Business English for teams with US clients
Live group classes for teams in Buenos Aires that sell, build or support for US clients. Built on your real calls, emails and decks, with the terminology your clients expect.
Book a trial classWho it is for
- Software and product teams in Buenos Aires that build for US clients
- Agencies and studios (design, marketing, media) with US accounts
- Customer support and operations teams that answer US customers
- Accounting, legal, consulting and finance teams that report to a US client or parent company
- Sales and account managers who run calls, demos and renewals in English
Your team already reads English. The gap is speaking live on a client call, writing with the right tone, and knowing the words a US client expects to hear.
What goes wrong on US client calls
Grammar is rarely the problem. Directness that sounds blunt in English, missing softeners, and vague deadlines cost trust. These are the lines Pili hears most, and what lands better.
| Common in our teams | Lands better with US clients |
|---|---|
| I don't know. | I don't have that yet. I'll find out and get back to you by Thursday. |
| That is not possible. | That's tricky with the current scope. Here is what we can do. |
| You are wrong. | I see it a little differently. Can I walk you through the numbers? |
| Please, confirm me. | Could you confirm by end of day, Eastern time? |
| We will be delayed with the delivery. | The delivery will slip to Friday. Here is why, and what we are doing about it. |
| I need the feedback. | Could you share your feedback by Wednesday? |
| Let's talk about the price. | Let's go over the budget. |
| I will send you an update next week. | I'll send an update by Tuesday, 5 pm ET. |
How the program works
- 1
Diagnostic call
30 minutes with the team lead: your clients, your calls, what hurts today.
- 2
Levels and groups
A short speaking check per person. Groups by level and role, not by chance.
- 3
Classes on your real work
Your emails, demos, tickets and client calls, role-played and corrected live.
- 4
Progress report
A monthly note for the manager: attendance, what improved, what is next.
Real material is used only with your permission and with sensitive data removed. Confidentiality is agreed in writing before any of it is shared.
What we practise
Client calls and meetings
- Open, run and close a call
- Interrupt politely and ask to repeat
- Confirm next steps and recap
- Handle silence, accents and bad audio
Written communication
- Emails with a clear subject and one ask
- Slack and status updates
- Follow-ups that do not sound pushy
- Tone: too direct, too soft, just right
Demos and presentations
- Structure and signposting
- Screen-sharing language
- Answering hard questions live
- Numbers, charts and results out loud
Sales and negotiation
- Discovery questions
- Presenting price and scope
- Handling objections
- Renewals and upsells
Support and escalation
- Apologise without over-promising
- Explain a delay or an outage
- De-escalate an angry customer
- Ticket and incident language
Delivery and project management
- Stand-ups and sprint reviews
- Blockers, estimates and risks
- Scope changes and sign-off
- Post-mortems
Relationship and small talk
- Opening a call with the person, not the agenda
- Weekend, weather, sports, holidays
- Thanksgiving, July 4th and other US dates
- Ending a call well
Finance and contracts
- Invoices and payment terms
- SOW, MSA and NDA vocabulary
- Budgets and forecasts
- Chasing a late payment politely
Corporate terminology: meetings and follow-up
| Term | What it means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| touch base | Check in briefly | Can we touch base on Thursday? |
| circle back | Return to a topic later | Let's circle back to pricing after the demo. |
| take it offline | Discuss it outside this meeting | Let's take this offline so we don't use everyone's time. |
| loop in | Add someone to the conversation | I'll loop in Maria from support. |
| action items | Tasks agreed in the meeting | Let me recap the action items. |
| bandwidth | Time and capacity for more work | We don't have the bandwidth this sprint. |
| heads-up | An early warning | Just a heads-up: the release may slip. |
| sync | A short meeting to align | Let's have a quick sync before the demo. |
| ballpark | A rough estimate | Can you give me a ballpark figure? |
| ETA | When something will be done | What's the ETA on the fix? |
| on the same page | Sharing the same understanding | I want to make sure we're on the same page. |
| walk you through | Explain step by step | Let me walk you through the proposal. |
| wrap up | Finish | Let's wrap up with next steps. |
| OOO | Out of office | I'm OOO until Monday. |
| EOD, COB | End of day, close of business (say the time zone) | Please send it by EOD Eastern. |
Corporate terminology: projects and delivery
| Term | What it means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| scope | What the work includes | That is outside the current scope. |
| scope creep | Extra requests that keep growing the work | We need to avoid scope creep on this phase. |
| deliverable | Something you hand over | The first deliverable is the design file. |
| milestone | A key checkpoint in a project | The next milestone is the beta launch. |
| blocker | Something that stops progress | My only blocker is access to the staging server. |
| roadmap | The plan for what comes next | Can you share the roadmap for Q4? |
| kickoff | The first meeting of a project | The kickoff is on Monday at 10 am ET. |
| handoff | Passing work to another person or team | The handoff to your team is on Friday. |
| stakeholder | Anyone with a stake in the result | We need to align with all stakeholders. |
| to slip | To be later than planned | The date might slip by a week. |
| turnaround | Time taken to finish a task | Our turnaround is two business days. |
| rollout | A gradual release | The rollout starts with 10 percent of users. |
| sign-off | Formal approval | We need your sign-off before we launch. |
| buy-in | Agreement and support from others | We need buy-in from the CFO. |
| post-mortem | A review after something went wrong | We will share a post-mortem by Friday. |
| SLA | Service level agreement: promised response times | Our SLA is a reply within four business hours. |
Corporate terminology: sales, contracts and money
| Term | What it means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| quote | A firm price for defined work | I'll send you a quote by tomorrow. |
| estimate | An approximate price or time | This is an estimate, not a quote. |
| proposal | A document that says what you will do and its cost | We will send the proposal after the call. |
| SOW | Statement of work: scope, deliverables, dates | The SOW is attached for your review. |
| MSA | Master services agreement: general terms between companies | Legal is reviewing the MSA. |
| NDA | Non-disclosure agreement | We can sign an NDA before the demo. |
| retainer | A fixed monthly fee to keep a team available | We work on a monthly retainer. |
| net 30 | Pay within 30 days of the invoice date | Our terms are net 30. |
| PO | Purchase order: the client's formal order | We can start once we receive the PO. |
| invoice | A bill | I'm sending the invoice for October. |
| billable hours | Hours you charge the client for | We logged 120 billable hours. |
| renewal | Extending a contract | The renewal is due in March. |
| churn | Customers who leave | Churn went down last quarter. |
| upsell | Selling a bigger plan to a current customer | There is an upsell opportunity with this account. |
| pipeline | Deals in progress | Our pipeline looks strong for Q3. |
| discovery call | A first call to understand the client's needs | Let's set up a discovery call next week. |
Phrases for common situations
| Situation | Say this |
|---|---|
| Ask someone to repeat | Sorry, I didn't catch that last part. Could you say it again? |
| Ask for clarification | Just to make sure I understand, you need it by Friday, right? |
| Buy time | Good question. Let me check and get back to you by end of day. |
| Say no | I'm afraid that won't work with the current timeline. Here is what we can do. |
| Disagree | I see it a little differently. Can I explain why? |
| Push back on scope | That's outside what we agreed. I can quote it as a separate phase. |
| Interrupt politely | Sorry to jump in. Can I add one thing? |
| Chase a reply | Just following up on my note from Monday. Any update? |
| Apologise for a delay | Sorry for the delay. The fix is in testing and will be ready tomorrow. |
| Close a call | Thanks, everyone. I'll send a recap with next steps today. |
Dates, numbers and money with US clients
Small format differences cause real mistakes in invoices, deadlines and contracts. Write them the US way, or spell them out.
| Item | US | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 03/04/2026 is March 4 | 03/04/2026 is 3 April |
| Decimals and thousands | 1,000.50 | 1.000,50 |
| Time | 2:00 PM | 14:00 |
| Dollar sign | $500 is US dollars | $500 is pesos. Write USD 500 with US clients |
| Billion | billion is 1,000,000,000 | mil millones (billón is a trillion in English) |
| Deadline | EOD ET, COB PT | Always name the time zone |
Time zones: Buenos Aires and the US
Argentina stays on GMT-3 all year. The US changes clocks: daylight time runs from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. Buenos Aires is ahead by:
| US zone | Daylight time (March to November) | Standard time (November to March) |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern (New York, Miami) | 1 hour | 2 hours |
| Central (Chicago, Austin) | 2 hours | 3 hours |
| Mountain (Denver) | 3 hours | 4 hours |
| Pacific (San Francisco, Los Angeles) | 4 hours | 5 hours |
Classes are scheduled around your overlap with your client, so your team practises at the hours it really works.
Words that trick Spanish speakers at work
| Word | Sounds like | It really means |
|---|---|---|
| actually | actualmente (now) | in fact. For now, say currently |
| eventually | eventualmente (possibly) | in the end. For possibly, say possibly or if needed |
| assist | asistir (attend) | help. To attend a meeting, say attend |
| compromise | compromiso (commitment) | a middle ground. For commitment, say commitment |
| agenda | agenda (planner) | the list of topics for a meeting. For a planner, say calendar |
| resume | resumir (summarise) | restart. To summarise, say summarise. A CV is a résumé in the US |
| realize | realizar (carry out) | to notice or understand. To carry out, say carry out or do |
| sensible | sensible (sensitive) | reasonable. For sensitive, say sensitive |
| record | recordar (remember) | to save audio or video. To remember, say remember |
| support | soportar (put up with) | help or back. To put up with, say tolerate |
| pretend | pretender (intend) | to fake. To intend, say intend or plan to |
| facility | facilidad (ease) | a site or building. For ease, say ease |
Formats
| Format | Best for | How it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Small group | A team at a similar level | 3 to 6 people, 60 or 90 minutes, once or twice a week |
| Role group | One function: sales, support, engineering | Shared vocabulary and shared client situations |
| 1:1 for leaders | Client leads and managers who present or negotiate | Private sessions, shaped around their next meetings |
| Intensive | A launch, pitch or key renewal | 2 to 4 weeks of focused classes before the date |
Classes are live on video, in Buenos Aires time, so the team can join from the office or from home. Group size, schedule and price are agreed after the diagnostic call.
Questions
- Do you teach groups or only 1:1?
- Both. Companies usually start with small groups of 3 to 6 people, and add 1:1 sessions for people who lead client calls.
- What if people in the team have different levels?
- A short speaking check per person decides the groups, so each group works at one level and on similar tasks.
- Do you use our real emails and calls?
- Only with your permission and with sensitive data removed. Confidentiality is agreed in writing first.
- Can the classes be at our office in CABA?
- Classes are live online, so the team can join from the office or from home.
- How long until we see a change?
- It depends on the starting level and on practice between classes. The hours calculator gives a first idea.
- Is this for a Cambridge or other certificate?
- No. This program is for work communication. For a Cambridge certificate, see Exam Prep.
- How do prices and invoicing work?
- Price, schedule and payment details are agreed after the diagnostic call, based on group size and hours.
Keep going
Want to practise this with Pili?
Book a trial class. She writes back with times in Buenos Aires time.
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