Just two weeks ago, I had the great opportunity to attend the American Translators' Association 51 Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. I had such a great experience. I attended the conference feeling dedicated to the Translation Industry, and I must say that I left the conference feeling more committed. I enjoyed speaking to the many impressive individuals and hope to carve out my own niche, whether as a translator, interpreter, business owner or localization specialist.
This year's conference was even more enjoyable because I had attended once before and had a sense of what to expect. I made sure to attend as many sessions possible. I attended sessions that discussed poetic and literary translations authored originally by war criminals, the interpretation "No-fault Se construction" of Spanish in court room settings, the importance of personal branding as a freelancer, the future of machine translation in the industry (a very heated topic), and the importance of data when creating a marketing/sales plan in the industry. Truly, the sessions were superbly organized and the presenters were interesting and well prepared.
One of my favorite sessions was presented by Ben Sargent of Common Sense Advisory. Common Sense Advisory is a market research company aimed at helping businesses grow their international opportunities. I enjoyed this session because not only did Mr. Sargent present new information, but the information he presented was actionable. That is I feel empowered and educated to make wise choices when creating an online presence as well as when approaching new clients (should I decided to open my own LSP (language Service Provider business).
Supercharge your Sales Based on Industry Best Practices
Ben Sargent presented information in two parts. He first addressed “best practices” of 300 world-wide LSPs and then presented information gathered from 73 of the biggest “translation buyers” in the US. His purpose was to help LSPs understand how to best represent themselves online and to their clients.
Part 1: Common Sense Advisory gathered information on the 300 LSPs by visiting each website, identifying various elements that each organization employs and then providing simple statistics on the use of those elements. The information that Mr. Sargent presented seemed to reflect, in my opinion, the industry’s general inexperience with marketing. In other words, many of the points raised are much more prevalent in other industries, including whitepapers, testimonials, case studies, use of variety of colors in branding, and more.
Did you know?
· 70% have fewer than 3 advertised languages (4 or more is unusual)· Typical LSPs have 3 offices in country and more abroad· 80% use English as primary language for website· 92% use blue, white and/or gray on website and in their branding or logos· 26% use Testimonials· 7% promote Social interaction· 19% use case studies· 7% utilize a corporate blog· 33% promote newsletters· 50% use a “get a quote” option
Part 2: The second portion of Sargent’s presentation provided useful information for LSPs to consider when approaching large translation buyers. Common Sense Advisory interviewed two types of Translation buyers: Those that spend more than $2 Million a year (Gt$2) and those that spend less than $2 Million a year (Lt$2). Each type of company typically has a different kind of employee handling the translation buying: Lt$2s usually employ a Localization/language manager and Gt$2s will employ professional buyers who are usually unfamiliar with the translation industry.
The four biggest concerns of these large buyers are--in order of importance:
- turn-around time
- quality assurance
- translation management systems, and
- cost
This list surprised me because like many others, I assumed price would be the first area concern. The truth is Gt$2 buyers were much more price-sensitive than Lt$2 buyers. Sargent suggested that if a large buyer can save a few pennies per word, then the buyer can use those pennies to buy more translation. Thus it does well for an LSP to understand their client’s translation volume needs. Nevertheless, buyers are more concerned about factors affecting more than just their budgets; they are concerned about how the professionalism of the LSP will affect the constraints on their own projects. Thus, buyers are concerned about the kind of services an LSP will offer. In fact, according to Sargent, buyers prefer that an LSP understands and communicate the kind of service it offers and the kind it doesn’t. The old adage “Jack of all trades, master of none” is of real concern to these buyers. When an LSP or even a freelancer takes on projects they aren’t specialized in each of the four aspects mentioned above are at great risk.
