Ring, ring, ring…Hello, how may I help you? Or maybe I should have said, ¿Hola, en que te puedo ayudar? American business owners have to start realizing that our Great American Melting Pot is growing each year and more and more minorities are an untapped sales resource due to the language barrier. If you can’t communicate with someone, how can you explain to them why or how your product will be beneficial?

Each and every year there are more and more Spanish speaking customers looking for guidance when it comes to the right products, the right price, and the right customer service that is necessary in any sales transaction. Typically you may lose a large Spanish speaking customer base just for the mere fact that your competitor can communicate and answer the most simple common question. Your quality may be better, your price may be lower… however if your customer is unable to understand the service you provide then they will move on to the competition quicker than you can say Adios!

As a former owner of a mortgage company I was lucky enough to have a staff filled with bi-lingual salesmen. What I started to notice was the Spanish customers who were calling in all had interest rates on their property much higher than what the going rates had been for the last 5 years. Nowadays getting a mortgage is not an easy task and requires several steps and lots of documentation in order to get your loan closed. We found that most Spanish customers were holding on to old high rate mortgages for the mere fact that they were scared that they may be taken advantage. All it took was having a few sales people who could give the customer the time they needed to answer and understand all of their questions about our products. My total sales that year doubled simply by word of mouth that we were the company to go to that offered Spanish customer service. Read the rest of this entry »