The Importance of Marketing - Interview With A. M. Sall (part 4)

Q:- Many translators have come to realize the importance of marketing, yet they feel it's too time consuming. What is your response to that?

Sall: Remember these words by the great Bob Bly; “Those who make the most money in any profession or service business – from accountants and ad agencies to window washers and Web designers – are those who are the best at marketing and selling themselves… not at performing the actual function or service.”

(Of course I'm not saying that being an excellent translator is not important :-)

Know that you are a marketer first and foremost. Your business is not ‘Translation’, your business is, guess what... ‘marketing’, of course! I even know that rather than being “a translator marketing his translation service,” I am “a marketer who happens to be selling (or marketing) translation services."

Posting your profile and CV on a translation portal or applying for a job with a Translation Agency is fine. But it’s not enough.

You have to be more aggressive, more ‘proactive’, that’s the word, and also more creative.

Consider your translation practice as a business, and market it in a more systematic way, just like any other business, create a SYSTEM (meaning: “Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money”)

And selling translation services is a ‘complex sale’, so it takes time. You must identify, initiate, and cultivate relationships with the right people, regardless of their timing to buy, until they are ready to buy (Social Media is very good here).

You must provide educational content, and then follow up, with phone calls for example. Remember you are a trusted advisor, and not just a vendor keen on signing a contract.

Marketing is essential.

Q:- So the importance of marketing is undisputable!You also mentioned on your blog that if you are smart enough to be a translator, you are smart enough to be an entrepreneur, what do you mean by that?

Sall: Well, I think what I said was: “If you’re smart enough to be a translator and/or an interpreter, you’re smart enough to do your own marketing.” It's here, in this “Translator Power” post
(http://translatorpower.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/translators-are-natural-marketers-but-they-dont-know-it/)

Q:- So translators have to understand the importance of marketing. But what can translators do to get beyond the dollars-for-hours business model and make more healthy income?

Sall: Become entrepreneurs! For example, from freelancer, start your own Translation Agency, start a coaching and/or consultancy business (cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural marketing, investing overseas, etc.)

With the right mindset you'll find opportunities, even in the most unlikely places and circumstances. For example, change the way you read the news, change your focus and constantly, almost instinctively look for opportunities. Let this be second, or even ‘first nature’ to you.
http://translatorpower.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/proactive-and-strategic-translation-service-marketing-how-to-read-the-news/

Power of language translators - Interview With A.M.Sall (part 1)

Power of freelance translators - Interview With A.M.Sall (part 2)

You can be an entrepreneur -Interview With A.M.Sall (part 3)

Read more interviews with other professional translators:

Interview With a Chinese English translator

Legal translation - Interview With Lawyer-linguist Suzanne Deliscar

Interview with Clint Tustison, a Spanish language translator(part 1)

Interview with Clint Tustison, an English-Spanish translator(part 2)

Interview with Aya Takasuna, a Japanese to English translator (part 1)

Interview with Aya Takasuna, a Japanese English translator (part 2)

Interview with Glenn Cain, a French language translator(part 1)

Interview with Glenn Cain, an English French translator(part 2)

Interview with Joanna Scudamore-Trezek, a German to English translator (part 1)

Interview with Joanna Scudamore-Trezek, a German English translator (part 2)


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