Sales Fluency: Why Mastering Sales is Like Learning a Language

Language Learning Rewired My Sales Brain

A few weeks ago, I decided to brush the dust off my Portuguese.

But this time, I wanted to make sure I was learning the right way.

Has anyone else been through this process? You spend months learning vocab words, grammar, even reading and comprehending texts.

Only to get to the country and face a wall of incomprehensible language. Not to mention you sound like a Cro-Magnon.

So, to avoid this, I did what most people do: I researched. I read the articles. I watched the YouTube videos. I deep-dived peer reviewed language learning articles, anything I could get my hands on.

But as I was going deeper, something clicked:

Everything I was learning about how to acquire a language… mapped perfectly to mastering sales.

If there’s a science to becoming fluent in a new language—why not in persuasion?

And just like that, my approach to sales leveled up.

The Problem: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Get Fluent

Most salespeople are trying to “speak” sales…

But they’re not practicing to become fluent in it.

Like me, they learn lines, a script, some fancy word tracks, anything they can get their hands on.

And they begin to hoard and covet this information.

They rarely battle test these methods, or they test it once and if it doesn't work dismiss it immediately.

It’s like trying to order dinner in Spanish by reading the phrasebook on the way to the restaurant. Then you order the food, mess up, and swear off that phrasebook.

No immersion. No reps. No fluency.

That’s why the best reps don’t just “know the script”—they’re sales-fluent.

Sure they've studied the same techniques. In fact, they may know even less. However, they speak their language at all times, constantly honing the basics to a sharp point.

They can hear what’s not said. They can pivot in real-time. They can speak in a way that makes the prospect feel understood. It's not about grammar structures - they know that language is a breathing organism that you have to adapt to.

The Sales Fluency Framework: How to Train Like a Polyglot Closer

Here’s how learning a language mirrors becoming elite at sales:

1. Start with High-Frequency Vocab List

In Portuguese, I began with the most common words and grammar structures. It's said that if you learn the top 1,000 most common words, you can understand over 80% of the language. Sound like a lot? Compare that to the nigh on 100,000 words you probably know in your native language.

How does this correlate to sales?

It’s the top objections, questions, and phrases you use every day.

What's the typical conversation path? Do you hear people have the same concerns? Is there a pattern to the question people have after your pitch?

Find the pattern and make them tight.

You don’t need 5,000 techniques. You need just a few dozen rock-solid phrases delivered with certainty.

Start there.

2. Compare Yourself to the Native Speakers

Can two people have the same script, ask the same exact questions, and get vastly different results? In the same way two people can have the same understanding of a language, the answer is a resounding yes.

In language learning, you listen to native speakers and match their pronunciation. How does their voice flow differently? Do they modulate their volume?

In sales, you listen to the best closers—tone, cadence, phrasing.

Great salespeople can convey emotions simply with how they speak. They can encourage deeper reflection, curiosity, even uncertainty simply with their tonal and cadence. Find a top seller and see how they speak and mirror that in your own language. 

3. Get Over the Fear of Output

I am a huge proponent of speaking your language from the first day. Mostly because I hate doing it. It's embarrassing. But the best language speakers get over this and simply speak as soon as possible.

The result: They get over the stuttering hump at a lightning rate.

At some point in language learning, you have to speak. I don't care if you butcher the grammar. Even if your accent sucks, simply start speaking

In sales, most reps avoid rejection and tough objections—so they never get better. Fluency comes from doing it anyway.

If you're afraid of using something new, drill it to yourself in the mirror. From there, practice with a roleplaying partner. From there, it'll almost feel second nature when you use it in the wild.

Courage > perfection.

4. Track Patterns Like a Learner, Not a Performer

The most efficient language learners track their gaps: Which words do I always forget? Which tenses trip me up? They know exactly what language patterns are most used, the most common words, and they track their personal data intimately.

Salespeople completely neglect this step and simply guess. They feel like they're facing this objection often, but the data may tell a different story.

Begin tracking: What objections am I receiving? Am I skipping steps in my process? When am I losing prospects.

The best reps tag and track. They don’t review calls to feel good. They review them to get better.

How to Train Sales Fluency in 4 Weeks (A Learning Blueprint)

If I were to draft out a path to learning the art of persuasion and sales, here would be my 4 Week plan:

Week 1: 80/20 Rule

• Anticipate conversations: If you are in a role with existing salespeople, use one of their scripts as a base.

  • If no script is available, find a general script that you can follow - anything is better than nothing

• Familiarize yourself with the typical avatar, their typical problems, concerns, goals, etc. And lay out ways to handle them

  • Better yet, find someone who can handle these consistently and use their process

• Drill this process until it's second nature

• Begin practicing these common scenarios with a roleplaying partner

Week 2: Comprehensible Input

• Now that you know the typical patterns and know what to say, it's time to find "native speakers" you want to learn from

• Find full call recordings if possible and listen to them

  • To increase the effectiveness of this exercise, choose to focus on one element(tone, specific question in discovery, etc.)

• Mirror how they say that, how they deal with it, etc.

  • If you are taking calls, note how it differs from your current methods

• Continue to run through variable by variable until you can start listening out for multiple variables at once

Week 3: Practice Makes Perfect

• Nothing can replace the real deal - It's time to take to prospects.

  • As best as we do on roleplays, it's just not the same

• Begin applying everything you've learned in the last 2 weeks in the real world.

  • Preferably, focus on one variable at a time.

• Feel free to use this period as a test period - figure out where the focus is

  • You may naturally be good at the discovery but poor at the pitch - we'll flush it out here

• Gather as many data points as possible

Week 4: Rinse and Repeat

• From here, you should have:

  • A framework of the most common sales paths and their typical deviants

  • A listening library of comprehnesible input of the best closers you know

  • Real life data points to direct your learning path

• From here, simply analyze your data, see where the biggest gap is, and hone in on that one gap

• Fix that gap, move on to the next variable

  • Commence infinite looping to sales mastery

The Path to Fluency

Fluency is freedom. It opens a new world to you

In a new language, fluency lets you travel, connect, explore. To view the world from a new perspective.

In sales, fluency lets you listen deeply, respond powerfully, and close naturally. It allows you to naturally guide the prospect to the best decision for them without sweating every word you say.

If you want to stop sounding like a script-monkey and start closing like a native speaker...

Train like one.

What’s one sales skill you’d feel fluent in if you practiced it like a language?