There are many topics used to break the ice and start cross-border e-commerce negotiations, generally including:
(1) Thank the customer for meeting and greet and compliment them.
(2) Start with a digression: ① Topics about weather or seasons; ② Topics about hot news; ③ Topics about celebrities; ④ Topics about hobbies and interests; ⑤ Topics about clothing, food, housing and transportation; ⑥ Topics about health; ⑦ Topics about traveling; ⑧ Topics about popular topics; ⑨ Topics that are beneficial to the other party.
(3) Start with “self-humility”. Self-humility is often used at the beginning of a negotiation. For example, if the other party is negotiating at your location, you can modestly express your apologies for not taking good care of them in all aspects, or the main negotiator can introduce his own experience and modestly explain that he lacks negotiation experience and hopes to learn from experience through negotiation and establish a cooperative friendship.
(4) Start by introducing your own negotiators. The person in charge of the negotiation can appropriately introduce the names, experiences, education, ages, and performance of your own negotiators. This not only opens up the topic, eliminates the tense atmosphere and anxiety, but also allows the client to understand the basic situation of the negotiators on your side.
(5) Start by introducing your own production, operation, financial status, etc. Providing the other party with some information and basic information about production and operation to show your strong financial resources and good reputation will win the trust of the client.
A good topic can instantly open up the conversation between the two parties and the atmosphere will be relaxed accordingly. On the contrary, some topics make it difficult for the other party to speak freely and can easily lead to a dull atmosphere. Finding a good topic depends on keen observation. For example, you can tell from the accent whether the other party is from the south or the north, or ask if the journey is smooth, so as to find a suitable topic to greet the other party. Therefore, after meeting the other party for the first time, you must carefully observe the other party’s words and deeds to find clues to open the topic.
Negotiators must think carefully about the choice of negotiation topics. Although the communication at this stage is mainly about greetings and small talk, in fact, every sentence will be carefully considered by the other party. If you accidentally reveal too much information during the conversation for the other party to use, it will be detrimental to the success of the negotiation. Seemingly casual greetings can sometimes become an important means for the other party to obtain information.