bamageorge
How important is it for you to speak more than one language in your current sales position?
61
I’m in Canada and speak both English and French so makes it very helpful as there’s a very good chunk of people who prefer to converse in French
That’s awesome! Love Canada!
Yeah, any country that is bilingual, makes it very useful!
100%
A bit of an outlier, but I speak 4 languages fluently. I work in language services, and it can be useful, but not at all influential on my success in sales directly. A good salesperson is a good salesperson. If you have your region and speak that language, you'll be golden. How it has helped me is go from 3 different regions and roles in the same company to an eventual director, level position.
To sum up: for sales it's nice to have but not at all crucial. For upper management/career growth, it can be a huge leg up!
Also, don't be fooled by Duolingo or any other apps. Learning a language should be done with a professional... ideally in that country. Also, not a plug, since I don't sell language courses anymore. But I have lived in 7 countries so far and have never met anyone who has learned a language through an app or website.
To sum up: for sales it's nice to have but not at all crucial. For upper management/career growth, it can be a huge leg up!
Also, don't be fooled by Duolingo or any other apps. Learning a language should be done with a professional... ideally in that country. Also, not a plug, since I don't sell language courses anymore. But I have lived in 7 countries so far and have never met anyone who has learned a language through an app or website.
That’s awesome! Great input? What languages do you speak?
English, German, Italian, and Spanish. What language are you considering learning?
Nice! English, Spanish and Italian… considering French.
So Rosetta is a complete waste!?!
I didn't like it, you'll find better courses (and cheaper) out there.
Just my opinion and experience, I have worked in language services for 7 years, my wife for 8. Still to this date don't know anyone who learned a language using something like Rosetta. That being said, the value is in being able to practice on demand and supplementing in person learning. Find someone local who is a native speaker of the language you want to speak and has some teaching experience or understanding. Local universities are the best place to start. You can offer to pay them directly to avoid footing the bill for language learning companies and the overhead.
Duo lingo knows what you did XD
Duolingo and Busuu are awesome. I got bored last year during quarantine so I learned French.
That makes total sense. I need to fund my guitar lessons first though :P
Have you used other language learning platforms or just those?
Do you actually speak French now? Genuinely impressed and curious, lol
C'est bien!
I find creepy Duoling's notifications haha
get a guitar xD
I do :3
Well, I have a guitar. It's more of a dust collector at this point.
haha It's a fancy background for zoom meetings
Oui, je parle français maintenant et je l'ai utilisé pour fermer quelques comptes de clients qui ont grandi à Paris.
C'est super!! La raison pour laquelle j'ai appris le français était à cause de mon diplôme en génie chimique. Bon à savoir mon ami.
wow, that really is an amazing life and work experience, know 4 languages also have lived and worked in 7 countries. I currently try to improve my English
ikr - monster
It wasn’t a requirement for me, but I have spoken to prospects in Spanish and once left a Voicemail in German. So it is used for sure!
Damn, German? Life’s too short to learn German 😂😅
Most German's speak English, but they do love it when you can speak to them in German!
It is, that's why I didn't finish, I only got to B1
This is true, they really like when you speak their
language even if they can speak English
Anyone will appreciate it no matter what!
Well, pretty sure you learned a thing or two.
I'd appreciate it!
Yes, and just trying to speak German makes them tip you heavily
Just a thing or two, still have a long way to go, and sadly I have no one to practice with, so I'm getting rusty.
Oh yeah! They do tip you, specially if you pronounce their
home town correctly!
Well, the pronunciation might be a challenge! haha so you definitely deserve the tip.
My Dutch dialect sounds German. So only the pronounciation is the only thing that was correct 😅
Pronunciation wasn’t as hard as I thought, it wasn’t perfect either, for me it was the grammar rules. Those are tough.
It’s a start!
hahahaha wow dutch and german?! I am genuinely impressed, Sir.
I hear ya... it's funny how whenever I hear someone speaking german the first thing that comes to my mind is ''why is this guy so upset?'' Turns out, it's only the pronunciation haha
hahahha yeah, it sounds scary if you don't understand it!
But don't call them gramma Nazis, it rubs them the wrong way for some reason.
Ik ken ook een beetje Nederlands! Hoe gaat het?
Damn how many languages do you know?
Not enough!
Noch wichtiger ist, dass deutsche Frauen gerne Deutsch hören.
Stimmt!
Kommt das aus Erfahrung oder spreche ich mit einer Deutschen Frau?
Hope that’s correct.
Hope that’s correct.
The statement does sound correct for sure!
Haha experience. American male, majority English descent.
Hahahaha just making sure xD
I wish I did, we've hired someone with no experience but speaks 4 languages...I speak one and a tad bit of Spanish but not enough to have a full conversation. Since they have joined we are now targeting the countries where the new colleague speaks the language...
Absolutely, Latin America is a huge market!
How is that going?
Well, she is only a week in, but was tasked with finding 100's of companies within her markets...which we thought was a training type of exercise. Turns out they are now going to reach into those markets (not knowing if the companies are good or not).
Curious to hear how this plays out! Maybe post about it in a few months :)
Sure thing!
The Spanish-speaking population in the US alone has the estimated equivalent GDP of a medium-sized European country such as Italy!
Yeah! For example, south Florida (aka the Capital of Latin America) is a huge market and you MUST speak Spanish if you want to increase your odds, whether you’re working in real estate or just sales.
Very because I'm in a Spanish speaking country and we do sales in the States. hahahahahahahah
lol! It's hard to pretend that you shouldn't learn Spanish in the States either. I'm conversational but not nearly good enough to sell in Spanish yet. Only English French and German for now.
Only!!?!?!?! If I only had at least one more language in under my belt, I'll be shooting for Finnish for the time being.
Well one of my friends is an attorney from Switzerland and one of his neighbors works at the Swiss embassy and they speak English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Crazy Euros.
I know right!?!?! But I totally understand, especially in Switzerland having all those major economies around it. The same goes with Belgium, I have a buddy from there who speaks French, Flemish, German, English, and Danish and he was like 16 at the time...
If you're in Europe it's a clear advantage being bilingual imo. Especially in the start up scene as you can hire one person to cover several markets (score). Even when I hire for just English speaking roles I still prefer if the candidate speaks another language as well as it gives me possibility to move this person around in the future. Not a deal breaker but it's a gold star sticker on the cv.
I tried getting a visa but didn't know German at the time so a lot of French places near the border didn't want to hear it from me since they are near German and Belgium who speak German.
I’m in Canada and speak both English and French so makes it very helpful as there’s a very good chunk of people who prefer to converse in French
It wasn’t a requirement for me, but I have spoken to prospects in Spanish and once left a Voicemail in German. So it is used for sure!
Not important here
Where do you live?
Ragnar is probably in Norway, although he could also be from Sweden 😝
haha that was funny.
Speaking Spanish has helped a couple of my friends. Otherwise, out of the US, it hasn't mattered.
Interesting.
Not important for me
That's great!
Not needed, thankfully. Otherwise, I’d be screwed I suppose. Or, I guess it would force me to do something productive!
Yeah, learning new languages is hard.
I took Spanish back in high school but couldn't tell you one thing from it. Probably because my neighbor spoke Spanish and did all my coursework - whoops!
hahaha sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Not at all. But some of my prospects are French and it gives me a leg up when I leave French voicemails. I’ve won an account or two doing the same in German.
Wow! that's nice!
One of my friends was trying to sell something to a Polish bank, he happened to be Polish so after weeks of leaving them unanswered voicemails in English he left one in Polish and they called him back within three hours.
Fluent in 2. English. (Quebecois) French. Conversational in Spanish, couldn't write it to save my life.
Very important in role and even better in networking.
Very important in role and even better in networking.
Literally same lol English, quebecois/French and Spanish. However, I’ve only been speaking English in my current sales role.
I speak enough french to say I'd prefer to speak in English. That kinda helps when speaking to people in Montreal.
Is the french is Montreal different from the one they speak in France? (I apologize for the dumb question)
Sort of! It's like how Mexican Spanish and Spanish Spanish are different as well as American English and English English.
Not necessary at all. We have other markets we play in with salespeople who speak the native tongue there.
That's awesome!
Speaking Spanish has helped a couple of my friends. Otherwise, out of the US, it hasn't mattered.
Very because I'm in a Spanish speaking country and we do sales in the States.
Also, don't be fooled by Duolingo or any other apps. Learning a language should be done with a professional... ideally in that country.
In my case is extremely important, I work with people in Mexico and Colombia.
Belgium is a trilingual country (Dutch, French, German). I sold in Dutch English and French in the past although my french is not good enough to really have deep conversations.
Any real need for German?
No it’s an extremely small part of Belgium. Around 100k people. But still it’s an official language
Being British and speaking a second language makes me quite unique, especially in sales.
It doesn't actually help me in my current role, but has helped in the past
It doesn't actually help me in my current role, but has helped in the past
I'm fluent in 2 and have working proficiency in. a 3rd one. I just use them to talk in the native language with others or light up their day, that's it. They're more useful for personal development (keep learning), and to understand other cultures - that's it
it's situational - especially when it comes to career path. Same as @Sgt_Trollingham, I speak 3 languages but sales are sales at the end.
French was important in my previous role, thankfully my territory is now NC USA so I'm good being monolingual.
I covered Canada in my previous position. Was personally frustrating without an understanding of the French language. Recently passed up an opportunity for a role where the territory was focused in Canada as well. Sticking to my first language.
I live in Canada and the only time I encounter French speakers is in Quebec (where my company does no business due to totally different regulations) and in some of the Maritime provinces, but it's rare. Hardly anyone speaks French in the Western provinces and if they do they also speak English. Curious where you were calling.
I covered the whole country as a BDR but the new position was Ontario/Quebec. Also avoided it because of the reason you gave above as it’s where things tend to be a little different.
Ah that's fair. Tough to get by in QC without French.
It would be very helpful- something im working on.
US here. Not too much but a hotly requested feature is to have a Spanish translation of our platform and lately some French.
SO important - I cover the Middle East and North Africa so using English, Arabic and French on a daily basis
Wow, pretty awesome! so you speak english, arabic and french?
Yes I do !
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