IBC Case Study: Networking and Buyer's Language Importance

This case study examines the critical role of networking skills and the effective use of buyer's language within the context of International Business Communication (IBC). It highlights how networking facilitates internal and external relationships, enhances organizational culture, and improves individual and team performance. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding different buyer languages, including functionality, benefits, and value, to effectively market products and services. It also explores the use of social media and face-to-face interactions for networking, along with problem-solving and knowledge-sharing skills. The case study concludes by discussing the need for delivering high-quality customer service and differentiating between customers and clients, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships to achieve business goals. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

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(Evaluation of the importance of networking and using the buyer’s language within IBC)
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Evaluation of the importance of networking and using the buyer’s language within IBC
(International Business Communication)
Introduction
The networking skills play major roles in managing good international business
communications and thus focus has been on it to ensure utilisation of buyer’s language and
improving the International business communications too. There are various skills that are
needed to facilitate the networking and improve the business functioning with the
achievement of business goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness. The International
Business Communication or IBC is a Bachelor’s programme that focuses on the management
of effective communication in multilingual corporations, i.e., where people use several
languages with equal fluency in most of the languages. Nowadays, most of the organisations
have went global, which has made the International Business communication advisor to focus
on the intercultural communication and at the same time, create scopes and opportunities for
learning different languages including English, German and Spanish languages (Schultz,
Castelló and Morsing 2013). With the fluency achieved in these languages and assessing the
intercultural context of business, the graduates of IBC will gain a competitive edge in
multiple areas including the management of communication, research and development on
communication aspects and maintenance of training and education services to improve
knowledge acqusitions and facilitate the learning experiences too.
Body
Based on various surveys, it has been found that the 85 percent of employees have
been associated with the job and their recruitment and selection processes have been
managed with the help of networking. According to Forsgren and Johanson (2014), the
external networking has improved the network capability and enhanced the performances of

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industry professionals, which further helped in gaining mutual benefits and even facilitated
searching for specific jobs too. The internal networking, on the other hand, facilitated the
ability to reach out to more audiences and connect with the people within the organisation,
furthermore allow them to work within the multilingual organisations with convenience.
There are various skills required for the International Business Communications professional,
which are needed for enhancing the networking related aspects and at the same time,
determined the extent to which the language of the purchaser has to be used (Forsgren and
Johanson 2014). The networking skill is important considering the fact that the organisational
culture is needed to be maintained properly within the workplace, which not only has
improved the team working ability of the organisational members, but has also helped in
managing collaboration between the various departments and disciplines. The networking
skills are also important for the IBC professionals to form consistent networks with the other
organisational memebrs, furthermore ensure development of relationships and creating
rapport to improve the level of mutual trust and respect. This has also resulted in improving
the production level and create a better work experience for the IBC professionals within the
corporate sector (Chiu et al. 2013).
Not only does the networking skills improve the individual performance, but also
these kinds of skills and abilities have assisted the employees to gain an upper hand during
the job openings available through acqusitions of extensive knowledge on new job scopes
and opportunities. The employees who are willing to grow within a sector, needs to identify
the internal positions at first, and then undertake approaches for gaining development in
career, furthermore develop interdepartmental relationships to improve decision making
ability and making choices for the job roles that might be allocated to them. Hohenthal,
Johanson and Johanson (2015) stated that while making a career shift also, the International
Business communication professionals have been benefited with the internal networking

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skills acquired. It has been made possible with the management of resumes of individuals to
the new area of work. For example, in case a candidate has applied for a job role without any
related work experience, then it could be a daunting task for the HR manager or the employer
to understand how that candidate might be a good choice for the position for which, people
are being hired. In such cases, the networking skills play a vital part, which can develop new
skills and improve the work experiences of employees, furthermore ensure forming networks
with the other employees within the concerned department (Hohenthal, Johanson and
Johanson 2015). The international interviews are also conducted often for making the
individuals undertake a smaller role or responsibility during a particular project management.
Though the roles and responsibilities are smaller, still, it has often helped them to gain
exposure to different other sectors and the experiences obtained are soon integrated with the
other aspects within the resumes.
The philosophy of communication allows for granting permission to disagreement
with the author and communication philosophy. The philosophy of communication in terms
of pragmatism has helped in managing voices considering the public opinion diversity along
with extracting the best quality information to represent the meaning of information that has
been derived. The roles and process of networking along with the management of these skills
and knowledge have improved the International Business Communication as well as
enhanced the formation of contacts and referrals too. Based on the international business
communication aspect, the networking has helped in meeting the needs of clients and at the
same time, enabled identification of different scopes and opportunities required to develop
partnership[s, work as joint ventures and open up new areas of expansion for the business
effectively as well (Van den Brink and Benschop 2014). With the networking aspects linked
with the international business communications, there has been better visibility that is
required to form positive business relationships as well as form networking events that have

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raised the personal profiles of IBC professionals. It has been an effective way to respond to
the changing business environment and furthermore allowed the professionals within the
International Business Communication to keep up with the latest trends within the industry
and assess the market conditions well. The assessment of market conditions has further
helped in creating a proper marketing plan, which has been possible with the arrangement of
seminars and forming networks with the business associates and peers on a regular basis (Mu
et al. 2017).
The other skill acquired have been problem solving skills, skills and abilities to share
knowledge and experience and gaining high morale and confidence too. The networking
skills have evolved the perceptions and thinking of individuals, furthermore allowed the
individuals to share their knowledge and experience in the form of valuable advices, which
are essential for successful global business management. As most of the people involved with
the businesses are optim9stic at present, so keeping close contact with the people with
positive attitudes and behaviours has helped in boosting their morale level, furthermore gain
greater confidence to establish positive relationships with the like-minded individuals.
The processes of networking in the context of International Business Communications
are managed with the help of developing close contacts with the people through face-to-face
interaction. The use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedln are
useful for the professionals to communicate with each other, furthermore find out the best
way through discussions to develop networks with the local business owners and
entrepreneurs with the management of business groups effectively (Hong and Pavlou 2017).
Other processes include the exchange and sharing of business ideas, information, messages
and support, which has further been supported by extensive listening skills, which is an
integral aspect of the networking. The selection of the right networking group that can be best

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for the professionals is also important and the processes often involve individuals belonging
the International Business Communication groups such as the local business groups,
Mastermind groups, community service groups, online business networking groups, etc.
Another important networking process could be the IBC professional introducing himself or
herself in front of others and manage conversations for the establishment of rapport among
the other members of the organisation, furthermore open up new dialogues required to assist
in internal networks formation and positive brand reputation too (Kannan and Tyagi 2013).
As stated by Richards and Schmidt (2014), the buyer’s languages represent
understanding the needs and requirements of the target customers and so the IBC
professionals must be skilled and knowledgeable to market the products and deliver the right
messages and information that could be ideal and appropriate for the language of purchasers.
It is important to know the customer at first and engage with different types of stakeholders
such as the shareholders or investors, employees, managers and customers, who are
responsible for speaking different kinds of languages of the purchasers (Richards and
Schmidt 2014). In terms of International Business Communication, the users of services, i.e.,
the purchasers are associated with the ability to speak language of functionality while the
gatekeepers speak the buyer language of benefits and decision makers speak the purchaser
language of value offered to clients in the form of products and services delivered to them.

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Figure: Buyer’s language theory (Richards and Schmidt 2014)
Considering the International Business Communication aspect, users speak the
language of functionality, because they are mostly associated with the use of such products
and services delivered by the companies. Though they do not pose any such major impact on
the decisions made regarding purchase of products and services, keeping them inclined to the
brand has been effective. For example, a business within the IT services industry considered
the users as social media managers, community managers and customer support or customer
services’ executives to whom the products and services are delivered. The management of
communication with the developers of software applications is considered as another major
prospect that speak the language of functionality while the gatekeepers need to manage
business suitability while making purchases of products and services, furthermore evaluate
the competitive solutions needed ensure value proposition (Ferraro and Briody 2013). These
kinds of users, i.e., the gatekeepers use the language of benefits. The decision makers are
associated with the monitoring of IBC professionals’ performance to understand whether they
are credible enough to meet the business goals and objectives with ease or not. Due to focus
on reducing the exposure to risks, the brand related components are considered and the
resources are leveraged to ensure creation of value all throughout. Thus, the decision makers
have spoken the language of value delivered to the people.
In spite of the advantages, there are few drawbacks as well, such as, when failing to
win over the users, then the users might be in complex situations, which should increase the
exposure to risks and poor value creation too. Considering the language of benefits, often the
purchasers have neglected the other aspects such as marketing approaches, rate of return on
investments, etc., which has also affected the way purchasing decisions are made sometimes
(Forsgren and Johanson 2014). A major disadvantage of speaking language of value

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delivered to the users has been the lack of alignment between the sales process and marketing
approaches, which has even created difficulties in understanding the behaviours, in terms of
own self and from the perspective of the purchasers too.
Other major business aspects from the international business communication
perspective are the delivery of great quality customers’ services. This has been possible with
the management of good relationships with the clients and making them feel valued by the
organisation. After assessing their behaviours and attitudes, the marketing, sales and
customers’ acqusitions approaches are managed to offer an extensive end-to-end consumer
experience, furthermore, understand the difference between a client and a customers. Based
on the business context, the customers are those individuals who are identified by the
businesses and remain closely connected with it whereas the clients are those who spend
some money with the business to gain some good rates of return (Schultz, Castelló and
Morsing 2013). The customers are considered as important stakeholders who are drawn with
the help of different marketing functions and procedures that has even taken the business to a
next level. In relation to networking, not only the communication has strengthened for the
IBC professionals, but also they have learnt to adopt global cultures and respected the values,
beliefs and meanings across the communities. This has shaped the ways of interacting with
people within the community, furthermore helped in managing divergence across cultures
along with focus on raising business standards and using the buyer’s language to ensure client
satisfaction largely (Chiu et al. 2013).
The Individualistic versus collectivist cultures have enabled the IBC professionals to
respect freedom of others and also the values and beliefs of others. This also enabled them to
perceive own self and empowered individuals, furthermore helped in raising the ability to
make decisions and created positive impacts on their lives too. The explicit rule cultures

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enables properly communicating the rules and regulations to make them aware while the
implicit rule culture allowed for non-verbal communication without any proper agenda and
expectations are not stated properly (Soto, Lee and Roberts 2016). The IBC professionals
also made sure to work and respond to different culture by bringing changes and take risks
within the environment, where the uncertainty avoidance is high.
Figure: Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory (Soto, Lee and Roberts 2016)
From the perspectives of international business communication, quality, cost and
speed are important factors that shape the buying behaviours of the clients. Based on the
quality, the purchasers or buyers need to assess the functionality and features of the product
or service to ensure that whether their needs and requirements will be met or not. To do so,
the products and services must be free from any flaws, proper metrics to measure the service
standard based on the perspectives of customers, quality targets for the target market
segments while in terms of speed, the buyers seek delivery of products and services within
the assigned time frame set by the service provider. The prices of products and services have
also influenced the consumer buying behaviours, because they seek quality based goods that

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are available at reasonable prices (Hohenthal, Johanson and Johanson 2015). This would
surely engage the clients together and assure them that the company valued them as the most
important stakeholders, which has been the main reason for distribution of products and
services in different segments and were made available at a reasonable cost too. Nowadays,
with the advent of different new technologies, the B2B online sales have grown, which has
enabled the companies within the different sectors to use the buyer’s language, which has
helped in remaining connected to the clients, global partners and distributors of services.
With the focus on these communication perspectives with different stakeholders involved
with the business, continuous value has been created along with focused differentiation of
products to allow the clients distinguish between the specific brand product and other
company products (Cleveland, Laroche and Papadopoulos 2016). The websites are managed
by almost every companies at present, to manage resources wisely and at the same time, form
an in market sales team by recruiting the local talents, strategic partners and distributors of
services.
The use of buyer’s language and networking have also helped to manage translation,
furthermore keep consistent communication with the international clients in the languages
that are preferred by them. This has been one of the major prominent ways to establish
relationships and at the same time, manage value creation. With the translation of content to
communicate with the consumers’ preferred languages, the companies have delivered a
consistent brand experience across all the targeted markets and even increased the level of
trust and loyalty among the global clients. The website content has also been considered as
beneficial for implementing marketing promotions and campaigns, furthermore supported the
local currencies, managed options for payments and shipping, which also improved the skills
of IBC professionals to reach global clients with ease (Schultz, Castelló and Morsing 2013).

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Few other major channels for networking and better communication management are use of
mobile applications, social media platforms and using digital documents too.
Conclusion
The essay was prepared to discuss about the various aspects about the significance of
networking and how the use of buyer’s language had helped in improving the skills among
the IBC professionals. The consideration of culture based on the divergent cultural
perspectives were also considered here to improve the skills among the individuals,
furthermore helped in making decisions and align with the cultures of different places to
ensure smooth business functioning and at the same time, made sure to strengthen the
networking along with improvement of skills of networking and decision making from the
International Business Communication perspectives.

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References
Chiu, C.M., Cheng, H.L., Huang, H.Y. and Chen, C.F., 2013. Exploring individuals’
subjective well-being and loyalty towards social network sites from the perspective of
network externalities: The Facebook case. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(3), pp.539-552.
Cleveland, M., Laroche, M. and Papadopoulos, N., 2016. Global consumer culture and local
identity as drivers of materialism: an international study of convergence and divergence.
In Looking forward, looking back: drawing on the past to shape the future of marketing (pp.
479-479). Springer, Cham.
Ferraro, G.P. and Briody, E.K., 2013. The cultural dimension of global business. Upper
Saddle River: Pearson.
Forsgren, M. and Johanson, J., 2014. Managing networks in international business.
Routledge.
Hohenthal, J., Johanson, J. and Johanson, M., 2015. Network knowledge and business-
relationship value in the foreign market. In Knowledge, Networks and Power (pp. 187-224).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Hong, Y. and Pavlou, P.A., 2017. On buyer selection of service providers in online
outsourcing platforms for IT services. Information Systems Research, 28(3), pp.547-562.
Kannan, R. and Tyagi, S., 2013. Use of language in advertisements. English for specific
purposes world, 13(37), pp.1-10.
Mu, J., Thomas, E., Peng, G. and Di Benedetto, A., 2017. Strategic orientation and new
product development performance: The role of networking capability and networking
ability. Industrial Marketing Management, 64, pp.187-201.