Brought to you by the Builder Relations Committee of the Sales and Marketing Council of the Northeast Florida Builders Association and Lennar
by Michael Soon Lee
CRS, GRI, multicultural expert & author
Q. How important is the greeting when working with multi-cultural prospects?
A. The greeting is EVERYTHING! Most Realtors and new home professionals unintentionally insult multicultural customers at least three times in the first thirty seconds:
i. Assuming that everyone wants to shake hands. Just touching a Middle Eastern, Asian Indian or Japanese woman could be extremely offensive to them, their spouses and family. Instead of automatically reaching out to shake hands, hesitate for a moment to see what kind of greeting the customer offers you and then do the same.
ii. Looking for eye contact. In the United States, salespeople are taught to look customers in the eye to show sincerity and honesty. However, in other cultures direct eye contact can be viewed as rude so they avoid it. If a customer doesn’t give you eye contact don’t assume they aren’t interested and just learn to be comfortable looking down when speaking.
iii. Violating their personal space. Here, after we shake hands, we end up standing about two feet apart while talking. In Japan, for instance, they will bow and then step back which usually feels very distant to an American. So naturally the salesperson will close the gap invading the customer’s personal space. This naturally causes them to step back resulting in the salesperson chasing the customer all over the model! On the other hand, in the Middle East people shake hands and then step forward to about one foot apart, which is much too close for an American. If the salesperson steps back the customer will end up pursuing you instead.
Q. What are the best discovery questions to learn a multi-cultural prospects important “hot buttons”?
A. First, get to know them as people. Ask about family and education because the answers will tell you how big a home they need and which schools you should talk about. Then ask them where their ancestors are from to determine exactly which cultural group you are working with. This will prevent you from making embarrassing assumptions.
Q. How should Realtors and Site Agents handle the language barrier of a prospect with limited use of the English language?
A. People have found a way to communicate across cultures since the dawn of time. Speak a bit more slowly to enable non-native English speakers time to translate your words in their minds.
Also, remember that many cultures are not as comfortable with verbal communications and may prefer other learning styles. For instance, Asians tend to prefer learning visually through pictures, charts and graphs because Chinese, Japanese and Korean are all based on pictographs. Hispanics tend to prefer learning kinesthetically by actually seeing and touching the objects you are discussing.
If they find that you are sensitive to their culture customers will often come back with a bilingual friend or family member to interpret. Be insensitive and you’ll never see them again.
Q. What other tips would help Realtors and Site Agents better communicate and negotiate the sales process with multi-cultural prospects?
A. When dealing with multicultural customers you have to learn to become a black belt in negotiating. In this country we tend to only negotiate the most expensive items like cars and houses.
While we generally don’t enjoy haggling, we know that if we can save a small percentage off a large purchase it can save a substantial amount of money. However, people from Latin America, Asia and the Middle East negotiate on everything they buy all day long. As a result they’re REALLY good at it.
Also recognize that in America signing a contract signifies the end to all negotiations. However, in many cultures signing a contract begins the haggling process which can continue up to and through close of escrow. With any customer always save something for the end in case there is additional bargaining to be done.