Having many opportunities to work with multinational corporations in the first few years of my professional career and even in the time of my founding company, I have learned so many valuable experiences when working with this type of tough client. They are famous for being highly demanding, but once you can build rapport and prove your productivity and professionalism, they can be lifelong business partners. Here are three valuable experiences that I would like to share with you when you work with MNCs:
1. Be professional: How do you describe professionalism? What does being a professional mean to you? Is it about how you act or behave? Or is it about how you communicate? Being professional means you can reach working standards professionally such as phone etiquettes (Eg: you may want to ask them whether it is a good time to talk,...), emails etiquettes (Eg: it is always sufficient to have a meeting minutes after having a meeting,...), meeting etiquettes (Eg: Always be prepared before any meeting,...)
2. You commit to a high outcome: When problems happen, it is always better if you don't only recognize them but also prepare for the solutions in mind. They don't expect us to present the problems then period. To work with them proactively, you may want to put yourself in their shoes and suggest possible solutions with backup reasons, data, statistics, market benchmarks... With this type of working style, problems can be solved quickly and you will be famous for being proactive and smart.
3. Be trustworthy: Trust is an invaluable asset in business at any time. We cannot work with those partners we don't trust. In the first few years of EIY, it was challenging for us to build trust in MNCs since we were just a tiny business. However, what we had was the ability to understand clients' needs and be able to customize our products to what they were looking for. We didn't mind going the extra mile to create what they wanted but still kept our core products and ensured the Public Speaking growth of our learners. At the end of the day, they trust us as we commit to what we promise to.
For a weekend that I try to reflect on what I have learned during my 10-year journey of working with MNCs.
Hope you enjoy these tips when working with MNCs nhé.
Lan Anh Nguyen.