Tag: Accents

Are you an extension of your customer’s team?

Account and territory changes often happen. Business leaders want salespeople that can speak their language and challenge them to be great.

Account and territory changes often happen, especially around this time of the year. While its important to ensure a smooth transition, I’ve also found it useful to be intentional about understanding what made the relationship flourish.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

A couple of years ago, while transitioning one of my top accounts to a new account team, I emailed my executive contact informing him of the news. In the note, I thanked him for a great partnership over the years and asked if we could stay in touch.

He could have replied with one or two words like most busy executives do.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he took his time to pen a thoughtful reply. In the note, he was full of gratitude for all the milestones we reached together. He ended his message by saying, “Thanks for being an extension of my team.”

In a follow-up telephone conversation, he made a comment that stood out to me:

“You and your team spoke our language.”

As an immigrant from Nigeria, one of the small joys I experience is meeting a fellow Nigerian that speaks Igbo. Our fake American accents immediately vanish from our lips as we hail each other.

Seeing us from afar, you’d think we grew up in the same household. What makes it easy to open up to each other is the shared dialect weaving an invisible chord between us.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

The same feeling is evident among business leaders when they meet sales professionals who understand their business so well that it seems like they both speak the same language. They become more forthcoming with their challenges, aspirations, and objectives because the salesperson can empathize with their view of the world and is equipped with the depth of knowledge to be a true partner.

Learning to speak a customer’s language isn’t a one-time event like cramming the night before a big exam. Instead, it’s a continuous, round-the-clock process.

Some of my go-to resources are the company’s website, press releases, industry publications, earnings transcripts, annual statements, letters to shareholders, interviews (print and digital), social media posts, news articles, user conferences, conference & keynote presentations, competitor’s press releases, analyst reports, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube channel, google alerts, research papers, books, business publications, experts within your company…it’s nonstop.

An additional resource to learn how to speak a customer’s language is by speaking directly to my customer’s customer. I also enjoy reading product and software reviews. If you sell to software companies, a great resource is G2 reviews.

Photo by Ozii Obiyo

Executives also want humble yet bold salespeople who will tell them when they are heading in the wrong direction. My executive contact shared that whenever his department was having a problem, it felt natural to reach out to my team.

He didn’t expect us always to have the answers, but he valued our ability to ask the right questions and infuse a refreshing outlook that would eventually get them unstuck.

The ability to ask relevant questions comes from years of exposure to various customer challenges and solutions. This constant exposure creates an arsenal of decision-making and problem-solving frameworks.

Forward-thinking business leaders crave this knowledge from salespeople, and smart salespeople proactively share this knowledge with business leaders.

Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash

An example of all these coming together was when I wore my customer’s branded T-shirt while traveling from Seattle to San Francisco for a meeting. While at the airport, my customer’s client approached me and struck up a conversation. This individual shared some constructive feedback on my customer’s product and suggested a few feature requests to address his company’s specific requirements.

In my meeting later that day, I kicked it off by saying,

“I had a conversation with one of your clients who offered a few ideas on how to make things easier for him….” 

This led to a productive and collaborative meeting.  

In 2021, I hope you make it a goal to be an extension of your customer’s team by learning to speak their language and hailing them to success.

Photo by Matthew Brodeur on Unsplash

Action steps:

#1 — Invest the time required for a smooth account transition and be intentional about finding out the true temperature of each executive relationship. Not only would this help jumpstart the new account team, it’ll also be learning to take to a new account and territory.

#2 — Learn to speak your customer’s language by taking small steps everyday. It can be as easy as setting up Google alerts for specific keywords related to the company, industry, executive team, and competitors. Reviewing these alerts at least twice a week will keep you updated on relevant news about your customer.

#3 — Ask for your customer’s branded T-shirt and wear it with pride.

Godspeed selling!

My 5 Favorite South African Expressions

When you fully immerse yourself into a new environment, you are bound to discover interesting nuances that are unique to that environment. This can range from the way the people greet each other, to their languages, accents, handshakes, favorite music, dance moves, idea of a good time, and many more. I always advise folks to keep an open mind as that decision alone can be the difference between having a very memorable story to tell over drinks or a story you’d rather bury under drinks. Please drink responsibly.

Ever since my move to South Africa, I’ve grown very fond of a few expressions. These are my top 5 expressions because not only are they fun to say, they also make me feel like a local, effortlessly.

  1. “Howzit?” pronounced: [houz zit]. This is the American equivalent of “How are you doing?” or “How are you?” or “What’s up?” It is a form of casual greeting that can be used for both your peers and seniors. It is acceptable in the workplace (I use it a lot in my office). The key to pronouncing the word is in the “z”, you have to stress the “z”. It is almost like saying “Howzzzit”. On your next trip to South Africa, when you walk up to the gentleman or lady checking your Passport/Visa, just say “Howzit?” before you hand them your documents and watch their face glow with a smile as they automatically welcome you as one of their own. I did this when I was returning to Johannesburg from my business trip in Nairobi, and it works!

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  1. “Sharp” pronounced [shahrp]. This is the typical response to the Howzit question above. The jury is still out on how many “Sharps” are appropriate which means you have freedom on how many you want to share…depending on your mood and how much free time you think you have. Just keep in mind though that it could get annoying if you over use it. Let’s just say I learned the hard way. I’ve heard people say “Sharp” twice and I’ve heard it said four times. It can also be used to as a form of acknowledgement for directions, compliments, or suggestions. The other instance I’ve heard it been used is at the end of a phone conversation. The person on the other line will usually say “Sharp” as they wrap up the conversation. One of my relatives, UD, who lives in South Africa uses “Sharp” the best. He has a unique way of saying it that is quite intriguing. Although he says it once, it still takes about the same amount of time as someone saying “Sharp” twice. He does it in a manner that is deliberate, calculated, and synced to a rhythm. The length of time he takes is always the same. It is as if he purposely drags out the “a” which makes it sound like “Shaaaarp”.

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  1. “Izit?” pronounced [Iz zit] On one hand this is used to casually seek confirmation rhetorically in a conversation. On the other hand, it can be used to express disbelief. Your pronunciation and tone of voice determines which category it falls under. When two South Africa locals are talking, this expression comes up a lot. The funny thing about this expression is that when I first heard it being used in a conversation I was part of, I thought I wasn’t being clear enough or they were struggling to understand my Nigerian-American accent. Being the clueless foreigner, I interrupted myself to clarify what I had just said, then continued on. After a few more occurrences and self-imposed interruptions, my response became “It is” with a smile as I continued on. My colleagues found this response funny. They say “Izit?” subconsciously that it took me pointing it out before they noticed they used it so often. The running joke in the office became responding with “It is” after anyone said “Izit?”. I remember when Jenn visited me in South Africa, I purposely used this during our conversation which threw her off, as expected. She did the exact same thing as me and paused to clarify. I laughed inside as she continued. Then I said it a couple more times again, and about the fourth or fifth time, she responded with “It is”. #greatmindsthinkalike

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  1. “Shaaame” pronounced [sheeeymm]. This requires a bit of art to pull off as it is very contextual. It can be both positive and negative. When you feel sad for someone you say “Shaaame”; when you see a cute puppy you say “Shaaame”. I hope you are as confused as me.

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  1. “Robots” pronounced [roh-bots]. This is the equivalent of “Traffic lights” for Americans. I first heard this when I was hanging out with UD. We were driving and he kept saying how the “Robots” didn’t seem to like him today of all days that he was in a hurry. I kept looking around to see where the so-called “Robots” were but couldn’t find any (lol). I didn’t want to ask since he assumed I knew what he was referring to. Nonetheless, my curiosity kept tugging at me. So when he said it the third time, I then realized he was referring to what I knew as traffic lights. I decided to validate my intuition with him, and he confirmed I was right. We both laughed for a few minutes as I wrapped my head around the concept of traffic lights as robots. I guess it does make some sense… or not. I will say this though, when you give directions via WhatsApp, it is much easier to type “Robot” than to type “Traffic light”. #justsaying

One thing is for sure, the world is so big and its people so unique, you owe it to yourself to get out there and spend some part of your life exploring and understanding both, at the same time if possible.

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Special thanks to the BTS Africa ladies for being glamorous and fun during this photo shoot.

If you have other favorite South African expressions, please share in the comments. Also, if you have other unique expressions from other countries that really stuck with you, please share as well.