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Approaching direct clients - finding the right person in a company
Thread poster: Mark Hemming
Christina B.
Christina B.  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 13:34
French to German
+ ...
to call or not to call Jun 2, 2016

How you should contact potential direct clients is a cultural question, based on how decisions are made in the country of your source language. An example from my languages:

Germany: There is a problem/ an offer. A decision has to be made.

1. The boss collects as much detailed fact-information as possible (this part can be outsourced to the staff).
2. After considering all the pros and cons, the boss makes the (definite!) decision that best solves the problem. <
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How you should contact potential direct clients is a cultural question, based on how decisions are made in the country of your source language. An example from my languages:

Germany: There is a problem/ an offer. A decision has to be made.

1. The boss collects as much detailed fact-information as possible (this part can be outsourced to the staff).
2. After considering all the pros and cons, the boss makes the (definite!) decision that best solves the problem.
3. His or her decision is published/ written down.
4. The staff has to accept the decision (And why wouldn’t they, as it is the one that “suits” the problem best? …)


Sweden: There is a problem/ an offer. A decision has to be made.

1. The boss calls all the staff to a meeting, the more the better.
2. The problem and possible solutions are discussed. The goal is to find a solution that suits everyone. No definite decision is made. It was nice to meet, discuss and get to know everyone’s ideas.
3. After some more meetings, somehow a decision is made, a decision that everyone is comfortable with.
4. The decision is published, but it’s not definite. If someone comes up with a better idea, if the circumstances change… the decision can be changed!

--> The role of a German boss is to make decisions. Before making a decision, he or she wants to be well informed. Do NOT make the first contact with a German via phone, this will put too much pressure on them. Tell the secretary that you would like to send some information and ask which person to send it to. (Via normal mail, not email). Give them as much written information as possible, give them some days to read it, then call.

--> The role of a Swedish boss is to organize things and to keep the staff together as a team. They like to get to know the people they work with. Call them to make the first contact, but don’t ask definite questions like “are you going to buy something?” Just get to know each other, then, after some more calls, send some information via mail/ try to arrange a meeting …

This can cause many misunderstandings and I’d really like to know how much business is lost due to such cultural misunderstanding. If you want to be successful with direct clients, I recommend you to study the mentality of your source language country.
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Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Good point Jun 3, 2016

Maria S. Loose, LL.M. wrote:

Merab Dekano wrote:

Ah, and make sure you have capacity for 20,000 words in 8 different languages to be delivered in 3 days, since that's what large direct clients need. In other words, think about setting up an agency. Be empathic. Think as a procurement manager at a large company would think. You certainly wouldn't want to deal with 8 different translators and editors for a translation project.


This is not necessarily true in all situations. Companies from non-English-speaking countries, that want to export their goods and services, often need a translation into English only. According to my experience, this is especially true for B2B relations between German-speaking countries and the rest of the world. Finding direct clients can therefore be very rewarding for translators translating into English. However, they need to be able to contact these direct clients in their language. An active written and oral command of the translator's source language is an absolute necessity for these endeavors. If they are not able to talk or write to a direct client in this client's first language the client will doubt the translator's skills, because they are not used to translators who translate into their native language only.

[Edited at 2016-05-30 16:05 GMT]


Thank you. I did not look at the issue from "into-English" perspective. It is clear though that no company is going to need their business documents or website to be translated into Spanish only.


 
Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:34
German to English
+ ...
Spanish-only translation Jun 3, 2016

Merab Dekano wrote:

Thank you. I did not look at the issue from "into-English" perspective. It is clear though that no company is going to need their business documents or website to be translated into Spanish only.


Why? Many small-to-medium US businesses, for example, will probably only need Spanish documentation to either sell to Spanish speakers in the US or start exporting to Mexico and further south. Other companies in England, such as those involved in serving British expats in Spain, may only need into-Spanish translation too. My point being that what different companies need will depend on their individual circumstances, obviously, but there are several plausible situations where Spanish might be the only language needed.

Also, there are plenty of companies that only export to a small number of other countries. So you might need resources for translation into Spanish, French and Italian but not to all European languages, for example. Those sorts of requests are easy to manage on your own with a little outsourcing to trusted colleagues.

Edited to add: clearly some direct clients will have needs that exceed what you can accommodate or just be too big to handle on your own. At that point you start hiring and acquiring the necessary resources or you simply decline the business on the basis that you are not the right fit for them, nor are they for you. No big drama.

[Edited at 2016-06-03 17:48 GMT]


Matheus Chaud
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:34
French to English
clients with a website in a language *other* than English Jun 6, 2016

Angela Rimmer wrote:

Merab Dekano wrote:

Thank you. I did not look at the issue from "into-English" perspective. It is clear though that no company is going to need their business documents or website to be translated into Spanish only.


Why? Many small-to-medium US businesses, for example, will probably only need Spanish documentation to either sell to Spanish speakers in the US or start exporting to Mexico and further south. Other companies in England, such as those involved in serving British expats in Spain, may only need into-Spanish translation too. My point being that what different companies need will depend on their individual circumstances, obviously, but there are several plausible situations where Spanish might be the only language needed.

Also, there are plenty of companies that only export to a small number of other countries. So you might need resources for translation into Spanish, French and Italian but not to all European languages, for example. Those sorts of requests are easy to manage on your own with a little outsourcing to trusted colleagues.

Edited to add: clearly some direct clients will have needs that exceed what you can accommodate or just be too big to handle on your own. At that point you start hiring and acquiring the necessary resources or you simply decline the business on the basis that you are not the right fit for them, nor are they for you. No big drama.

[Edited at 2016-06-03 17:48 GMT]


Of course EN-SP only is often required in such cases.

The point we were making was that very often clients with a website in a language *other* than English (let's say Polish) aremost likely either going to want it translated into loads of languages (eg if it's a Polish firm with a footing in loads of countries) or into just English (eg if it's a Polish firm just embarking on a tentative foray into exports). Just Polish to Spanish would be highly unlikely although of course nothing is impossible.


 
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Approaching direct clients - finding the right person in a company







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