Originally published on the Kulissa blog: Same objection, different people: selling across cultures
At my last company I opened dealers in Turkey and Spain, and today I work from Zurich. The product was the same everywhere. On paper, the objections were the same too: it is too expensive, we already have a supplier, call me next quarter.
The conversations were not the same at all. Because the people were not.
The words are the same. The meaning is not.
Take "it is too expensive." In one place it often means exactly that: the budget is fixed and you are above it. In another, it is the opening of a conversation both sides expect to have, and a seller who defends the price too fast seems not to understand the custom. Somewhere else, it really means "I do not know you well enough yet," and no discount will change that.
"Send me more information" can be a polite goodbye. It can also be a sincere request from someone who needs something on paper for a boss or a family partner. Read it wrong and you either wait weeks for nothing or walk away from someone who was ready to talk.
These are generalisations, and every buyer is a person before they are a culture. But the patterns are real enough that a seller who has never met them will be surprised. And surprise, in a conversation, quickly turns into anxiety.
What I learned to listen for
The differences that mattered most in a first conversation were never about the product. They were about how people relate:
- Relationship first, or business first. How long to talk about the family, the town, the football, before the first real question. In some places skipping this feels efficient. In others it feels cold.
- How "no" is said. Some people say it plainly and mean nothing personal. Others never say it at all, and you have to hear it in what is left out.
- Negotiation as a ritual. Whether discussing price is a sign of mistrust or a sign of respect.
- Who really decides. The person on the call, a family owner, a committee, a head office in another country.
- Formality. Titles, register, how quickly to move to first names.
None of this fits on a slide. It lives in the experience of people who have been there, and new sellers usually learn it by getting it wrong.
The courage of selling in a second language
There is one thing I think sales leaders underestimate. Many sellers work in a language that is not their first. They can be perfectly fluent in a meeting and still feel their mind go blank when a buyer pushes back quickly, with an idiom they do not know, in an accent they are not used to.
That moment is lonely. The seller is not only handling an objection. They are handling the fear of sounding less intelligent than they are. I have felt that myself, and I have watched excellent people go quiet because of it.
Preparing people, not scripts
Here is how I would prepare a team to sell into a new culture today:
- Meet the people before you meet the customers. Practise with buyers who behave the way that market behaves: one who wants to talk for ten minutes before business, one who negotiates as a matter of course, one who says no plainly.
- Keep what matters the same. Curiosity, honesty about price and a clear next step should not change from country to country. How the buyer tests them does.
- Rehearse in the language of the real call. A hard question in your second language is a different experience from the same question in your first. Let people meet it in practice first, where a blank moment costs nothing.
- Let experienced colleagues teach through scenarios. The people who know a market are your best teachers. A scenario built from their knowledge keeps it alive in the team, even when they move on.
Respect is the real preparation
Selling across cultures is an act of respect. It says: I took the time to understand how you speak, what you mean, and what you need before I asked anything of you. Buyers feel that. So do sellers, when they walk into a conversation knowing they are prepared for the person in front of them.
The deals come from that respect. Not the other way around.
Read next
- On trust in partner relationships: the first dealer call
- Staying calm under interruption: an objection handling framework that survives interruption
- Welcoming new sellers: kulissa.com/use-cases/sales-onboarding
Related reading
- The first dealer call is a meeting between two nervous people
- An objection handling framework that survives interruption
- Turn your sales playbook into roleplay scenarios that reps will actually use
Kulissa is a sales coach with live virtual customers for hiring, onboarding and training sales teams. See how it works at kulissa.com.
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