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Bram Lagrou: You've just won the deal. It's a regional agreement with a multinational. The contract was negotiated with their Asia Pacific head office in Singapore. Everyone in the room was aligned. The regional director signed, and you celebrated. Six months later, you're looking at the rollout. Singapore is going well, but in Jakarta, things have stalled.
In Bangkok, the team keeps saying yes in meetings, and nothing changes.
In Ho Chi Minh City, nobody seems to know who's responsible. And when you ask your champion in Singapore what's going on, she says, "Leave it with me." Which three months later still hasn't fixed it.
What went wrong?
You won the signature, but you didn't win the region.
Today we're talking about Singapore as a regional gateway and why winning the regional head office is often only half the deal.
I'm Bram Lagrou, and this is The Commercial [00:01:00] Leader Podcast.
Bram Lagrou: Before we start, a quick thank you. Over the last few months, this show has been growing in some places I didn't expect. Germany, the United States, Japan, the UK, and Singapore, yes. So to everyone listening in Singapore and across Southeast Asia, welcome. This one's partly for you.
And it's also for commercial leaders anywhere who sells into or through Singapore, because many multinational companies run their Asia Pacific business from there. If you sell to large organizations in this part of the world, there's a good chance your buyer sits somewhere in Singapore. And that makes Singapore a gateway, not a destination.
And that changes also how you need to sell.
Here's a core concept. When you sell to a regional head office in Singapore, [00:02:00] the person signing your contract is often not the person who has to make it work.
They approve the deal, but the implementation happens in five or six other countries, each with its own country manager, its own team, its own way of doing things. So you might have one signature, but you have six markets to win.
And here's what makes it harder. Those six markets don't all think the same. They don't all communicate the same way, and they don't all decide the same way.
Let me walk you through five things I'd want every commercial leader to understand before they sell into the region.
The first thing to understand is the position your Singapore buyer is in. They're squeezed from two directions. Above them, there's usually a global head office, maybe in the United States, maybe in Europe, maybe in Japan. The head office sets targets, approves budgets, [00:03:00] and expects results.
Beside them, there are country managers. The people who actually run the business in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, or Philippines. Your Singapore buyer depends on them to deliver. So when you sell to the regional head office, you're not selling to one person. You're selling into a set of relationships.
Your buyer has to justify the decision upwards to global.
And they have to get it adopted sideways by the country teams. If you only prepare for the person right in front of you, you're missing two-thirds of the whole picture. So map both directions. Who does your buyer answer to above them? And who do they depend on to make this work alongside them?
The second thing, and this one catches out a lot of Western sellers. Singapore does business in English, yes. Your [00:04:00] meetings will be in English, yes. The contract will be in English, yes. And your emails will be in English. So it's very easy to assume that people will communicate the way they do in London, Sydney, or New York.
They often don't.
Shared language is not the same as shared communication style. In many Asian business cultures, communication is more indirect. The message is often in what isn't said, like in the pause or the tone, in who is or who isn't in the room.
So a yes might mean "I agree", but it might also mean "I hear you".
Or, "I understand what you're asking." Or even, "I don't wanna disagree with you in front of others." And a phrase like, "We will look into it," can sometimes be a very polite way of saying no.
If you take every word at face value, you'll [00:05:00] misread the deal. You'll forecast it as close when in fact it's stuck.
The third thing then, the hub doesn't like the spokes.
Singapore itself tends to be efficient, structured, and process-driven. Rules matter. Systems matter. Things are expected to run on time and to a high standard. Many of the markets Singapore managers work differently though. Several of them lean more on relationships, on personal trust, on hierarchy and respect for authority.
On taking time to get to know each other before doing business. So a pitch that lands beautifully in Singapore can fall completely flat in Jakarta or Bangkok, not because the product is wrong, because the approach is.
A few episodes ago, I talked about Erin Meyer's work in The Culture Map. Two of her lenses are really useful here. The [00:06:00] first is how people reason. Do they want the conclusion first or the reasoning behind it first?
The second is how people view authority. Is the boss a facilitator among equals, or does the rank carry real weight and do decisions need to be visibly owned by the most senior person? Across Southeast Asia, that second lens matters enormously. In more hierarchical cultures, who you speak to and in what order sends a message.
So going around a senior person, even by accident, can quietly damage the relationship. So don't build one regional pitch. Build one regional strategy with local versions.
The fourth thing then: face.
In many Asian cultures, preserving dignity in front of others matters a great deal for yourself and for the people around you. That means [00:07:00] people are often reluctant to disagree openly in a group, especially with someone more senior, especially with an outsider, and especially in front of their own team.
In Thailand, for example, there's a concept called kreng jai. Roughly, it's a deep consideration for others
A reluctance to impose, to cause discomfort, or to make someone lose face. It's a beautiful quality, I think. But if you don't understand it, you'll mistake polite silence for agreement. So here's a practical point. If you only ever ask for feedback in a group setting, you may never hear the real concerns.
Give people a private channel. A one-to-one conversation, a follow-up call, a chance to raise a concern without anyone else in the room. Ask open questions that make it safe to raise doubts. Instead of, "Are you happy with this?" [00:08:00] try, "What will make this easier for your team?" Or, "What concerns have you heard from your people?"
And the fifth thing: build for the slowest elevator.
If you listened to this show before, you'll know the brain elevator, It's a simple model of how people move towards a decision, and it's based in neuroscience.
Floor one is safety. "Is this person and this change a threat to me?"
Floor two then is trust. "Do I know you? Do I trust you?"
Floor three is logic. "Does this make sense? Do the numbers stack up?"
And you have to go up in order. You cannot skip a floor Now think about your regional deal. Your Singapore champion is on floor three. She's met you many times. She trusts you. She's evaluated the numbers, and she's ready to go.
But what about that country manager in Jakarta or [00:09:00] Bangkok? Many of them have never met you. To them, you're just a name in an email, a decision that's been made somewhere else, possibly a threat to how their team works right now. They're still on floor one, not because they're difficult, simply because nobody has taken the time to meet them.
And here's the key insight. Your deal moves at the pace of the slowest elevator, not the fastest one. The regional head can sign, but the rollout will only go as fast as the country manager you've never met.
So what about your champion in Singapore?
Remember her from the start of the episode. "Leave it with me," she said.
She meant it. She wanted to help, but she was being asked to sell your solution in five countries to people who report to her in some cases and not in others. On top of her day job. That's a lot of ask of one person. So [00:10:00] don't just rely on your champion. Equip her.
Give her a short summary she can share with each country in plain language, focused on what it means for their team, not just for the region. And ask her who the key people are in each market. Ask her also who is likely to be cautious. She'll know. Ask her how decisions really get made in each country.
Who needs to be consulted? Who needs to be seen to approve it? Whose nose might be put out of joint if they're not involved early on, and so on.
And ask her to introduce you personally. A warm introduction from a respected regional leader carries far more weight than a cold email from a supplier. Your champion opened the door. Your job is to make sure she's not the only one holding it open for you.
So how do you bring all of this together?
In Communication Mastery, we use DISC to understand individual communication styles. [00:11:00] Your D wants results, your I wants connection and vision, your S wants stability and reassurance, and your C wants accuracy and evidence.
DiSC tells you how to approach each person.
Culture tells you something different. It tells you through which channel, in which order, and with how much time.
You need both. Let me give you an example.
Imagine you're working with a regional director in Singapore. She's a classic D. Fast, direct, results-focused. Great. Give her the headline, the options, and the return, and she'll make the decision.
Now imagine the country manager in Jakarta who's an S. Steady, loyal, and careful about change, and he works in a culture where relationships and respect for seniority really matter. If you approach him the way you approached the regional director, who's fast, direct, and results first, by [00:12:00] email, it's going to feel like pressure from an outsider on a decision that was made without him.
So with him specifically, you slow down. You go in person if you can.
You let the regional director introduce you so the relationship is visibly endorsed from above. You spend time understanding his team. You talk about how you'll support him through the change, and you give him a private space to raise his concerns.
Same deal, same company, completely different approach.
That's the difference between selling to Singapore and winning over the whole region.
I've seen this from the inside too. Earlier in my career, I was a regional European sales manager for a Fortune 500 company. I ran a region of very different countries from one hub. From head office, it can be tempting to see a region as one market.
One plan, one rollout, and it isn't.
What works in one country [00:13:00] doesn't automatically work in the next. Each market has its own people, its own pace, and its own way of building trust. A decision made in one place still has to be earned country by country.
I learned the same lesson working across the DACH region. That's Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. On paper, it looks simple. Three neighboring countries, largely one shared language being German. Surely one approach would work across all three.
It doesn't.
They may share a language, but they don't share one business culture. Each country has its own expectations, its own way of building trust, and its own pace of decision-making. If you treat them all as one market, you'll quickly find out they're not.
And that's exactly the trap I described earlier with Singapore.
Shared language is not the same as shared communication style. Whether it's German across DACH or English across Southeast [00:14:00] Asia, the words being the same doesn't mean the meaning is.
So to my listeners in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, I suspect you know exactly what I mean here.
Europe and Southeast Asia are very different places, but the lesson is exactly the same. A regional signature is a permission to start. It's not the finish line.
Before we wrap up, one important caveat. Everything I've described today is about cultural tendencies, not rules. Singapore itself is highly multicultural. Your buyer might be Chinese Singaporean, Malay, Indian, or an expat from anywhere in the world, and every individual is different. So please don't stereotype anyone by the look of their passport.
Use culture as a starting hypothesis, then pay close attention to the actual person right in front of you. That's where DISC and Communication Mastery help. It brings you back to [00:15:00] the individual.
So here's what I would love you to do this week.
Take your largest multi-country deal or the one you're currently working on. List every person who has to make it work, not just the people who sign. I'm talking about every country manager, every local lead, everyone whose team will be affected.
Next to each name, mark one thing. Has someone from your team actually met this person? I'm not talking email, not copied on a proposal. Physically met them.
That gap is your real risk.
Then for every person you haven't met, make a plan. Ask your champion to introduce you to them. Visit if you can. Call if you can, preferably with a visual like Zoom or MS Teams, and give each of them a private space to tell you what they really think.
One signature, six markets, win all [00:16:00] six.
So if you're expanding across Asia Pacific or you're working on a regional deal right now, let's talk.
Book a free discovery call with me. The link's in the show notes. See you next time. My name is Bram.
