Use a professional narrator - avoid "Charlie down the hall."

You are about to embark on a new web based or simulation training program, you have carefully planned the video and graphics portion of the training and it looks great! Now you are ready to make perhaps the single most important investment in the entire project - your "voice over" narrator.

Some organizations plan on saving costs by using one of their in house people, one who has a great voice but has no professional training or experience. This is where "Charlie down the hall" comes in. "Charlie" is a proven contributor doing his normal job with professional ease. But when asked to record hours of script his voice falters and he makes mistakes - retakes take time and cost money. There are reasons why using an in house voice is really not as cost efficient as it might appear. Here is just one reason.

Efficiency: Especially on long scripts you must have a narrator capable of reading massive amounts of copy with a minimum number of mistakes. Why? Because every mistake results in an edit and every edit adds time to the recording session and post production.

Tip: When you audition a narrator ask them to do an unrehearsed page or two of your script. If they cannot do that virtually mistake free on the first take, you don't want them no matter how much you like the sound of their voice. It's your time and it's your money - use wisely - hire a professional narrator.

More ideas on selecting your voice narrator for web or simulation training and corporate messages next time.