Inane Gurbuz, Executive Manager EMEA of Azkan Group and professional coach in Turkish Management, shares an excerpt “Meeting in Turkey” from his book “Doing business in Turkey: a guide to success”
Meeting in Turkey : The Turks do not say no
During a Meeting in Turkey The Turks will never say “no” to you! Even in business, they will always reply in the positive. There are thousands of European and American companies out there who think they have a local distributor representing them on the Turkish market, but from the
outset, their distributor was not actually interested. In this passage,
you will discover the keys to understanding this behaviour which is
based on kind intentions, but which will ultimately make you lose
valuable time. Because their initial contact was friendly, pleasant, and full of good intentions, many Westerners think it was a successful meeting. But after a while, you realize that you are unable to get in touch with your Turkish partners: they do not answer the phone, their secretary says they are in a meeting, and you do not get answers to your emails. At this point, you can consider that your partnership is over.
Meeting in Turkey : What to do in case of conflict
Above all, show empathy! Your businesspartners are emotional
and react to empathy. It is always better to talk to them face to
face, away from other people. Do not contact them by phone or by
email, orthey will think you are avoiding them. Whether you are a manager or a customer facing your supplier, start by remindingthem of the trust you have placed in them. Once you have reminded them of your gratitude, you can begin to discuss the point of conflict.
The “after meeting”
The Turks place a lot of value on welcoming a guest well. So do not be surprised if you are invited to lunch or dinner or if your partners offer to accompany you back home. Even ifyou think that your meeting will not end in an agreement, the Turks are often very generous with their guests. And you need to remember to do the
same in return when they come to visit you.
The rest of this text is available in our book “Doing business in Turkey: a guide to success” . Since 2005, AZKAN Group has acted as a consulting firm for all your development projects in the Turkish market: consulting in implementation, detection of partners, market research, Recruitment Turkey, Payroll in Ankara Turkey ….
