Even sales leadership training experts like Donald Trump have to respect the cultural sensitivities of the highly competitive Chinese marketplace.

Understanding client needs from both the buyer and seller perspective is more difficult in an international arena.

This is particularly true of China, with its long history of mistrust for foreign entrepreneurs.

Donald Trump and his apprentices would do well to study China’s distinct cultural dimensions, then modify their American-style approaches when negotiating deals in this Far East Asian country.

High Long-Term Orientation

Professor Geert Hofstede® ranks China as number one in the world in terms of Long-Term Orientation. That is, the People’s Republic excels in thrift and perseverance characterized by slow progress. China’s LTO score is 62.2% higher than the world average and 307% higher than America’s grade. Unlike Chinese who are willing to subordinate themselves for a purpose, Americans place more emphasis on quick results to win respect - even if it means overspending to do so.

As James McGregor explains in his book One Billion Customers, American business apprentices must invest in long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with Chinese companies. This includes training, travel and recreational activities that educate Chinese managers on the benefits of doing business with American firms.

Patience pays big dividends when negotiating in China. Americans should politely but firmly repeat keyword phrases like "win-win solutions" for hours at a time to reinforce their Chinese relationships.

Many American business leaders demand on-the-spot, fast-moving deals. However, Chinese tradition frowns on quick deals.

High Power Distance Society

China scores 46% higher than the world average in accepting the unequal distribution of wealth and power within their society.

Given China’s centralized, tall organization structures with many supervisory levels, communication flows within Chinese companies are much less direct than in America. Orders from top-level Chinese leaders tend to be implicit in nature. Part of the ruling elite’s cherished status comes from the expectation that lower supervisory levels will implement their decisions without formal written instructions.

In contrast, the U.S. is a low power distance country. Americans are used to flatter, decentralized organization structures in which lower-level managers do exercise decision-making responsibilities. As a result, downward communication in U.S. companies is much more direct.

Most Chinese consider direct orders as rude and are deeply suspicious of their intent. A more successful approach in China would be for Americans to act as capable and strong-minded mentors, leading by example and adapting their communications flows to the more implicit Chinese style.

High Masculinity Scores

Masculinity is a cultural dimension that measures the extent to which material possessions, money and success dominate a society’s basic values. In high masculine countries, managers and supervisors exert stronger control to ensure that employees do their work

China’s score as a masculine society is 12% higher than the world average, and 9% lower than America’s masculinity grade. And although many Chinese come across as followers rather than leaders, American negotiators should still respect the fierce, competitive psyche that permeates Chinese businesses.

James McGregor writes that fairness, honesty, mutual respect and strong personal relationships can overcome inevitable differences in both the masculine American and Chinese cultural mindsets – even in money manners.

High Risk Tolerance

China’s uncertainty avoidance score is 34% below the world average. This indicates that the Chinese culture takes more risks, has fewer written rules, offers less-structured activities and experiences higher labour turnover.

China’s uncertainty avoidance grade is almost 10% lower than America’s score and 12% lower than that for Canada. Chinese tolerate more uncertainty and are willing to take more risks than Americans or Canadians once they are comfortable in a stable and secure business relationship.

China’s strong perseverance and long-term orientation may partly explain the ability of Chinese to adapt to uncertainty.

Low Individualism Culture in Public

China scores 54% lower than the world’s average score for individualism. Propelled by the American Dream, the U.S. is by far the world’s leading individualistic country with an individualism score 112% higher than the world’s average.

It’s important to remember that Hofstede developed his country-specific cultural scores based on data collected between 1967 and 1973. In recent years, China’s economy has quickly transformed into a world-class competitor. The new focus on getting rich fast in China creates an atmosphere of individual wealth – and mistrust. Today, many Chinese businessmen go into negotiations expecting to be cheated.

According to James McGregor, Chinese are somewhat schizophrenic because they act collectively in public but are fiercely individualistic in their private lives.

Donald Trump should seriously consider launching Chinese apprenticeship programs that provide educational training to Chinese business leaders. This must include proven techniques and formulae for the Chinese to follow, reinforced with practical case studies and projects that encourage Chinese managers to make their own business decisions.

References

This article presents independent calculations and insights based on geert-hofstede.com and research from International Management, Culture, Strategy and Behavior (6th edition, Hodgetts-Luthans-DOH) and James McGregor’s One Billion Customers.