Why Sales and Marketing professionals need a language program tailored to work scenarios

Sales and Marketing professionals tend to be excellent communicators and the type of people who are used to having their language just flow. It’s what they do – on the phone making a sales call, coming up with the copy for their next marketing campaign, or inspiring a client to take their business to the next level. 

When Sales and Marketing professionals are struggling with language in a professional capacity, this can make them feel anything from frustrated and irritated, to experiencing a lack of confidence and imposter syndrome. 

It’s so important for Sales and Marketing professionals to learn the language that they are working in through tailored language programs that teach them how to use it in their jobs. Here’s why: 

They need professional proficiency as well as social proficiency

Sales and Marketing communication requires both social proficiency and professional proficiency. By that, we mean that a Sales and Marketing professional needs to be able to connect with people on an everyday, human level – understand their challenges, tell stories, and communicate what the company and product are about on a deeper level than just the technical stuff. 

But they also need to be able to communicate that technical stuff and they need to be able to communicate using industry terminology and professionally appropriate language. It’s a fine balance and most Sales + Marketing professionals who are proficient in a language won’t even notice that they’re doing it. 

When you’re learning a language, though, you notice it. You notice the clunkiness, or the frustration when you know how you would approach a conversation in your native language and you don’t know how in the language you’re learning. 

A language course that provides professional scenario settings tailored to the company and what the employee needs, ensures that they can become proficient in both. 

They need to understand the local culture to communicate

Getting that balance between professionalism and social connection depends on culture to a large extent. Take a sales call in Britain versus a sales call in Germany. Sales calls in Germany are typically more direct and to the point. Sales calls in Britain, on the other hand, can take more of a winding path to build a relationship. 

Taking that winding path in Germany on a sales call can confuse a potential client or customer, or lead to misunderstandings. A gently worded question in English, ‘I was wondering if you have had a chance to consider?’ just doesn’t translate easily linguistically or culturally. 

It’s important when offering language classes or courses in a company, to ensure that those classes are designed to help people understand the social culture in a professional environment – when it’s appropriate to make a joke, how to wrap up a meeting. This goes a long way to avoiding anxiousness and embarrassment for everyone, especially your employees. 

Professionally tailored language programs build confidence in their work ability

So much of Sales and Marketing, especially Sales, comes down to confidence. Pitching a new idea to a client requires enthusiasm, adeptness and agility with language. It’s usually something that Sales and Marketing professionals get very good at as they progress their career. 

Not being able to use this ability because of a language barrier can be immensely frustrating for these employees. They feel held back from using a skill that they often have a natural aptitude for. This can often affect their confidence in the work that they do and lead to things like imposter syndrome. 

How professionally tailored language programs overcome this is by taking a situational based training approach and encouraging a safe culture to practice without the dreaded imposter syndrome coming in. This helps employees overcome the mental barriers that come with learning a language and get their confidence back to help them to succeed. 

We talked to one Marketing professional who went through Barlingua Plus who communicates what happens when a language barrier comes up professionally: 

“As someone who has based their whole life on being able to communicate really well – both socially and professionally – I struggled a lot moving to Germany and having to pick up a foreign language. I felt like there were a million opportunities that I was missing. Or, social insights that I couldn’t pick up on that I should have applied to my work. It made me sometimes doubt whether I was actually good at my job. Learning German in a way that applied to my work was like the clouds parting. I could actually feel proficient at my job again and seeing how impressed clients are when I deliver something in German is a real boost.”  

They need specific language skills to nail a Sales or Marketing pitch

There’s always a lot of emphasis put on pitching in the workplace. It’s often a make or break moment for getting potential clients, convincing investors to back a project, and showing what a company can really do. 

Employees need to be equipped with the skills to pitch in a foreign language. That means knowing how to tell a good customer story and using the right language to simplify a complex concept. 

It also means knowing how to be really compelling and how to use things like pause, inflection and emphasis to really capture potential clients. Which, of course, means understanding culture as we mentioned above. 

Language accuracy is crucial for brand reputation

We live in a time where people expect brands to produce credibly and accurately all the time. As far as many customers or clients are concerned, there is very little margin for error. Even things like spelling and grammar mistakes on a social media post can turn customers off or create a negative impression in an email.

The good thing is that, with the right language class that helps teach accuracy, your business will be more efficient in the long run. We find that companies cut down their processes when their employees start to become proficient in their new language. What they produce requires less triple-checking and fewer people involved to ensure verbal and written translations happen accurately. 

It’s always good for the bottom line and really helps to justify the return on investment for learning a language through work. 

Tailored classes are an excellent retention strategy

As we mentioned above, employees feel that they are missing opportunities for career growth when they don’t know a language that they need to. Particularly in millennial and Gen Z employees, this creates a real drive to get on top of the language. 

A company that offers a meaningful language course, tailored to these employees, is a very attractive offer for top talent – and sets companies aside from ones who provide language classes as a tick box exercise. Combined with vertical growth opportunities, it shows potential employees that your business is serious about helping create a pathway for their career success. 

As a company, you’re trying to implement ways to help your employees feel great, do a fantastic job – and get attracted to work at your company in the first place, of course. Really thinking about how language classes can help with your HR strategy is a great way to achieve those goals. 

Most employees at your company who are trying to learn a new language are going to want to use it for work purposes. A language class, like Barlingua Plus, that doesn’t just cover the social stuff; that is completely tailored to a company and employee’s professional needs; will help your Sales and Marketing professionals become the excellent communicators they are in a brand new language. 

Arrange a meeting with us to find out more about how Barlingua Plus can help your Sales and Marketing team.