In this video Zach Selch contrasts American and German business cultures and explains how these differences affect sales management. He highlights three core cultural traits of German sales teams: a collectivist decision‑making style that expects participation, a preference for direct, unambiguous orders rather than suggestions, and a comfort with confrontational debate that may seem harsh to outsiders. Selch also notes Germany’s higher avoidance of uncertainty, which translates into a stronger desire for job security and a need for robust marketing and sales‑enablement tools from the headquarters. He advises managers to adapt their leadership approach—engage teams in collective discussions, communicate expectations directly, and provide solid enablement resources—to successfully lead German salespeople and grow international sales.
Chapters
Let's talk a little bit about the difference between American and German business culture and how it's going to impact your sales management. So if you have a sales team that's German, or salespeople that are German, some of the things that you're going to find— first of all, it's a much more collectivist business culture, which means they're going to expect to be taken into consideration and discussed with more than whereas an American might simply say, okay, I'm the boss. This is what I decide. This is the way it's going to be. Germans are much less used to that. They're much more expecting to be— to have this participation and a collectivist decision-making process. Germans are much more direct, which means if you tell somebody, you know, you had a great first quarter, but here's what I'd like you to work on, and I think it would be a nice idea if you did this, and maybe it would be cool if you did this, they are going to ignore it. What you basically have to say is, here's the deal. I like what you do, but you have to make these changes. This is a direct order essentially. You want to be direct when you talk to your salespeople in Germany because that's what they expect. That's actually what's going to make them comfortable. If you give them a wishy-washy order, if you say, it would be nice if we did this, or, I think we should possibly do this, they are simply going to not— they're going to think it's a suggestion and not what you want from them. And thirdly, they are much more— Germans are much more confrontational. It is a perfectly normal thing to be confrontational in German business culture. So you might find that you're discussing something, somebody disagrees with that, and they seem to really go to town on you, and it seems very rough, very inappropriate. That's perfectly acceptable and perfectly normal German business culture. So these are things you might want to understand and accept Another part of this is there's a higher level of avoidance of uncertainty in Germany, which essentially means people are more looking for job security. They're more looking to have better marketing and sales tools. They're, they're looking for better support possibly from the home office in terms of marketing enablement tools, sales enablement tools, that kind of thing. So these are some things you might want to be thinking about. Should you employ German salespeople? Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help. When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.
