Starting A Business Abroad: Listen To Your Clients’ Words

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Entrepreneurs
2 comments

Now that you’ve figured out what your clients’ needs are, here is another thing that you want to listen for: their words. You want to learn the exact words they use to describe their needs, their lifestyle, and their expectations.

Speaking your clients’ language is the quickest way to establish rapport with them. When you explain what you can do for them in their own words, they feel heard and understood. It’s a bit like a secret handshake: it shows that you’re “one of them” and that you get where they’re coming from.

As you can imagine, this process is even more vital if you’re going to be working in a language that isn’t your mother tongue. No matter how fluently you speak the local language, some small nuances or obscure cultural references are sure to elude you.

Rather than reinvent the wheel (at the risk of getting it wrong), let your clients’ words become your own.

You can easily tell when business owners fail to take the time to figure this out: they’re the ones who sound like they’re talking to themselves, using their own jargon, and forgetting that not everyone is an expert in their field.

What they have to say may be very interesting, but it’s not engaging. And if clients cannot relate, why would they buy?

What are the words and phrases that come back time and again when you listen to your clients? List them, and use them whenever you get a chance: make them your SEO keywords; put them in your website copy and your brochures; build your sales pitch around them.

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Emmanuelle

Images via Chris Blakely (top) and birdwatchr1 (bottom), via Flickr Creative Commons