LORI THICKE
(Lori Thicke is cofounder and general manager of Eurotexte, the first translation company in France to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification. She can be reached at lori@eurotexte.fr)
In the 18 years since I cofounded Eurotexte in Paris, the translation industry has changed profoundly. Back then translators were by and large still using typewriters. Each successive advance — personal computers, fax machines, modems, the Internet — dramatically altered practices in our industry. But the biggest change of all is happening right now. Market forces are threatening to turn translation and localization from professional services into price-based commodities.
Lawyers don’t engage in bidding wars, nor do ad agencies win accounts because they’re cheap; yet nowadays translation buying is frequently based on calls for tender and reverse auctions. Distancing itself from other professional services, translation is well along the road to becoming just another commodity, with price as the sole differentiator.
Multinationals as well as national leaders are leading the charge to drive prices lower and lower. While some days it seems no quote, large or small, goes unchallenged and even the tiniest companies want to bag a discount of some sort, the permanent changes we are seeing are taking place in the largest companies.
In these companies, translation purchasing is being taken out of the hands of the decision-makers who are actually using our services and put into the hands of professional buyers. And the buyers operate under an entirely different mandate. It’s no over-simplification to say that while a marketing manager wants words that will sell internationally, the purchasing manager simply wants words that cost 20% less than last year.
Rare is the purchasing manager who fully understands the role of translation in reaching a company’s international goals, and this has to be even less of a preoccupation when the purchaser is a hired gun, brought in from the outside to slash costs — at all costs.
The tactics for meeting this goal are becoming all too familiar: being asked to drop your prices 20% instantly or see your largest client walk away; having to bid to keep your own customers against a start-up charging what a good translator is paid; being directed to a Web site where you can enter your lowest offer in a reverse auction (after being assured that quality is, of course, the main consideration).
These price pressures are endangering quality as well as the status of our profession. However, by acting together we may be able to prevent the erosion of our industry to the level of secretarial services. Here are a few ideas:
Resist the temptation to match prices with the cheapest players in your market. When their low margins and/or low quality force them out of the game, it’ll be hard to put your prices back to sustainable levels.
Explain your value proposition. Higher quality, better service and more efficient project management will certainly save your clients money in the long run. Make sure they know this.
Increase your prices. Position your company higher upstream, away from the fray. Offer a complete enterprise-level solution. Be a full-service consultant.
Educate your clients about the needs of their international customers. And let your clients educate you about what image they want to project. If their new Web site is riddled with errors, ask them what this could cost them in sales. If necessary, translate the errors back into their own language so that they can appreciate the magnitude.
Find out everything you can about your cut-rate competition, particularly their pricing. What are they paying their translators? (This will tell you if they’re using professionals.) Do they charge a low word price but count words higher, or charge so much for “extras” such as editing and project management that the final bill turns out to be more expensive for the unsuspecting client?
Even if you lose out on a bid, keep in touch with your former customers. I’ve seen company-wide rebellions where translation users refuse the suppliers chosen by the purchasing department.
Join or create a professional association. Brainstorm with the other members about ways to demonstrate to clients the importance of quality translations to their bottom line.
Regardless of the method, it’s vital that we act now and act together to preserve the standing — and the future — of our industry.
————————
This article reprinted from #63 Volume 15 Issue 3 of MultiLingual Computing & Technology published by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Ave., Sandpoint, Idaho, USA, 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310.
