August 1, 2018August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

Know Your Worth takes NYC

As we already mentioned in earlier posts, the Know Your Worth community is having its busiest season yet! We have events planned for later this year, and have already given seminars on three continents and in three countries so far, what with our January Paris edition, our February marathon across the USA and Brazil, and exactly one month ago we added New York City to the map of Know Your Worth locations! We are very happy to share with you some memories and photos from the event.

We’ve decided to keep the same colourful theme as we did for our marathon post, and we you enjoy the extra summer vibes. After all, summers are to be enjoyed, and we hope all our participants feel the same way about our seminars, especially if they take place in the summer.

As those who’ve taken at least one Know Your Worth seminar will know, we like to focus from the start on understanding our participants’ existing and potential clients, their needs, and their reasoning, all of which feeds into a better understanding of the market in general and, as a result, helps our participants develop the mindset necessary for successful marketing, pricing and negotiating.

We also work hard to keep our seminars as business-oriented as possible, helping our participants determine the steps they themselves need to take to ensure the success and sustainability of their interpreting business. To help them on the way, we offer our participants some general guidelines, as well as more practical advice. We also encourage them to find new, innovative solutions, and to continue exchanging positive ideas and good practices that might be useful to more than one colleague, and more than in just one sector of the market or just one country.

This was our second stop in the US, and we were very excited to see whether the atmosphere in New York would be any different from that in Washington, DC. It was, but both groups were an absolute delight to work with.

The NYC group was very enthusiastic about both learning and sharing their own experience, which helped make the discussion a lively and energetic one. It felt that they had really entered into the spirit of Know Your Worth: they were willing to take new ideas on board and rethink old approaches. It is this openness of mind that is of particular importance in this field, especially when it comes to such questions as branding, positioning, and client relations.

We always look forward to welcoming new colleagues to the community, as with them they bring new stories to share, new cases to study, and new situations to analyze, all of which contribute to this big ‘bank’ of marketing and negotiating knowledge we’re building with you. This, in turn, contributes to our understanding of the market and helps us better prepare ourselves to face the multitude of challenges that we as freelancers have to deal with on a regular basis. Knowing which mistakes to watch out for, and how best to deal with the more tricky situations, will help not only ensure our stability, but also our success and future development.

We should aim high, and reach for the stars, and having a solid foundation always helps. Which is exactly what we try to do for all our participants, enabling them to grow and thrive in their respective markets.

We would like to express our immense gratitude to AIIC USA for hosting us once again, and for doing such a brilliant job at it. We would especially like to warmly thank all our participants for joining us for the weekend and being such a wonderful group to work with.

If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

We will be publishing our schedule for the upcoming months shortly, so please stay tuned for more updates, and don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

You can also check our Facebook page for regular updates.

June 15, 2018November 4, 2020 by kywseminar

The Business of Interpreting: FAQ 9 – What is the customer decision journey?

What will trigger a potential client’s realization that they need an interpreter? And how will they go about finding one? Hard to say right off the bat, so let’s start by thinking about how we search for something, for example terms for a medical conference. The internet, of course – but where exactly?

There are many search engines available, bringing up lots of websites – some gathering all sorts of terminology, others giving you just one term at a time. One of the medical speeches will be about how substances in smaller quantities can be helpful, but larger can kill you – digitalis is one example. So you look up digitalis and get lots of photos of flowers, one of which you just saw in your garden. Really? What’s its common name? Foxglove! Hmm, where did that name come from? And you find that in various Gaelic languages, it’s “folksgloves,” like fairy folk. Then you wonder, do languages other than Gaelic mention the fairies when talking about this plant? And down the rabbit hole you go, not looking up from your computer for hours.

The internet has so many different paths that no one’s journey is alike, even if they start at the same place. And really, maybe no one even starts at the same place either – you noticed the digitalis, maybe another interpreter focused on nanoparticles.

Our potential clients face the same problem. They could start with a search for linguists; they may understand that they want spoken or oral translators. They might even know the word interpreter, though some of those hits will bring up actors or computer programs that execute other programs.They could look for an individual, or an agency. They may already know someone who knows someone. Or they may simply call the local university to ask for a student who speaks that language. Or the embassy of that country. There is no set path.

The customer decision journey

So let’s take a look at the typical customer decision journey. It starts off with a trigger, something that prompts a search, in this case for an interpreter. That trigger could be anything – the boss wants to invite a famous speaker from another country to the AGM, the CEO has just thought about expanding into overseas markets, or the EU suddenly realizes that all their French interpreters with German will be retiring in the next few years. In other words, it could be anything.

The next phase of the journey is research. This is the scary part, as clients most probably don’t know you, may not even be aware of your industry, and they could go anywhere. They have multiple paths available, such as recommendations from friends and colleagues, television, print media, the yellow pages, and of course the internet.

Social media may help, if you are a prominent contributor of content that educates buyers on your own website as well as on LinkedIn and other platforms where serious clients would expect to find a professional. But it may also hurt, since it is easy to find others doing the same thing as you, as well as numerous other distractions. And SEO doesn’t always work here, e.g. if the client heads in a direction that is different from what you consider logical – keep in mind that phone call to the embassy! This phase is when clients gather and evaluate most of the information they need to find the interpreter(s) they will finally hire. In today’s world of immediate gratification, it may take very little time.

Once they have evaluated the information, clients start contacting the interpreters and agencies they found. In fact, well over fifty percent of their buying process will have been completed before they ever contact anyone – which means that clients already have in mind a ranking of the people or agencies they are contacting, and if the first person who answers even comes close to what the potential client wants, they will most probably get the job.

So any information they get from you both during and immediately after the search phase will be critical, as it will differentiate you from the mass of other providers that they are in effect interviewing.

This is where all your homework on what value you provide and how you differ from other interpreters will come in handy. Never merely state a price and end the call – you must have a conversation. The easiest way to start would be by asking where they found you, which is good market research for you as well. After that, make sure to ask all the questions you need to do due diligence on the client and the event, and listen carefully to the answers. If their problem is one you can solve, let them know that you will get back to them in [name a time] with an offer. Then get back to them at that time without fail, to start building trust.

The next point on the journey is when you are offered the job. This is only the halfway point in the customer journey, and takes little time, just like the trigger. It takes place once and is the start of the second half of the cycle, a portion that most of us ignore.

Groundwork for the future

You shouldn’t think that you can simply sign the contract, provide the service, get paid, and have a satisfied client. You may not realize it, but there are multiple contacts you will have with the client during the process of providing your services: obtaining documents, providing input on equipment, advising on how to ensure the event is truly multilingual as opposed to an event with a superficial patch of last-minute interpreter hires. Each one of those contacts will lead your client into thinking that you are easy to work with, fulfill their needs, and have an engaging personality – or it could prove the opposite. At the end of the day, it isn’t just your interpreting – it is this phase that makes or breaks you.

In fact, mediocre to bad customer experience is the norm, so anything you can do to enhance this relationship and experience will ensure that clients see you not simply as a service provider, but as the expert and partner that contributed to a successful event. Clients will not only know, like and trust you for the future, but they will become your advocates in a densely crowded and highly competitive market.

If a client is happy, ask for a written testimonial or a recommendation online, and for possible referrals to new contacts. The written aspect of a testimonial cements their opinion of you in their minds, and the social aspect shows others that clients speak positively about you, which of course is much more valuable than you talking about yourself.

At this point, you have come full circle back to when something new triggers their need to hire an interpreter. But since the previous experience was so positive, why would clients waste time repeating the research and evaluation process? They call you directly, and you take the shortcut directly to the point where you are hired again.

This is a simplified model of how a client finds a service provider. There are many other models that make the rounds, such as the funnel model (you run into that when you click to receive a free report and are required to give your email address to have it sent to you), or the hero journey (described by Joseph Campbell and exemplified by Luke Skywalker), but this one sums up best what we ourselves have to deal with when clients find us.

I bet that most of those that called you out of the blue have already done a minimum of research, at least to find your name, even if that was simply searching for “spoken translator” + “your foreign language” + “your city”. It’s your job to then make their calls to you into such engaging conversations, showcasing your value to them, that they go no further, and become your biggest fans.

Originally published on the blog of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (https://aiic.org/site/world/newsEvents/blog)

May 14, 2018August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

Know Your Worth Gets Ready to Hit New York

It seems that the Know Your Worth community is having its busiest season yet, as following the success of our Know Your Worth marathon, and that of the first ever seminar we held in the USA, we are delighted to announce our return to America, and that registration is now open for our first ever New York Edition.

The seminar will take place on 30 June – 1 July 2018, and we would be very happy to see you there.

If you are an interpreter who wishes to improve your relationships with clients and prospects, gain more respect, and negotiate higher fees, then this two-day event is exactly what you need!

You will receive two days of tuition, covering essential skills for any interpreter, costing less than one day’s interpreting fee.

You will be encouraged to take a step back from your own position, and envision the entire client relationship from new perspectives.

What is important to explore?

We will examine the mindset underlying the marketing and negotiating tasks that you carry out every day, so you may acquire invaluable tools that will have an immediate effect on your bottom line.

We will address questions such as:

What can you do to increase your chances of getting the job once you have targeted the client?

What should you avoid saying, or else the client may never hire you – or anyone else?

What phrase should always end your conversations with any client?

How do you increase your chances of earning what you are worth?

We will discuss concepts such as branding, selling, client relationships, pricing, negotiating tricks, and “coopetition,” all illustrated with real-life examples.

Julia draws on parallels with other – often surprisingly similar – professions, and what lessons we may learn from them. She focuses on the upstream work and preparation that must be done before the interpreter advertises his/her services, or negotiates any contracts.

To register, please use the link below, and don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

Register here!

If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

Please stay tuned for more updates, and don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

You can also check our Facebook page for regular updates.

April 3, 2018November 4, 2020 by kywseminar

The Business of Interpreting: FAQ 8 – What is the most sustainable interpreting market?

Things have been going well, you have lots of work with a great client, you are earning lots of money – and then suddenly bam! Something happens… and now you are making almost nothing. Your loyal client is no longer hiring you more than once in a blue moon. What can you do?

In actual fact, the question should be “what could I have done to prevent it?” Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good career move – that’s why there are sayings and fables about it. So let’s take a look at clients and how we can make our situation more sustainable.

The myth of the ideal client

Most of us would think that finding that one client who can hire us every day of the year for decent fees and conditions is a godsend. How fantastic, we don’t have to take the time to market, research new jobs, figure out how to work for a new client, or anything else! We are practically employees, but still able to take our vacations when we want to.

Most often, this type of client is the hiring agent in a government interpretation service, an international organization or an agency. You like the work and don’t have to worry. Your contact knows you and your work, likes you and the ease of dealing with you, and trusts you. For them, you are a consistent element, so why would they bother trying to find another?

This is all well and good, but have you considered how fragile this situation is? What happens if your longtime contact falls ill, or retires, or changes jobs? Have you been nurturing an authentic relationship with them so you know ahead of time that they are moving, so you can make plans? Have you been educating this person for a long time, and can you ask them to pass on the fruits of that education to their replacement or to include them in a standard operating procedures file?

Or even more out of your control, what if you’ve been working for an international organization, and your main language combination is dependent on the political or economic situation in the world? In other words, the major country that speaks your language does something the international organization considers to be beyond the pale, and suddenly they no longer hire anyone with your languages?

Or have you thought about subprime loan risks that spread throughout the global economy? Governments the world over cut their budgets, so many international organizations are now just trying to keep their heads above water and there is much less work for interpreters.

These are all-too-familiar situations that can happen to any of us at any time, and all have happened to some of us. We can cross our fingers and hope that things will pick up again in the near future –though this isn’t very helpful because while the economic situation has only just started moving, it looks to be sinking again; the political situation looks frozen. And how long will this new hiring officer who actively doesn’t want to hire us stay in the job?

Or is there a more sustainable way of finding regular work?

Alternatives

Somewhat counter-intuitively, direct clients on the private market look to be the most sustainable way of working as a freelance interpreter today. Such clients are easier to get to know, and have multiple means of entry – you may get a toehold in the export department, and then get called to work with the marketing and sales departments. Once the company has a long term relationship abroad, you might get brought in to help manage their customer relations. And any time anyone makes a trip to visit that market, you have another job.

If you think about it, even if governments aren’t talking to one another, individuals still do. There will always be some sort of business relationship that people need to maintain. When deals go wrong, there will be international arbitration. And there are always some sort of civil society efforts that need interpreters. It may not be what you would strictly call conference interpreting, but these are fields that many of us have worked in.

If you have a strong base of private clients, even if they are concentrated in a particular niche, you don’t have to worry as much if one of them disappears. Even if they are in the same niche, they maybe at different stages in developing their foreign markets. You don’t have to worry when the hiring agent at one of them changes, that the economic situation in one company will be reflected in exactly the same way in all of them, or that a suddenly different political situation will hit each of them identically.

Moreover, if you have been educating all your points of contact to work with you as a full member of the team, and if you have been maintaining an authentic relationship with them, then when they move on, it may be a great opportunity for you! They may leave instructions for their successors, who will then understand that the company already knows, likes and trusts you; you’ll have less marketing to do to keep them as a client. Plus, you will have the added value of knowing that a second company doesn’t need the same level of education, because your former contact point is now preaching your cause in the new company.

So if sustainability is the watchword, and market diversification is the best way of remaining sustainable, then put more of your eggs in the direct client basket!

Originally published on the blog of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (https://aiic.org/site/world/newsEvents/blog)

March 27, 2018August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

Two Continents in Two Weeks. Catching up on the KYW Marathon

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Hello and welcome to the longest post we’ve published on our blog yet. So before you scroll down, please prepare yourself for some exciting news and very colourful images. After all, it’s spring, and in some parts of the world it feels like summer already, and we thought a bit of colour would be in order.

If you follow us on social media, you probably know that we’ve had a rather exiting (to say the least) couple of months, as just a few weeks after the end of our Paris Edition we embarked upon a little marathon that took Know Your Worth two three locations over two continents, and what a journey has that been.

First up: Washington, D.C.

First, AIIC USA invited us to hold a seminar in Washington, D.C., which we did on 17 – 18 February 2018. This was the first time that the Know Your Worth seminar was brought to the AIIC USA region, and, needless to say, we were very excited to expand to the American market.

One of the most important steps necessary for any marketing or negotiating to work is making sure you understand your existing and potential clients. The why? and the what for? of the game are probably among the most relevant questions you can ask yourself before diving in, head-first, into that big negotiation, or picking up the phone to make that one call.

Which is why we decided to kick things off by talking about the mindset necessary for successful marketing, and covered some general principles (as well as a number of highly practical aspects) of pricing and negotiating, all necessary steps in building a more sustainable and much more successful interpreting business.

We like to keep are seminars business-oriented, so you can imagine that too was a major part of the discussion.

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We are big fans of an interactive approach, and we also want to make sure that all our participants have their questions answered. Which is why we send out a survey to our participants before the seminar, to find out what they would be most interested in discussing, and which subjects they would be most interested in covering during the seminar.

Julia also offers one consultation for free to all of our participants, be it next steps, or looking at a CV or website, or a strategy question, and we are very happy that our participants are finding it helpful.

My favourite thing about the seminar? Julia’s offer to have a consultation. I have my question and I am excited to ask it soon.

Jesse Tomlinson, KYW Washington, D.C., February 2018

We would like to once again express our immense gratitude to the AIIC USA Training Committee, and our wonderful colleague Cyril Flerov in particular, for inviting us over, and for doing such a fabulous job at hosting our first-time US edition. We would also like to thank Sonja Swenson, who helped us make sure everything ran smoothly on the day of the seminar, and without whom it would have been much more difficult to take care of all the things on the ground.

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Next stop: Brazil

The São Paulo Edition

After Washington, we went to São Paulo at the invitation of AIIC Brazil and their Training Committee, and our first-ever seminar in Brazil took place on 21 – 22 February 2018.

The seminars in Brazil, just as the one in Washington, D.C., were held in what has become our traditional two-day format. The format, that allows to focus on both marketing and negotiating, also gives us and our participants an opportunity to delve deeper into such subjects as branding, positioning, pricing, pitching, and client relations, all of which are important factor to achieving success.

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As freelancers we face many challenges on a daily basis, and since the nature and character of these challenges vary so much from market to market, and from case to case, it is extremely important that we share our stories and examples and learn from the experience of our peers.

That is precisely why we always look forward to welcoming new colleagues to the community, as they always have something new and interesting to share, be it a case study, an idea or a principle they’ve been trying to apply to their work. All of this feeds into the overall ‘bank’ of experience, which helps us avoid mistakes in the future and considerably improves our performance in the present.

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After all, it’s all about learning new things, and what better place to learn than an intense yet interactive event, surrounded by like-minded and highly experienced colleagues.

And if it’s a fun environment and a warm and welcoming atmosphere – well, that’s even better.

Here’s what one of our participants had to say about it:

We looked at theoretical approaches, role-played some sample scenarios, discussed client behavior, and I took home a lot of new ideas. The way she really strives to add as much value as possible to the course, such as by recommending books, videos, websites, and more, is in itself a great example to follow with my own clients.

Daniel Erlich, KYW São Paulo, February 2018

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Final stop: Rio

After São Paulo we continued our marathon – and tour of Brazil – to our final destination: the beautiful and magical Rio de Janeiro, where our seminar took place on 24 – 25 February 2018.

The atmosphere in Rio was truly amazing, in every sense of the word, and we have our participants to thank for that, for readily taking part in the discussion, and for bringing so much to the table.

We like to see our participants brainstorm some of the more challenging cases together, as this way they are often able to find new and exciting solutions to different marketing and negotiating problems. We also urge them to share cases from their own experience, as often this proves to be even more interesting to solve than any usual textbook examples.

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We would like to thank all of you for taking such an active part in the discussion, and for being so generous with your own cases and experience. The discussion could not have been as relevant to the current situation on the market without that, nor would we have been able to cover such a broad spectrum of problems – and problem-solving techniques.

We would also like to take a moment to thank the APTD in general, and the brilliant Denise de Vasconcelos and Cecilia Tsukamoto in particular, for their incredible hospitality, and for organizing nor one, but two memorable and truly unforgettable editions.

Honestely, I did not expect to have a colleague prepared to confidently share so much knowledge on marketing. I thought we would be talking about our market a few suggestions would be made here and there on how to approach it.

KYW Rio de Janeiro participant, February 2018

The content was a great fit for the current market situation in Brazil, and Julia delivered it with knowledge and grace.

Anna Vianna, KYW Rio de Janeiro, February 2018

We learned lots from the participants everywhere, as they brought new cases and new ideas to the table. Funnily enough, the Washington, D.C. edition was almost as full of Portuguese interpreters as the ones we held in Brazil, but they had different contexts they all worked in.

…this seminar has changed and validated some principles I can use not only for my business, but also for my personal life.

Franziska Becskehazy, KYW Rio de Janeiro, February 2018

These three editions allowed us to reach more than 50 new interpreters in the Americas, and travel across two continents in the span of a little over two weeks. We met new colleagues, talked about new cases, and got to grow our community even further, helping our newest members find the answer to that one very important question: do you know your worth?

Do you?

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This year has already given us much to be grateful for, and even more to look forward to, and we would like to end this post by thanking all those who took part, and helped us make it all possible.

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If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

February 11, 2018August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

2018. A New Year and a New Paris Edition

Following the success of our three Russian editions, we decided it was time to bring the Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating Interpreters seminar back to Paris, and that’s where our most recent edition took place, on 20 – 21 January 2018.

It was the first seminar we held after the beginning of the New Year, and we were naturally very excited to meet our new participants, and explore our new location. It was also in many ways it was a very special edition for us, as it symbolised our return to Paris after an almost two-year-long break.

It was also very special in that it brought together the most multinational group of participants we’ve had on the course yet, with colleagues hailing from Belgium, England, France, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States, all working in different language combinations. We’ve also had colleagues with some rare (for the European market) languages join the team, which meant that we had an even greater spectrum of case studies and examples to look at.

The seminar was held in a our now well established two-day format, which allowed for a detailed discussion of the seminar’s two main subjects: marketing, and negotiating. Once again, we were able to dedicate an entire day to an in-depth study of each of the main topics, as well as cover such questions as branding, positioning, pricing, pitching, and client relations, and to discuss the many challenges that we, as freelance interpreters – and freelance professionals – must face on a daily basis.

The KYW training is the fastest path to success for you interpreters out there dreaming of landing THE best clients and THE best deals ever! special thanks to Julia Poger!

Cyril Belange

We like to see our participants brainstorm some of the more challenging cases together, in small or larger groups, as this way they are often able to discover new and exciting solutions to different marketing and negotiating problems. We also urge them to share cases from their own experience, as often this prove to be even more interesting to solve than any usual textbook examples.

We would like to thank all of this edition’s participant for taking such an active part in the discussion, and for being so generous with sharing their own cases and experience. This made the discussion even more relevant to the present-day situation on the market, and allowed us to cover an even broader spectrum of problems – and problem-solving techniques.

Here’s what one of the participants had to say about it:

Attending the seminar was very important to me not only to learn the art of negotiation and how to deal with new prospective clients, but more importantly to learn and understand from YOU and the other attendees what is the nature of the European job market for interpreters, I wanted to know if I have a chance in entering it.

Coming to the seminar was one of the best things I attended in my professional life.

Duna Qalyoubi

We also talked about the mindset necessary for successful marketing, and covered some general principles (as well as a number of highly practical aspects) of pricing and negotiating, all necessary steps in building a more sustainable and much more successful interpreting business. We were also able to devote some time to looking into how the interpreting profession is perceived from the outside, all in order to better understand our potential and existing clients.

Traditionally, one of the core features of the seminar is the atmosphere we try to create to encourage our participants to take an active part in the discussion, sharing their personal experience, and exchanging ideas on how best to implement the new tools and techniques in their work. Which is why we would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful team at Espaces Réunion for helping us create a unique and memorable atmosphere for the seminar, and for making sure that our participants had a wonderful time and nothing to worry about, except getting to the seminar, and getting the most out of it.

We could not have wished for a better place to hold out seminar, and the two days we spent there proved to be not only incredibly useful, but also great fun.

Which, we firmly believe, is the best way to learn.

This has truly been the best start of the new year we could have possibly asked for, and we are grateful to all those who took part, and helped us make it possible.

We now have a busy couple of months ahead of us, with Know Your Worth editions taking place in Washington, D.C., as well as in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

January 26, 2018November 4, 2020 by kywseminar

The Business of Interpreting: FAQ 7 – What is the rule of 7?

It’s funny how knowledge in one sphere of our lives is not always transferred to others. I know interpreters who own apartments to rent. They would never allow anyone to live in one of them without a written agreement, but would never think of putting anything on paper when hiring other interpreters.

In previous FAQs, I’ve spoken about relationships but haven’t really defined them. We all know how to make friends and have done since we were children. But for some reason, once we grow up and are no longer carefree students, we tend to forget how to enter into a mutually beneficial, authentic interaction with another person.

So let’s take a quick look at working relationships with clients who are not our colleagues.

The rule of seven

First of all, a very brief history of how sales used to work before we entered the brave new world of one-to-one marketing. Over the decades during which sales became a specialty, there were rules that salespeople sussed out on the job and that have since been validated through practice and research. One of the most important is the rule of seven: It takes an average of seven contacts to make a sale.

This is why cold callers don’t get far. It’s why sales people who call you in the middle of dinner get hung up on. It’s why you never hear back from people you sent your CV to.

Before one-to-one, or relationship, marketing became the norm, that meant literally contacting a possible client seven times before you would capture a sale. In the good old days of Wild West marketing for interpreting contracts, that meant:

Call to find out who should get your CV.
Send your CV.
Call to confirm they received your CV.
Wait a few weeks and send a card updating some of the information on your CV – you have anew skill, you offer new hours, whatever.
Send a Christmas card to the person.
Send a new CV reflecting an update to your skills.
Call to say hello.

By this time, the prospective client would be so sick of you that they would give you an assignment just to get you off the phone. Or else you would contact them just as something you could do came across their desk; it was pure coincidence that they could hire anyone so quickly.

None of it was really building a relationship, but it certainly made sure your name was familiar. All the client knew was that you were familiar and persistent, and perhaps pushy. And frankly, as politicians all over the world know, even bad publicity is publicity.

In Europe, where Wild West marketing would get you shot down in flames in many markets, you still have to get through an average of seven contacts, it simply takes much longer. The three years it took me in the US to get to the point where I no longer had to market myself to have as much work as I wanted, can take at least 5 years in Europe, assuming you’re steady in your efforts.

The advent of relationship marketing

Today, “relationship marketing” rules. The idea is the same in that we still have to contact prospects several times before they become clients. But other things have changed making our job harder –such as having only nine seconds to make a good first impression instead of at least a minute or two. Some – like relationship marketing – make our lives more complicated, but a lot more fun.

One thing that I love about interpreting is getting to know people, and helping them to communicate their ideas to others. The better I know them, the better I communicate their ideas. Getting to know them is the fun part – and it is far from the traditions of waiting my telephone to ring, for someone to call and say they have an assignment for me, or just sending out my CV to everyone I know.

The key to relationship marketing is having an authentic connection. You don’t (usually) go on a first date with someone and immediately start thinking of baby names; why would you want to meet people only so they can hire you? When I meet anyone who could be a prospective client, I don’t think about that future job they could hire me for. I think about what they do, ask them questions to find out their interests, and talk about myself as little as possible. If an idea sparks during our conversation, I share it.

After I return to the office, I note the person’s contact details, along with anything I can remember that stood out from our conversation – especially the sparks. If they are proud of their son’s Little League win, I note that. If I promised them a book recommendation, I make sure to send it the next day with a message saying how great it was to meet them. If I run across an article that I am sure will interest them, I send it along. If we live in the same city, I may ask if they want to go out for a coffee or lunch sometime, and not necessarily to talk about work.

Prospective clients are people too, and will be turned off by a hard sell. The idea is to keep the relationship going. Then, when the company finally does have that event, they know whom to call. And you end up consulting for them, knowing more about what the goals for the meeting are, helping to organize it, and adding a new paying client.

Of course, the relationship is not based on that at all, so whether or not you get work,you still keep in touch. And even in markets where much of interpreters’ work comes from agencies, there is no reason not to call the person who hires you to ask them out for a drink. Agencies are not always our enemies, and if you are happy working for one, that means that you should have more than simply a sales contact with someone on the staff.

“Oh, but…,” I hear a lot from interpreters. “It just isn’t done.” Or “What will people think?” I am not advocating trying to make agency representatives or prospective clients into your best friends. I am not even advocating turning them into friends in the strict sense of the word. It is a very rare client who becomes someone you want to invite to your house, meet your family, or accept an invitation from to stay at their place.

But having a drink to talk about things other than assignments, being a“business friend”, can only be a good thing. It paves the way for more sensitive conversations later, such as, “You do know I have this other language combination as well?” Or “It would be better to organize this part of the meeting in a different way.” Or “It’s about time we had that conversation about raising my rates.”

Remember the earlier FAQ about your ideal client? Having an authentic relationship with an ideal prospective client should be easy. And the best part of this type of marketing is that you aren’t poaching on another interpreter’s territory, and you won’t be able to be poached from as you have a real connection. And when your contact changes jobs, as they will, you now have a good contact with a company that has never heard of you before – and a referral from your contact for the new person at their old desk.

So it still takes an average of seven contacts to make a sale, but those contacts are more authentic, more fulfilling, and a lot more fun.

Originally published on the blog for the International Association of Conference Interpreters (https://aiic.org/site/world/newsEvents/blog)

December 31, 2017August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

Season’s greetings!

As another year draws to a close, we here at the Know Your Worth community would like to wish you all the best for the New Year to come, and we hope that it brings you much happiness and joy. After all, what are the holidays for, but to enjoy a well-deserved break, and a beautiful start of another year ahead?

We would also like to take this opportunity to take a look back at what we as a community have achieved over the past year. It was quite an exciting year for us, as those of you who’ve been following us here and on social media are probably well aware of.

Last year we brought the Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating for Interpreters seminars to Paris, Cologne, and Saint Petersburg, and this year we had two more editions, bringing the seminar to Moscow first in February, and then for a second round in September.

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The month of September also saw our instructor, Julia Poger, join the jury of the Cosines International Contest for Simultaneous / Consecutive Interpreters, and we are delighted to share with you a special video prepared by the Cosines team to see in the new year.

This autumn in general has been a busy season for us, as we have decided to go truly international, with the seminar returning to Paris in January, 2018, and new editions announced for the USA and Brazil in February, 2018.

So here’s to another incredible year, to new members and new achievements, and we hope that this new year brings much happiness and joy to all our members!

Best wishes,

And see you in the New Year!

November 19, 2017August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

A busy year ahead

It seems that we here at the Know Your Worth community have a very exciting year ahead, with not one, but two new editions coming up in winter alone! First, the Paris edition on 20-21 January, and then, less than a month later, one in Washington, DC on 17-18 February.

For the first time, AIIC USA will bring Julia Poger’s Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating for Interpreters to the USA, and we hope you are as excited as we are.

If you are an interpreter who wishes to improve your relationships with clients and prospects, gain more respect, and negotiate higher fees, then this two-day event is exactly what you need!

You will receive two days of tuition, covering essential skills for any interpreter, costing less than one day’s interpreting fee.

You will be encouraged to take a step back from your own position, and envision the entire client relationship from new perspectives.

What is important to explore?

We will examine the mindset underlying the marketing and negotiating tasks that you carry out every day, so you may acquire invaluable tools that will have an immediate effect on your bottom line.

We will address questions such as:

What can you do to increase your chances of getting the job once you have targeted the client?

What should you avoid saying, or else the client may never hire you – or anyone else?

What phrase should always end your conversations with any client?

How do you increase your chances of earning what you are worth?

We will discuss concepts such as branding, selling, client relationships, pricing, negotiating tricks, and “coopetition,” all illustrated with real-life examples.

To register, please use the link below, and don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

If you would like to hold a seminar in your area, please contact us via this website, or by contacting the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

Please stay tuned for more updates, and don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions.

You can also check our Facebook page for regular updates.

October 24, 2017August 24, 2020 by kywseminar

Next stop: Paris!

It’s been exactly one month since the last Moscow Edition of the Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating for Interpreters, and we thought this would be a good moment to share some truly exciting news with you, as we are finally ready to announce the dates of the next Know Your Worth edition.

So, we are very happy to announce that the next edition of the Know Your Worth seminar for interpreters will take place in Paris on 20-21 January 2018.

For those of you new to the community, Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating for Interpreters is a two-day seminar aimed at any interpreter who wishes to improve relationships with clients and prospects, gain more respect, and negotiate higher fees.

The seminar is taught by Julia Poger (AIIC). The seminar language is English.

By examining the mindset underlying the marketing and negotiating tasks that interpreters carry out every day, participants will obtain invaluable tools for marketing their services and negotiating contracts that they may put into practice immediately, whichever market they target.

Various question will be addressed, such as:

– What can you do to increase your chances of getting the job once you have targeted the client?

– What should you avoid saying, or else the client may never hire you – or anyone else?

– What phrase should always end your conversations with any client?

– How do you increase your chances of earning what you are worth?

The trainer will work with you on your examples, as well as case studies from her own experience, showing how these techniques are replicable across markets.

Concepts such as branding, selling, client relationships, pricing, negotiating tips, and “coopetition” will also be discussed, all illustrated with real-life examples.

Julia draws on parallels with other – often surprisingly similar – professions, and what lessons we could learn from them. She focuses on the upstream work that must be done by the interpreter before advertising his/her services, as well as on the preparation involved before beginning the selling or negotiating process.

Since there is always new material to study, and you know how much we love to read about marketing, there will be quite a few new elements on both days of the Course.

Participants will be encouraged to take a step back from their own position, and envision the entire client relationship from new perspectives.

To register, please use the contact form in the Registration section, or contact the seminar organizer Tatiana Kaplun directly at kaplun.tatiana@gmail.com.

Please note that the number of participants is limited to 15 students.