If you follow us on Instagram you would know that we’ve been busy at the end of the year… all in the name to learn and learn and learn as much as we can so we can create the best things you want and need to in your business.
As you know next year we are going to be present in the most popular conferences in the US. To be specific this one: http://www.visuality.pl/posts/tech-conferences-2018-2019-you-definitely-should-attend
Our plan is to prepare for these events in advance. One of the points in our checklist is our training in soft skills and how to minimize cultural differences between the US and Poland.
Visuality team has just attended an intensive training course about Internationalization of the company.
We feel very inspired by the course. The training focused on the US and the main goal was to find out more about this market and how to approach and reach customers from this part of the world.
Speakers specializes in:
economics and trade policy
regulatory affairs
government contracting
government relations
with inbound/outbound economic trade missions as they pertain to multilateral trade diplomacy.
Their mission is to multilaterally bridge trade relations between countries, governments and corporations thereby fostering an inclusive, efficient, and expedited ecosystem of commerce. Furthermore, the company offers best practice on forming a company in the U.S. as a foreigner, non-citizen or US citizen that lives outside the country.
First things first, as we are expanding globally we have to highlight that we have already done a lot of projects with customers from the States, so we are not beginners in the subject. Nonetheless, we are constantly learning as improving knowledge is really important in our dynamic environment. Soft skills are part of negotiations with clients and this was also a big part of the training. I guess it’s time to start.
The main and really important thing from which I would like to begin is that entrepreneurs from the US prefer to do business locally. It is due to legal issues, requirements, and comfort. Companies which want to cooperate with US clients have to show firstly that they are existing, they are real, solvable and with good quality. Speakers suggest that every company should have a native representative there, pitching in your company’s name. It really creates value and trust for potential leads. And here we go! We actually do have this kind of a person there, so we are already following good rules. It boosted our self-confidence and give us more power and strength to improve and deliver even better than we currently do.
We also received really good tips about new cities and areas where all types of industries are growing and developing. Entrepreneurs are leaving famous Silicon Valley and moving to different areas. We didn’t realize the potential of some of them, so it is a great opportunity to focus and start pitching our services there.
Among the others, for example, North Carolina where a huge fintech hub is, or Orlando which is actually one of the fastest growing city in the US with many businesses very focused and interested in things connected with “Smart City”.
What about cultural differences?
You have to be aware of them and we can mention a lot both from our perspective and from training. People from the United States are business oriented. They follow the rule “business first” and are very professional and focused. They do not mix their work life with their private life and you have to respect this.
Everybody is busy nowadays so when it comes to meetings it is really difficult to meet someone face to face. Even if the person with whom you have a meeting is in the same building it will end with a call or video call because it is easier and faster for them. Every minute counts!
At the beginning of the negotiations, it is helpful to learn a bit about each other to break the ice and establish the start of a relationship. Basics like always avoid subjects like politics and religion, and avoid making any negative or judgemental statements about location or culture is something we know from our daily routine. Humour can be dangerous since it sometimes does not translate well for different cultures, especially in the United States. But as we are consuming the same music, movies, social media - we can easily find common ground.
People from the US tend to favor strict scheduling. It is considered rude or disrespectful to arrive late. Let’s look at people from Southern European countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece. They view the schedule as fluid, and they may arrive late for meetings. They may also carry on several conversations at a time. This can lead to friction and frustration unless you are aware of this cultural difference. Look at how our life will be boring if we all behave the same!
Conclusions?
Poland as a country has a truly stable economic and political situation. I’m not afraid to say that we have the best engineers in central Europe, well skilled and experienced.
Cooperation is not a problem also because of our good English skills and many tools we use to decrease the differences in time zones and smooth the communication. Last but not least, very good quality in comparison to price rates.
All of that makes that we are very valuable to foreign markets especially the United States and that’s why we have many inquiries from there. Actually, that's perfect because we love to cooperate with people from there, and now we know even more.
What’s next?
We took part in the training and learn a lot of cool things. We also mentioned some of them which we already knew. It shows that we are in a good way of potential growth and very open-minded in case of cooperation with global entrepreneurs.
Currently, we are working to implement all of the new stuff we learned to our business strategy for the upcoming year. For sure we will be able to communicate better and deliver much more value by the quality of our services.
So if you want to share with us your questions, ask for consultancy or check our skills, let’s meet at the events and meetups we will attend. See you somewhere in the US!
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