Is Negotiation Training Important when Dealing with Chinese Business People – An Analysis of Managers’ Beliefs and Needs in Three Countries

Abstract

Before the November-2021 China International Import Expo, the demand of foreign business people for targeted training in negotiating with the Chinese was on the increase. We conducted a survey before the negotiation training, intending to find out the demographic characteristics of the potential trainees, their beliefs in negotiations, their exact needs in terms of negotiating with Chinese business people, and we analyzed the post-training effects and results with an evaluation questionnaire. We administered the survey in three countries – Brazil, Mexico and Germany, and received 57 answers for the pre-training questionnaire, the results of which were analyzed with SPSS26, and 49 answers for the training effect evaluation form. Our major findings are as follows. Regardless of origin, the professionals surveyed attached great importance to negotiation training, and the topics they have foremost interest in are respectively: To develop a negotiation mindset, to deal with contract-related issues; and to build trust and stable relationships. Whereas to the question of negotiating with their Chinese counterparts, the surveyed focused on the following three topics: How to determine VIPs in the Chinese negotiation team, dealing with legal concerns in negotiations, and the typical Chinese wisdom related to business. As for the evaluation, all the trainees gave positive feedback, but with somewhat different preferences. Our general conclusion is that negotiation training is necessary for managers at all times, but the training contents should ideally be targeted towards their specific needs.

Keywords

Negotiation training / business people / Chinese business culture / negotiation mindset / transferability

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