ELIA Networking Days, Budapest Presentation: From the client’s mouth

FROM THE CLIENT’S MOUTH

Introduction & Background

Karen Netto

• Over 12 years’ experience as translation buyer

• Past 6 years in financial services

• Qualified translator with business start-up

Jessica Rathke

• 21 years of localisation sales/management experience

• Large/small LSPs

• Europe/USA

Agenda/Goal

What do customers want from your sales people?

– First-hand experience with bad sales practices

What should we be doing?

Using experiences from the past 12 years

Receiving end of bad and good sales practice

– What it feels like to be the recipient of bad sales practices with specific examples

– What works and is appreciated client-side

Life Client-side after the Economic Crisis...

On the Receiving End of Some Cold Calls...

Cold Calling/No Value Proposition

No compelling/relevant message

• Same script from different agencies

• Client goes to sleep

• Robotic

• Lacks warm, spontaneous conversation

• Simultaneous typing up

• Going through motions, wasting time

No differentiation

Same Script as Previous Five Calls ... Boring!

Cold Calling Pattern = Interrogation of Customer

Sales: QuestionClient: AnswerSales: We do it!Sales: QuestionClient: AnswerSales: We do it!Sales: QuestionClient: AnswerSales: We do it!Client: (Yawn)... Well, I really must get back to work now... Bye!

Say they have experience with whatever the client requests…really?

• Sound like used car salesmen

• Buyers not idiots

• Establishing trust is important

All things to all people

– Is this really specialisation?

Practically every LSP has same client laundry list!

The Solution: Cold Call /Value Proposition

Focus on outcomes you deliver, not services you provide

How do other, similar clients USE your services?

Ask intelligent questions focused on CLIENT business issues, not yours

Conversational questions

Give Customer a Chance to Think & Talk!

Emails, Emails, Emails…

Reflect on the following industry techniques...

Free gift for instant order!

• Naive

• NOT for B2B!

• How justify selection?

Top London restaurant invitation – first meeting!

• Compliance procedure

• New bribery laws, especially in UK/USA

False Promises

Areas of specialisation

– Be honest, can’t specialise in EVERYTHING

How many active translators?

How many specialists in niche field?

Language coverage

Not just numbers in database!

Develop a Commercial Mindset

Develop a good understanding of your client’s industry and company

• Read recent press releases/FT for openers

• Be aware of new regulations

• Look at website

• Know what languages

Develop a Commercial Mindset

Look for opportunities based on understanding client

– Issues faced

• Increased regulation

• Turbulence of markets

• Faster turnaround times

• Highly specialised terminology, constantly changing

Who is the Buyer & What is Their Role?

Title of the buyer or client contact

– Decision-maker but decisions not in isolation

• Need to justify and explain decisions

• Others seek to influence decisions

• Need the arguments from you

Make it Easy to Do Business With You

Help client sell internally

– Easy to share presentations

– Easy to digest information

– Easy to cut and paste into my internal emails

– Clear proposals

– Easy to scan, not time-consuming

Develop Meaningful Proposals

Cost effectiveness, not cost reduction

– Demonstrate clearly in your proposal

– Clear, professional proposal

– Make easy to forward to senior colleagues (never likely to meet you)

– Justify your selection against competition

– Short-term outlay v. longer-term savings

Demonstrate Expertise to Customer

Project Plan

– Help client show a clearly thought-out project plan

– Anticipated problems

– Envisaged solutions

– Short- and longer-term planning

– First project towards greater efficiency/quality

Solving Customer Problems

Inform and educate (not lecture)

– Newsletters

• inform on language and cultural issues

• can be forwarded to colleagues when convenient

– Approach gets client to inform you of an issue needing a solution

– Articles of interest

Help the Buyer Help You!

Help your client educate others in their company

– Solve other problems

• Terminology and software solutions

• Good sales people have anticipated future issues and proposed solutions – e.g. KIIDs

• Information in press – may help identify that client has increased volume in a particular language

• How can you tackle the issue of insufficient suitably experienced translators in specialist financial field?

Happy, Interested and Engaged Client...

When Something Goes Wrong – The Problem

When Something goes Wrong – Not the Solution

Sales response: PM response:

What Happens Next to your Client Contact....

Resolve Problems Quickly

Give tools/information to respond quickly internally

• Joint Sales and Project Management approach

Inevitably, there are problems with translation projects

• Not that a problem has arisen, but how you handle it that counts

• A well-handled challenge can result in increased sales!

• Client retention and cross-selling

Summary

Develop a Value Proposition

– What do you do well?

– Which industries do you best serve?

– How have you helped customers?

– VALUE you have provided that someone else can relate to

Specialise

Solve Client Problems

Client Retention – communicate during challenges

Thank you!