Manners and Behaviors in Business Environment

The most important thing that foreign people ask themselves about business meetings when coming to Chile is: How should I behave in a formal situation? What should I do? What should I say?  As we all know, each country has its certain rules and etiquette that people should know in order to make the communication effective. If you want to learn more about these conventions, keep reading.

First, you need to understand how to behave during an appointment. As a recommendation, do not panic if you arrive and the person is not there. It is part of Chilean culture to keep people waiting for a while but, if the person is important, you cannot let them waiting for you. However, you can apply this only in a national company because in Chile there is a wide range of international enterprises and you should adjust yourself to the company cultural manner, for example, if there is a German company in Chile, you should take into account the German cultural backgroung.

After the greeting it is not recommended to go straight to the topic. Chilean business people like to have a polite conversation before about general matters topics such as family and Chile itself for example, and then you can address the main topic of the meeting. As an advice, it would be good for you to do a little research about Chile, so that you can talk about topics as wine, mining and activities that characterize the country during the conversation.

Lastly, but equally important, is dressing etiquette.  In business environments there are no formal rules of how you should dress but it is recommended to dress formally because appearances are very important in our country.  Talking about clothing, while on the one hand, men should wear suit and soft colored ties, on the other hand, women should wear skirt or trousers.

Something that is very important as well is to know how business relationships work in Chile. You need to know that in our country Chile relationships and status are vital, in fact, sometimes it is difficult to get a job in a company if you do not know anyone who works there. In Chile we talk about “pitutos”, that is when someone who knows you talks to a superior and tries to create a connection between the boss chief and the person that wants the job; the people that create the connection are often relatives, friends, etc. So, if you want to come here it would be a good idea to start making connections and getting to know people.

By Vanessa Urra