We translators spend a lot of time strategizing about how to cold contact potential clients. But what happens when a potential client cold contacts us? Especially if you have a well-written profile in your local/national translators association directory, or you have a professional-looking website, or you do a reasonable amount of networking, this is bound to happen; you get an “out of the blue” e-mail or phone call from someone who needs a quote for a translation. What are some basic steps to take in order to set this interaction up for success?
- Establish who the client is. This sounds laughably basic, but it isn’t. Is the client an individual or a company? How did the client get your name? Is the client based in your country or somewhere else? Is the client a startup or an established going concern? All of these factors will weigh into your decision as to whether to work with this client and at what rate. Always do your own research on the client, either by searching them on Payment Practices, getting references from other freelancers who work with them, searching them online, or preferably all three.
- Determine if the client needs some basic information about your services, a quote for a specific project, or both. I think it’s useful to have a nice-looking one or two page document about you and your services that you can send out to anyone who requests it. Personally I would not mention rates on this profile document, but I would include information about the services you do and do not offer, your specializations, some recent projects, etc.
- Ask questions. I think that many translators make the error of giving too much information while asking for too little information from the client. For example, is the document you will be translating already written, or is the client still writing it? What is the deadline? How many words or pages is the document? Is the document for internal use or for publication? Does the client have a glossary and/or reference materials? While you don’t want to bombard the client with complicated requests or make them feel that they have to jump through all sorts of hoops to work with you, you also don’t want to fall into the trap of agreeing to something you can’t deliver.
- Always, always (did I mention always?) insist on seeing the document before committing to a rate and turnaround time. Offer to sign an NDA in advance if you need to, but realize that you are setting yourself up for failure if you do not see the actual material before the ink is on the contract.
- Give the client your terms of service. Whether this is an extensive document or just an e-mail that the client needs to reply to, make sure that you have something in writing where the client confirms your rate, deadline, payment terms and any other policies (i.e. dispute resolution procedure, confidentiality agreement, etc.)
- If the project doesn’t happen, be gracious and stay in touch. I think anyone who has been in business for a reasonable amount of time has been contacted by numerous potential clients whose projects don’t work out. Don’t get bitter; thank the client for contacting you and ask them to keep you in mind in the future!
Hi Corinne,
I’m a longtime reader of your blog (you are on my RSS feed), and I’m usually pretty quiet about commenting; however, this post really caught my attention.
I absolutely, wholeheartedly agree with your comment: “[…] that many translators make the error of giving too much information while asking for too little information from the client.”
I often think that one of the major challenges we/translators face in providing an intangible service is that we are marketing ourselves as much as our ability to deliver a professional translation in our target language. And since I don’t have a background in sales or marketing, I never really realized this until I began prospecting for direct clients!
I can sometimes go a bit overboard with selling the service, particularly when it’s an inquiry out of the blue, and it’s really, really important to always ask questions about the who, what, when (and does the client have the means to pay for this?) Now that I know I’m not the only one asking questions, I just have to figure out how much research I need to do before going ahead with the work.
Corinne,
Once again, a very compelling post that clearly states a message that simply can’t be repeated enough: we often talk way too much and listen far too little to our potential customers’ needs.
I did a workshop on a related topic for MET in Barcelona last spring. The title was “Spark a Sales Conversation” and the tutorial is available online here if anyone is interested : http://www.metmeetings.org/index.php?page=tutorials
Not many of us are born salespeople. The good news is that the sales relationship can be broken down into specific steps that are — in my opinion — learnable.
Your post goes a long way toward making what can seem like an unmanageable situation manageable. Also, customers that fall into your lap (no cold calling, no hard sell) are opportunities too precious to screw up by not handling these calls and emails appropriately. 🙂
That’s a good summary of points to keep in mind, Corinne.
I’d add a basic reflex that media training usually instills: when called by a member of the press for, e.g., a comment on topical issue X, don’t jump right in.
Instead, step back and collect your thoughts (this will give you greater focus and ability to steer the actual conversation in the direction you want it to go).
Concretely, you do this by asking when the journalist’s deadline is: explain you are working to deadline on project Y, and promise to get back in touch in good time (which can be 10 minutes; 20 minutes; by noon, etc.).
Your tone must be professional and friendly, of course.
You then use the intervening time — i.e., 9 minutes; 19 minutes; an hour or more 🙂 — to collect information on your caller and/or his/her newspaper (or business, in the case of your client caller). And to think about how you’ll frame your comments.
People not used to dealing with such queries sometimes worry that the caller will move on to somebody else, but in my experience that is rarely the case.
They called you for a reason, after all (reference, mutual acquaintaince, word of mouth, etc. …), so the fact that you are obviously busy but also organized, pleasant, business-like and take their request seriously — oh, and actually *do* get back to them 🙂 — works in your favor.
@Ashleigh, those are all great points. Thanks for pointing out the client’s means to pay as another important piece of information. It’s always a joy-killer to get really excited about a new inquiry only to find out that the client is thinking in hundreds and we are thinking in thousands… thanks for reading and commenting!
@Sara, thanks for that great link to the sales tutorial! It’s so true, I think that any topic with which you’re not familiar feels *so* intimidating, but when you talk to someone who is familiar with it, you can break it down into manageable steps. Think about someone who doesn’t know the first thing about translation; they’re freaking out, have no idea where to start, whereas one of us would say “OK, from what language into what language, how many words or pages, what’s the deadline, what’s the budget,” etc. I think the same is true of sales, we hate and fear it but an experience salesperson would say “OK, who’s your target customer, what do they want or need from you, how do you find them,” etc. Thanks for the link!!
@Chris, I *love* your advice about always giving yourself a few minutes to think and then calling back. I had never thought of that before you mentioned it in the Catskills and now I think it’s absolutely crucial. Whether you use the interlude to gather information, gather your thoughts, write down questions, etc., it’s a big win. And as you said, you establish your own professionalism by calling back on time and sounding enthused to talk to the person! Thanks for the comment.
Great advice, Corinne. Sometimes, when I get a cold phone call, I even Google the caller right away to see if they are on LinkedIn or to see if I can find other useful information on them. This also weighs into a pricing decision — whether to require a deposit or full payment in advance before starting the project, which we routinely require of clients with non-company, free e-mail addresses. After all, one of our top goals is collecting on the outstanding invoice. And I also agree that we need to listen and ask questions. For some reason, many times clients have only told us in general terms where they found us (“on Google”), which certainly doesn’t help fine-tune our marketing strategy, but that’s not the client’s responsibility anyway. However, we really appreciate it when clients tell us exactly how the found us.