If you work for someone else, weak Dutch costs you visibility. If you sell, it costs you deals, and you rarely find out which ones.
An employee who says little in a meeting is thought of as quiet. A supplier who switches to English halfway through a first conversation is thought of as slightly more effort than the alternative. Nobody says that out loud, and nobody puts it in the rejection either.
This is not about whether Dutch companies can speak English. Most can, and most will, happily. It is about the fact that people buy more easily in the language they think in, and that trust is built out of small comfortable exchanges rather than out of correctness. That is professional Dutch at work: not the vocabulary of business, but sounding like the professional you already are.
Everyday Dutch and professional Dutch are not the same skill
Plenty of entrepreneurs arrive with perfectly serviceable Dutch. They can shop, chat with the neighbours, get through a phone call with the municipality. And then they sit down to explain their pricing structure and it collapses.
That is not a level problem, it is a register problem. Ordering coffee and defending a proposal ask entirely different things of you: one needs a handful of phrases, the other needs structure, precision and the ability to stay in control of a long sentence while someone is deciding whether to trust you.
You are not missing vocabulary. You are missing the version of yourself that closes deals, in a second language.
And then there is what is not being said
The Dutch business conversation carries a lot underneath it. How direct is normal here. When a question is really a question and when it is a polite objection. What a long pause means. Whether that flat comment was criticism or simply how someone talks.
You can be linguistically correct and still misread the room, which is why this is never only about words.
An entrepreneur who decided to stop switching
“Learning Dutch is not a fight. You have to embrace it.”
That is how Soumitra put it when we started. He had studied in the Netherlands, spent years back in India, and returned to settle here. He runs tailor made digital solutions for SMEs and is managing director of an international company in SAP implementation and consulting.
His Dutch was already reasonable in the everyday sense. Switching to clear, professional Dutch when something was at stake was the part that was still missing. His goals were specific: speak confidently in meetings and business appointments, bring structure into his sentences so he sounded professional, and use Dutch in negotiations, presentations and client conversations.
“Connecting with people. Better connection. Yes.”
Soumitra, B1 to B2, entrepreneur
Ten weeks later he was leading meetings and negotiations in Dutch without slipping into English, getting compliments from clients and business contacts, and reading the cultural side of a business conversation rather than only the words. That last part is what he mentions most.
What to work on if you sell in Dutch
- Your own pitch, out loud, until it is boring. What you do, for whom, and why you rather than someone else. Four or five sentences. This is the one thing you will say in every first conversation for the rest of your working life.
- Short sentences you control, not long ones you lose. In a negotiation, precision beats range every time. A simple sentence delivered with certainty is worth more than an elaborate one that trails off.
- Your objection answers. Too expensive, we already have someone, we will come back to it. You know these three in English. Prepare them once in Dutch and you have removed the moment you most want to escape.
- Stay in Dutch when they offer English. Politely, deliberately. Every switch is a small transfer of the conversation onto your terms instead of theirs, and it is exactly the terms that trust is built on. More on why switching is so hard to resist.
- Learn the culture alongside the language. Directness, silences, what a Dutch no sounds like. This is half the skill and it is rarely taught anywhere.
Where to build this
The free Spreekwafel app gives you daily speaking practice around real work situations, ten minutes at a time, which is realistic when you are running a business.
Spreekwafel Circle adds people who hear you and respond, weekly, at your own level, with a monthly masterclass. The group starts on 1 October 2026. If what you need is one on one work on your own pitch and your own client conversations, that is Inner Circle, and it starts with a conversation.
Not sure which one fits your situation? Ask me.
Questions people ask about this
Do I need Dutch to run a business in the Netherlands?
To run it, often not. To sell in it, it depends entirely on who you sell to. With international companies English is usually fine. With Dutch SMEs, local authorities and family businesses, the conversation that decides things is frequently in Dutch, and that is where deals are won or quietly lost.
My everyday Dutch is fine. Why does it fall apart in a client meeting?
Because everyday Dutch and professional Dutch are different registers, not different levels. Ordering coffee and explaining your pricing structure ask completely different things of you. The second one needs structure, precision and the ability to stay in control of a long sentence.
Will clients not simply switch to English for me?
Many will, and that is exactly the problem. It is polite, it is easier, and it quietly moves the conversation onto your terms rather than theirs. Every switch costs a little of the ease that trust is built on.
How much Dutch is enough to negotiate?
Less than you think, if it is the right Dutch. Short clear sentences you fully control beat elaborate ones you lose halfway. Precision matters far more than range when there is money on the table.
What about Dutch business culture, not just the language?
That is half of it. Knowing what to say when, how direct is normal here, and how to read what someone actually means, is often more decisive than vocabulary. You can be linguistically correct and still misread the room.
Written by Jacky van der Starre, who teaches professionals to speak the Dutch they already understand.