I don’t think I read a post about this specific topic so far, so I thought I’d go ahead and publish one today. As a domainer, you will communicate with resellers and/or end users from all over the world.
Therefore, understanding that you have to calibrate your approach based on the cultural particularities of the person you are talking to is extremely important.
I don’t want to make this post too complicated, so I will over-simplify a lot of things. Here are basically two types of cultures:
1) High-context cultures
2) Low-context cultures
The fundamental difference between the two is the fact that people from low-context cultures like to get right down to business, whereas with people from high-context cultures, you have to take it one step at a time and gradually get down to business.
For example, when negotiating with someone from a low-context culture, you can cut to the chase and present your offer right away.
When it comes to high-context cultures though, you shouldn’t be as aggressive but rather start by maybe asking some general questions and then gradually getting ready to make an offer.
Simply put: people from high-context cultures will consider it rude if you get right down to business, while people from low-context cultures will consider that you’re beating around the bush if you *don’t* get right down to business.
As you can see, we’re talking about fundamental differences and I hope that through today’s post, I helped you understand that you have to calibrate your approach based on the information you have about the person you are communicating with.
To end this post, I’d like to give some examples of low-context and high-context cultures.
Low-context cultures (get right down to business):
Australian
Dutch
English Canadian
English
Finnish
German
Hebrews/Jews
New Zealand
Scandinavia
Switzerland
United States (the Southern United States can be considered an exception)
High-context cultures (don’t get right down to business):
African
Arab
Brazilian
Chinese
Filipinos
French Canadian
French
Greek
Hawaiian
Hungarian
Indian
Indonesian
Italian
Irish
Japanese
Korean
Latin Americans
Nepali
Persian
Portuguese
Russian
Southern United States
Spanish
Thai
Turkish
Vietnamese
South Slavic
December 1st, 2013 at 6:24 pm
I don’t really get this.
I am Greek and I hate it when someone wastes my time with introductory emails etc. like “I would like to make an offer on one of your domains if it is for sale” or “I have a list of domains for sale. Do you want to see it?”.
December 1st, 2013 at 6:33 pm
I think this approach overly simplifies the approach of negotiation, particularly with regards to domains. Being Greek, I prefer direct negotiations with less fluff; according to your classifications, I would be “offended” if the buyer/seller would not negotiate.
The latter is mostly true with Arab countries and Turkey, where bazaars proliferate.
Negotiations from particular countries and cultures should be based on the financial prowess of each locale: e.g. don’t expect – in general – high offers to arrive from India, Pakistan, Russia, Italy and Greece.
December 1st, 2013 at 6:52 pm
@Konstantinos and Acro: this article over-simplifies things since it would become too boring/complex otherwise and sure, there are always exceptions but I’d say the high-context vs. low-context perspective is an interesting *general* guideline.
So especially if you have limited or no information about the end user, I’d say keeping the high-context vs. low-context cultural differences in mind would be a good idea.
So for example, let’s assume two buyers contact you about the same domain.
You don’t know anything about them aside from the fact that one is from Germany and one from Japan.
Let’s also assume both want to know if the domain is for sale.
When replying to the person from Germany, I’d probably quote a price right away and take it from there.
When replying to the person from Japan, I’d probably say something along the lines of “Yes, I might consider selling it. What plans do you have in mind for this domain?” and avoid quoting a price right away.
Again, I think it’s a decent guideline, especially if you don’t have any information about the buyer.
If you have specific information such as what company he/she is from or representing then sure, that information would be considerably more important than the nationality of the end user but when the nationality of the end user is the only information you have, I think keeping the high-context vs. low-context perspective in mind makes sense.
December 1st, 2013 at 7:03 pm
lol
You really don’t want to send me this “Yes, I might consider selling it. What plans do you have in mind for this domain?”. 🙂
I can accept any reply to “is this domain for sale” like:
1) yes, $99999USD
2) yes, make me an offer
3) no
4) maybe, make me an offer I can’t refuse
but “What plans do you have in mind for this domain?” will always get a “WTF? What do you care?”.
Theo, Russia has a lot of new money. I made a couple of sales this year.
December 2nd, 2013 at 9:29 am
I think this is more a personality type than a culture type. It’s more on an individual basis than by country or geography.