The Big Blue – Dealing with Clients Overseas

A few years ago, I was working in China, in a private school on a small peninsula, far outside of one of the country’s largest cities. For a time, I was the only native English speaker for quite a distance and the only Caucasian for an even greater distance beyond that. But I really enjoyed the solitude of being by myself and learning the life of this new country by interacting with my students and colleagues. But humans are social creatures, especially with their own brood, so everyday I would check my e-mail to see who from North America had written.

E-mail was, and still is, pretty quick. I would shoot my mom or dad a message the night before, and wake up to the replied message in my inbox. When I was much younger and living with my roving chemist father in South Korea, it used to take well over three weeks to get a letter or package by mail. Obviously correspondence has gotten quicker now, and as an info marketer, you are going to be dealing with people across oceans and miles away from your home. This is a good thing: when you talk about expanding business, you can really do it now.

With this added marketing advantage, you should know some rules of the road first:

--Simple Writing Language: Unless you are multilingual and can do translations of your information products, you are likely going to be dealing with exclusively native English speakers. That is, residents of North America, the British Isles, Australasia, parts of the Caribbean and, if possible, South Africa. Each one of these area’s English is different and often informed with slang or indigenous language influences i.e. Gaelic. There’s no way to be “hip” to them all, so as I’ve mentioned in previous messages, keep the writing simple. It really will broaden your market and make it easy for anyone who speaks English.

--Currency Changes: If you have a demand for your info products and decide to market your product to other countries outside of your own, great. Just don’t forget that the coins in your pocket are not necessarily the same value or type as the ones in someone’s from Waterford, Auckland, or Kingston. Keep abreast of the market value of your client’s currency and be ready to do a conversion so they know what they will be paying and for your product with their own money.

--Delivery Costs: We’ve all seen those infomercials on television. You see the price of an appealing product, and it looks good, but you have to take into account shipping and handling on top of that. Be ready to give this information to your customers as well. Call your postal or courier service and get an estimate of what the product would cost to ship abroad.

--Government Regulations: As well, before you send anything, check with your postal service or government websites if there are any legalities as to what you can or cannot ship to another country. It will save a hassle later on. A friend once wanted to mail a bottle to wine to family member working in a country where alcohol was banned. You have no idea what kind of trouble it put the two of them in.

A lot of people say “the world is getting smaller” as a figure of speech. In terms of modern communication, it is. But you should utilize this as an info marketer. A client base in Cape Town is as good as one down the street.

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