Hiring a voice talent for a foreign market can be intricate―but it doesn’t have to be.

In my experience as a voice-over professional, I have come across a couple of patterns that repeat themselves when it comes to clients seeking talent.

Considering there are about 105 million native German speakers in the world, it makes sense to venture to this European market. The German people are—as everyone else—not very forgiving when it comes to poorly delivered copy, so one must ensure an accurate and precise product.

As my former speech trainer Horst W. Blome used to say: you have to use the correct approach.
This means that you must find a talent who is able to use the right approach with his or her voice. You must find a talent who is able to use her voice like an ever-changing instrument, depending on the product that is to be sold.

Texts that target young women require a completely different approach from texts in which middle-aged men are the target audience, and a program that teaches toddlers how to count requires a different approach than an online employee training program for a chic store chain. An animated online game requires acting skills—and the voice talent must not be ashamed to sound weird. This means that a voice-talent who has worked in one area of the industry for over 20 years may not be able to deliver news without sounding false and constrained, even though she may give your princess in your latest online game a fantastic voice.

It is extremely rare to find talents that are versatile enough to successfully take different approaches to different roles. In order to be able to distinguish which approach they should take, they have to be experienced not only in one field of voice-over, but in as many as possible. This brings us to the second aspect of hiring you should consider.

It is too easy nowadays to buy a microphone, attach it to a computer, sign up for a voice talent site, and sell yourself as a voice-talent. There is a difference between voice talents and professionals. This difference cannot be bought. It has can only be earned through experience which accumulates over time. This does not mean, of course, that there are no young voice-over professionals. However, most of these young voice-over professionals are the children of actors or anchors and have taken speech training since they were able to walk. For large projects, they are accompanied by speech trainers or more experienced voice-over professionals who train as the talent speaks.

The final thing to consider is making sure the voice you buy really is native. This may sound redundant, but can prove incredibly important. On one video game that I worked on, the producer came up to me and desperately asked if I knew a native, male German voice. The guy they had originally booked for the main part was a native English speaker who “knew some German.” In the studio he failed miserably.

The solution to the three above mentioned points is simple―if you are not sure about the qualities of the talent, hedge your bets. In this case, this means that, before you go into production, make sure the talent is double checked by a native German speaker. This person does not have to be a speech trainer or someone in the voice-over business—any native speaker can determine if the text was spoken with a dialect, an accent, or if it simply does not sound appropriate. If you do this, you will save yourself time in the long run, which you will be able to spend accomplishing your goals and enjoying your life. And your blood pressure will thank you, too.