How to Handle 100 Clients in One Day.
The translation business is much more than translating a document or being an interpreter for an important business meeting. Just like in show business, it takes a lot of people to make things happen. Some of those who make the wheel turn or should I say, make the wheel start to turn, are the people in the sales department. So how do I handle about 50 to 100 new specific and detailed request every day? Well, besides having to take deep breaths and beg my co-workers to rub my shoulders various times during the day, I find that organization is the best way to keep it together in a professional manner. All this is easy to say but difficult to do unless I follow my 3 step organization plan.
The first step is called Time Management. I use my calendar as my daily planner. There are some things like checking in on clients or following up on clients who haven’t paid that have to be done at a certain time of the week. I jot those things in my calendar and a friendly reminder pops up that tells me to take care of it. I stick to that calendar like my life depended on it, otherwise I know that it will catch up with me and bite me in the bum very soon.
The second step is called email management. I know you’re probably saying, “Huh?” but really, when you are trying to send an email and the thing doesn’t let you send anything because you have a gazillion emails in your inbox, you want to kick yourself for not having deleted them before! That takes precious time out of my day. So, referring back to step one, I go ahead and set my calendar once a month to delete the emails in my junk folder or those emails that live comfortably in my trash bin.
The third step to having a fabulous day as a sales person is knowing how to be persistent and choosing who and when to do so. Persistence should be part of the definition of what a Sales person is; it kind of comes with the territory. Luckily, there is a way to do this without being a pest since nobody likes a persistent pest. It’s important to know when you reached out to your client last, to remember what their feedback was and to feel out how far you can push them to sell your project. There is no way I can remember what I told my 50 to 100 clients last week or even yesterday. It’s impossible. So I make sure that I write small notes of what we talked about or what I quoted the client in our Sales Computer System . Those tiny notes are essential in clicking my memory on as to what my last conversation was with Mr. Jones or Mrs. Smith. It’s crucial.
I’m sure that as my career grows in the sales business I’ll end up implementing a few more steps to ease my work life, especially if my co workers get tired of rubbing my shoulders!