(by Todd Melcher)
I love Puerto Vallarta, I just wish I could spend more time here.
We all know the feeling, you wake up Sunday morning, feel that beautiful tropical breeze blow through the room and think, Damn, I have to go home today. Home may be a wonderful place, but Puerto Vallarta is a uniquely amazing destination with a combination of things that make you feel like this beautiful bay is your other home and these wonderful people here are your other neighbors.
It’s usually around the time the flight crew starts pointing out the plane’s exits when you start doing the math. If I don’t go on that road trip in July and I skip flying to mom and dad’s for Thanksgiving I can spend 8 days on the beach next year, and if I cash in two sick days I can even spend a couple nights in Yelapa. If I wait another year before we get the new washer/dryer I can even afford to go…
Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to make choices like that? Wouldn’t you love to spend two weeks in Puerto Vallarta without costing you at work or overtaxing your budget? Wouldn’t it be great if spending time in this beautiful place actually increased your value at work and made you more money? Yeah, that would be pretty cool. That would in fact, ROCK.
Unfortunately most of us have jobs, bosses, employment contracts and a limited number of vacation days. And regrettably, most of us have to pay for our own vacations. But, there are some people out there (maybe you) who could fly to Puerto Vallarta for two weeks, immerse themselves in the culture and community of the town and return home without losing a single vacation day and have the trip pay for itself.
What’s the catch? Well, you have to sit through a two week long time share presentation. No, No! Come back, I was just kidding. But now that I have your attention, here’s why it might work for you.
It is a fact that businesses that ignore the value of Latino buying power do so at their own peril and businesses that embrace and reach out to the community are reaping enormous rewards. In 2010 Latino buying power reached the 1 trillion dollar milestone, with Mexican Latinos holding over 600 billion USD of that power, they have become the most influential market in the Latino community. Your employer (or your own business) may be in a position to dramatically increase profits by simply improving the quality of communication to existing customers and promoting the company’s commitment to the Spanish speaking customer base. One way to attract this market would be to hire new bilingual employees to help reach out to Latino customers, but as any business owner knows, hiring new personnel is costly and time consuming, it makes a lot more sense to send an existing employee to school to learn Spanish. You see where I’m going now, don’t you?
Some of the businesses in the US and Canada that have invested heavily in their corporate culture in order to attract Latin American buyers are; 7-Eleven, Clorox, H&R Block, Heineken USA, Kraft Foods Inc., Nestlé S.A., Sara Lee Corporation, Subway, GM, Mercedes, Nissan and Volkswagen. These companies and hundreds of others have invested millions of dollars tailoring their marketing message to the Hispanic market and that has of course included the creation of a substantial number of jobs requiring Spanish skills.
It’s not only the large corporations that have recognized the value of having Spanish speakers on the payroll. Banks, insurance companies, restaurants, stores and service providers have done so too.
For a fraction of what it would cost to hire, train and pay a new employee, your business could send YOU to Puerto Vallarta for immersion Spanish classes, allowing you to add a valuable skill to your resume and allowing your employer to not only improve their communication with a valuable and growing market segment, but also promote the company’s commitment by advertising their investment in their relationship with Spanish speakers. Here’s a letter written by a bona-fide HR expert working for a multi-million dollar manufacturing firm in Southern California.
Valued employee wanting to add Spanish skills to their resume
[Date]
Joe Smith
Director of Human Resources
123 Sesame Street
Your Town, Your State Zip Code
Dear Mr. Smith:
Re: Better serving our customers
I am writing to discuss an opportunity to better serve our customers. Many of our customers are Spanish speakers. I would like to learn Spanish via a language immersion class.
Information on the Spanish program can be found at http://secpv.com/product/excecutive-course/ .
I will contact you by phone next week to set up a convenient time when we can discuss my idea.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my request,
Sincerely,
Valued employee wanting to add Spanish skills to their resume
Did that letter seem a little dry to you? Yeah, me too but I had written a long letter explaining all the benefits to businesses today and sent it to a Human Resources Executive or two seeking advice and they told me that short simple and to the point is the best way to go and the above example is something they would each respond to.
The Spanish Experience Center in Puerto Vallarta has a long list of former and current students, who have used their new Spanish skills to find new jobs, move up in their current jobs or even move to the very top of their industry. Some of them took the initiative themselves, while others came to the school via a recommendation from their advisors, HR people or potential employers.
I’m not saying this will work for everyone, but it may work for you, so ask yourself this question, what do I have to lose by trying? Then think about what you have to gain. Spanish skills for your resume, Spanish skills for yourself, higher value to your employer and…. oh yeah, two more weeks in Puerto Vallarta this year. Heck maybe even another two weeks next year.