.
00:10:11
brian
So, kapun kap.
00:10:14
Carrie Welles
Yes. All right. And I'll just say namaste. All right. So thank you for joining us, all of you, all the listeners, and we'll see you back next time. Have great day.