Our Analysts' Insights

When competing with large language service providers, small and mid-sized LSPs can feel at a disadvantage when it comes to securing or safeguarding revenue. However, it does not have to be that way. It is not always about size when presenting your company as a successful match for buyers’ needs.

“Digital transformation” has become an inescapable buzzword. The COVID-19 pandemic sped up the shift to everything digital – even for predominantly paper-based language service providers. However, what LSPs call digital transformation (DX) ranges from eliminating every scrap of paper in their business to reinventing their whole business model. As a result, providers are all on a different step in their journey.

Cold emailing is the equivalent of cold calling – the solicitation of a potential customer who had no prior interaction with a salesperson – and is simply handled by email. It means you reach out to a sales target without them having made the first move. And that’s why it amounts to shooting an arrow in the dark. Why? The prospect doesn’t know you. Your email may land in a spam filter or remain unread even if it was delivered. Cold emailing is a tough exercise. Sometimes your arrow will hit,...

In January, language service providers are often busy planning the year ahead. This year, we observed that many are putting special emphasis on improving their client care function. We’ve been busy holding online workshops with LSPs to help them refine their approach. Here’s an overview of the core concepts we typically discuss during these sessions.

Do you have low click-through rates on your marketing emails? Do prospects fail to reach out after you’ve sent them what you felt was a compelling call for action? You could attribute the lack of response to a variety of problems, but one commonly identified by our analyst team in interactions with language service providers is that many LSPs lack a targeted approach. A little planning could significantly improve the results of marketing and sales efforts.

All too often, LSP salespeople don’t know how to counter the “you’re too expensive” argument, viewing it as the end of the road. But it doesn’t have to be.

As language service providers start to mature, they invest in hiring either marketers, salespeople, or account managers, and eventually staff all of these functions. These groups often operate in silos with minimal coordination across their activities. Yet, in an ideal world, a close collaboration ensures marketing brings in qualified leads that are interested in hearing the pitch of your sales team and then warms up these leads so that the sales messaging is more effective. When you break down ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many LSPs’ abilities to grow. In a January 2021 survey, we found that 44% of them experienced a setback in 2020. But that’s not to say the market overall performed that poorly. On average, despite the losses of many, we calculated a 3% growth from 2019 to 2020 for this group of providers, which has traditionally outpaced the industry as a whole. And they are overall optimistic about 2021, as their sales goal amounts to an average planned increase of 18% ove...

Remote simultaneous interpreting has experienced a boom since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations of all types turn to RSI platforms to deliver a multilingual experience for virtual or hybrid in-person and online meetings. Likewise, online voting solutions are in high demand for organizations that need a sophisticated virtual voting mechanism when they want to enable remote work for elected officials or other decision-makers.

Enterprises that used to hold in-person events for customers, employees, partners, or investors have tried to move efficiently to a virtual format over the last few months. Despite the challenges, many organizations succeeded at the conversion, but a disproportionate number were only able to offer prerecorded content with offline subtitling. Companies are now pausing to reflect on the first wave of events and investigate the entire array of alternatives available for supporting these multilingua...