It’s fair to say that international business is expected these days. Companies who aren’t thinking about reaching overseas certainly stand to see their efforts drowning. ECommerce does, of course, make this broad reach much easier to achieve without going anywhere, but it might not be the only international effort you have to make. 

To truly appeal to overseas markets, you need to seal deals with local suppliers, exchanges, and brands. And, that means attending meetings on their home turf, rather than just relying on a computer.

Of course, overseas business meetings aren’t exactly new, but they should be a more pressing priority as they rise in regularity. The trouble is that it’s all too easy to fall foul to setbacks when you’re new to this. To make sure it doesn’t happen, we’re going to consider how you can overcome the most common issues involved in meetings like these. 

Delayed flights

You only get one shot at a meeting, and another company is sure to lay the blame on you if you’re late or unable to attend. They certainly won’t believe protestations that your flight was to blame! This problem has a simple solution, and it comes in the form of charter flights. There’s simply no beating the reliability you’ll get from organizing flights yourself. You should also find that the luxury offered by flights like these sees your team arriving on time, and fresher to sell than they would be crammed into a standard flight. That could soon see this expense paying for itself from all the fantastic deals they’re able to seal!

Image by Oskar Kadaksoo: CC0 License

Your productivity takes a hit

Sending team members abroad has always posed risks to workplace productivity. Luckily, getting on top of remote work means this needn’t be the case any longer. If your team members can access their projects and all necessary software through the cloud, then there’s no reason their time away needs to cost you in any workload at all. Get online communications sorted, and you can even keep up with their progress at each stage of their journeys!

Not enough time to seal deals

As any business owner knows, one meeting is rarely enough to seal a decent deal. It isn’t unusual for companies to ask for repeat meetings or ongoing deliberations. Sadly, if you fail to factor this ahead of time, you could cost yourself a deal here altogether. Overcome this potential setback by adding a few days to each meeting-based business trip. With remote work capabilities, your team can still be just as productivity as they would in the office. Yet, with one or two extra nights than necessary booked at the hotel, they’ll have all the time they need to agree on a decent deal that more than pays for the extra time out. 

Overseas business meetings can seem like a logistical nightmare, and they don’t always go according to plan. That said, it only takes a few simple tips like these to get things on track pretty much without fail.