Blog of Articles

In this blog, you'll find articles that may be of value to you as you search for information on outsourcing marketing. Unlike most blogs, this one serves as a database of articles and will not be updated on a weekly basis. I will be adding articles periodically as interests, questions and issues evolve.

Please feel free to visit my website, www.redflowerwriting.com for more information on my freelance corporate copywriting business or to contact me directly.

Thank you!

Britta Dragicevic

Inspiration Pie

Inspiration. It's what keeps marketing alive and marketers healthy and paid. Outsourcers do not have the advantage of sitting in on meetings and impromptu brainstorming sessions...but they, too, have a need to be included in the group creativity that your department shares. Outsourcers can help spark ideas but they also benefit from yours.

Here's why and how:

• Outsourcers often work alone in isolated offices. This allows them to focus undistracted on your projects, but it also limits them from hearing the ideas that you and your department float around. If you can, give them this "background" information--it will help them know how to direct and shape their own creativity toward your project.
• Creativity is infectious. Include your outsourcer as much as possible in brainstorming, when appropriate, and you'll get an outsider's perspective as well as fresh ideas.
• Be encouraging. Outsourcers can use your feedback and value your creative perspective; even if there are differences of opinion, your ideas can spark other ideas and bring solutions.
• Don't be afraid to share "bad" ideas. Others can see ideas that may stem from ones you don't think are worth sharing.
  
• Stay results-based. Give the outsourcer the desired end-result, with as much detail as possible but leave her to her own process to achieve it.
  
• Be forgiving. Remember that first drafts are first drafts. They may not be good, but they should be directive.
  

Next Generation Growth Strategies by Mack Hanan

Next Generation Growth Strategies

By Mack Hanan*

Tomorrow's critical success factors are tightly focused on hooking up each of your businesses to its market's drive for competitive advantage. Six of these factors will be supercritical because they are the best ways of making customers advantaged:

1. As businesses globalize, raising competition to new and more exacting levels, tomorrow's managers will have to master the art of creating compelling visions of their enterprises as enhancers of the competitive advantage of their customers rather than as manufacturers, processors, suppliers, or vendors.

2. As leadership becomes more consensual, more diffused and decentralized within compressed organization structures, tomorrow's managers will have to master the ability to negotiate agreements as a peer and partner, working laterally rather than from the top down in order to guarantee their achievement.

3. As markets become increasingly specialized and more finitely segmented, tomorrow's managers will have to master the ability to compete vertically in order to become market specialists in expanding their customers' competitiveness.

4. As products become more difficult to differentiate and as customers demand solutions based on common performance denominators, multivendor compatibility, and open standards, tomorrow's managers will have to master the ability to compete on the basis of customer value rather than product value in order to avoid margin erosion.

5. As resources become costlier to use and misuse and as the technologies for their implementation become more sophisticated, tomorrow's managers will have to master the ability to cooperate with other suppliers in order to share the brainpower and financial burdens of commercializing successive waves of innovations.

6. As customers concentrate on defining and managing their core strategic businesses, tomorrow's managers will have to master the ability to compete by outsourcing customer support operations in order to convert them from cost centers into cost-effective operations.

The net result of these strategies will be to make customers the focal point of the way you manage your business. The old corporate nationalism that proclaimed "We are the best" to anyone who would listen will give way to collaborative partnering whose testimony will be "We make our customers the best."

To win in this environment, you will need a set of counter-priorities:

• Instead of asking your managers to predict tomorrow, an arcane talent at best and not necessarily correlated with the ability to run a business, ask your major customers to quantify their growth objectives and put your managers to work to help contribute to them.
• Instead of amusing yourself on retreats by concocting "bands of possibilities" for futuristic scenarios, create joint growth plans with your customers that are likely to strengthen each customer's competitiveness.
• Instead of saying, "We never want to lose a customer because we don't have the technology," grow your customers as the best way to avoid losing them and feel free to acquire emerging technologies or integrate them into your business, as they are needed.
• Instead of coveting technologies, remember that the major added values are always found in the application of a technology rather than in its manufacture. Nor should you covet asset building - being the biggest at anything - remembering that the least costly asset is always the one you do not have to own.

*The above article can be found at The Outsourcing Institute. Mack Hanan is the author of Tomorrow's Competition: The Next Generation of Growth Strategies.

Contracts--Are They Necessary?

I offer my clients contracts for major projects or on-going work; but I have to say, even with contracts most of my business is done through good faith. Contracts are like insurance—they’re only necessary if something goes wrong.

They do, however, protect your mutual investment—the contractor’s time, efforts and the company’s money, interests and information. Depending on the project, you may want to consider a Letter of Agreement which is shorter than the standard contract, but still covers the essentials. Most likely your legal department will review your contract and the contractor will have the chance to modify his or her terms until you both agree.

I’d recommend that for any major project or for on-going work, you sign a contract or letter of agreement. If nothing else, it adds a level of professionalism to the outsourced relationship. Companies worry they won’t get satisfactory work and freelancers worry that they won’t be paid. Contracts can help both parties relax and focus on the actual project.

Remember, contracts are back-up—any good freelancer should work as if good faith is all that’s needed, but be wise enough to know a contract is a good thing.

Effective Outsourcing: Making it Work

What makes outsourcing work? We turn to a report by Booz Allen Hamilton for a suggested model of what companies can do to make outsourcing effective:

From Next Generation Outsourcing:

• Manage outsourced relationships effectively by defining roles and capabilities and distinguishing retained organization and vendor roles. Results in the customer “runs the show” not the outsourcer and vendors clearly understand requirements and standards.

• Align spending and activities with goals by establishing accountability and appropriate governance structures. Results in the right services are outsourced to achieve financial and strategic goals and mission critical functions are kept in-house.

• Communicate with the business to understand day-to-day needs, set clear priorities and service levels. Results in spending is controlled at authorized levels; vendors receive clear prioritized requests; and false starts, rework and redundancies are minimized.

• Set and communicate clear, realistic service requirements, goals and standards; and optimize delivery mechanisms. Results in lower costs of service delivery; enables current and forecasted right-sizing; matches provider capabilities with actual service needs and uses desired standards.

Is This a Team Effort?

Juggling insourced and outsourced suppliers can make you feel, well, a lot like you’re in a circus. But much of the stress can be alleviated if you set the tone as a team project right from the beginning.

• Clearly communicate with everyone right from the beginning. Let outsourced and insourced talent know that everyone will be working on the project as a team.

• Introduce key players to each other. It’s hard as an outsourcer to know how to read e-mail communication from internal sources because we don’t know a person’s personality, stressors or internal politics. By being introduced we have the chance to get to know people as people—and that helps everyone communicate better.

• Outsourced suppliers are focused solely on the project in their communication with you; insourced suppliers have multiple projects on their mind often involving the same bosses and relationships. It’s okay to remind outsourcers that you are handling multiple projects and let them know what concerns might be holding up progress on reviews/feedback and revisions.

• Show as much appreciation to insourcers as to outsourcers. Your relationship to them as employees may be different than the professional relationship to outsourcers—but appreciation goes a long way in letting people know their efforts are valued and valuable.

Maintaining Relationships with Suppliers You Aren't Using

It’s to your advantage to have established relationships with outsourced suppliers before you need them. That way, when a need arises, you know who to call. How do you establish this “future” working relationship? And how do you maintain it?

The key is to remember the human touch.

• Outsourced suppliers are people. Most are business owners. They value time. Theirs and yours. If you take the time to connect with a supplier and let him know that you would like to be able to call on him when needs arise, they’ll listen.

• Be honest in your approach. Don’t lead a freelancer on. If you don’t have work now or in the near future, say so.

• Develop a rapport with the supplier as a human being. Ask about family, hobbies and show a genuine interest in her business.

• Share enough along the way with the supplier to keep him in the loop on your company. Give him a heads up when a potential project might be approaching.

• Be clear in your selection process. If your company always uses RFP’s, make sure you let the freelancer know. Let him know what you are looking for with timelines and budget guidelines. This saves you time and respects the freelancer’s business. She may be unable to meet your schedule and if so, it frees you to move on to other prospects.

• Keep several freelancers in the same field in your list of outsourced favorites. This gives you the freedom and confidence to know that should one freelancer not be available you have options ready.

How to Help Outsourced Talent Establish Credibility

Hiring outsourced talent always involves risk. Even the best freelancers may not be the best fit for your culture. Your reputation and perceived competency can be on the line. But there are a few things you can do to help freelancers establish credibility in your company:

• Before you hire, ask for similar work samples, check references, have the freelancer create a mock-up or audition. Have a few key people evaluate the freelancer's work, if appropriate.
  

• Discuss with the freelancer how she intends to get the information she needs to create the work required. Pay attention to attitude, willingness to go the extra mile, perception of boundaries and ability to relate to executives.

• Talk openly and privately with the freelancer about any concerns you have regarding credibility. You don’t want to make him nervous, but you do want him to have the opportunity to consider the situation and be prepared to address questions that arise. Discuss your culture, past experiences with freelancers and what others are expecting. Let the freelancer know what is riding on the hiring decision and in particular, how it can impact you and your job.

• Build a partnership with the freelancer and get to know him as a person.

• Decide who is the most important person to establish credibility with—once you are relatively certain that you’ve hired the right freelancer, create opportunities for your boss to meet, speak with and review the freelancer’s work.

• Introduce the freelancer to other colleagues and key stakeholders and have them sit in on conference calls or meetings with the freelancer.

• If you and your boss are happy with the freelancer, let others in your company know what a great job he’s doing.

• Ask for feedback from colleagues, if appropriate.

• Trust your instincts. Everyone in your company will have their own opinion and idea about outsourced talent. But in the end, your instincts can be the best guide.