After entering into an agreement our German colleagues do far less follow-up than we Americans do. Our customers in the U.S., however, often want to maintain high frequency follow-up with us. How can we get our German colleagues to acknowledge that and help us to keep our U.S. customers up to date?
Verbal agreements
“In the German work context does a verbal agreement have the same level of commitment as a written agreement? If no, why not?”
Reconcile two approaches
“Our German colleagues seem to enter into an agreement only after they have gathered all of the relevant information up-front. In our U.S. business context, however, speed and rapid reaction time are critical success factors. We neither have the time nor is it essential to get all the facts up-front. How can we reconcile the two approaches?”
Hard deadlines
“In the U.S. once a decision has been made the time afforded to implement that decision can be very short, often far shorter than in Germany. When the two sides collaborate who is responsible for deciding what the hard deadline is?”
Overpromising
“We Americans overpromise. Much more than do our German colleagues. How do we strike a balance between overpromising to our American team-leads – and/or to our American customers – and underpromising or realistic-promising to our German colleagues?”
Two logics
“Before making a commitment our German colleagues like as much clarity as possible up-front. However, developing opportunities in the U.S. business context is an ongoing, interative process together with the customer. The goal is to understand and define their needs.
In other words, the nature of the commitments with the customer can change during the process of iteration. Add to this the American inclination to take a ‘Yes, let’s give it a try’ approach. How can we get the two logics to work together in order to serve the customer?”
Overcome German no
“Our German colleagues in headquarters always say what cannot work, but without a solution or recommendation on how it could work. Their response is simply ‘No, no, no.’
We present business opportunities, create an agenda, do everything the Germans ask of us, then we do the telecon. Our message: ‘We could double our volume with a certain customer.’ German-response: no questions, no recommendations, instead ‘Ok, thank you for the report.’ How can we overcome the German-no?”
More self-Follow-up
“How can we Germans get our American colleagues to do more self-follow-up, so that we don’t have to do the follow-up? It would save us so much time and energy.“
