I recently spoke at the Dutch translation association meeting in September to emphasise this point and that translators have the right to ask for business from end clients as well as LSPs…and at a sustainable price point.
Sales and marketing don’t necessarily come naturally to freelance translators. Few, if any, universities offer such training along side learning translation and interpretation skills. Yet freelancers are selling their services as a part of running their businesses. The need for good selling skills has, in my opinion, become fairly acute as we are all defending against incessant pricing pressures and it was my goal in my presentation to give the translation community some ideas and increased confidence in marketing themselves better to prospective customers.
The key to doing this is recognising the value that we do provide customers and that this goes far beyond simply “quality translation” or “onetime delivery”. It’s critical to think about our craft from the customer’s point of view and figure out just what translation helps the customer to achieve. In doing this, it should raise the value of translation in the customer’s eyes and (hopefully) prevent further rate erosion. We must at all costs increase our value in the customer’s eyes! But how do we do this?
- Highlight our unique qualities as translators – specialisations, value-added services such as project management, etc. and what it does for the customer. Does our translation help the customer increase revenue, increase market share, conclude a contract, help someone learn something, help someone use a product, help prevent illness, ensure compliance with regulatory bodies. Our translations do all this and more. What does YOUR translation do for YOUR clients?
- Consider offering services beyond translation – LSPs sometime struggle to do everything in-house. Are you good at project management, processing files, managing TMs, managing in-country review, something else? These are marketable services and when combined with your translation skills, can be very interesting for customers.
- Make it easy for customers to find you – get yourself a website (this can be done very cost-effectively) on your own or have someone like Websites for Translators do it for you. Beef up your Linked in profile, with a focus on how you help your customers rather than listing every accreditation you have. This is what customers really want to know.
- Take credit for work you have done – there is no harm in mentioning end customers that you’ve worked with, either directly or indirectly, unless specified by them or other contractual constraints. You are doing the translation, not the project manager!
- Get active on other social media – recognising that this isn’t for everyone, it can be highly beneficial. We went through a number of examples of translators who have developed very high profiles on social media and because of that, are easily found by LSPs and possibly end customers. Who get the work? The translator that is easy to find and has a very credible profile. Don’t hide. Let the world know you exist! Nobody can do it but you.
- Consider alternative sources of work – freelancing web sites are becoming ubiquitous and can be another source for work. I mentioned Fluently, the online translator aggregator, as one possibility. The rates are known, the list of companies using it is growing, you get free consulting and profile design and (something I didn’t mention) guaranteed payment in 30 days. No exceptions. While some didn’t like the rates, I still maintain that, with some of the other benefits derived from such a service, you’re doing better than with many translation agencies.
- Be brave and ask for referrals and/or start networking and calling prospective customers – this is where pure sales comes into play. Most of us aren’t comfortable going out and soliciting new business from people we don’t know. I would say we should leverage the relationships we do have by asking them to refer us to other buyers of translation services. This only works outside the realms of LSPs, but for those of you who have direct customers, they will not fire you if you ask if they know someone else who needs your services.
In summary, there are many simple and low-cost ways to attract more and more profitable business as freelance translators. Most of my suggestions listed above can be done without a huge amount of effort and will ultimately have a positive impact on your bottom line. Be confident in the valuable service you provide. Without translators, international business would come to a screeching halt! Not a lot would happen without you!