Sales English: Why it belongs on your America GTM checklist if you’re a non-native startup
- Viktoria Fogl
- Oct 8
- 5 min read
If you sell to American buyers from a non-native market, Sales English is part of go-to-market. Buyers want clear language, concrete value, and next steps that are easy to confirm.
Put it on the checklist.
Who this helps
Non-native founders and sales teams entering America in these top seven industries:
Pick your segment below and use the lines as a starting point.
What American buyers listen for
Short, plain sentences. Numbers tied to their metric. A next step that is simple to accept. That is the frame for every example that follows.
Segment playbooks with usable lines before you find your own
SaaS and DevTools
Discovery
"Walk me through your current deployment flow. Where do you wait, rework, or roll back?”
Value
“Your team spends about six hours a week on manual reviews. With us that drops to two. That returns sixteen hours per month per engineer.”
Objection
“Comparing us with Tool X makes sense. Tool X does not remove manual review Y. We remove it. Want to see that on one recent release?”
Next step
“Send one recent ticket. I will map the steps and highlight what disappears. We review it together tomorrow 2 PM ET.”
Logistics and Supply Chain
Discovery
“Show me the path from order to dock. Where do shipments sit, and who escalates first?”
Value
“You carry five days of buffer to cover misses. Our routing cuts misses so you carry four. That frees one day of inventory.”
Objection
“Price is tight. If we remove one manual check at receiving this week, the labor you save pays for this tier.”
Next step
“Pick one lane with late arrival risk. We run our route plan for the next two cycles and you compare on time and exception count.”
Manufacturing and Hardware
Discovery
“How do you track defects from station to station, and who owns the handoff when it fails?”
Value
“You lose about two percent of batches to rework. With the new check at station three, that drops near one percent. That is immediate scrap reduction.”
Objection
“Keeping the current sheet feels safer. Let us add one inline check without removing your sheet. If it adds noise, we pull it.”
Next step
“Set the line for part A only. We measure first pass yield for three days and you decide if it stays.”
Professional Services and Agencies
Discovery
“Walk me through onboarding a new client. Where do approvals stall and who nudges whom?”
Value
“You send three back-and-forth emails to confirm scope. With the intake form and signoff, that becomes one message. Time to kickoff drops by two days.”
Objection
“We can live with slow starts. Slow starts cost you referrals. Clean handoffs raise your NPS, which raises inbound.”
Next step“
"Give me one new client. I will rewrite the intake and the kickoff summary and you test it this week.”
HealthTech and MedTech
Discovery
“How do you log patient data today and where do errors appear first?”
Value
“You spend fifteen minutes per patient reconciling fields. The structured capture reduces that to nine. That is six minutes per patient back to care.”
Objection
“Compliance risk is real. We will only change fields you approve and keep your current export. Nothing else moves.”
Next step
“Choose one clinic and one form. We run both versions for two days and compare error rate and time per entry.”
FinTech and Payments
Discovery
“Tell me how you review flagged transactions. What is the slowest handoff in that path?”
Value
“You clear about 70 percent of flags in the first hour. With our rule change, you clear 80 percent. That reduces holds and support tickets.”
Objection
“Vendor risk is the blocker. We will not touch production. We run a shadow review on yesterday’s file and you compare outcomes.”
Next step
“Send yesterday’s flagged set. I will return a side-by-side with reasons and deltas by 4 PM ET.”
E-commerce and Marketplaces
Discovery
“How do you recover abandoned carts today and who owns the final nudge?”
Value
“You recover three out of ten. With personalized reminder copy and timing, you reach four out of ten. That is a ten percent lift on monthly revenue from this channel.”
Objection
“We tried reminders before. You used generic copy. We tie messages to product and last action. Different result.”
Next step
“Choose one SKU set. We run the new copy for seven days and report lift against the holdout.”
Five Sales English moves that fit every segment
Open with process, not product.
Quantify one small win in the buyer’s units.
Name the risk you remove.
Make the ask easy and specific.
Summarize in one paragraph with goal, scope, metric, owner, date.
Tone, pace, and culture for America
Keep sentences short.
Drop fillers like actually, basically, maybe, kind of.
Say what you will do and when. “I will send the checklist at 2:00 PM.”
Confirm time zones. “All times Eastern.”
Be friendly and direct. “Does this make sense to you?” is enough.
A two-week practice plan for U.S. calls
Day 1 to 3
Record one discovery call per rep. Replace three vague lines with the discovery, value, and next step versions above. Practice out loud.
Day 4 to 6
Write five objection answers that end with a testable next step. Keep each under twenty seconds.
Day 7
Role play one real account. One manager plays the buyer. Keep a clock visible.
Day 8 to 10
Rewrite your standard follow-up email into one paragraph with goal, scope, metric, owner, date.
Day 11 to 14
Apply on two active deals. Track time from first call to confirmed next step. Aim to cut it by twenty percent.
Optional tool for playbooks
I keep scripts, objection answers, and checklists in Trainual so the team can grab the right line fast.
Affiliate note: I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
What to measure to track your progress
Time to next step after first call.
Clarity of recap emails sent within one hour.
Objection outcomes that convert to scheduled actions.
Talk to listen near fifty to fifty on discovery.
Deal notes with fewer vague words.
Book a free strategy session
Bring one live American opportunity. We will map the language and sales communication gaps, along with a practice plan your team can use this week.
