Selling in English When It Isn’t Your Mother Tongue

Learn about the one key skill that will help you handle sales conversations smoothly, even when they take unexpected turns.

Pitching and closing deals isn’t easy in your own language. Doing it smoothly in English is even harder. And when the person in front of you, or on the other line, is a native speaker, it may feel truly intimidating.

"It was exhausting!" That's what a European entrepreneur recently told me when I asked about her experience pitching potential U.S. customers on her product. Why is it so challenging? Let’s look at the hurdles international professionals face when selling in English.

Why Is Selling in English so Hard?

1.     Real-Time Translation Demand:

Unless you’ve been immersed in an English-speaking environment for some time, your brain works in your mother tongue. At the same time, what you hear and what you need to say is in English. That turns every conversation into a real-time translation exercise.

Apart from being exhausting, it takes all your focus and leaves little brain power for other things that matter in a conversation. One of them is tone.

2.     Finding the Right Tone: 

Tone is an essential rhetorical component. It helps create an atmosphere where your prospect feels comfortable to share their challenges, needs, and wishes – crucial information for you as a seller. The right tone is also important for negotiations. You want to be assertive without shutting the door on the deal.

Non-native speakers are often so preoccupied with finding the right words and sentence structures that they pay little attention to tone. There are also cultural differences that come into play.

3.     Making Mistakes:

We all see language as a representative of intellect. If someone speaks well, they must be smart. Muddling through, on the other hand, leaves a bad impression. What’s more, mistakes distract from the message. If you mispronounce a word, your listener will focus on that word and not on the message.

Mistakes also distract the speaker who makes them. When we notice our own mistakes, we become self-conscious, even embarrassed. That disrupts our flow.

4.     Running into Misunderstandings:

Inevitably, in conversations with native speakers, there will be idioms, slang, or cultural references you don’t understand. Discussions can take unexpected turns into unfamiliar terrain and lead to misunderstandings.

5.     Fighting Accent Bias: 

Studies show that listeners often rate statements less credible when they’re spoken with a foreign accent. There are two main reasons for that: First, your accent can trigger stereotypes that work against you. Second, accented speech is harder to process and understand. Statements are perceived as truer when they are easy to understand.

6.     Being Stuck in Your Own Culture: 

Even with strong English skills, you may lack the cultural insights needed to truly connect, build trust, and persuade. Persuasion doesn’t work the same way all over the world. There are cultural differences in how data must be presented so we find it convincing. For example, what role does storytelling play and how can you craft stories that help you build trust.

What’s more, non-native speakers often feel inauthentic or “fake” when they adjust their behavior, style, or tone to be more engaging. Their cultural upbringing is holding them back.

How Can You Get Better at Selling in English?

Improving your English skills is important, but it’s not enough to smoothly handle pitches and sales conversations. You need a more targeted approach.

An essential skill to develop is strategic anticipation: the ability to think ahead and prepare for what might happen. It consists of three stages.

The Three Stages of Strategic Anticipation:

1. Research: The research stage is about understanding your audience. Knowing who they are and how they think will help you anticipate how they’ll receive your message and what their likely reaction will be. Consider different scenarios, even unlikely ones: questions, requests, pushback, etc.

2. Preparation: This stage is all about getting ready for how you’ll react in these situations. What words and phrases can you use? How can you get the conversation back on track? How can you adapt to ensure your message lands. Take notes and create “cheat sheets”.

3. Practice: You need to practice so you can pull it off under pressure. Speak out loud and simulate real situations. Don’t just think, “If the client says A, I will respond with B.” Say B out loud so you get used to your own voice saying it. The better you internalize your responses, the more confident and natural you’ll be when it counts.

From time to time, we all find ourselves in unexpected situations, at a loss for words, and unsure how to react. I certainly do. But I also know from experience that proactive anticipation helps reduce how often that happens.

It’s not about making 100% predictions about the future. It’s about being better prepared for what may come your way. It can help you stay in control, handle surprises with confidence, and increase your chances of closing the deal!

One Last Thing: Get Honest Feedback!

For leaders, getting honest feedback can be difficult because few people want to say something critical to your face. Yet, this type of feedback is essential when you're preparing for high-stakes conversations. Get support from someone who's qualified and unafraid to challenge you.

For busy entrepreneurs and salespeople, coaching can be a highly efficient way to

• work through the scenarios,

• test your responses,

• refine your message, and

• get genuine, straightforward feedback.

It's what I do: I help entrepreneurs and teams communicate more confidently and skillfully in high-stakes situations — pitches, sales conversations, negotiations, and more.

Contact me for a free 20-minute consultation on how I can support you and your team!

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