To Outsource or not to Outsource...
That is the Question
by Andrew Shedden
A question you may have asked yourself is whether or not you should outsource your marketing. If so, should you hire a consultant or try to keep doing things on your own. Before you can make a decision of this nature there are several key areas you need to consider. Outsourcing any of your business processes is not a decision that you should take lightly.
The first thing you need to determine is what the purposes are in outsourcing your marketing help. Is your expectation that the company or consultant will come into your business and solve your problems? Is your expectation that you'll be taught how to solve your most pressing problems? For some business owners having an outsider come and to solve the problem for them is often all that they want. Other business owners would rather have the company or consultant in to their place of business to train their staff on how to aptly prepare for and meet marketing challenges head-on.
The next area you need to consider prior to outsourcing your marketing is this: How important are credentials to you? It may very well be your company policy to only hire people with MBAs. You may also run your business on the basis of hiring people based on their ability to get the job done or on their merits, or their past accomplishments. Given the choice, it is much more important in terms of the success of your business to hire a consultant or a firm with a good track record. There are stupid, impractical, MBAs out there. There are brilliant uneducated strategists out there as well. A professional designation does not necessarily mean that the practitioner is skilled, or even practical.
References should not only be requested but all of them should be contacted. There are several reasons for this being a good policy. One major overlooked consideration is that the consultant that you are considering will be working with and needs to get along with, your existing staff. If the consultant you are considering hiring has no people skills, or has an abrasive personality, this will wreak havoc in your business. If the reason the consultant is being brought in to your business is because it's in difficulty, good people skills become even more important. The situation within your business will be stressful enough without adding fuel to the fire.
The second major reason to check references is that at the very least, the individual you're considering hiring will most definitely be able to sell you on his or her skills. If your marketing consultant can't sell you on his or her skills how helpful will that person be to show you how to market your products and services?
Prior to bringing outsiders into your business is a very good idea to sit down with your management and staff to realistically determine what your objectives are. It also is very important to determine your expectations. Marketing consultants by large are honest hard-working people, they are not miracle workers. If your expectation of your marketing consultant is that he will take five years of bad business practices and turn your business into a profit machine in five weeks, perhaps you should tone your expectations down.
The marketing consultant being brought into your business needs to have realistic expectations as well. There is an old saying that things take twice as long as you think they will, and they end up costing twice as much as you hoped they would. It is very important to make the consultant realize what kind of time line is realistic. We're always amazed at how long it takes to get things done, particularly in large companies. Everyone is on different schedules. Everyone has different commitments. Everyone has his or her own agenda. Sometimes it seems like it's taking forever to get anything done. This can lead to a tremendous amount of frustration for the consultant, in whose best interest it is to get jobs done quickly and efficiently. If you think it will take a month, schedule six weeks.
If your marketing consultant comes into your firm and tells you that things can be turned around in four five weeks without you having to make any effort or spend any money they are performing a grave disservice. While it is true that change can be effected fairly quickly in most businesses, there are many factors beyond the control of the consultant that can slow this process down.
Ultimately, the last option you have available to yourself is that of outsourcing your entire marketing program to a company or individual. This is not a decision to be taken lightly. Marketing and sales activities are the lifeblood of any business. You need to have a high degree of trust prior to even considering outsourcing your sales processes.
There are some instances where outsourcing all of your marketing and/or sales activities makes a great deal of sense. This is normally done when it is undesirable or impossible for the job to be done by your staff. Remember that with some marketing companies (We won't mention any names J) you can outsource for very short periods of time or for specific projects.
For example, if in the past you have been using manufacturer's agents as a way of selling your products, perhaps you're finding that they are not giving your products the attention they deserve. This is a very common complaint. In this instance outsourcing your marketing/sales process may be the best route to go.
It also is possible that you have an inefficient sales force within your own company. Perhaps because of past relationships established over the years you don't feel that you can either motivate or discipline your sales force in such a way as to obtain the best results from their efforts. If this is indeed the case it may be very favourable for you to outsource your marketing and or sales management processes to get things moving.
