Software Q & A: Part 1

Q: As a developer, we used my own voice during development while we finished the programming. Now, we’re pricing professional talent. Why are they so expensive?

A: There are a few reasons why professional talent for voiceovers and voice prompts cost more than an engineer would expect. First, professional talents are a business, just like your company is a business. They must perform marketing, accounting, billing and normal customer service. Plus, learning to record professional voiceovers in a way that helps your product sell better requires years of education and training, and many years of “voiceovers education” classes and working experience. Rather like a finding a good programmer. You can find tons of programmers, but some will make your products so much better than others. It is easy to underestimate the power of sales of a voice. So, you will find that professionals will have a similar average basic fee. From that average basic fee, the cost per talent will rise based upon the impact on your sales that the voice will have. Microsoft and IBM, for example, are very careful which voices they use on their software and on their websites, and pay well, because they know that the voice they choose will actually increase their sales and bring more revenue. So, if a talent asks for more money than the average cost, you may wish to consider that adding a little bit now may be recouped with increased sales – and more sales – in future.

Monday, October 13th, 2008 Technology