In this age of specialization, the one area that everyone mistakenly believes doesn’t require a specialist is sales. Put a salesman in an engineering position and you’ll immediately hear from your Engineering Manager. However, put an engineer into a sales position and no one seems to mind—that is except the poor customer who sits through 50 PowerPoint slides of minutia. Selling is a skill that requires time to master. Selling cross-culturally is a further refinement of that skill which requires not only linguistic fluency but also bicultural awareness and bilingual fluency. The ability to operate simultaneously and appropriately in two cultures is not easily gained. It’s not a sign of ineptitude for a manager to outsource a task requiring specialized knowledge in any other field. Why should it be any different in sales?
In Asia, sales are relationship driven. Throughout Asia, it’s who you know, what you know, and how good your product is that close the sale. Asia is the ultimate “old boy’s network” which only relatively few foreigners can ever hope to penetrate. In rigid, class-conscious Asian societies, diversity is not an objective, it’s a deterrent. Those brave enough to be different lead a lonely life. With time-to-market a paramount concern, few companies have the luxury of time. A good sales outsource will have ready-made contacts within your industry that it can use to promote your product and reduce your time-to-market.
Contact us, evaluate us, then let us know if we can be that resource for your company.
Kevin C. Crowell President
Contact us for a complimentary evaluation of your market in Asia.
