If the United States is the king of North American packaging machine consumption, then Brazil is the undisputed “South American giant.” The market here is vast, customers are enthusiastic, but it’s also full of unexpected challenges.
Today, I want to share an experience that happened in Brazil that still makes me feel extremely ashamed and helpless—how an order that was almost signed flew away right before my eyes.
First Exploration of Brazil: Warmth and Opportunity
On my first trip to Brazil, I mainly visited São Paulo and Curitiba. Before departing, I thought I’d see people playing soccer everywhere on the streets, but I didn’t see a single one. It’s like many foreigners thinking every Chinese person knows kung fu—an interesting stereotype.
O warmth of Brazilian customers left a deep impression on me. They’re very willing to communicate. Even if they temporarily have no plans to change suppliers, they’ll still receive you politely and explain their reasons. I even met an old customer who, seeing me walking alone on the road at night, would “angrily” scold me like a father: “You can tell me if you have difficulties, but you can’t walk on the road alone late at night. I’m your dad in Brazil!” That moment of being moved remains unforgettable to this day.
In this friendly atmosphere, I contacted a local packaging machine company. Boss C was a capable man in his 30s, and L, responsible for procurement, was an experienced gentleman in his 60s. After several visits to their booth at the exhibition, they finally agreed to let me visit their factory in Curitiba.
That visit went very smoothly. We had a pleasant conversation, and the client even treated us to authentic Brazilian barbecue. From the equipment in their factory, it was clear they had also been clients of our parent company in the past, but later switched to our main competitor. Mr. L frankly said they had an unpleasant experience with our parent company and felt they were “untrustworthy.” This laid the groundwork for our subsequent cooperation.
The opposite to our Brazilian customer’s factory.
Deal Finalized: From Joy to Thunderbolt
Two to three months after returning home, I received an email from Boss C. He told me he and his boss were preparing to come to China to inspect suppliers, and we were a key target of their visit. I suppressed my excitement and picked them up at Guangzhou airport.
This time, we were very well prepared. The customers saw the company’s strength with their own eyes and expressed great satisfaction. That day, they decided to place the first order with us. But the prerequisite was that they would pay part of the deposit in cash on-site, with the balance paid after the machines were produced.
This term was reasonable. I immediately consulted with my superiors and the finance department and received affirmative answers. However, the next day, the finance department suddenly changed its tune. They required me to take the customers to the bank and personally deposit the cash into the company account, citing concerns about “receiving counterfeit bills.”
This requirement was like pouring cold water on the customers’ heads. From the customer’s perspective, I felt a strong sense of distrust. I explained to finance that the customers had come from so far away and brought cash—this was the greatest sincerity. But finance insisted that as a listed company, accounts must be clear. What if we receive counterfeit bills, or what if the customer takes the receipt in a few days and says we received money but didn’t ship goods—who would take that responsibility?
Even more absurd, the bank’s foreign exchange counter had already closed at that time. Finance even suspected the customer “deliberately timed it to bring cash when the bank was closing to commit fraud.”On one side was the company repeatedly emphasizing “process” and “risk,” on the other side was a customer whose face was getting increasingly ugly. Caught in the middle, I explained everything but was powerless. Finally, Boss C angrily took back the stack of US dollars from the table, stood up, and left a statement that made me feel utterly ashamed:
“I flew 30+ hours and crossed 19,000 kilometers to meet you. Your boss never showed up from beginning to end, and now you’re going back and forth about whether to accept cash. You have no sincerity at all!”
Just like that, the customer left. That stack of US dollars sitting on the table became the greatest irony of my foreign trade career.
Review and Reflection: Who Killed This Deal?
Unsurprisingly, after that, no matter how much I tried to contact them, I never received a response again.
To this day, I’m still reflecting: Was I wrong?
Yes, I had problems. If I had been more decisive at the time, even if it meant putting up a personal guarantee that if the money was fake it would be deducted from my salary, this deal might have closed. I spent too much time arguing with rigid processes and forgot about the customer’s feelings.
But the deeper problem lies in company culture and management.
1.Bureaucracy and Lack of Respect: Except for a very few super-large clients, the boss refuses to meet anyone in person. This high-and-mighty attitude lacks the most basic respect for customers from the start.
2.Departmental Silos and Blame-Shifting: Everyone carefully protects their own “turf,” thinking not about how to make the company go further, but how to avoid taking responsibility. Finance pushes risk to sales, sales is caught in the middle, and ultimately what’s sacrificed is the customer and the order.
3.Absolute Risk Aversion: There’s never a 100% guaranteed profit in business. After already analyzing and inspecting the customer, why can’t we give the most basic trust? To avoid the “risk” of a few tens of thousands of RMB deposit, we paid the sunk cost of field visits and reception, as well as the huge cost of a potential long-term customer.
This story is a microcosm of many companies at that time. When internal processes take priority over customer experience, when the desire to avoid risk is stronger than the will to close deals, customer loss becomes inevitable.
- How do you view this “lost deal” incident? If you were me, how would you have handled it? In your company, does “process” or “customer” have the final say? Feel free to leave your insights in the comments.
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