If you want to keep your business healthy and growing, keep always this word before you: Marketing. Study it, work at it, and put it on your top to-do list. Be best at it, have the right team on it and make them consistent in being the best at sales and marketing. Every potential customer should know what services you are offering and why it has to be you who would fill their needs. Little wonder why many businesses have entire divisions dedicated to nothing other than marketing. This of course, may not be a cost effective solution for many businesses; but it does not diminish a need for quality marketing. One way or another, a business should find ways to get its name out there. Its survival depends on it!
You may, maybe as the marketing guru that you are, want to handle your own marketing as the CEO. But you should know that this is a hugely time intensive endeavor, even if you are extraordinarily talented in this regard. You may end up using up the time and resources that you would have dedicated to other aspects of your business to growing your own marketing campaign.
You should also (importantly) remember, that your competition would also be launching very well developed, highly creative, and eye catching marketing campaigns and you have to be able to compete to keep up with. You may end up highly distracted in the end. How many CEOs have marketing skills, by the way?
This is where outsourced marketing come in. What many business owners don’t realize is that there is a very real way to cut back on marketing costs while still being able to present a very well assembled, appealing marketing campaign. By choosing to outsource your marketing campaign, you can still receive a high quality product for a fraction of the price. Outsourced marketing gives you the freedom to give highly qualified, highly experienced marketing professionals your vision for your business and forget about it- outsourced marketing lets you focus your time and talents on your business while getting a masterfully crafted marketing campaign worry free.
Marketing is a very vital aspect that ensures you keep your business up to speed with your competitors, as well as influences how the public perceives your business, your products, and your services. It also plays a tremendous role in how much business you receive and how much your competitors get to steal.
It’s up to you to make sure that your business manages to run as smoothly as possible while still finding the time and money to run a creative, smart, and successful marketing campaign. Outsourced marketing is easily one of the easiest and smartest ways that you can put your business atop the competition and make the sales of your life.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
The way outsourcing helps to boost a company’s financial wellbeing is indeed desirable. However, it is important to ensure that productivity is also boosted with this business solution known as outsourcing.
Here are 4 top tips on how to keep production and productivity on the up-scale while leveraging outsourcing company services;
#1: Think of What Can be Outsourced Successfully
In essence, take a look at the different areas of needs as a starter. Analyze the situation and determine what can be handled in-house and what should be outsourced. This should be a thorough as well as no-rush process. Knowing exactly what needs to be outsourced is the starting point to achieving success with outsourcing.
#2: Bid for the Best Possible Price
That’s the main essence of this business solution – to save cost. However, do not trade quality with price. As always the case, if it sounds too good to be true, then think twice. The best possible price is such that would motivate the outsourced provider to keep both productivity and quality at optimum and at the same time reward you with desirable cost savings. Try to interview as many as you can, especially those that are skilled in the area you seek help on. Keep cutting down the list until you arrive at the best possible choice based on both quality and quantity (price).
#3: Monitor Job Progress
Don’t leave outsourcing providers all by themselves. You need to monitor and track their progress at every stage of the outsourced project. This way, you can ensure that productivity flow is at the desired speed. Besides, you will be able to spot a defect on time and correct it early enough, instead of waiting till the end of the project. In fact, monitoring work-in-progress is an integral part of outsourcing solution that should not be played down on.
If you desire to see production and productivity moving at the desired rate, then you should keep your external employees motivated all the way. While monetary motivation is helpful, there are other ways to motivate your freelance workers.
Consider the following tips and tricks;
Make a solid promise to keep using their service if the present project turns out great. This will surely motivate them to put in their best and produce the best possible quality.
Rate them at every phase of the project – giving kudos and 5-star ratings if their performance turns out to be excellent at that poin.
Make a part-payment in advance or while the project is in progress – this really helps.
Indeed, making sure you keep production and productivity flowing at a desirable rate and quality is needful while leveraging outsourcing solution.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Excellent customer service can help boost business, promote loyal patronage, enhance customers’ morale and ultimately affect your bottom line positively. These days, hiring customer service outsourcing companies has become an in-thing among businesses and companies. This is because customer service outsourcing has proven to be an effective way of achieving all these benefits.
However, you must ensure that an outsourcing provider who specializes on customer service will help you realize the benefits and goals mentioned earlier. How? Keep reading to find out.
During the selection process, find out how prospects will handle a range of customer service issues by painting a couple of real-life scenarios and asking them to respond to the situation. For instance, you can ask them to describe how they will handle a raging customer who called to report a defective product or lost/delayed order. Their response to such practical situations will give you idea of what to expect from their customer service.
Essentially, you should focus on hiring providers who possess interpersonal or relational traits such as calmness, compassion, as well as understanding traits. Also, they should be able to work under pressure without being offensive because some customers will push them to the limit.
Tip #2: Check If the Provider Operates with the Best Customer Service Practices
Also, to ensure you get the best from customer service outsourcing companies, find out the operational practice, policies as well as skills of the prospects. Do they constantly embark on professional development programs that gear towards customer service best practices?
In addition to training their customer service staff constantly, you should also find out if the outsourcing provider has a well-furnished call center outfit. Having the right gadgets for the task will help promote the expected outcome.
Tip #3: Set Up a Customer Feedback System
Don’t leave your customer service agents all to themselves. You should find out your customers’ experience with the outsourced service provider by putting a feedback system in place. Some of the features of the feedback system to consider include online portals for data collection, and survey.
And, consider offering incentives to further motivate your outsourced customer service provider with track record of quality and excellent customer service based on the customer feedback you collated. The incentives could be in form of a slight or substantial increase in terms of their fees. It could also be in form of providing five stars reviews on their website or other web platforms such as Facebook Page or Twitter account. These can go a long way in motivating them to do more.
Indeed, you will boost customer base, enhance loyal patronage, and ultimately enhance the growth of your business by leveraging excellent customer service outsourcing companies.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
For a lot of businesses, taking advantage of outsourcing administrative services for payroll function is both a valuable and attractive alternative to hiring a payroll officer in-house. When you employ rigorous step to employ an outsourcing provider, you will find out that outsourcing is a less complex way of filing your taxes, paying your workers, and carrying out other admin-related business functions.
Payroll Function can be a Big Headache
Even the professional and most experienced experts can attest to the fact that payroll can be quite a demanding task. This is why it is best to let an expert handle this business function externally. Otherwise, any slightest error caused by being less attentive or careless to the rigorous process that comes with payroll can greatly impact your business.
You may be having double mind about outsourcing payroll to outsourcing administrative services due to the following reasons;
You want to protect your wage information
You don’t want a third-party accessing your payroll information
Well, if you run a smaller business and do not encounter substantial changes in tax obligations, you may attempt managing payroll processing in-house. In-house payroll and other administrative functions processing are easier at the earlier stage of a business. However, even the small businesses have discovered that the cost of manning a payroll office is high, plus the task is time-consuming. Besides, if you use an employee who barely knows anything about payroll procedure and payroll programs to carry out this sensitive function, the mistakes that follow (no matter how little) can result in big trouble for your business.
The best way to ease your mind is to let a qualified payroll officer handle your payroll functions. According to the IRS, 1 out of every 3 business owners or companies has been charged for mistakes related to payroll, with the overall fines or penalties amounting to billions of dollars. Also, you should bear in mind that tax regulations are always changing, which promotes proneness to not just error, but error that has the capacity to grossly impact your bottom line.
So, When Should You Outsource Payroll?
Generally, if you do not have the financial capacity and/or expertise required for payroll function, you should consider outsourcing the task. In addition, engaging outsourcing administrative services will make sense if each pay period comes with changes in your payroll.
In essence, a payroll outsourcing service will be cost-effective and time-saving alternative to handling payroll function in-house.
The payroll service provider will perform the following functions for your business;
Tax obligations and payroll calculation for every employee
Checks printing and delivery
Management reports
Finally, outsourcing administrative services can provide additional payroll functions like envelope stuffing, automatic check signatures, as well as direct checks deposit.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourced Administrative services provide a great way to save time and cost, plus the added benefit of gaining access to specialist administrators. These skilled administrators work virtually and deliver quality service just like an executive in a conventional office would do, yet you only have to pay a fraction of the cost involved when you hire an executive in-house.
Most Businesses are Adopting Administrative Outsourcing Services
Most businesses are increasingly leveraging administrative outsourcing services as evidenced by the statistics extracted from Odesk. Odesk is one of the biggest online freelance job platforms and has been merged with E lance. According to the statistics, the job postings for virtual administrators rose from 2,500 in 2008 to 25,000 in 2012. And right now, the number has peaked significantly.
However, in order to use this outsourcing service successfully, you should know what tasks are best suited for the service. Here are the top 5 tasks recommended for outsourcing by experts;
1: Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping can be time-consuming, which is why it should be outsourced to a virtual administrator who is specialized in accounting. Subsequently, the virtual administrator will follow up on assigned book-keeping task such as unpaid bills or outstanding invoices.
Bear in mind that this will require handing over some control to the provider, which would include usernames and passwords to accounts. So, be careful and thorough about who you hire for this task.
2: Database Entries
Database entries are also suitable task for outsourced administrative services. These entries range from contacts generated at a seminar/conference, to updating of existing contacts. The key to success is to ensure your specific data entry needs are made clear to the service provider. And, ensure the provider is an expert in this area to help minimize error.
3: Online Research
Also, online virtual administrative assistants are good at carrying out online research. Some of the tasks involved in this case would include vetting prospective business contacts and employees, exploring new products, and sourcing for information on corporate web pages.
4: Email Management
Focus on the core tasks of your business and let the virtual administrators help you manage your emails. They will employ their special tech tools and apps to filter through your emails in order to identify the most important ones and respond to them as though you are the one responding to your clients.
5: Data Presentations
According to a Chief Marketing officer at a notable company in Mountain View, “transforming raw data to an-easy-to-grasp Power Point presentation can save huge time when getting ready for a major presentation. This is also the case with summarizing research findings using Microsoft Office Word, which is why I leverage outsourced administrative services virtually for data presentations.”
While there are other tasks you can virtually hand over to administrative outsourcing companies, you should start with these five.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
At some point in business, it will dawn on a smart-thinking business owner that a professional marketing help is needful. Laying your hands on the marketing processes that you are not an expert on (pay per click, social marketing or trade shows) may end up hurting your business instead of healing it. So, you need professional service such as outsourcing marketing services.
But, here’s the big question; can you really afford the marketing help that you desire?
Whether you’re looking for a strategist, graphic designer, web developer, PPC expert, or a content manager, you will incur substantial overhead cost when you hire these experts in-house.
The truth is, you need most of these marketing experts for the different marketing aspects. Of course, one marketing expert does not know it all. The least you will pay to get any of those marketing services is around $51,000 and about $336,000 for all the marketing positions mentioned above. Of course, you know that the risk of bad hire has not been added to the cost above. Obviously a small or medium-sized business can barely foot such bill considering its limited resources.
According to statistics, the failure of many companies and businesses has been largely attributed to haphazard marketing and sales functions/activities.
So, What’s the Solution?
Most companies and businesses are increasingly leveraging outsourcing marketing services for different marketing functions. You should employ rigorous process to find a suitable outsourcing marketing partner who has great insight into your type of business and the marketing functions that will help move your business forward.
The external marketing expert will also help bring the order that your business marketing needs to move to the next level. Marketing partners who operate from outside of the business premises usually work with team of professionals who combine their different areas of expertise to build a powerful marketing concept for your business.
Remember, it wouldn’t have been possible for you to afford such professionals in-house, especially if your business is at its start-up or mid-range level. In essence, you are financially incapacitated to afford such professionals on a full-time basis. But, through outsourcing, assessing such professionals without draining your purse has become so easy and practical. Indeed, the cost-saving can be very significant, and the outcome completely desirable.
Work Towards Getting the Best Result
But, you must be on top of the game, putting proper checks and balances in place, and making sure there is proper contract signed by both parties, so that you can legally lay claims in the event of breach of agreement. This is the best way to make most of outsourced marketing services.
So, don’t fold your hands and wait for a miracle to happen. You should bring the miracle you need for your business to your doorstep by saving cost and increasing profit through outsourcing.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
In addition to substantial cost savings, outsourcing also takes a lot of workload off businesses. Reduction in overhead can help a small business increase the budget for business expansion and growth, plus it frees up time to attend to the things that guarantee the continuous existence of a business. This is why small business outsourcing is a smart move. But, the question is, what functions or processes should you outsource as a small business?
According to business experts, a small business should consider outsourcing the following;
1: Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the best ways to promote any business. Through relevant and educative contents, you will reach out to your target audience and inform them about your new products, upcoming events, promotions, deals, and the solutions they are seeking in line with your business offer.
Of course, you will definitely not sound too ‘salesy’ or you will lose the attention of your target audience. Soft selling while educating your target audience is what works best. And, the best way to save cost, save time and gain access to professional writers is through outsourcing. A report published by LinkedIn has shown that nearly 80 percent of small business owners are outsourcing content.
2: Payroll
Also, when it comes to small business outsourcing, you should consider outsourcing your payroll. The intensity of this task can take your attention away from the core activities that promote the continuous growth and existence of your business. As you probably know, payroll goes beyond salary payouts, it also involves regulations, tax matters and more.
You should be aware that a seemingly minor error with payroll can result in tax audits at the detriment of your business. For instance, in 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a fine of over $2 billion fines and levies against small businesses, due to payroll related omissions, errors, and incorrect filings.
So, instead of hiring a professional in-house to manage your payroll, you should outsource the function and save huge cost.
3: Bookkeeping
Keeping accurate record of your business operation is critical and must not be done haphazardly. Just like payroll, bookkeeping needs to be handled conscientiously to avoid costly mistakes. So, you should outsource bookkeeping to an expert who specializes in this aspect. Avoid juggling between tasks as this can greatly reduce productivity and result in costly mistakes.
And of course, you will be better off outsourcing book-keeping in order to save overhead cost and pay far less remuneration compared to hiring the expert in-house.
Finally, when considering small business outsourcing, you should also outsource administrative tasks that tend to consume time and corner your attention away from the core aspects of the business and its continuous growth and existence.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
It appears that Philippine has taken over the call center outsourcing services, which is why a lot of people now refer to the country as the capital for call centers. It has overtaken India that was once very popular in this outsourcing niche. According to New York Times, nearly 400,000 Filipinos are workers in call centers, which is about 50,000 more people compared to India.
America Seems to Have Found a Better Call Center Capital – Philippine
More Americans are contacting the customer service lines in Manila (the capital of Philippine) for ticketing and tons of other services. In fact, even banks and phone companies now prefer to speak with a customer service expert in Philippine to the one in India.
Indeed, a huge revolution has taken place in the call center outsourcing business as Philippines rises to outshine its counterparts when it comes to call center outsourcing services in particular, and also other outsourcing niches.
It is no surprise that Americans are increasingly leveraging call centers in Philippines than India. Once the United States colony, the Philippines speaks ‘lightly accented English language’, especially the young people who dominate the population.
In the past couple of years, more people in the Philippines now take turns in form of night-shift duties, speaking to customers who are mostly Americans. According to the industry officials, “Well-known companies such as Expedia, JPMorgan Chase, and AT&T have either built their own call centers in Philippines or hired existing call centers.”
Most of the call center jobs handled by Filipinos in their country come from the United States, while some come from Europe. In fact, some Indian outsourcing call center service providers had to relocate to Philippine where their clients now chose to operate from.
The increased demand for Filipinos when it comes to call center outsourcing in particular can be partly traced to a preference for American English. At the beginning, this preference wasn’t a priority for companies since all that mattered was cost-cutting, as long as the offshore workers can understand and speak English, which is why America focused on India at the beginning.
However, companies in America are now pinpointing locations that are most suitable for certain outsourced tasks, which is why Philippines was identified as the most suitable offshore destination when it comes to call center outsourcing services. But, when it comes to software outsourcing and IT generally, India has maintained its position as the biggest destination.
Typically, call center agents in Philippine earn more compared to their Indian counterparts. Well, they deserve the extra earning since American customers find the Filipinos fluent with English language and understand their accent better than that of Indians. So, cost-saving is not necessarily why American companies are placing higher priority on Philippines, but improved efficiency.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
For many entrepreneurs, outsourcing – the act of using external services to handle a company’s tasks, is not a new concept. However, some small business owners still see outsourcing as a luxurious business solution for the big companies – this view is entirely out of place. Both small and big companies can hire outsourcing providers in order to achieve economic and other benefits.
Before You Outsource
While this business solution is ideal and beneficial to all, a small business needs to examine some processes first. For instance, you may have to look into the entire business to determine what should be outsourced and what shouldn’t. This is the best way to make outsourcing work to your benefit. As mentioned earlier, outsourcing comes with tons of benefits, especially cost savings. But you need to do it thoughtfully and carefully. In fact, outsourcing more than necessary can be a grave mistake as we saw in the early 90s during the outsourcing ‘mania’ period.
But, if you leverage an outsourcing provider wisely as a small business, you are bound to enjoy the following long-term benefits;
Greater Efficiency
If you decide to handle all the business processes in-house, you should expect higher expenses on research, product/service development, sales/marketing, as well as distribution. And, you will eventually pass all these costs to your customers, making your business less competitive to similar businesses that are leveraging outsourcing solutions to minimize costs. On the other hand, you will gain increased and valuable competitive advantage through an outsourcing company’s cost structure and economy of scale.
Controlled Capital Cost
As mentioned earlier, there are other reasons for outsourcing in addition to cost saving. However, cost-cutting is the major benefit and factor. Using this business solution, fixed costs are converted to variable costs. It also helps to make capital available for more business investments. It’s also a great way to by-pass huge expenditures at the early stage of a business. And, since you are able to release more funds into activities that produce revenue, your business may become more attractive to investors.
Ability to Begin Fresh Projects Faster
Usually, established outsourcing providers have resources to commence a project without delay. On the other hand, when you decide to handle such projects within, it may take months or weeks to hire the right persons, give them the necessary training and support. And, if there’s little or no resources at hand to accomplish these, the project will be placed on hold.
Reduced Labor Costs
The cost of employing and training in-house staff for a temporal project (e.g. new product marketing campaign) can be huge. You will be better off in terms of cost saving, time saving and increased efficiency by resorting to outsourcing providers for such projects.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Businesses can get the best out of telemarketing outsourcing by cutting out related burdens that take its effectiveness away. To achieve this fit, business owners or the management should consider the benefits and shortcomings of setting up an in-house telemarketing department versus employing an intermediary for the service. Outsourcing telemarketing saves more time and other resources very often, compared to building expertise internally.
It is worth mentioning that telemarketing is a powerful tool in the hands of business marketers. As a result, choosing the most effective approach in making use of telemarketing all the way from planning to implementation is vital to the success of your business. Telemarketing widens alertness of a brand and jump starts the development of startup businesses in particular. On the other hand, it helps earn sales and carry out market surveys that aid businesses advance the experience of the customers.
Beginning a telemarketing service is no joke at all. It entails keeping updated with existing telemarketing news and laws, installing equipment, acquiring and training staff as well as investing time and money. For this reason, you can adopt telemarketing outsourcing from telemarketing companies; instead of spending time on areas that are not part of your business goals. They can deliver results and boast early ROI.
Telemarketing Outsourcing Accelerates Growth
Outsourcing Telemarketing can boost the development of businesses and the adoption of products by:
ROI Maximization: Businesses can maximize their return on investment with telemarketing outsourcing.
Scaling up or down according to demand: A lot of businesses witness an increase and decrease in product and sales demands. You can make use of telemarketing services, as a substitute for contracting and expanding in-house telemarketing staff to meet this change. Excess staff is assigned to other projects till required because the services cater to more than a customer.
Letting management focus on main issues: Many problems are attached to product launches that require the immediate attention of the management. Management can focus on resolving these problems without distractions, while outsourced telemarketing will take care of the telemarketing side.
Introducing products instantly: The marketing time is a significant phase in taking gain of up-and-coming market opportunities. Telemarketing services convey the message to the market without losing time in employing and training staff, whether it is a new business or product. Plummeting delays means more customers and sales for the business.
Providing hardware and expertise support: Telemarketing outsourcing companies are specialized organizations. They hire experienced personnel and make use of most up-to-date technology and equipment to achieve results for your business. Taking advantage of their resources is more economical compared to bearing the costs of training personnel and buying equipment on processes and telemarketing skills.
Letting management focus on main issues: Many problems are attached to product launches that require the immediate attention of the management. Management can focus on resolving these problems without distractions, while outsourced telemarketing will take care of the telemarketing side.
Telemarketing outsourcing clearly emerged the winner as far as telemarketing is concerned, even as in-house development or outsourcing is a risky option that confronts business people many times for many reasons like expansion, business development, cost cutting, etc.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! Inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
