By the time the coffee arrived, you’d been introduced to two people who weren’t on the original invite, the conversation had moved well off the agenda, and nobody in the room seemed to mind.
You left thinking: this one’s going somewhere.
Three weeks later, you’re still waiting for the contract.
The situation
They genuinely liked you. The warmth was real.
But in LatAm professional culture, liking someone is the beginning of a longer process. Trust in Loop logic builds through time and repeated contact. A good first meeting signals you might be worth investing in. It opens a door. Walking through it takes more: another meeting, a meal where the only agenda is the relationship.
On your side, the warm meeting crossed a threshold. Relationship established. Clear to proceed.
You sent the follow-up email. With deliverables. And a timeline.
Your British counterpart did his homework. He knew Latin Americans build trust over the table, not just across it, so instead of squeezing in a second meeting before your flight home, he cleared two hours for lunch. No slides, no agenda, just food and conversation.
You talked about your kids, his weekend rugby, the flight in. He laughed at your jokes and asked good follow-up questions. Two hour...
I built the Slot System™ first. The harder question was what shape the other side would take.
I kept coming back to something small: the difference between my Oyster card in London and my SUBE card back when I lived in Buenos Aires.
Back then, topping up a SUBE was never a sure thing. You never knew which machine would work, or where. So, I'd take a longer route to the train station, one with a...
A Mexican corporate affairs manager spends the weekend before a big London pitch working through a business masterclass online. Lesson four says that holding eye contact is the single biggest signal of trust one can send.
He walks into the meeting and does exactly that. Steady gaze, no breaking away, right through the whole pitch.
Twenty minutes in, his British counterpart has shifted in his se...
THE BRITISH-LATAM FRICTION SCORECARD™
Find out exactly where your friction is.
A personalised read of where your British-LatAm friction actually lives. The kind of specific information that changes how you walk into your next meeting. Used by British and LatAm professionals. Takes 4 minutes.
