5 cold calling tips to secure more high paying clients

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5 Cold Calling Tips To Secure More Translation Jobs

I’m not kidding here – translators can benefit from cold calling tips.

If you are serious about getting more clients, you'll have to learn how to sell - on the phone or in person. I’m not suggesting you act like a pushy car salesman.

But if you are so shy that you find yourself waiting for business to fall out of the sky, I’m sorry to say this, but you’ll have to look for a full time job soon.

When done properly, cold calling is necessary and helpful to expand your business. The key here is not to do it in an aggressive way. And not totally Cold!

Here are a few cold calling tips for freelancers who are trying to secure some quality translation jobs with companies.

1- Do not pick a number to call at random

It may be convenient to look through a phonebook and call companies from the list. But the effectiveness of that practice is very doubtful. People tend to be on guard when being approached by a total stranger.

When you get too many rejections, it’s hard not to get depressed and have that affect your productivity and creativity.

Plus you can’t afford to spend so much time talking to someone at random on the phone. You have to make targeted calls. Target businesses that have a greater need for translation services.

2- Change your mindset

Do not think you are just trying to convince people to buy from you. You are trying to help people with your expertise and skills. Clients need you more than you need them.

With that in mind, you won’t come across as too needy. When you appear desperate, you are likely to be ignored or offered real low price.

3- Work on referrals

This is probably one of the most important cold calling tips. Referral based cold calls are not as cold, especially if that referral comes from your past happy client.

Just make sure you mention the client you’ve worked with. That way you’ll reduce the resistance from the person you are talking to. It’s a means to gain trust and credibility, which is very important for a freelancer.

4- Do a thorough research before you call

The fastest way to turn people off is to talk too much about yourself and your service without any relevance to the person on the call.

You need to know who you are talking to. What are their needs and problems in terms of language translation? You have only a minute or two usually to make a good first impression.

You can’t get any further if someone has no interest talking to you on the phone. So being well prepared on the phone is everything.

5- Do not mention your rate on the phone

This is a very important part of cold calling tips. There’s not enough time to elaborate your service in a few minutes on the phone.

If you give the price right away, you’ll most likely lose that client. Instead suggest that you can offer a range of options depending on their budget.

A positive exchange should lead to a follow-up email or letter – where you can provide an in-depth report of all your services, leading to what you charge.

Although I’m calling them cold calling tips, the goal here is to convince you not to make any total cold calls.

Know your market, understand their needs, and offer them a reason to ask for more. That way, there will be more warmth created from your ‘cold calls’ and income, too.

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