Quit chasing referrals, started hiring interpreters for intro calls, month one was wild

Back in Austin I used to burn 2 hours decoding broken English emails from far-off leads, but after I paid a pro interpreter $60 for a single Zoom call, the deal closed in 3 days, so has anyone else tried this or am I overthinking the language gap?

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke4483d agoMost Upvoted

My cousin runs a dentist office in El Paso and he tried something similar but with a notary for Spanish speaking patients trying to get their kids on Medicaid. Paid the guy 40 bucks for a Tuesday morning and ended up sitting in on three separate calls because one family brought their grandma who had a whole list of questions about braces. He said the notary ended up negotiating a payment plan on the spot and now he just hires him twice a month for like 2 hours. Language gaps are weird man, sometimes you think it's a trust issue but it's really just nobody wanting to feel stupid on a call.

the_olivia2d ago

Is it bad that my first thought was "dang, I've been giving away my free English skills to strangers on Zoom for years when I could've been charging $60"? That dentist story hits home though, my buddy does real estate and he hired a translator for a showing to a Korean family, ended up staying an extra 90 minutes because the grandma wanted to negotiate the closing costs through him. I once tried to do this myself with Google Translate on a call with a Spanish speaking client and accidentally told them I was pregnant instead of saying I was happy to work with them. Let's just say the deal did not close, and I learned that some things you really do need to pay a professional for.