Translation agency discovery call: twenty questions in five groups

What to take away

A discovery call is a question protocol, not a conversation. Work through it in order and write the answers down.
Twenty questions in five groups. Most calls need fifteen minutes if you resist explaining your process.
The answers you most need are the ones the buyer thinks are irrelevant: file format, who reviews, and when the source stops changing.
Listen for three specific bad answers. Each one predicts a particular failure later.
End by repeating the six facts back and asking what you got wrong.

Group 1: the content and its purpose

Group 1: content and purpose

What is the content, and what happens to it after we deliver?
Who reads it, and what do you need them to do?
Is any of it legally operative, safety-related, or filed with an institution?
Has it been translated before, in whole or in part?

Question 4 is the one people forget. Existing translations mean existing memory, existing terminology, and existing expectations about wording. Discovering that after delivery means a reviewer comparing your work to a version you never saw.

Group 1: Content and Purpose

What is the content and its purpose?
Who reads it and what should they do?
Is it legally operative or safety-related?
Has it been translated before?

Group 2: the languages

Which target markets, not which languages?
For each market, do you have an existing preference on conventions, address, or tone?
Is there anyone in each market who will read the result?
Do you have a glossary, a style guide, or previously approved wording?

Question 5 matters because the same language serves different markets with different conventions. A buyer who says Portuguese without saying Brazil or Portugal is leaving a decision to someone who has never met their customers.

Group 2: The Languages

Which target markets, not languages?
Existing preference on conventions or tone?
Anyone in each market who will read it?
Glossary, style guide, or approved wording?

Group 3: the files

What format does the content live in, and can we have a sample now?
Is the text editable, or is any of it inside images, scans, or graphics?
Are there character limits, placeholders, or variables?
What format do you need back, and who uses it next?

Ask for the sample on the call. A file in hand answers more than ten minutes of description, and the buyer's answer to "can we have a sample now" tells you how organized the project is.

Group 3: The Files

What format and can we have a sample now?
Is text editable or inside images?
Character limits, placeholders, variables?
What format back and who uses it next?

Group 4: the process

Who on your side reviews the translated text, and are they in the target market?
How long will that review take, and what happens if it slips?
When does the source stop changing?
Who approves the purchase, and have they seen this requirement?

Question 13 is the highest-value question on the list. An in-country reviewer who is not in the schedule still exists, and their comments arrive after delivery as unpaid revision work. Getting them named and scheduled on the first call prevents the single most common source of friction on a new account.

Group 5: the constraints

What is the deadline, and what is it driven by?
What is the volume, and is this a one-off or recurring?
What has gone wrong for you with translation before?
What would make this a success from your side?

Question 19 usually produces the most useful sentence of the call. Buyers describe a past failure in specific terms, and their description tells you what they will be watching for.

Three answers that predict trouble

"Just do all of it, we will send the final version later." The source is not frozen. Agree a freeze point on the call or price the rework.

"Our colleague in the region will take a quick look." That is an unscheduled reviewer with no brief. Name them, give them a window, and agree what happens if the window passes.

"We just need a rough version, it does not have to be perfect." Sometimes true and sometimes the setup for a complaint. Ask what the text will be used for, then write the intended standard into the scope note in plain words.

Close the call properly

Repeat the six facts back: purpose, locales, source condition, review model, freeze point, and approver. Ask what you got wrong. Buyers correct a summary more readily than they volunteer information, so this last minute often produces the most important correction of the call.

Then say what happens next and by when, and do that thing by then.

What not to promise on the call

Do not name a price before the analysis. Do not promise a turnaround before checking who is available. Do not describe a credential or standard you have not confirmed, and do not state what a receiving authority will accept for a certified document; ask that authority instead.

Anything you assert about coverage, credentials, or who performs the work is a claim you may be held to. The FTC guidance on truthful advertising for small businesses is the standard to reason from.

If the call covers spoken interpreting and written translation, treat them as separate scopes. The occupational description of the two professions shows how different their practice and supply are.

Write call notes in the project record while fresh.

Keep them with the quote and any change orders. The IRS guidance on business records expects documents to support what was agreed and billed.

The call feeds directly into how a proposal and its assumptions register are built, and the pricing that follows comes from the pricing and profit guide. Answers to questions 5 and 13 shape how the account is onboarded and delivered. Whether you can accept the deadline depends on the depth of the bench in that pair.

Where these calls come from is the subject of the marketing and growth guide.

Common questions

Twenty questions sounds like an interrogation.

It reads longer than it plays. Grouped and asked conversationally it takes fifteen minutes, and buyers generally like being asked, because it signals that you have done this before.

What if the buyer cannot answer half of them?

That is a finding. Write down which ones are unanswered and treat each as a risk in the proposal's assumptions register rather than filling the gap with a guess.

Should I send the questions in advance?

For a formal buyer, yes; they will circulate them internally and come back with better answers. For a content owner with a deadline, no; send one question and get on a call.

Do I still need a call if the file is small?

A short one, or at least the six facts by email. Small projects are where assumptions go unstated, and a small project with a wrong locale is still a wrong delivery.