lukespear.co.uk

As part of the relaunch of my personal site, I've decided to release the 192 page, 48,000 word Translation sales handbook for free on this site.

The translation sales handbook A roadmap to higher rates, better clients Release date: 2012, 2014, 2016 Release formats: .pdf, Kindle, print (192 pages) Word count: 47,605 Proven strategies to find new and higher-paying clients, and to convert existing cl…

It was high time.

Translation brief [SAMPLE] · Key data

Terms of business [SAMPLE] [Name, Address, Association membership number] These terms are provided for information purposes only.

Luke is a consulting freelance translator (FR/SV>EN).

First a special thanks to Rebecca, my wife, whose patience and unwavering support has helped me to see this project through to completion.

Further reading ® Jeffrey Gitomer - Big Red Book of Sales ® Neil Rackham – Spin Selling ® Mlodinov - The Drunkard’s Walk ® Andy Maslen – Copywriting

Corinne McKay, CT, is an American Translators Association-certified French to English translator based in Boulder, Colorado (USA).

Eric S.

Erik is a native Swede with a technical education within electro-technology.

Marta Stelmaszak (BA(Hons) DPSI NRPSI ACIL) is a Polski - English - Français translator and interpreter with 6 years of experience.

Elaine is a French to English translator working mainly with organisations/companies operating in West Africa and legal documents (contracts, etc.).

Catherine Christaki has been a freelance translator since 2001 and the co-owner of the boutique translation agency Lingua Greca Translations since March 2012.

Anne is a French native certified translator for English and German.

Oliver Lawrence is a Chartered Linguist translating from Italian to English – specialising in tourism, marketing copy, transcreation and contracts – and a regular presenter with eCPD Webinars, in particular with the course Clear Writing, Clear Benefits.

Gaetano is Italian, 29 years old and a full-time freelance translator working in the linguistic combination EN > IT.

I’m a freelance English to French translator who works for a variety of mainly direct clients.

Michael Roberts was a programmer in a past life, but after the 2001 recession found that software development is too difficult to manage as a sole proprietor, and switched to technical translation, which has clear specs, very little debugging, and is repl…

Lucy Brooks has been translating professionally from German, French and Spanish into UK English for 23 years.

A 4-week plan to work from to create a sustainable, high-growth business.

And that, kind reader, marks the end of the book.

The rate calculator is now available as a standalone Excel spreadsheet for those who have purchased the book, or for those signed up to the mailing list at lukespear.co.uk.

These interviews with a dozen established translators round off the book by relating how other translators sell and market their businesses.

…and other online ad platforms.

As covered in the section on gaining clients online, this often-overlooked method is easy to set up and very powerful once a list has been built.

Google offers its own free Analytics tool, which is a great way to start collecting data on your website.

There are numerous shared reports of A/B testing online, each showing varying results from the process.

These short stories from former and existing clients constitute ‘social proof’, and can range from the ‘trust badges’ mentioned earlier to dedicated pages displaying the words of happy customers.

Effective copywriting can mean the difference between converting 2% of site visitors or email readers, to up to 10-20%.

Summary - Use server caching, long-tail keywords, site analytics, and generate shareable content, offering the means to do so.

Summary – write good, relevant quality content, update it frequently, target users who are ready to buy, ensure your site runs fast through caching and content delivery networks, submit sitemaps to search engines, separate out multilingual content, build…

A website can be the ultimate business card, available around the globe 24/7 to convince that direct client or agency looking for your service to place an order.

Given that a translation business relies on the protection of its key digital assets (sensitive documents, client lists, accounts information), it is worth spending a moment considering security best practices.

Fortunately, many of the tools outlined above store your records and work securely on their servers.

Project management There are many of these available with a variety of features on offer, but they all offer the same key benefit: see what projects you are working on, when they are due, and what stage you are at in them.

At this stage you’re likely to have chosen a CAT tool already, are confident in its use, and not keen to change.

Now, if we’re going to manage our all-star client roster of agencies and direct clients, we’ll need to harness the power of automation and reminders in order to make the most of our key asset – our client list.

Before leaving the realm of increasing profits from client acquisition, a mention must be made of your existing clients.

Despite the wonders of the internet, and all of the above methods to reach new clients, these tried-and-tested techniques still work for many: - Cold calling - Cold mailing They may not be as cost effective as email, or as wide reaching as social media, a…

The traditional ways to contact new clients are through cold calls, mailshots and other painfully ineffective, awkward and resource-wasting methods.

Assuming you secure a handful of new clients (various techniques for this to follow) over the coming year, what are your options for managing these alongside existing clients?

To get the most value out of your skillset, you need to find clients who would pick you for your specific skills over a generalist.

As with many things in life, making sales is, for the most part, a numbers game.

I wanted to mention my basic approach to finance, again just to be clear about how I filter any business advice I come across.

Improving your rates with agencies is a little more challenging.

It is often said that there are three general ways to grow a business: 1.