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Abwerbung

English translation: soliciting / enticement (of customers)

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:Abwerbung
English translation:soliciting / enticement (of customers)
Entered by: Bernhard Sulzer

07:37 Feb 22, 2009
German to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Marketing / Market Research
German term or phrase: Abwerbung
I have read the glossary entries and am still not really sure what is best here..this is in a list entitled:
Abwerbung durch sonstigen bekannten Wettbewerber and uses the term often:
Abwerbung durch xxx

The client this is for is a services provider in the field of energy services (heat metering / water meters etc etc.)


I wonder whether "taking away clients" may work
Any help much appreciated
TAI
Stephen
Stephen Sadie
Germany
Local time: 21:05
soliciting (of customers)
Explanation:
soliciting (solicitation) of customers through/by the competition

I believe this term could be used within your context, especially in the phrase "Abwerbung durch" / "soliciting (solicitation) by the competition"
although to solicit is of course also used for "anwerben".
But its negative connotation might be what you are looking for here.
If it's too strong, then maybe something like

competitors' client pitch
competitors' advertising (campaigns)
client (customer) enticements by other ...competitors
special client offers made by other ...competitors
advertising (campaigns) by other well known competitors

Abwerbung is an active noun if you will, and abwerben is a particular activity, carried out through, for example, special offers which is expressed in the "werbung"/advertisement" part of the word. Here, the "ab" part brings in the negative connotation. I believe that should be expressed as such in English as well.

It's the competitor who's doing the wooing, the winning (them) over.
I think it is mostly possible to use such terms by rephrasing the sentence, see below. But this is more difficult for "Abwerbung durch xxx" - maybe not quite a loss, but the attempt to steal/take away customers (but these might be too strong).
"Abwerbung" can be done by advertising. In addition, maybe all is not lost yet. It could possibly just be the attempt to garner customers.

a few more options:
within a longer sentence:
the competition's attempt to reach for / woo / win over our customers
The competitor tries to entice clients (away)

for "Abwerbung durch xxx":

enticement (of clients) through the competition / through other well-known competitors

http://www.oneclub.org/oc/education/clientpitch/
client pitch

Selected response from:

Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 15:05
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3head hunting or luring away staff
Ellen Kraus
3 +3customer poaching
Bernd Runge
3 +3soliciting (of customers)
Bernhard Sulzer
4S.u.
David Moore (X)
4 -1Hiring away
Anja Rosenbusch
3business/customer stealing by competitors
casper (X)


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


16 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
head hunting or luring away staff


Explanation:
wäre mein Vorschlag

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 Min. (2009-02-22 07:56:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Luring away another firm's employees.(Letter to the editor) ... find Air ... 1991 as operations officer and now is senior operations and personnel officer. ...
www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-151713883.html - 58k - Im Cache - Ähnliche Seiten

Ellen Kraus
Austria
Local time: 21:05
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 2
Notes to answerer
Asker: sorry but this is not about human resources


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ingrun Wenge
8 mins
  -> thank you !
neutral  Jutta Wappel: Correct translation of the word itsself, but in this case it's about taking away CLIENTS, not staff.
35 mins
  -> that goes without saying, I just repeated the term of the reference I posted.
disagree  David Moore (X): Okay, so I disagree with Jutta; in fact, it NOT about taking away clients, it's about LOSING them...
37 mins
  -> strictly speaking that´s no reason for disagreeing. the asker is intelligent enough to realize that I meant clients rather than personnel.
agree  Colin Newberry: OK then, luring away clients or clientele.
1 hr
  -> thank you !
agree  Oxana Snyder: luring away
8 hrs
  -> thank you !
agree  Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
23 hrs
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42 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
customer poaching


Explanation:
... if it's for clients/customer
headhunt (with Ellen) for management staff
entice away or hire away (or poach) for workforce level staff

Bernd Runge
Germany
Local time: 21:05
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Jutta Wappel
10 mins
  -> Danke, Jutta.
agree  Michele Johnson: I like this best of all. It may be a little informal for the context.
10 hrs
  -> Thank you, Michele.
agree  Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
22 hrs
  -> Danke, Harald.
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59 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
S.u.


Explanation:
The way you have framed this, the "Abwerbung" can go either way - as indeed it can. Here it is clearly customers wandering off to the (other known competitors), and I should word it "loss of clientele" to other known competitors.

The other way, it would need wording "gaining clients from...", or something along those lines. But here, it is your customer who is suffering the loss, they are NOT gaining clients.

David Moore (X)
Local time: 21:05
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 60

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ventnai
16 mins
disagree  Kim Metzger: Abwerbung is enticement in this context.
7 hrs
  -> That's obvious; so you might note Stephen has asked for a translation, not a definition.
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
soliciting (of customers)


Explanation:
soliciting (solicitation) of customers through/by the competition

I believe this term could be used within your context, especially in the phrase "Abwerbung durch" / "soliciting (solicitation) by the competition"
although to solicit is of course also used for "anwerben".
But its negative connotation might be what you are looking for here.
If it's too strong, then maybe something like

competitors' client pitch
competitors' advertising (campaigns)
client (customer) enticements by other ...competitors
special client offers made by other ...competitors
advertising (campaigns) by other well known competitors

Abwerbung is an active noun if you will, and abwerben is a particular activity, carried out through, for example, special offers which is expressed in the "werbung"/advertisement" part of the word. Here, the "ab" part brings in the negative connotation. I believe that should be expressed as such in English as well.

It's the competitor who's doing the wooing, the winning (them) over.
I think it is mostly possible to use such terms by rephrasing the sentence, see below. But this is more difficult for "Abwerbung durch xxx" - maybe not quite a loss, but the attempt to steal/take away customers (but these might be too strong).
"Abwerbung" can be done by advertising. In addition, maybe all is not lost yet. It could possibly just be the attempt to garner customers.

a few more options:
within a longer sentence:
the competition's attempt to reach for / woo / win over our customers
The competitor tries to entice clients (away)

for "Abwerbung durch xxx":

enticement (of clients) through the competition / through other well-known competitors

http://www.oneclub.org/oc/education/clientpitch/
client pitch



Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 15:05
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 45
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: Enticement of customers http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Abwerbung.html
4 hrs
  -> thank you, Kim!
agree  mary austria: It's definitely solicitation!!
5 hrs
agree  Inge Meinzer
10 hrs
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
Hiring away


Explanation:
perhaps keep it simple? hiring away from clients/competition

Anja Rosenbusch
United States
Local time: 15:05
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Kim Metzger: Nothing to do with hiring. It's about customers, not staff.
44 mins
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Abwerbung durch Wettbewerber
business/customer stealing by competitors


Explanation:
When given more control over the amount of information
available, via an exclusive contract, each advertiser in this case faces a reduced threat of customer stealing by competitors.
http://www.pitt.edu/~esther/papers/Neg2002(Complete).pdf


This confirms the theory suggesting that firms consider business stealing by competitors as a serious threat (see section 2 and appendix A for theoretical references).
http://www.cpb.nl/nl/pub/cpbreeksen/memorandum/22/memo22.pdf


casper (X)
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 30
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