10 Expressions to Learn Before Your Next Business Trip to Spain

Spanish is a very important global business language and currently, over 500 million people speak it. In fact, there are 390 million native speakers dispersed throughout 21 different countries where Spanish is natively spoken. So, as a business professional, it is likely you may need to tap into some business language. Spanish employers will really appreciate your efforts to conduct a business meeting in Spanish. Here are ten expressions that might help you out.

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1. Talking to the boss

When approaching a boss in a Spanish-speaking company, address them as jefe/director or jefa/directora for women. This may be useful during your initial reunión or meeting.

2. Hiring

If you are hired into a Spanish-speaking company on an initial short-term contract, you would be incorporado/a en la empresa con un contrato temporal.

To be hired, or estar contratado/a is difficult to achieve on a full-time permanent basis in the current economic climate in Spain but following a temporary contract, you could be hired under a contrato indefinido (indefinite contract).

3. Profits

If you are in meetings about the company itself and the state of their profits, you might hear that la empresa ha tenido un año fiscal de bajo/alto beneficio (the company has had little/great profits this tax year). This may be important when discussing your future business negotiations.

4.  Making contact

If you want to contact the boss of the company or you have met a business associate at a meeting and would like to follow this up with a more formal meeting, you can ask: ¿Me puede dar su contacto y tarjeta de presentación? (Could you give me your contact information and business card?).

5. Contacting you

If you want them to contact you for some reason, you could tell them Si usted quisiera ponerse en contacto conmigo, me puede llamar por teléfono al número… (If you would like to get in touch with me, you can call me on the following number…).

6. The stock market

You might need to talk about other blue-chip companies and more specifically, the stock they are floating on the market. You would refer to this as acciones de primera calidad (blue-chip stock). This would be relevant to the stock market index or el índice búrsatil.

7. The telephone

Sometimes when you are contacting someone on the phone, the secretary might say ¿Puede volver a llamar más tarde? (Could you call back later?)  or ¿Quiere dejar un mensaje? (Would you like to leave a message?).

8. Making a deal

If both business partners are happy with the outcome of the meetings and would like to make a preliminary deal, they will redactar un contrato (draw up a contract) for future projects.  Should an opportunity for this arise, you can offer podemos redactar un contrato ahora (we can draw up a contract now).

9. Sending information

If you need them to send you some extra information after the deal is made, you could ask Podría enviarme… (Could you send me) or Estaría muy agradecido/a si pudiera enviarme… (I would be very grateful if you could send me…).

10. Thanking the company

Once the deals are made and you are ready to go home, if you feel the business has gone to plan, you can say Le agradezco mucho por su tiempo (Thank you very much for your time) and follow this up with Me complace la idea de trabajar juntos (I am pleased with the idea of working together).

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Working abroad in another language can be a daunting experience at times and can be frustrating but try to come well-equipped with some useful business phrases. If you would like to learn more about business Spanish or you are already at a certain level and want to make those vital improvements, make an inquiry here or take a Spanish language level test to see where you are!