The best salespeople are bilingual.

How well would you fit in if you were moving to a country with a native language you don’t speak? You can hire translators or ask them politely if they speak English, but you will always be seen as an outsider. You will eventually have to learn the local language and customs to thrive there.

The same is true for salespeople. Most salespeople are very good at discussing and focusing on the technical features of what they sell. Still, they cannot impactfully discuss the financial benefits of their solutions. Think of the executive boardroom of a customer’s organization; they could be seen speaking a different language with different customs. To fit in, you will need to speak their language as natively as they do, or you will be seen as an outsider.

They may not even care what your product is; they care about what it does for them from a financial standpoint. Why should we buy from you when we may use our capital to buy something else entirely? We must demonstrate the financial reasons why someone would want to buy our solution or risk losing business.

Executives want to understand how what they are selling will provide the highest return or quickest payback relative to other projects or needs they may be considering. Have you ever lost business not to a direct competitor but to a customer who decided to put your project off or do something else? Having a firm grasp on how to understand and explain the financial benefits of what you are selling is the first step to overcoming these challenges.