Growing your business to Latin America, try our top 5 tips to increase your success.
There is no point in finding the ideal profile of your operators if your company does not have a culture focused on relating to your customers and having them as the focal point of your strategy. Make it very clear what the purpose of the company is, its vision, mission and values.
Personal relationships have a strong influence on the way Latin American's approach business. Before doing business with you, a Latin American business contact will want to get to know you as a person first. This takes time but the importance of forming good, local business partnerships cannot be overestimated.
Latin Americans are very sensitive to the approach made by non-Latin Americans seeking to do business in their countries. The business approach with a nice attitude in most Latin American countries is very cosmopolitan, some having gained considerable experience abroad, travelling extensively.
Latin Americans generally are friendly, sociable, respectful – and they don't like to offend. They are chatty (so meetings can last longer than expected. Many non-Latin Americans view this latter trait as negative. However, a 'yes' that means 'no' has the potential to move towards a 'yes' meaning 'yes', once the individual has had the opportunity to get to know you better. Complicated? Not really; not when you understand how it works.
The pace of life in Latin America is very different to the UK. The pace varies from country to country but as a general rule of thumb, you are advised to allow at least 25% more time to complete projects in Latin America compared to the UK – and be prepared to be very flexible with time keeping.