S01E14: Strategic Sales Advice for Language Companies

Sales and selling remains a very unique art in the language translation industry. In this episode of Translation Company Talk, I talk to Francesco Pagano, President of Interpreters and Translators Inc. He is a true veteran of the translation industry and grown up in the trenches, he learnt by doing from an early age. He calls the language industry oldest that mankind knows.

Francesco has learnt selling translation services in a hands on way. He talks about how to establish a sales team, building a process that is constantly changing and how to build it around your buyer. He is a big believer that if it is not fun you shouldn't do it, and he is applying that philosophy in developing his sales model. Getting to the right people, asking the right questions, identifying pain points, and keeping people motivated to do all these is what his philosophy is centered on. We also touch upon finding the right people to drive translation sales. Francesco believes there are lots of good sales people, but they need direction. He also talks about the case made for hiring sales people from outside the industry as there is a vacuum within the language industry. Predicting the behavior of sales people is also important, Francesco talks about a personality test that he applies for identifying the right sales people. 

We also cover many other opportunities and challenges, including aligning sales and marketing, performing sales online, best ways to prospect, developing a niche and how to build on your current strengths and many other interesting topics. Francesco is a true master of selling in the language space and you do not want to miss this episode.

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