Companies selling their goods or services often do not ask about language requirements at the onset of their discussions. With any needs assessment, therefore, it is crucial for the topic to be discussed with two goals in mind: 1) to offer the best service to the foreign customer, and 2) to protect profit margins against unbudgeted expenses.

One recommendation would be to encourage international sales persons to learn about the translation and localization industry and scopes of services offered to support the international sales force. A firm such as Advanced Language Translation maintains a consultative and educational approach for its clients, and has the capabilities to preliminarily discuss a potential international deal, before a selling price has been established.

Such a selling price can be established to include the translation and localization requirements. Budgetary questions include whether the selling company will fully cover the cost and incorporate into the price, or if there will there be a 50/50 split of costs. Sample projects that typically fall into this category would be any product supporting documentation, such as installation, user, safety, or maintenance manuals. If a product contains software elements (e.g. a touch screen or control panel that has text), this is also a consideration.

By budgeting these costs in advance, the selling company is assured that it will have satisfied its service and profit margin goals. By not budgeting these costs, and the customer assumes that their language requirements will be met by your company, this may request or requirement coming later jeopardizes the relationship and overall profitability.