By Ticiane Martins

Writing about how to make new clients is also a learning opportunity to me. As a translator, I feel that this is a constant challenge for any freelancer professional. In this long journey for building a career, there are some phases that are crucial. For example, the beginning of the profession is very challenging, with a lot of expectations, anxiety and fear. In this stage, you need to know managing these normal insecurities, common to all fresh professionals, and try to keep the initiative and the determination, which should always be present to acquiring and maintaining of clients. It is worth mentioning that the formation of the translator is essential and should be seen as a process that is always happening and that must remain constant independent of the phase in which the translator is in his career.

Then, at the beginning, how to make new clients? First, it is important to pay attention to the material that you will use for getting closer to the customer. Your résumé, for example, should be updated, clear and succinct. In times of social networks and internet, it is helpful to have a profile on professional networks and perhaps, eventually, write a blog on any subject related to your area of expertise in order to increase your visibility and enable the client to know a little more about your ideas. If you still do not have professional experience, do some translations volunteers can help, but it is necessary to know how to select to whom you provide your services to ensure that volunteering can actually give credibility and visibility to you.

As you think about the presentation material, you must to know who are your potential customers and where to find them. For this reason, it is crucial to understand what is the service offered and who has need of hire it. Once this is clear, it is time to look for these customers and, thus, a search on the internet can help you to locate them and get their contacts. After you define who are your clients and where they are, is the moment to establish what is the best strategy for an approach to the client. And this may be done from simply sending the résumé by e-mail to defining a differentiated strategy, which should be done with clarity to cause the best impression possible. It might be interesting to make a register of those potential customers, so, after a while, you can make a new attempt to gain the client, if he has not yet contact you. Once the client contact you to request service, it is essential that the circumstances of the provision of service are well agreed among the parties involved to avoid future problems. For the freelancer, it is essential to honour any commitment made (in relation to the term, for example), to make a positive impression on the client. If a problem occurs, the communication with the customer is vital to maintain your credibility. However, keeping the client can be as challenging as the first contact with him. I think the key characteristic are: do a good job, establish a good communication with the client and ask him a feedback about the work done to better understand their expectations and possibly create an opportunity for a next job.

The Sebrae, an important Brazilian institution focused toward the care of professional entrepreneurs, discloses constantly tips on the website to help professionals to gain and retain customers. In one of these materials disclosed on the site, is underscored the importance of knowing the client and, for this reason, it would be fundamental to understand the customer and their expectations, satisfy their cravings and offer services representing possible solution to these concerns. In accordance with these tips, keeping quality, compliance with the deadlines and a good service is no longer key advantages over its competition and in order to stand out in the market, it would be necessary to retain the client and this only happen in the long term. The customer loyalty, according to the Sebrae, would be crucial because it is more expensive to get a new customer than gaining client loyalty. Furthermore, the majority of new customers comes from the indication of these loyal customers. A strategy to retain the customer could be used to create some differentiated campaign for customers who are looking for your work frequently, to personalize the communication and make the so-called relationship marketing (always keeping in touch with those clients in some way). And the freelancer may also invest in Customer Relationship Management, gathering a lot of information about the customer and providing personalized customer services.

To help you establish yourself as a professional freelancer is fundamental, therefore, have clear objectives and seeking to understand who your customers are, where they are and how to approach them. But, even more important than gaining a new customer, you must know how to retain an old client. Therefore, the professional freelancer should always be alert and active, dedicating a portion of their time to keep and gain customers.

References

SEBRAE. Disponível em: <https://www.sebrae.com.br/sites/PortalSebrae/artigos/cadastro-de-clientes-conheca-as-ferramentas,9e69438af1c92410VgnVCM100000b272010aRCRD>. Acesso em 9 de julho de 2017.

SEBRAE. Disponível em: <http://www.sebrae.com.br/sites/PortalSebrae/ufs/ap/artigos/como-conquistar-e-manter-clientes,5044d8052245c410VgnVCM2000003c74010aRCRD>. Acesso em 9 de julho de 2017.

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