First-time Executive-level prospect meetings can be challenging, especially at the customer site. You often do not know how many representatives from the company you will be meeting with or even who they all are. You enter reception often having to wait. Then shown into a room which can be a huge boardroom with 10-15 in attendance or a small pokey office with just one or two.
I remember one occasion when I was in a big boardroom with discussions opening and found that I am talking through an interpreter to well-dressed young gentlemen sitting opposite me. Business cards are exchanged by most folk but not necessarily by all. The gentleman opposite me had provided a card that said Senior Vice President, Procurement, so I felt I was talking to the right guy. The discussion went backwards and forwards, the prospect raising relevant points and me providing answers supporting and trying to deliver the relevant sales points. Only towards the end of the meeting did I notice an older, somewhat dishevelled gentleman with a crumpled jacket decorated with cigarette ash listening intently to the discussion at the back of the room. The meeting finished, and we all shook hands and departed with an arrangement for the next meeting.
Same process for that meeting. More discussion through a translator, but I was none the wiser about the older gentleman at the side of the room but now actually sitting at the table. The meeting was a success, and the young gentlemen I talked to announced they would like to commence contract discussions. The meeting adjourned. This time the older gentleman came up to me, bowed, and as he presented me with his business card, he said in excellent English - “very interesting; I look forward to working with you”. The business card said Executive Vice Chairman.
#Doing business in Asia - hard to know who the boss is sometimes.
