“We have to meet urgently.”
That was a text message that woke me on a Sunday morning, from a client whom we accompany on sales in a project in a foreign country. We arranged to meet that afternoon at a café in Tel Aviv, between two of my meetings.
“Listen, it turns out they are selling to Israelis who come to the sales office at the site,” he said right at the start of the meeting.
“As far as I remember, you were given exclusivity on sales in Israel and to Israelis,” I said. “We'll send them a letter, and at worst we'll sue,” I added.
I went back to the office in the evening and took out the agreement, and indeed the client has exclusivity. I called the client to try to understand what he knew, how he found out, and other questions that still needed clarification. The next morning I called the developer myself. He laughed out loud at my claims.
“They are not meeting their targets. I'm not selling in the building we allocated to them for marketing. I don't see the problem. They should be thanking me that I'm not cutting them off from the project altogether.”
The client and I quickly organized a trip to meet the developer face to face.
When we arrived in the evening, after a few drinks, the client and the developer withdrew to a side corner to talk. After about an hour they came back to the table where we were sitting with several other heads of the company and our client's local partner. The client looked pleased.
The next morning at breakfast he told me, “Forget it, forget everything, send me a bill for the trip and the hours, and let's move on.”
I was surprised, but I understood that they had reached understandings between them that cannot be put in writing, as is customary in the country where they operate. Sometimes it is hard for us Israelis to understand the way things are done in other countries. The culture and practice are unfamiliar to us, and they are an important component of business activity and conduct.
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית