Before a meeting with a business associate one day, we chatted about some of the problematic differences between Chilean and “international” business communication customs: verbal agreements in general, and specifically time commitments.
Yes!
In any negotiation, be it with a potential client, a provider, a subordinate or peer, you may find people saying “yes” to you when the answer really ought to be “no.” That can be to answer questions from “Are you interested in doing business with us?” to “Can we include this extra feature in the software without pushing back the release date?” There are at least two factors at work here.
1. Not wanting to be rude. That is, unappreciative of your time and effort. A potential client may say “sí, te llamo,” when he already knows he won’t be doing business with you. He won’t call, and as the weeks or months pass, you will stop expecting to hear from him. The business associate I mentioned, “Juan,” described an executive from a partner company in Europe who came to visit Chile, and after an interaction like this, was ready to add the deal to the company’s cash flow projection. Juan quickly steered him clear of that pothole.
2. Not wanting to lose the business. A provider may agree to your request, knowing that completion of the task on his end is unrealistic or impossible, because, as Juan put it, if you say you can’t do it on time the job will go to another provider— and as he knows, they’re all making promises they can’t keep.
Ultimately, after multiple interactions, you may not be able to elicit “no”s from the people you work with, but you will learn how to properly translate different individuals’ yesses and commitment dates into reliable information you can use for your own planning.
Tips
Be explicit and precise about task assignments and due dates. At the end of a meeting, I like to reiterate verbally whatever the agreed-to next step was, with its due date. Then I’ll write it down while saying something like “OK entonces Carlos, espero tu llamada el próximo jueves.”
If the business environment or relationship is not conducive to formal meeting minutes, just follow up with a quick “nice to meet/see you” email that includes major committments and any next steps. This part could be just “Espero la cotización el martes 23.”
If someone wants to commit only to a certain week, you translate that both in your calendar and back to them as “hasta el viernes al final del día” and make sure follow up at the beginning of the week.
A good rule of thumb is to ping the person when between half and three quarters of the time from the agreement to the due time/date has elapsed. For example, if a report is due in two weeks, do it when there are 4 to 5 business days to go. If they’re suppposed to have it by the end of the day, check in at 3:00 pm. If they have bad news for you at that time, there very well may not be anything that can be done about it, but you will be able to adjust your own planning.
Some people will actually ask you to call them to remind them of something you have just agreed to. Do not express your bewilderment; just do it.
Written information is your friend. I worked for a company that, at the start of each project, would create a list of prerequisites that the client should turn in, along with agreed-upon delivery dates. This document would then get annexed to the signed contract. Having that list didn’t necessarily mean that the prerequisites were delivered on time, but it gave the company firm ground to stand on when project delays arose.
Of course, it isn’t reasonable to sign contracts for every deliverable or response you need from people, but it never hurts to have a written back-up of the agreement. Follow up phone calls and meetings with an email.
Lastly, don’t get exasperated; it won’t help.
beginning of project write who needs to send what to whom. agree on dates. sign it. periodically report to everyone on how it’s going.
So should you expect all of your business relationships to have this kind of dynamic? No. Juan— a Chilean with years of experience working with foreign companies— ended the meeting by saying that the ball was in his court and gave me a timeframe of when to expect word from him about whether or not my proposal was acceptable. The date was further away than I expected, but because he was so clear about the next steps I left feeling relaxed and satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.
As Chile continues to globalize, and more Chilean companies work with foreign clients, providers, partners and parent companies, communications will become more predictable for the expat. Until then, prepare well and expect the unexpected.