The translation client with one document and nothing after

3 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

A company sends a contract, a manual or a set of marketing pages. The translation is delivered, the invoice is paid, and that is the last contact. Six months later the same company has another document and sends it to whoever appears first in a search.

Translation work is unusually prone to this. The buyer is often an assistant or a project coordinator who found a supplier once and has no particular reason to remember which one. Give them a reason.

Yet almost every company that needs translation once needs it repeatedly. The work exists; it simply goes elsewhere.

1. The translation client with one document is nearly always a recurring buyer

Look at the organisation, not the job. The document is a symptom of an ongoing need.

Documents come in families

A contract implies more contracts. A manual implies updates. Ask what else is in the pipeline. A website implies the next set of pages. Very little translation is genuinely one-off.

The person ordering may not be the person who needs it

Marketing, legal, HR and product may all buy translation separately without knowing about each other. Each is a separate opportunity.

2. Make the next order easy

Friction sends people back to a search engine. Make ordering again the path of least effort.

Confirm the process in writing at delivery

How to send the next file, what it costs, how long it takes. Include a direct contact. Removing every question keeps you as the default. Put it in the delivery email.

Keep and reuse their terminology

A glossary specific to their products and house style. Build it from the first job. Consistency is a genuine reason to return and a real cost to switching. Send them a copy of the glossary.

3. Add value the client cannot get from a search result

Compete on something other than rate. There is always somebody cheaper.

Flag what does not translate well

Names, claims, formats, cultural references. Suggest alternatives rather than only problems. Clients rarely receive this and always appreciate it. A short note alongside the file is enough.

Return the file properly formatted

Delivering work that is ready to use saves the client hours and avoids a round of corrections. It is remembered far longer than a lower price is. Match their template where you can.

4. Stay in touch between jobs

Long gaps are the enemy. Six months of silence undoes a good job.

Get in touch a few months later

A short, direct message asking whether anything else is coming works better than a newsletter. Two or three lines.

Note predictable cycles

Annual reports, product launches, catalogue updates, compliance documents. Most companies repeat the same cycle. Ask when theirs happen and get ahead of them. Diarise the dates.

5. Widen inside the account

One department is a small share. The organisation is the account.

Ask who else produces documents

The same company usually has several people buying translation independently. Ask for an introduction.

Offer the adjacent services

Proofreading, revision, subtitling, additional languages. Say which you can do yourself. Each one is another reason to keep you. List them at delivery.

Conclusion

A single document is nearly always a recurring need, because documents arrive in families and several departments buy translation independently without knowing about each other. Confirm at delivery how to send the next file, what it costs and how long it takes, and keep a glossary of their terminology so consistency becomes a reason to return.

Compete on something other than rate: flag what does not translate well, and return files properly formatted so the client saves hours. Then get in touch a few months later with a short direct message, learn their annual cycles and get ahead of them, ask who else in the organisation produces documents, and offer the adjacent services.