If you have ever heard of Christmas, celebrated Christmas, or sang along with such ubiquitous holiday classics as ‘Jingle Bells’ or ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, you’re probably also familiar with the world’s most famous brand, Santa Claus. Although Santa Claus is a fictional character, there are real-life lessons to be learned from ‘Father Christmas’ when cultivating your personal brand.

Santa Sells

Since the Christmas season represents the biggest revenue-driver for most business, it should come as no surprise that Santa Claus ranks #1 in terms of universal brand consistency, clarity and continuity. However, there are specific recommendations to be followed if you are contemplating the use of Santa Claus as a means of driving holiday sales, according to the Santa Brand Book, a compilation of Santa Claus-based branding guidelines developed by UK brand agency Quietroom.

Santa Says

One of the most beneficial aspects of Santa Claus’ global appeal is the fact that emotive words and phrases such as ‘joy’, ‘love’, ‘hope’, etc. can also be used to support your personal brand. By connecting your brand’s message to Santa’s and translating it into other languages, you convey a similar promise of value and consistency. Remember: in the eyes of your global target markets, what you ‘say’ about Santa says a lot about you…and vice-versa!

The Culture of ‘Claus’

As a symbol of the end-of-year holiday season, the iconic image of Santa Claus is unmatched by any other cross-cultural branding tool. Santa’s primary brand color, red, evokes a sense of family, community and sharing, and his round, jolly appearance serves as a joyous and festive beacon for adults and children alike. In fact, the attraction to Santa by children is no accident; customer retention opportunities are greatest when targeting children under the age of ten. That’s why Santa remains the industry standard for child-centric gift-delivery solutions.

Credibility ‘Clause’

Since competition in the global marketplace is heavy, it’s important to cultivate and reinforce your personal brand at every opportunity…especially during the holiday season. So don’t hesitate to use the Santa in your print, online, broadcast and in-store advertising whenever possible. You and your customers will be glad you did!

If you have used Santa Claus to effectively enhance your personal brand, we invite you to share your comments and results.

Speaking of Santa…the entire Latitudes team would like to extend our very best wishes to you, our readers, during this holiday season…and beyond!

In the February 2011 issue of YOUnique, I discuss the importance of addressing and overcoming the linguistic and culture challenges involved in branding yourself to markets beyond your borders, and its role in securing your global business success.

The impact of personal branding is further underscored by Reachä founder William Arruda’s Personal Branding Trends Special Report. In it, you’ll find the Top 11 personal branding trends for 2011, and the best techniques for building your brand. I invite you to download your copy of Personal Branding Trends: The Top 11 for 2011. Leave us your comments about these trends and how they may impact your business.

Recently the Tonight Show had the legendary comedian Bill Cosby as a guest. Besides cracking me up and robbing me of my precious hours of sleep, he joked around with different expressions that are part of our day-to-day conversations. One especially struck a chord with me:  “I just want to make sure we are on the same page.” This idiom, commonly used to confirm we are talking about the same topic or looking at issues in the same way, conveys the idea that we must repeat the same old story to make sure we understand the situation correctly. Unfortunately, by looking at issues in the same way, or repeating what others are saying or doing, we are simply another animal in the pack, another parrot repeating what others are saying, just being a part of the same old thinking. We feel that, if we do the same thing, acquire the same tools or copy what others are doing, we will attain the same success. Wrong!

Today’s economy is in desperate need of differentiation. There are far too many people doing the same thing we are. We need to be innovators. We need to change the status quo and come up with new ways. We need people who don’t want to be “on the same page” but want to write new ones.

If we continue imitating our competitors, we are missing a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd. We are denying ourselves the chance to become innovative, to make a difference, to come up with revolutionary ideas.

With so much competition offering the same products and services, today more than ever we need to dare to be different. We need to think “outside of the box.”

Do you want to make a difference? If so, here are some tips that can help you write a new page:

-  Dare to be different and put innovation into practice. Come up with something new, outstanding, unique. Surprise your customers with an original product or service.

-  There are no rules when it comes to innovation. Follow your gut feeling, your instincts. Create your own set of rules and plan your own journey.

-  Get out of your comfort zone and look for ways to do things differently and more creatively. Your creativity is your most valuable asset. Imagine, create, produce and experiment.

-  Become an active listener in your industry and your market, to your customers and your employees. They all are talking about their needs and wants. By paying attention you can come up with innovative ways to meet those needs and wants.

Do you want to “be on the same page” or “dare to be different”? I prefer the latter. I want to write a new page. How about you?

Determining the ideal price for your translation services should follow a proactive approach rather than a reactive one. You need to become a smart competitor by learning to maximize your profits and avoid direct competition. But how do you do that?

I recently wrote an article for the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (IAPTI), a civil association that aims to promote ethical practices and address issues of concern in the translation and interpretation industry. In my article there are seven recommendations to “make” your own price for your services. The Spanish translation was kindly contributed by Nora Escoms and the beautiful illustration is by Juan Manuel Tavella.  I welcome your comments! Enjoy.

We can no longer ignore the huge impact that Web 2.0 has on our careers and lives. Through these web applications our personal and professional lives are converging. And the trend is rapidly increasing; we see it more and more every day. People are being fired for providing their views on Twitter or for complaining about work shifts on Facebook.

As a professional, you have an online reputation that is influencing the decision-making process of your stakeholders. You are being “watched” online.  So, take control of that online reputation before it’s too late. In the May 2010 issue of the ATA Chronicle, I wrote an article on managing your online identity and offered some tips, tools and techniques that you can use right away to protect it. Your future and the future of your profession might depend on it!

For the very first time, the African continent is hosting this remarkable event that makes most nations in the world think just about soccer. For one entire month, the World Cup will be the most popular discussion topic in the conversation of the citizens of the world.

What makes this game so fascinating is that the 11 players of each team are continuously running to reach the opponent team’s goal post. It’s a game in which each team aims to shoot the most goals.  What most amazes me is to see what soccer players and true professional translators have in common: the Passion.

It’s all about passion…and more

Soccer and translation are both all about passion. Passion is that driving force that makes us get up at 3 a.m. without hesitation. Passion is what keeps us going during hard times, what boosts our energy when we face obstacles. Passion is about staying until late at night to complete a translation project for a client. Passion is about continually learning and becoming more experienced in the “translation business game.” Passion is what makes us continue trying without giving up or giving in. Passion is what brought us to becoming a professional translator. We just love it!

During my 20 years in the translation industry, I have always admired the pride that professional translators have in their profession.  True translators have a deep passion for their work. For true professional translators, converting one language into another one goes beyond the simple words. It involves much more than being bilingual or knowing the rules, grammar and nuances of the source and target languages. It’s a composition that transcends to “art.” But to be successful in our profession, we need to learn how to strategize and learn the rules of “the translation business game” in this fierce competitive field. We need to learn how we can play more effectively, focused and skilled, putting into practice business skills and marketing strategies for visibility and credibility that help us to attract good clients.

Becoming an advanced player

In order to become an advanced player in the translation business game, you need to identify your goals, strategy, mission and vision—what makes you unique and outstanding. Playing the translation business game is more than just loving your beautiful art. Learn from your team colleagues and your opponents. What are they doing and what can you do differently to surpass them?

You already have the passion. Now find the right direction for your business, determine in what playing fields you want to play, use a winning strategy, and always, always, always keep your goals in perspective. Do that and you soon will be as successful in your industry as Pele, Maradona, Beckham, and Ronaldo are in theirs. Time for the game!

Starting today, I’ll be posting on a regular basis a series of interviews with major influencers and key personalities of the translation and localization industry.

My very first guest is Renato Beninatto, Chief Executive Officer of Milengo, a worldwide provider of localization, engineering and testing services to the IT, communications and e-learning industries, and Vice President of the European Language Industry Association – ELIA.

Renato Beninatto is a corporate strategist and market research evangelist with nearly 30 years of executive-level expertise in the localization industry. Renato has forged a reputation for visionary leadership, most recently as the cofounder and former chief connector of Common Sense Advisory, the industry’s foremost market research firm. His signature straight-talking approach has made him a sought-after speaker on industry trends. A native of Brazil, he serves on the Advisory Board of Localization World and is an active member of several similar groups worldwide.

As he described himself, Renato’s personal brand features his controversial approach to current issues in the industry. His personal brand has been built on aligning himself with something relevant in his career in the translation and localization industry as well as voicing his opinion, in particular at industry events. He is expected to be the first one to ask questions at conferences where he participates. He creates empathy by paying attention to what others say. “Everybody has something to teach, and I really enjoy meeting and talking with people.”

Among the methods he uses to communicate his personal brand are blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, with Twitter being the central tool that feeds the other ones. Renato strives to be active and stay abreast of what’s going on in the industry despite his busy schedule running Milengo.

As to translation quality, Renato thinks that, from a selling point of view, quality doesn’t matter. Quality “is like talking about sex. You don’t talk about it; you do it. And translation is the same thing.” Quality is expected and, as such, translators must deliver it all the time. “That’s your job.” Quality is not a differentiating factor because everybody claims to offer quality. Translators can differentiate themselves by providing service beyond expectations. On-time delivery, courtesy, availability, providing additional information, going the extra mile and making your client look good – THAT’s how you can differentiate yourself.

Renato offers translators three top suggestions to becoming more marketable: 1) Become an expert; 2) Help others in your community; and 3) Maintain visibility. Developing a niche market, collaborating with your peers, and establishing yourself as an expert by being “out there” are key elements in positioning yourself in the market. Becoming “a hero in your own circuit” helps to build a compelling brand in the translation industry.

Renato warns that, in their selling conversation, translators must stop talking about quality and concentrate more on things that are of interest to other human beings, like football, American Idol, children, travel, anything you might have in common, even shoes. Find the connection that can make you remembered.

As to machine translation and crowdsourcing translation, Renato’s take on this is that “they are here to stay” and we need to stop fighting against this reality. It is important to understand that there is a part of the market for free translation. Every day there is more content being published than can be translated just by human translators. When our clients use this technology and do not get the expected results, “they become loyal clients of professional translators.” These automatic translation tools can save you a lot of time. We should all be playing with them. However, Renato goes on to say that we should not make the same mistake we made with translation memory, and that is telling our clients about them. These technologies are to be used to our advantage, and we should not see them as our enemy.

As to Web 2.0 and how translators and small translation agencies can leverage from it, Renato thinks we need to embrace it – “just be there.” Translators need to be connected, informed, “constantly helping and being helped.” Be active, stay active, and collaborate. Social media “helps you to create and maintain a reputation.” While it takes time, “doing nothing will take longer.” The key is to achieve a high level of visibility.

For the past five years Renato has been working on a book that he hopes to publish by the end of 2010. He’ll be sharing his experience and insights on selling services in the United States for the last 10 years. I’m really looking forward to getting it. Until next time, Renato.

Below is the full transcription of the interview. If you would like to listen to the recording, simply click here.

MJ: “Hello, Renato. Thank you very much for accepting my invitation to interview you.”

RB: “My pleasure, Marcela. This is actually an honor. I was very touched by your invitation.”

MJ: “ Thank you. Okay, I know you’re a busy person so let’s get started. Renato, you’re without a doubt the most famous person in the entire translation localization industry. To what do you attribute your immense popularity?”

RB: “That’s – the right answer is, I don’t know. Popularity is something that you don’t control; either you have it or you don’t. I would say that, more than popular, I think I’ve been controversial, and because I say controversial things, my name gets repeated over and over. And people talk about the things that I say, and that comes out as being popular. I think that very often I’m unpopular with the things that I say, but they still talk about me. It’s a little bit like that old story – say anything you want about me; just spell my name right.” (Laughs)

MJ: (Laughs) “Okay, very good.”

RB: “They have been spelling my name right lately. So…”

MJ: “Yeah. That’s good. (Laughs) Okay, so how have you built your personal brand over time?”

RB: “Well, I – I have had the chance to work in every single element of the translation business – from translating theatre plays to software, financial software, and complex technology translations. So, very early on I had the chance to touch almost every aspect of the translation business. So, when I have an opinion about something, I think that I speak with the voice of experience. And I think that, if people see that you know what you’re talking about, they respect you even if they might not agree with what you’re saying.

“So, I would say that the elements of my personal brand were first, I think, to align myself with something relevant. I was the first Brazilian to be out in the international conference circuit, and I associated myself always with my country and my language. So, when people thought about Portuguese and when they thought about Brazil, they would associate my name to it. And that worked very well in the early days. Second, I always voice my opinion. In certain conferences people expect me to ask the first question, and I always take that as an opportunity to say my name and the name of my company and brand myself.

“So, part of that brand was making sure that people remembered the name. But I didn’t do this necessarily as a strategy. It’s something that I thought about, but the issue about asking questions, well, it was more like I felt bad and I thought it was a lack of respect for people to make a presentation, get to the end, ask people to ask questions. And everybody is sitting there looking at each other and not asking any questions, like nobody paid attention. So, I always made a point of paying attention to the presentations that I attended and always asking a question. And that became like a little joke to me. I thought it was very funny at Localization World Conference. There was a keynote presentation by a person from Google, and after he finished the presentation, he opened it to questions. I stood up and the guy pointed at me – I had never seen him before – and he said, you must be RB. And I said, well – this is – this is the branding working here.”

MJ: (Laughs) “Okay, very good. So, you’re a good listener, you could say…”

RB: “I think that being interested in other people and what they are saying is important. Everybody has something to teach you, and I really enjoy meeting and talking with people. And people like to be remembered, and if you remember them, they remember you. And that’s – that’s pretty much just being natural. That’s the way I am. And I think that the brand comes – that becomes part of the brand.”

MJ: “Yeah, being authentic.”

RB: “Yeah. It’s being authentic. That’s the right word – genuine and authentic.”

MJ: “Very good. So, what tools are you using to communicate your personal brand – besides, you know, asking questions in presentations?”

RB: “Yes. Well, the – today it’s so much easier than it was 20-30 years ago to communicate with the world, to be out there. So, I again – I’m a little bit of a geek, I like technology, so I started with a blog at Commonsense Advisory, then my personal blog, then Facebook, then LinkedIn, then Twitter, then Plaxo. All of these tools I participate in and enjoy them. I’m active as much as I can. I don’t have a lot of time. Today I run a company with employees all over the world. We’re in 19 countries. So, I need to do a job. (Laughs) But I always find a way to figure out what is going on and I use all the tools, I interconnect them. So, my main channel today is Twitter because I think it’s – it’s practical, it’s short. I have it on my phone, I’m – I don’t know – sitting in a lounge at the airport and I see what is going on. It’s very fast. And what I notice, for example, is that I will tweet something and it will go into Facebook and it will go into LinkedIn. It will go into Plaxo, the same tweet. And I’ll get different responses from different people. On Twitter it’s immediate. So five minutes later that story has died and you’re moving on to another subject. But on Facebook somebody will respond to your posting five hours later and have comments, and they will have a space to write more information. And then it goes into LinkedIn, and then it becomes a week-long conversation. So, knowing the channels and the characteristics of the channels is as important as using them. So, I use everything.”

MJ: “Okay. You claim that quality doesn’t matter in the translation industry. If quality is not a differentiating factor, what can translators do to differentiate themselves?”

RB: “Well, quality doesn’t matter in selling translation. The analogy that I make is that talking about quality is like talking about sex. You don’t talk about it; you do it. And translation is the same thing. Quality is something that you have to deliver all the time. You are expected as a translator to deliver excellent quality all the time. That’s your job. If you don’t deliver good quality, the market will take care of eliminating you. The competition will take care of eliminating you from the marketplace.

“So, quality is not a differentiating factor because you have – if you have 200 people in a room – 200 translators as I’ve had and have done in the past – and you ask them who sells excellent quality, everybody raises their hand. So, if everybody sells excellent quality, by definition it’s not a differentiator.”

MJ: Mm-hmm.

RB: “So, the way translators can differentiate themselves is by providing outstanding service. I think that if you understand that translation is a service – if you deliver always on time, if you are courteous to your client, you’re available, you’re helping, you provide additional information, you go the extra mile, helping your client – if you’re working for a translation agency – look good to their client, or, if you’re working with a final client, making your client look good to their boss, you are differentiating yourself. I like to compare translators to hairdressers. Think of how hairdressers can differentiate themselves. It’s by offering coffee when you come in, by being nice, by remembering your name. Everything that is related to customer service is something that is very relevant. Think about how you like to be treated when you go to a service provider and do the same thing to your clients. That’s how you’re going to achieve differentiation.”

MJ: “What are your top three suggestions that translators can do to be more marketable?”

RB: “The individual translator has – is in a very competitive market. So, the first thing that I would suggest is to become an expert on something that you like, not only something that you’ve studied but something that you enjoy, that you enjoy reading about, that you love to do. So if you’re a translator of engineering stuff, make sure that you understand all the nitty-gritty and all the fun stuff about the engineering world. There are some people that love doing chemical translations, and they really enjoy understanding the intricacies of chemistry. When you talk to a client and you know what you’re talking about, the client sees you as an expert, and that’s what makes – that’s something that makes you very marketable.

“Also, helping other people. The second suggestion would be to help others in your community, other translators. So, let’s use the chemistry example. You’re a good chemical translator and you’re participating in forums and groups, and you want to be – to get a better reputation, help people who ask questions about those topics. Your peers are going to see you as an expert and are going to recommend you to their clients when a translation in their – in your area of expertise comes about and these other people that you have helped cannot do it. I participate in many translators’ forums and groups, and I see this happen all the time. There are some people who are always helping other translators with terminology, with solutions and advice, and these people get referred for business.

“And finally, you need to get out there. In person or virtually, you need to be speaking, writing, sharing your knowledge. I heard the other day in a presentation somebody was talking about a doctor who makes presentations – Sanjay Gupta, the CNN medical expert. The guy is a brain surgeon, and he gets a lot of clients because he is on CNN all the time. I’m sure that there are brain surgeons that are fantastic and perhaps even better than Sanjay Gupta, but they don’t have as much visibility. Nobody knows them. These people don’t have websites. They don’t write in popular newspapers. So, they are not associated with their expertise. There is no point in being an expert and being at home doing nothing. You need to get out. Unless other people know that you’re an expert, there is no value.”

MJ: “Okay. So you will say, number one would be expertise…”

RB: “Yes.”

MJ: “ …number two would be collaboration…”

RB: “Yes.”

MJ: “…and number three would be visibility.”

RB: “Visibility – very good.”

MJ: “Okay.”

RB: “Good summary!” (Laughs)

MJ: (Laughs) “Okay, so what is the best way to build a compelling brand in the translation industry?”

RB: “Well, we go back to the topics that we just talked about, but I think that achieving visibility is the biggest challenge – getting out there so that people know that you are available, that you are in the market. And since today you have many channels, I would say, be controversial. Say things that people don’t expect you to say, write a blog, be on Twitter, the traditional channels that are there. If you are able to get a full picture, a view, on TIME Magazine, that works too. And actually sometimes, you see, there are very simple things like writing a letter to a newspaper when they talk about translation. I remember a story about this – I think it was Iverson Language, a company in Minneapolis. There was a story on TIME Magazine about translations and they wrote a letter…”

MJ: Mm-hmm.

RB: “…pointing out inaccuracies in the story, and the letter was chosen as the letter of the month, and it was in – gave Iverson a picture and all of that in the Letter Section of TIME Magazine. So, this works. I remember also a case of a translator in Brazil who wrote to a local newspaper that said that every time that the newspaper wrote about a movie, they would always mention the name of the director or when they talked about the dubbing, they would mention that so and so dubs such and such actor. And they said, why don’t you – no, no. I am sorry. Let me correct the story. What they said is that every time they published a picture in a magazine, they put the credit for the photographer on the margin of the picture. And this translator wrote to the magazine complaining, ‘why do you put the credit for every single picture that you put – every single photo that you put in your magazine, but when you write about translated books, you never give credit to the translator.’ And the response of the magazine was ’touché!’, and they started always mentioning the name of the translator as a policy when they talked about translated books in the magazine. So, there are little things that you can do to achieve visibility. You can become a hero in your own circuit by creating that kind of visibility and breadth.”

MJ: “Okay. So, you recommend translators move away from price and start talking about value. What elements should translators use in their selling conversation to attract more clients?”

RB: “Well, first of all, don’t talk about quality. We established that. I would say talk about football, talk about American Idol, your children, their children, travel. Find something in common. I have a lot of friends who are Sagittarians. Well, I found that I have that in common with them and use it in our conversations.”

MJ: “Like shoes – I have been reading about shoes in your Twitter.” (Laughs)

RB: “Exactly. We started this joke with shoes on Twitter with Rina Neeman and that’s her brand there. I don’t know anything that will create a connection between you and the client that is much stronger than talking about what you do. People buy from people and people buy from people that they like and people that they remember. So, if you are willing to have interesting conversations with people, they will remember you, they will remember what you do, and, when they need you, they will remember: oh, who’s that person that I talked to that is from, I don’t know, Uganda? And they must know somebody that does translations into African languages, and that’s how you get the connection…”

MJ: Hmm.

RB: “…right. One of the things that I like to – it works for me – it comes naturally – it’s not something that I make an effort at. It’s like I – I like to remember people’s birthdays. I send them birthday wishes whenever I can. It’s been harder now that I don’t have a lot of time, but it’s an easy way to stay in touch and not forget – and to get people to remember you. Don’t talk about, oh, translation memory and all that boring stuff. This is what they say: ‘What’s so special about talking shop?’ Talking shop with clients is boring. Talk about interesting stuff.’ Your birthday is in September, isn’t it? ”

MJ: “Yeah. Very good.” (Laughs)

RB: “I remember, you see.”

MJ: “27th .” (Laughs)

RB: “Yeah.” (Laughs)

MJ: “I’m trying to remember yours…”

RB: “Ah…”

MJ: “It was – when was that? Not too long ago. (Laughs) I will find out.”

RB: “Okay.”

MJ: “So, what do you think about machine translation and crowdsourcing translation, and how they’re going to affect the future of the industry?”

RB: “Machine translation and crowdsourcing are here to stay. I mean, crowdsourcing is something that is – I see translators trying to fight against it, and it’s ridiculous. It’s the kind of stuff… We, as translators, take pictures all the time with our cameras. We put them on Flickr. We could sell them on Flickr, and we don’t have any moral qualms about that, but photographers hate us when we do this. There are professional photographers who hate crowdsourcing more than translators do.

“So, there is a part of the market…we need to understand that there is a part of the market for free translations. There is a part of the market for machine translations. There is a part of the market for professional translations. And the more translations are made – free crowdsourced, machine translated – the more people will be aware of translation and the more business there will be for us. There is an explosion of content. There is no way that professional translators can translate everything, and, if we understand that there is a market for each one of the segments, we should have no problem with these things. Machine translation and crowdsourcing are here to stay. There is no reason to fight against it. They replace translations that were not done before. Okay, so I say that machine translation or MT is an alternative to ZT. ZT is zero translation or NT, no translation, and this is the room that there is for that. If people use machine translation and get bad results and get embarrassed, they become loyal clients of professional translators. So it’s good. I don’t see it as an enemy. I see it as a tool, and I think that every single translator in the marketplace should be testing and playing with Google Translate every day because the improvements are daily, and, you know, when it works, it’s wonderful. It saves you a lot of time. What if you could do 500 words in seconds instead of hours?

“The thing that we need to avoid is, first of all, dashing machine translation because it’s bad, and second of all, talking to clients about it. We shouldn’t repeat the mistake that we made with translation memory – telling clients about it. That came back to bite us, because now clients don’t want to pay for 100% matches and so on. And they don’t realize that 100% matches sometimes in certain language pairs actually cause more work than if you had to do the translation from scratch. So, use it. If it is good, take advantage of it. If it is bad, throw it away. It’s free. It’s there, and fear is the biggest enemy that we have, I think.”

MJ: “What can translators from small translation agencies do to leverage from Web 2.0?”

RB: “Just be there. I mean, Web 2.0 is – it’s already becoming an old topic. We – everything is in the Cloud. Everything is the community, so the concept of Web 2.0 has to deal with working together, using the Cloud as a tool. So, I don’t know, if you are not using Google Documents, where you can have three, four, five people working on the same document at the same time in real time, that’s something that you could start playing with. You can have three translators work on the same document. One is reviewing the job of the author. Use this expanded community for collaboration.

“Twitter created a community of – follows people who are interesting and can help you on Twitter in discussion groups. So, this concept of the translator working at home by himself or by herself, sitting in front of the computer with the dictionaries and lonely, is an old concept. The new Web 2.0 translator is connected, is informed, is constantly helping and being helped by other people. So embrace it. That’s what I would say.”

MJ: “In what ways have you benefited from social media, Renato?”

RB: “In every way possible, Marcela. You know, my nephew, the other day, was telling me that he was very angry because every time he typed ‘Beninatto’ in Google or any search engine, my name would come up for the first five pages.”

MJ: “Good! ” (Laughs)

RB: (Laughs) “So, he has a long way to go to beat me there, he said. But social media is like, I say – I think it’s a loud speaker. It helps you create and maintain a reputation. It takes time. You need to invest time in participating, in doing the same things, but – and this is the common objection that I hear people say: ‘Well, I don’t have time to be on LinkedIn, I don’t have time to be on Facebook.’ Well, let me tell you something. Doing nothing will take longer. If you don’t start doing it, if you don’t participate, it’s going to take much, much longer for you to achieve the level of visibility that you want.”

MJ: “Last, but not least, what’s next for the brand called Renato Beninatto?”

RB: “Well, I just joined Milengo as the CEO. So, I am having a fantastic time building this organization that, as I said, is in 19 countries, is one of the top companies in the market but is not visible enough. So, I am trying to apply a lot of my experience to the Milengo brand. Personally, I will become the president of the European Language Industry Association in September.

“I want to be more involved with the LSP market issues. I think that’s elevating the common issues that organizations have and is a good way to make the job easier for everybody. We have a lot more in common than we have in contrast. And finally – I mean, hopefully, soon – I started writing a book five years ago, but it never ends. I hope to end this book by the end of the year and publish it somewhere.”

MJ: “All right. So I guess the next time I am going to interview you, it will be to talk about your book.”

RB: “Well, hopefully. It’s about selling services in the United States.”

MJ: “Wonderful.”

RB: “It’s a book that’s written for companies that want to sell services and not products. There is a lot of literature about products, but they want to sell services in the United States. That’s something that I learned moving here and living here for the last 10 years. So, I want to share my learning and my experience.”

MJ: “Kudos to you. Congratulations!”

RB: “Thank you.”

MJ: “Okay, Renato, so thank you very much for your time, for your insights. Great, great information. Is there anything you want to add to this interview?”

RB: “I want to thank you for inviting me and congratulate you for the initiative. Again, it’s an honor for me to be the first interviewee in your new project. And I wish you success and a lot of luck. I follow your blog. I think that you are doing a fantastic job and providing a great service to the industry. So, more success to you. That’s all.”

MJ: “Thank you, thank you very much. So, until next time.”

RB: “Until next time, Marcela. Thank you.”

MJ: “Thank you.”

]]> http://latitudescoach.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/translation-and-localization-industry-expert-interview-renato-beninatto/feed/ 3 mjenney image-renato http://latitudescoach.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/finding-your-translation-competitors/ http://latitudescoach.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/finding-your-translation-competitors/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:22:06 +0000 Marcela Jenney http://latitudescoach.wordpress.com/?p=142 ]]> Market research is not just for the big corporations. Translators, as business owners, need to find out whom they are competing against. Translators, as any other big or small business, need to learn about the external factors that affect their value proposition in the market. It is very useful to take a view of the translation industry to see what your competitors are doing. When we learn in what ways we are similar to and different from others that are offering the same services as ours, we can use this information to enhance our value proposition for competitive advantage in the market place.

However, we always wonder where to find out about our competitors and learn not just how much they charge, what tools they use, who their target market is, what credentials they have, but also what they are NOT doing so we can leverage from those gaps. See yourself more than a translator and more as a “manager” of your business. Become very active at collecting, storing and using information for competitive advantage. Having knowledge of your competition is part of your “marketing intelligence” so you can reduce uncertainty.

By conducting competitive research, you will be able to:

• Discover what your competitive advantage is, that is, the reason why your clients want to do business with you instead of your competition. When you can identify your competitive advantage, you will be able to communicate it effectively to attract potential clients.

• Analyze the current market situation and the offers of your competitors. This presents you with the opportunity to explore innovative ways to make improvements to your product.

• Find certain types of clients with unmet needs. For example, you may be able to identify niche markets that no other translator or translation agency is targeting.

• Learn more about your market. If you look at the actions of your competitors, you will learn what others are doing and what strategy is being used. For instance if there is a translator offering lower prices than yours, what is being delivered for those rates?

• Determine if your market is saturated with competent competitors. With this knowledge you can avoid the costly mistake of starting a translation business without sufficient demand or targeting a market that is already highly competitive and can instead redirect your efforts towards other more profitable markets where your services are in demand.

What are your goals?

Before you embark on this task, the very first thing you need to do is take a look at your goals. Where do you want your translation business be in five years from now? Do you want to grow and transition into a translation agency or you want to continue working independently? Do you want to compete on price or you want to focus on a niche market or differentiate yourself by creating a very strong personal brand. By defining your business goals, you will be able to identify “threats” and grow opportunities. For example, if you specialize in English into Spanish financial translation, you would not want to compete in the “English into Spanish financial translation” but rather in “helping financial institutions to communicate effectively with their Spanish-speaking audiences.”

Once you have defined your business goals, you need to capture all the information in a document or worksheet. Use this document to compare and contrast your translation business and to find ways to differentiate and create more value to your clients.

What information do you need?

When conducting your research, find out and analyze the following about your competitors:

• What are your competitors offering at this time?
• To whom are services being offered?
• How are your competitors selling these products/services?
• How are your competitors’ clients getting those products/services?
• What are your competitors’ clients saying about those products/services?
• How much do your competitors charge (per word, per page, per character, per source or target language, per project, etc.)?
• What methodologies, translation tools, processes, quality control procedures, etc. do your competitors use?
• What are their professional credentials?
• What are their value propositions?
• How do they market their services?
• How do they handle requests for information? What questions do they ask and what do they perceive as important to their clients according to how they promote their translation business?
• What are your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
• What are their customer service approaches?

Where to get information about your competitors?

Google. Today, if you don’t have an online identity, it would be very difficult to be recognized as a professional. Those translators that are continuously looking to enhance their service offering are taking action to develop a strong reputation online. Google your competitors and see what comes up about them. Try to narrow your search by language pair, geographical location, niche markets, etc. See how they are promoting themselves, what organizations they belong to, what niche markets they are targeting. Try to gather as much information as you deem relevant to your translation business and goals. Visit their websites, blogs, social media profiles in LinkedIn or Xing. If you find a competitor you would like to “watch”, create a Google Alert so you get current information about the activities of this particular competitor.

Social media profiles. You can get a great deal of information about your competitors by following them in their social media profiles or subscribing to their feed service. You’ll receive updates about what your competitors are doing to promote their translation business as well as how they are communicating their value.

Mystery shopping. If you are brave enough, you can talk directly to your competitors – or ask a friend or a family member to do it – and request a brochure or sample rates, or even purchase one of their services to learn about their business practices. Draft a script with the information you would like to know about your competitor beforehand. See what aspects of their translation service or sales process are better or worse than yours.

Ego searching. This technique consists of using free online tools to monitor blogs and news portals by using keywords that represent a brand, product, service, or specific name. Ego searching allows you to stay abreast of what your competitors are doing. In the following link you’ll find various free ego searching feeding that you can subscribe to: http://www.rss-tools.com/ego-search-feeds.htm

Other sources of information.

• Advertising and marketing publications

• Business publications

• Translation and localization publications or associations

• Studies and industry research like the ones published by Common Sense Advisory

Remember that you are not the only source on the market. There are many more translators and translation companies offering the same services that you do. Today most translators and translation businesses are basically saying the same thing. Find out what your competitors are doing and how and to whom they are promoting their services so you can become more competitive and avoid being surprised by their actions and left behind.

“In a time of turbulence and change, it is more true than ever that knowledge is power.”

John F. Kennedy

Clients are asking for discounts, and translators are honoring their requests more and more every day. When you provide a discount on your services, you are giving permission to others to think your services are not worth much. And, unfortunately, this trend is adversely affecting the entire translation and localization industry.

Price your services right. The price you set for your services must be determined by the value perception your clients are getting in return for their money. Are you meeting your clients’ expectations? What are they walking away with? Why should they buy from you and not your competitors?

Learn to say “no.” When you reduce your rates, you are sending a distress signal, not just about you but also about the entire industry. When you reduce your rates even just one time, it’s going to be very difficult to say no the next time this same client comes back. One of my dearest copywriters told me once when I asked him to come down on his price that he would feel very uncomfortable with himself if he were to reduce his rates. I loved his professional approach to standing behind his work.

Focus on your promise of value. When you know and have proof that what you are offering is of great “value” to your clients, make sure this is consistently displayed in your service delivery. Rather than discounting your rates to match competitors, focus on value-added features. Think about ways you can bundle in certain supplementary services, or create various offerings at various price levels so you can accommodate your client’s budget.

Improve your service offering. In today’s economy there are so many products and services that the market is simply oversaturated. Translation is seen by many as a commodity for the simple reason that everybody is focusing on the same “attributes.” Translation should never follow product-marketing models. In the service business it’s all about that “special touch” you add to your offering. Your clients are simply looking for someone they can trust. They want to make sure you are reliable, that you are consistently delivering good value to them, and that you are always there for them. Benefits and service features are always good selling points. But a great relationship with your client is your best selling point.

Focus on your target market. If you are continually being asked to lower your rates, it is very likely you are targeting the wrong clients. Ask yourself if you are wasting your time trying to attract clients that are not willing and able to pay what you are worth. When you decide to focus on a niche market, it is important you understand what your clients’ practices and preferences are. Furthermore, make sure you have the capabilities and competencies to do an excellent job of delivering a high-value translation offering.

Create a strong brand. Just as big corporations develop their brands, translators can also develop a strong, differentiated brand. When you concentrate on developing a strong brand, you will not only become easily recognized but also create an emotional connection with your clients. Your competitors can try to replicate your processes, business model, technology, etc., but it will be very difficult for them to reproduce those beliefs and attitudes that you have established in the minds of your clients.

Remember, when we are selling a product or service, it’s not about us. It’s about our clients. Focus on your clients’ needs and wants, and always look for ways to enhance the relationship. In the absence of value, price becomes the only decision factor. Do not reduce your rates; instead, increase your competitiveness and the value-added features to your services.

“Jack of all trades, master of none”

In the translation industry there is the tendency to become “translators of everything.”  We think we are capable of translating anything. Most interesting are those that believe they can translate perfectly back and forth between their native language and their target language. In my 20 years in the industry I have met just a handful of translators that can truly translate flawlessly in both directions.

I remember when I first started in the translation profession how afraid I was to be asked to translate a document that had to do with machinery, automobiles or anything along that line. I knew nothing (and still don’t) about mechanics or industrial engineering or anything that had to do with equipment or was highly technical. My strong subjects were those that had to do with business, marketing and social studies. However, I have to confess that, in my desperation to get business, I said “yes” more than once when I was asked to translate projects related to my weak areas.  Haven’t we all done that at some time or another? To produce the translation took me extra hours to learn the lingo and research the subject. And in the end I felt I was not delivering a product of which I could feel very proud. But those were different times and the competition wasn’t as keen as it is today.  Then one day I decided I was going to concentrate just on those areas I enjoyed translating, those subjects about which I felt passionate, those with which I didn’t have to struggle so much. Bingo! When I decided to work on just those areas that I knew very well or simply felt passion for and did everything I could to submerge myself into getting to know the subject to a point where I felt comfortable, that’s when I started becoming very successful in my translation business.

Recognize your weaknesses and focus on your strengths!

If you want to stand out from the crowd, get paid what you want, and stop competing merely on your rates, you should create and work on a niche.

There is a big misconception that specializing constrains our scope and excludes us from other areas in the market.  In reality, specializing offers big advantages in our business. Here are some of those benefits:

• Charging a premium for your services. When you become an expert in a particular area, you earn the respect and recognition of your target market as well as your peers. That means you can charge more for your services. Your specialty attributes come with a rewarding pay.
• Shortening the learning curve. When you focus on immersing yourself in one area, your learning curve is considerably less steep. The more you learn about your niche, the easier it comes to you.
• Increasing the leverage on your language assets. When your business is focused on one area, you can leverage more on your existing language assets.  That means increased productivity and less working hours. In addition, your projects will be similar and you will be able to easily apply what you already know.
• Building your brand. When you are considered an expert, you will be sought out as “the one” to contact for that specialized project. You can build a name for yourself and create a unique brand-image. Experts agree that branding is everything in the world of marketing!
• Tailoring unique services. When you work within a very particular niche, you can become very creative in meeting the needs of that market. For instance, you can create special programs, specifically package your services, or develop revolutionary value-added features that enhance your client offerings.
• Reducing marketing efforts. When you have created and identified a niche, you can put all your energies into creating compelling messages to attract those clients that are in desperate need of your services. You will spend less time and money on your marketing activities. Your marketing messages will be consistently, clearly and continuously crafted to address the language needs of that particular target audience.

When considering specialization, make sure you choose a specialty you have identified as having a need for your services and offering great marketing opportunities for you. Ask yourself the question, “What is the market for my area of expertise?” Conduct some research and learn of the demand for your services in that market. The narrower your target market, the more successful you will be.

Specialization is a personal decision that you must make for yourself based primarily on your goals, strengths, interests, and, most importantly, on what makes you feel fulfilled as a translator. Find the area that is in alignment with what you really want.  And in just that way you’ll become “the one” that market looks for!