Roughly translated, this reads “Do you speak business?” in Italian.

For our honeymoon, my wife and I enjoyed ten wonderful days in Italy. We flew into Rome and then drove to Tuscany/Florence finally arriving in Venice.

While driving through Tuscany to Florence, we got turned around trying to find a particular tourist attraction. Finally, not wanting to accentuate my stubbornness to my new love, I did the unthinkable–yes, I stopped for directions. [gasp]

Further complicating my actions, which may very well have led to the loss of my “man card”, I speak about three words of Italian. Nonetheless, I sucked it up and walked into what I thought was a breakfast place.

The establishment turned out to be some sort of semi-private diner/club type thing. Super, I thought, I’ve stumbled onto some sort of criminal establishment fronting as a breakfast joint. I struggled to recall my wife’s grandmother’s maiden name (very Italian) figuring that might buy me some time and creditability in a tight situation.

But the folks turned out to be very friendly and empathetic to my situation. In my best Italian, I stammered something about anyone speaking English. Nope. Then all of a sudden, someone managed to communicate to me inquiring if I spoke any other languages. He asked about French, German (I think), and then finally Spanish.

Spanish! Yes, I speak a bit of Spanish! So there we were, in the heart of Italy. An American and an Italian speaking Spanish. Through some miracle, and pretty good directions, we found our way to the desired destination. I came off as the dashing (well…) hero and it made for a fun story to tell the folks back home.

How does this happy story relate to entrepreneurs? For business success, it is imperative you speak the language of your customers. If your client uses the terminology of general ledger or GL or MRLS (that’s a Multiple Rocket Launcher System…I did some work for the U.S. Army a while back) or widget-bar, then you darn well better learn what she’s talking about and jump on board.

When you speak the same language as the customer, they’ll be more disarmed and open to your proposals. Customers will think, “Hey, this guy really understands my business and how we operate. I think we can do business.”

In the technology world, we would refer to this as a Domain Specific Language or DSL. Wikipedia defines a DSL as a language “created specifically to solve problems in a particular domain”. We arrive at a common ground with our clients such that we communicate more effectively and more efficiently.

So, the next time you’re trying to win business from a prospect or forging a relationship with a business partner, extend yourself by recognizing, learning, and using the language of that business. You’ll form stronger relationships and experience far more success.

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