Good English isn’t enough
Updated: 24 hours ago
The harder challenge for European B2B companies is making their value resonate with American business audiences.
The company had established itself as a leader in its field in France. Now was the time to bring its offering to the US and address pain points it knew how to solve. But reaching US prospects meant understanding how to speak to an audience that often wants to see the value a company can deliver before hearing its history.
Could a brand’s success in France appeal to a competitive US market?
A message that did not travel
Taking an established brand into the US meant having a team versed in the US way of doing business and how to speak to B2B audiences. It wasn’t so much about nailing perfect English; the work required a shift in internal mindset.
The challenge was closing the gap between what the company wanted to say and what its US prospects needed to hear. The risk was that the brand message would not travel well across the Atlantic.
Adapting the message also meant revisiting the brand and its messaging so they could continue to appeal to French audiences while also addressing the concerns of a complex US B2B marketplace.
Good English is only part of the answer
When French clients come to me to fix their external English communications, the work often means solving a much larger challenge: how to tailor their brand messaging to appeal to the US marketplace.
US buyers may move quickly and look for suppliers able to address their immediate needs. That means B2B communications must be sharp, on target, and to the point. That can be challenging for a company accustomed to a more methodical approach. In my view, French prospects may spend more time getting to know a company, its history and track record before assessing what its offering can deliver.
Addressing that difference often means making major brand messaging choices—something established French global entities, start-ups, and scale-ups all face as they expand.
While writing deliverables is the entry point to my work with clients, I also take careful steps to help them see that polished English will not make a brand message relevant to its intended US audiences.
For one French start-up, this has meant showing the client examples of how direct competitors communicate with US audiences. Seeing those examples helped the client understand how its brand messaging would need to adapt to reach the US audiences it needs to scale its business in North America.
The same challenge comes up in thought leadership. Rather than leading with the company, these communications need to address US business audiences' concerns and show how the company’s offering responds to them. That, too, goes beyond good English.
What a prospect needs to hear first
My work often means convincing clients that their US prospects shouldn’t have to wade through a long company explanation before seeing why the product or service matters.
This means helping clients identify the customer pain points the company can address and the benefits it can offer at the start of a project. The opening needs to be concise enough to give the audience a reason to keep listening. Take the client example I mentioned earlier: the company had a well-established brand in France and an impressive customer roster, but its branding leaned partly on a historical French figure unknown to US audiences.
When history and numbers are not the hook
While placing too much emphasis on company history can backfire, an impressive list of numbers can have the same limitation. Numbers alone don’t automatically build trust or open doors to new markets. Though meaningful in a company’s home country, they may not show a new US prospect how the company could solve a business problem.
When working with a client targeting the US market, the starting point is always this question: Will their brand messaging resonate with the audiences they are trying to reach?
For one project, answering that question meant interviewing key stakeholders to determine how their technology matched the needs of potential US clients, then using that knowledge to develop a new, results-based messaging strategy. The interviews also helped identify where their products and services could stand apart from their closest US competitors.
Put the customer’s value before the company’s credentials
Putting customers’ priorities first shapes everything from the home page headline and About page to the sales deck. Once the brand messaging is firmed up, it gives the sales team a stronger foundation for pitching the company to US prospects in a way that speaks to their needs.
This often means leading with the customer’s pain point, the company’s solution, and the benefit in concise language, with its history, scale, and supporting numbers as evidence. For one client, it meant rebuilding the website’s architecture to align with the buyer’s logic: pain point, solution, benefit, and then supporting evidence.
Adapt the context, not just the words
Today, even in a global economy, cultural nuances still require careful consideration. Familiar references, assumptions, and ways of establishing credibility do not necessarily carry the same meaning across markets.
A company entering the US market may need to explain or reorder parts of its story that already make sense to its French audience. And this holds equally true in the B2B space.
For example, a French-market home page may focus on the company’s history. That approach may fall flat in the US, where prospects may be more focused on the immediate future and their own priorities.
Make the value clear, then support it
Good English still matters, but clear, correct English does not automatically make a message effective. A US audience may understand the English and still wonder why the company matters to them.
When entering a new market, begin with the customer’s problem and the benefit your company can deliver. Then use the history, scale, and credentials to reinforce the case. It takes more than translating the words; it means adapting the message.