Morrison, Terri & Wayne A. Conaway. Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: Sales and Marketing: The Essential Cultural Guide—from Presentations and Promotions to Communicating and Closing.

McGraw-Hill. Nov. 2011. c.288p. ISBN 9780071714044. pap. $20. BUS 

This latest in the “Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands” series is designed for sales and marketing people who frequently travel and do business with companies around the world. It covers countries on all seven continents, and individual country profiles cover such topics as population, median age, legal drinking age, descriptions of popular advertisements, the structure of the work week, how promptly one should arrive at meetings, what behaviors are considered polite and impolite, how much physical space to give another person, appropriate greetings and body language, good conversational icebreakers, when to give out business cards, the best ways to make a sale, and key language phrases and words. Readers are advised to arrive early for business meetings in Japan, to have business cards with Portuguese on one side and English on the other in Brazil, and never to show annoyance when someone is smoking nearby in Argentina—which along with Chile has the highest smoking rate in South America.  

VERDICT This resource is full of clear explanations and practical advice and will be appreciated by businesspeople preparing for a trip overseas and by students of business who anticipate travel in their futures. 

—Lucy T. Heckman, St. John’s Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
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