{"id":22957,"date":"2023-11-13T12:23:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T11:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=22957"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:13:11","slug":"using-a-culture-map-to-guide-your-cold-email-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/using-a-culture-map-to-guide-your-cold-email-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Culture Map to Guide Your Cold Email Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

An American tourist goes into a travel agency in Japan and says \u201cHi, I need to buy a plane ticket from City A to City B.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Japanese travel agent hesitates for a moment and says \u201cPerhaps you would prefer to fly from City A to City C?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says the American. \u201cCity A to City B, please\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After more hesitation and staring at her computer screen, the travel agent says \u201cMaybe instead you would like to fly from City A to City D?\u201d, causing the tourist to get irritated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with her?\u201d the tourist asks himself. \u201cI\u2019ve said twice that I want to fly from City A to City B and both times she suggests that I fly somewhere else. Her English seems fine so what\u2019s going on?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Culture clashes happen<\/span><\/h2>\n

What\u2019s going on here is a collision on a culture map. In Japanese culture, it\u2019s not polite to directly tell someone they can\u2019t do something. <\/span>There is no flight from City A to City B<\/span><\/i>. That\u2019s what the travel agent was telling the tourist by repeatedly recommending that he fly somewhere else.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In American culture, it\u2019s normal to expect direct answers. Even if it\u2019s not what you wanted to hear. <\/span>If there is no flight from City A to City B, then just tell me.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Both people involved here are reacting in the way that\u2019s normal for them but, at the same time, their \u201cnormal\u201d is far from the expectations of the other person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now take this situation and multiply it by the scale of international commerce and the email communication that goes with it. You\u2019ll start to see just how helpful a culture map<\/a> can be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What a culture map does\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

When your emails cross borders, they do more than enter a new country. They enter a new set of expectations, standards, norms, customs and ways of communicating. Even when you\u2019re speaking the same language. It\u2019s easy to step outside the accepted boundaries of the unspoken rules of what\u2019s ok and normal and what isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, we organized a number of presentations to help a range of people from different backgrounds who use cold email to get their message out, one conversation at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among them was a presentation by <\/span>Emilia Mosiewicz. <\/span><\/a>\u00a0She is a corporate trainer who helps businesses deal with international barriers, who spoke on the topic of adjusting your communication to fit the norms and expectations of your target audience. Many of the concepts she discussed were borrowed from the book by Erin Meyer that put the subject in the spotlight for people around the world with a sales and marketing background, <\/span>The Culture Map<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The main takeaway can be summarized like this:<\/span><\/p>\n