How Being Multi-Lingual is a Competitive Advantage
Knowing more than one language is a key component of being successful in business. As a business owner, you must deal with people of all backgrounds, cultures, and languages. Whether you sell computer software or accounting services, it’s important to be able to converse with others freely. Let’s explore the importance of learning multiple languages or having employees fluent in different languages, and why this is beneficial to your business.
More Customers
Simply put, if you know more languages, you can communicate with more potential customers and land those accounts more readily. Crossing the language barrier is key in making long-lasting customer relationships. They feel more connected to you because you speak their language, and as a result, choose to do business with you over the competition, which may not offer them the same adaptability. Essentially, learning another language increases the size of your target market and boosts the chances of you making a sale. According to LinkedIn, there are 500 million Spanish speakers in the world and 50 million of those people live in the USA. If you want to reach that market, you have to adapt or miss the boat.
Attract Better Employees
Being bilingual or even trilingual is a competitive advantage for you when seeking out the best of the best to work for you. A candidate who has more than one language to his credit will stand out from the pile over someone who is monolingual. Those bilingual employees tend to be in higher demand in the business sector, from criminal justice and health care to education and construction. With the globalization of business getting stronger each year, your need for smart employees who can speak more than one language is rising exponentially.
Bond with Clients
You likely interact with colleagues from other companies looking to do business with you. How will you come off during that first business meeting or when you have to take them out to dinner? Don’t you want to sound knowledgeable and respectful of their native language by taking the time to learn how they speak? Sometimes conversing in their native tongue can mean the difference between closing the deal and not.
Better Communication within the Workplace
According to the Houston Chronicle, bilingual employees are more highly valued than employees who speak only one language, leading to higher pay and higher demand within the workplace. This may be due to the fact that multi-lingual employees are better able to communicate with co-workers, clients or vendors who speak other languages.
For these reasons and more, being bilingual or multi-lingual can be a game changer when it comes to business. Learn a second, third or fourth language with Bric Language Systems and get started today to expand your business success.