Negotiating with Australians & Thais
- Australians generally do not like skewed negotiations or high-pressure sales. They value directness. Therefore, present your case in a forthright manner, articulating both the good and the bad.
- Modesty and casualness are Australian characteristics. A business presentation filled with hype and excitement will not impress Australians; instead, it will inspire them to deflate the presenter with caustic humor.
- Australians may emphasize profit over market share.
- Do not digress or go into too much detail. As we stated, laconic Australians consider brevity a virtue.
- Decision-making takes place with the consultation of top management. This takes time—be patient.
- Australians are very direct and love to banter. If you are teased, take it in good humor.
- Australians are wary of authority and of those who consider themselves “better” than others. Be modest in interactions, and downplay your knowledge and expertise. Let your accomplishments speak for themselves. More than one Australian has complained that eager young U.S. executives “sound like walking resumes” because they are so quick to list their accomplishments and qualifications.
- Before beginning business meetings, spend a brief period of time in small talk. This social time will be short but will establish a familiar rapport, which is important to Australians.
- If you are invited out for a drink to establish a friendly relationship, do not talk about business unless your host brings it up. Work and play are taken equally seriously in Australia and are not to be confused.
- Your initial meeting with Thai businesspeople may be over lunch or drinks, so they can get to know you. However, do not expect to discuss business during lunch.
- Because of the Thai deference to rank and authority, requests and correspondence usually pass through many layers before reaching top management.
- Be flexible and patient in your business dealings. Recognize that Thais do not follow the same relentless work schedule that other cultures do. Allow sufficient time to reach your goal.
- Never lose control of your emotions, and do not be overly assertive; that is considered poor manners.
- Thais avoid confrontation at all costs. They will never say “no” but will instead make implausible excuses or pretend that they don’t understand English. They may even tell you that they must check with someone at a higher level, when such a person doesn’t exist. Likewise, they find it difficult to accept a direct negative answer.
- Always present your business card, preferably with a translation printed in Thai on the opposite side. (You can have these printed in Bangkok.)
- Thai businesspeople will be impressed if you learn even a few words of Thai.
- If someone begins laughing for no apparent reason in a business meeting, change the subject. He or she is probably embarrassed.
Negotiating with this two countries will make our business skill into a huge step forward like with Australians one of the way to threat people by asking to have a drink in bar to tighten the relationship and to get to know each other better and just to have a relaxation after doing a business negotiation while in Thailand they invite us to lunch to see our manners and to have a god friend relationship. Because Thailand is still have their own culture which is more slow and polite rather than Australians because according to Indonesian thai people are just like them because we are in same region. But I think we still have to learn how to negotiating with both of them in order to rich our skill in negotiating and start a new business in a many part of the world. So I hope that I can do well in every part of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen we’re dealing with people from different cultures, we’re actually also dealing with their stereotypes. For some people, those points above are true. But we can’t really judge all Australians and Thais to be like that. I’m not saying that I disagree with those points. I’m just clearly stating that we have to be more aware with the people whom we’re going to face, not their nationality.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact, we all have known that meeting and interacting with different kind of people will definitely enrich our intercultural communication skill. This is really important since nowadays, transnational activities are happening more frequent than before. It’s always good to know the people’s personalities; for example our assumptions based on the people’s nationality. It will clearly help us to start a conversation or to get to know them better.
Again, I’m stating that we can’t rely just on assumptions like those. We need to know in person who we’re going to deal with.
Good night everyone, I would like to give my comment regarding to this topic.
ReplyDeleteAnother lesson of negotiating with different people and different countries. I love it. and now the topic talking about on how to negotiate with Australians and Thais. Thank you again, sir. for posting this really useful topic. And I couldn’t be more agree with the point which stated that Australians are love to banter, and do not expect to discuss business with Australians during lunch. Well, if you ask me, based on what fact I could say so, my friend lives in Australia. He studied there and works at a small café there, and yes, he always told me that Australians loves to banter. So don’t take it seriously. First time he gets there, a customer teased him, and he felt kind of offended. Then he told the story to his host family, if I’m not mistaken, its how he called the family that he live with. And the host said, don’t take the banter seriously, its how we breaking the ice. They said.
I guess that’s all, thank you.
I found that doing business with Thais is almost the same like if we want to doing business with Indonesian entrepreneurs. Like for example understand some local gestures and language if we want to get more attention with our partner in business, of course if we are the foreigners. I guess this fact that happens when we doing business is came from a same root of cultures I think. Thais and Indonesian are kind the same in some fundamental norm, like how to treat people and talk with others. This happen when we on the business. To give more feeling that we appreciate that person, to attract their attention so they will gives extra attention to us. This basic norm really exists and really works in our cultures. This is so much different than Australian, I think Australian is more type of people that really based on professionalism when they doing business.
ReplyDeleteAustralian’s way of negotiating and their characteristics are really different with Japanese. Where an Australian likes to be direct and bluntly making a point, whereas a Japanese would be more indirect. I wonder if these two meet at a meeting, would they try and respect the opposite’s way and forget their own ways? Or would it just be awkward and cause misunderstanding? And when I read Australians love to banter, this doesn’t actually show disrespect, but just casualty amongst business mans. But I highly doubt that they could banter with Japanese, as they will take it too seriously and would not understanding it as a joke. Brief small talks are okay because both want to be showed appreciation towards each other. In Thailand it is important to have patients, such as South Korea and Singaporean. It’s hard for them to make a decision right away because they have to discuss with their top management.
ReplyDelete