There are many fortunate entrepreneurs who know how to build trustful relationships with Romanians. This quality requires for a person to have innermost knowledge of the target culture and to be able to put this knowledge to use in order to succeed when establishing strong personal or business relationships.
Romanians may appear shy and reserved at first, even though they are inherently friendly and hospitable. However, they will eventually loosen-up as you get to know them. They are also friendly, hardworking, and generous people and are always keen to learn new things.
First of all, keep in mind that Romanians are relationship-oriented. I believe you know what this means and what steps should be taken. No? Well, then I will proceed with vital qualities that you should have in order to pursue the creation of strong relationships with Romanians.
1 Building trust
Business is personal; therefore you will need to build trustful relationships before you start negotiating. This usually involves devoting some time to some enthusiastic entertainment activities with your Romanian counterparts. Accept Romanian hospitality, for example, food and drinks during a meeting, and always go out with your colleagues when invited. If invited out to dinner by business associates, remember to return the favor on a future date. Negotiations will not even begin until a personal relationship has been established. It is very important for Romanians to know very well the person with whom they are doing business with. So you should be patient in order to build some trust because usually this is a process that may take some time.
2 Communication style
Romanians are indirect communicators. They will never say direct a “no”, neither the truth, if it is harmful to the negotiations, in a direct fashion. Therefore you should look out for the context and attempt to read between the lines. Romanians generally prefer a roundabout way of saying things, rejecting northern European and North American directness. As such, negotiators will get better results if they avoid asking too many direct questions, and instead probe gently for the information they need, while gradually building a pleasant relationship with their Romanian counterparts.
3 Back up with facts
Romanians are tough negotiators so make sure to build lots of flexibility into any proposal and expect to engage in hard bargaining. They tend to be suspicious and skeptical of ‘outside the box’ ideas, so back any argument up with solid facts and evidence before suggesting any changes. But remember not to impose the new ideas. You will make a good impression by being polite, courteous, well-dressed and friendly. When you are invited for a dinner, expect lively debate, but don’t probe too deeply into people’s lives or pasts. Best topics for conversation are about countryside, natural beauty, culture and art. And don’t talk about Romanian orphans, and other national problems like corruption and pollution.
To sum up, you will need to be friendly and a good conversationalist but without asking too much personal questions. You should also be flexible and little bit patient, because you will need some to build really strong relationships with Romanians.
If you want to find out more about building relationship across cultures read this article:
“Build Strong Work Relations Across Cultures”
