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Do you speak the universal language of business?

Written by: Todd Youngblood

Article Overview: Communication is one of the obvious cornerstones of a successful sales career. You need to speak the language of the country where you're doing business. You need to know and understand each industry's specific lingo. You need to have a solid grip on the unique dialect of executives with different functional responsibilities. You need to be particularly fluent in the one language common to every decision-making executive.

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Do you speak the universal language of business?

Of course it's important to speak Japanese in Japan, French in France and English in the U.S. Of course it's important to speak manufacturing to manufacturers, distribution to distributors and construction to builders. Of course it's important to use Engineering terminology with the Engineers, HR terminology with the Human Resources folks, and IT terminology with the computer crowd.

But wouldn't it be a lot easier for all of us if everybody just spoke the same language? Well, realistically, that will never happen, however...

...there is, in fact, a universal language of business. It's called "Finance." Think of it this way: Regardless of the customer's country of origin, SIC code, or job, every single one of them is in the money-making business!

Think about having value propositions along the lines of the following for every one of your proposals: "Investment in an ABC can give you a 79% ROI with a net present value of $140,000. You could pay for it in cash and break even in just over 2 years, or with the right financing, generate positive cash flow immediately." (Who cares what an ABC is? I want one!)

A short newsletter like this one can't cover all the detail you need, but it can get surprisingly close. Here are the key terms and concepts:

Do you have a spreadsheet installed on your PC? Can you read? (the spreadsheet "Help" files that is...) If the answer to both of these questions is, "Yes," you have everything required to achieve basic financial fluency in an hour or two.

Or is learning the universal language of business just too much trouble?

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Home > Sales > Todd Youngblood > Do you speak the universal language of business
Article Tags: abc, apples to apples, apples to apples comparison, country of origin, crowd, different times, human resources, initial investment, internal rate of return, language of business, li li, payback period, positive cash flow, present value, proposals, rate of return, single one, ul, universal language, value propositions

About the Author: Todd Youngblood
RSS for Todd's articles - Visit Todd's website

Todd Youngblood is passionate about sales productivity. His 30+ year career in Executive Management, Sales, Marketing and Consulting has focused on selling more, better, cheaper and faster. He began his career in 1976 as a Marketing Representative with the IBM Corporation and for fifteen years progressed through a wide variety of field and staff assignments. He then founded and operated an Information Technology Outsourcing firm providing Software Development and Maintenance Services. In 1994, he joined an electronic commerce firm serving the insurance and healthcare industries, as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He established The YPS Group, Inc. in 1999 based on his years of experience in Sales Process Engineering � that is, combining creativity and discipline in the design, implementation and use of work processes for highly effective sales teams. Todd has worked extensively with firms in the Distribution, Manufacturing, Insurance, Services, and Telecommunications industries. He is the author of two sales management books, The Dolphin And The Cow and Think About It� He is married, has two daughters, enjoys cycling, is a second degree black belt in Choi Kwang Do and serves on the board of the Cobb Symphony Orchestra.

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Related Forum Posts
Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? - Hi Rainmaker, So how many language can you speak? Kevin it is also good to be able to understand Cantonese even though you don't speak it well.
Re: Back in action... Re: Back in action... - Hi David, Welcome back and I hope all is well with the family back in the UK. Sound like you had a nice evening on your return now that you are back in the saddle. Do I assume that you speak Japanese or do all the guests try to speak in English? The reason I ask is that I have spent a lot of time in Europe in my life and to my shame I have never tried (well not seriously) to speak a second language. Apart from French at school (which I have since lost) I have become like a lot of English speaking people and become lazy. I fully intend if at all possible to spend at least part of the year in Spain when I retire as I have always been happy there. For that reason I have just started Spanish language lessons in the hope that when I do retire I will have advanced to a level where I am comfortable with it. That’s the plan anyway; I would love to hear from other mods if you have any other languages or interesting experiences when trying to learn a new one, regards, Mal.
Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? - Hey, Kev: I call myself Canadian ... but I can't speak French! :-[ My oldest granddaughter just started Play School (I think that's what they call it) and she is enrolled in the French Immersion class. That is great! I think it is valuable to be able to speak more than one language, and I think it also helps to stretch the mind and exercise the brain. GT :-]
Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? - I speak my native language Yoruba fluently and also Nigeria lingua franca which is English
Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? - [quote="TheRainmaker":3rw083qz]I'm a MUTT. Irish, German, English, American, Canadian I like to think it makes me a well rounded person!![/quote:3rw083qz] Hi Jude, Very impressive! Can you speak, read and write all of those languages very well? Or are you stronger in some than others? And how being multi-lingual translated into more business for you thus far? For instance, have you ever used a language other than English to close a deal?


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