Sports Athletic Apparel

How Digital Age Communication Wrecked Havoc in Multicultural Communication

I was shocked a short while ago. I heard the strangest story. A French company's owner and partner told me how they had been trying to reach the appropriate account executive at a large American sportswear company. And they just could not get through to the right person on the phone.

Every time they called they got caught in the new fancy telephone systems used by big companies today with automatic redirects. For some reason they just could not figure out how to use the American company's phone system to get the right person on the phone.

My thoughts stopped immediately when I realized just how big an order they wanted to place, and the ongoing sales relationship they were eager to set up. These were big sports fans and they knew how to market this American companies goods to Europeans. These sports goods just can't be found anywhere else in Europe. Did the American company realize the potential business loss?

I tried to understand where communications had truly gone wrong. This was a potential client of mine, with offices in a very chic area of Paris. A French start-up internet company and it was almost set to go live. Part of their business would soon be blocked it they couldn't reach the American suppliers on the phone to place an order.

We were talking in French. As I looked around the new office, spacious for Paris and right in the heart of an expensive neighborhood, it was very obvious the small team had all the backing it could hope for.

They were seasoned professionals. Both of the top executives had previously worked in the United States for a couple of years. They had previous successful business experience. But they were now running an internet business, selling American products to Europeans.

They were used to doing everything by internet and mobile telephones. I wonder if this was the reason, they did not think of a means to get out of their dilemma. They could have tried other means of communication, instead of simply repeating a process that was not producing results for them.

For some reason cultural barriers and telephone technologies left them totally lost at what to do.

I'm sure that one of their mistakes was not engaging in a longer conversation with anyone they managed to be put through the other end. That should have worked simply because their business would represent a large account to the unknowing American company.

These two French executives did not feel totally at ease conducting business over the phone, especially through such a sophisticated impersonal phone system. They were probably also a little uncomfortable about giving what they would consider too much information to someone at the wrong level in order to get through to the right person at the right level.

When working in an internet company with internet marketers, you can become so engrossed in a sort of internet marketing mindset that you can forget to think of using traditional communication practices. I did not have the time to help them out. I was on a flight the next day. But their situation made me smile. French people and most Europeans for that matter would only feel comfortable signing contracts that size during a face to face meeting.

This was an internet company using modern marketing practices in a country with strong cultural practices are probably a little in conflict with the impersonal side of digital age communication.

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About the Author

Cindy King
Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist

Over 25 years field experience in aligning cultural offers for international sales.

International content strategy
Custom publishing in English to build international markets B2B international lead generation

40km south of Paris, France - GMT+1
Cell: +33 6 98 91 86 11
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