Category Archives: Outsource Marketing

10 ways to socialize or interact with your outsourcing clients

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Leave a comment

In the world of business, there are different approaches. There is the distant approach with uptight secretaries, sleazy salespeople, and anti-social technical managers. And then there is the more friendly approach. Do you want to do business with strangers, friends or enemies? Think about that!

1. Friendly Reps, Salespeople & Technical Assistance
The friendly approach is to have informative and engaging reps on the phone. You should have technical managers who are a little less uptight and trained to be folksy. I would not expect the same level of sociability from a technical person as from a customer centric person like a CSR, but you can still get them to the 25% level with a little coaching. You can have salespeople who not only deliver reliable information (instead of lying) but who are very nice and interactive.

2. Wine & Dine
It is common for higher level business people to wine and dine each other. But, what is the purpose of this? Isn’t that just a waste of money that is purely for a tax write-off? The write-off doesn’t hurt. But, business relations are smoother and last longer when you go out to eat with each other regularly. The closer the relationship, the better quality work you get out of them and the longer it lasts. In short: wining builds trust; dining builds longevity!

3. Talk more on the phone
It is good to keep in touch with clients. You could even call without a purpose from time to time. It is important not to be intrusive or a bother to them. Most companies only bug you when they want to sell to you. But, good companies keep in touch with their customers in the long run. The Japanese call this “Afta-sawvice” which is their pronunciation for “after-service.”

4. Keep in touch more by email
You can email information about what is going on with their account. You can email graphs, charts, information about what happened with particular customers, or anything else pertinent. The fact that you are communicting useful information on your own initiative matters a lot.

5. Company parties
At Filipino call centers, they are famous for having parties. It raises morale. But, what if you invite your American clients to join via web-cam, or even in person?

6. Newsletters
I have a newsletter with 5000 subscribers. I keep in touch with lots of people and keep the troops together. My newsletter tells people what is going on with us, and in our industry. We have tons of very interesting articles.

7. Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are the next best thing after great customer service. They can really keep your customers around longer and have them retain a closer relationships with your company doing a larger quantity of business.

8. Referral Programs
You can reward customers for introducing you to others — but, only if they are completely satisfied with your work otherwise it will backfire.

9. Online Portals
This is an impersonal way of interacting, but if a client can access information about what is going on with his/her account online, many will value this.

10. Office Visits with lots of small talk
If clients come to your office, this is a great way to get to know each other. You can invite people to come when you have a slower day. You can have samosas and chai if in India, or more American snacks if in America. Nothing beats a good snack session at the office to get to know people. You will get to know people walking down the hallway, and get a great sense about the company. Even if it requires an overseas flight, you should really get to know who you are doing business with for a long-term relationship!

Looking for outsourcing processes? A list of companies to call…

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Leave a comment

Here is a long list of companies that outsource work. If you look up the company names, you can see where they are headquartered and how to contact them. You will need to SCROLL after you click the link below to see the long list. There are many companies you know of on the list such as Accenture, Google, AOL, Quaker Oats, etc.

http://companiesthatoutsource.org/
Good luck!

A client of 123outsource.net’s divulges it’s marketing secrets!

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Leave a comment

“To be precise our only avenue to clients has been simply our standards and practices that we adhere to on a daily basis. It is critical from a client’s point of view, that he/she does not worry about his non-core activity and spend too much time and resources in grooming a outsourcing services provider because that is the sole purpose in the first place when it comes to choosing an outsourcing services provider. Binfex is meticulous while approaching a client for an engagement, we believe without the right research and knowledge about the customer’s core business one cannot deliver customer delight and enable the customer to be free of worries with his non-core activity.

There are key ingredients which as a team we always believed that would separate us from the lower quality service providers.
Our unwavered focus and commitment to service delivery, strategic knowledge about customer’s core business function and most importantly a strong and effective campaign management strategy for quality driven performance.

A list of methods that we apply while working approaching.

1. A Strong corporate brochure explaining why we are a value addition to the customer

2. A service portfolio that give absolute clarity on service delivery standards

3. Our quality culture, performance management, employee development practices, data security practices

4. Strong Core Team with in depth knowledge and experience

5. Effective and secure technology infrastructure with high availability.

6. Constant interaction with probable clients who need our service.

These are some of the methods follow and have inculcated as a culture at Binfex and we feel these standards and methods are critical for any service provider’s success.

123outsource.net — Outsourcing Directory

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

123outsource.net is an outsourcing directory where you can find outsourcing companies all around the world including call centers, data entry companies, BPO, KPO, LPO, and a wide variety of software development companies with various specialties.

Our Outsourcing Directory
On our outsourcing directory, you can search from 28 categories of outsourcing professions and specialties so that you can companies specializing in what you need in seconds.

What is Special About Us?
On 123outsource.net, we are unlike the other outsourcing directories out there. There are many directories of web design companies, call centers and other outsourcing professions. Those directories do not check to see if websites are still functional or if companies are still in business. Companies, especially in Asia seem to come in and out of business in months, so you have to watch them regularly. Additionally, we check to see how professional and helpful people are on the phone, by email, and how good their click stats are. The listings near the top of the search results typically are the most professional and popular while the listings near the bottom of the list are mediocre at best — and probably soon to be removed from our directory of outsourcing companies.

Our Call Center Directory
Our list of call centers is our most popular search result, especially the inbound call centers. We have a list of call centers in India, and list of call centers in the Philippines (List of Filipino Call Centers) and more. Although, most of our call centers are in popular destinations like India and the Philippines, we have call centres in Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Romania, Bulgaria, Africa, Canada and the USA as well for a well rounded search.

Our call centers have all types of specialties such as appointment setting, order taking, telemarketing, lead generation, technical support, email and chat support, help desk, data verification, customer service, and more.

Our BPO Directory
Our list of BPO companies includes a long list of BPO companies in India and other countries as well. The BPO search results typically include companies that have a wide variety of specialties that cannot be placed in one particular specialized search result such as Data Entry, Medical Billing or Blog Set Up. Some companies have more than three dozen outsourcing specialties and defy categorization.

Advertise on 123outsource.net!
If you have a BPO company, you can get free or paid advertising on 123outsource.net. Paid gets you at the top of the list which translates into a lot more inquiries from serious customers around the globe. But, if you are on a tight budget and want free advertising, try us out! Are are getting about 30,000 visits per month and the number is always growing.

Marketing your BPO Outsourcing Firm from A to Z

Categories: BPO, Marketing, Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Do you run a call center, BPO, software outsourcing company, or want to? If you are good at what you do, you just might be able to expand into a real business! You’ll need management experience and solid skills, some cash, and some understanding of marketing — but, you can do it! But, where do you start?

WebsitesOutsourcing companies need a website. Most people look for services online. So, making yourself easy to find with a website is paramount. However, having “a” website is just not enough. It needs to be well organized, have a services page where you have a long list of services you offer and notes about your expertise in those services. You need “About Us” information so people will get a sense of who you are. A good contact page is essential too with email addresses, a choice of phone numbers and an online form. Make sure your site is attractive, loads quickly, and does not have spelling mistakes, etc.

You might also like:
How to get more clients for your BPO (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/20/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-bpo-or-call-center-compilation/

Good Sign Bad Sign: What to look for in newly hired workers
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/13/outsource-blog-good-sign-bad-sign-what-to-look-for-in-newly-hired-workers/

Email — Many companies market by email, but do it wrong. Marketing by email should be personal. You should try to learn what the company’s needs are and cater to them. Additionally, emails that do not state the NAME of the recipient are impersonal and get ignored close to 100% of the time. Email marketing is powerful, but only when it is customized to the reader, and having a previous connection to the reader helps so they will know who you are. Otherwise, you are just another nuissance spammer. If you email decision makers in thousands of companies, find a way to ask them what their needs are, and get some dialogue going, you are in luck.

Phone — Phone calls from strangers are an annoyance. But, at least you can learn who the contact person is and gain their attention. Remember, step one is not to sell, but to learn people’s names, positions, and find out what types of services they use. Focus on getting information and find out what they need, what they like and dislike about their current service, and what improvements they would like to see in their service if they lived in a perfect world (which you will of course create for them.) Don’t call businesses unless they are very targetted otherwise you are wasting their time. Additionally, have someone considerate who has good English skills make the call instead of a bumbling nitwit who will lose your prospect’s interest the minute he opens his mouth.

Network — There are dozens of ways to network. You can go to networking meetings in your home country or the country where you are seeking clients. You can network with other companies in your industry to handle their OVERFLOW which is a serious problem. If you can be reliable about handling overflow, you might just become popular.

Freelancer Sites — Several years ago freelance sites were not that big a deal. Now, they are the standard way of getting anything done. Hiring BPO companies is a headache, but hiring a freelancer has never been easier. You can advertise your company as a freelancer, or freelance company on any site that will take you and watch the jobs come in. Yes, you will lose a percentage to the site, but you will also gain some long term clients who will refer you if you do a good job.

Linked In — We used to recommend Linked In more highly. But, since August of 2015 they made it hard to contact people using their medium without really paying. Linked In might change their rules in the future, but as of now, you can find people on Linked In, but you need to contact them using email or social media other than on Linked In. You can still try Linked In, but it is not as efficient or user-friendly as before which is a shame.

Advertise — There are sites like Craigslist where you can advertise. You can also advertise in industry specific publications. Track your sales that you got from your advertisements so you can keep the winning ads and get rid of the duds. You can advertise on 123outsource.net which specializes in promoting outsourcing companies on the web. We have a category for each type of outsourcing service as well, so your ad will be highly targetted.

Adwords PPC — PPC can be expensive, but you can geo-target where you want your ads to be shown and how much you want to pay. If you get a good return from adwords you can build a business fast. I built my Notary directory using adwords when it first started back in 2005 and got a bargain on it. I was paying 5 cents per click before others caught on. Boy was I at the right place at the right time. You can advertise specials that are displayed on your website using PPC .

Outsource Marketing — Who says that you should do your marketing yourself? Marketing is a specialty that might be better left to a specialist assuming they do a good job. But, many in marketing do not do a good job and don’t even care. So, be careful who you pick and offer results based compensation otherwise you won’t get any results!

Understand What the Client Wants — In India, business people are in a hurry to talk non-stop without listening. This is horrible. To do well in business you need to be gentle, smart, and listen. Your job is not to over-talk, but to be a detective and find out what the customer really wants. They might not tell you, so you have to figure it out. Understanding what clients want is similar to men understanding how women feel. If you hire a guy who has far too many girlfriends and keeps them all satisfied, he might be the right guy for the job (although he might come to work from a different direction each day.)

Be a Partner — The BPO outsourcing companies I have worked with have not tried to be a partner. Many have asked for formal partnerships, but this is not what I am talking about. Be a partner WITHOUT the formality. Be there for your clients. Offer suggestions without them asking. Alert them if they have done something dumb with their business. If you care about them more than they care about themselves, you will be rewarded with loyalty and referrals. People will swear by you. I have never seen anyone be this good all the time, but I do have one “partner” who is like this part of the time.

Correct English — Most Indians don’t feel this is important. However, Americans won’t hire you if you can’t communicate in proper English. You won’t get respect or jobs. We judge you based on how good your English is. If you make spelling and punctuation mistakes, we might not hire you. If you sound garbled over the phone or put us on hold without permission, we will assume you offer horrible service. In my experience, those who communicate poorly always do pathetic work — and I work with thousands of people. So, hire a tutor, and get your skills in order otherwise you will be unemployed.

Customer Retention — Outsourcing companies do not think about customer retention. They think of wooing new clients while they neglect existing clients who will therefor shortly dump them. It is easier to give good service to an existing client than get a new client. So, spend more energy making sure all of your clients are getting what they need. You could even ask them if there are any issues with the service and you might be surprised or appalled at what you hear. Some people won’t tell you unless you ask.

Blogging — Many companies understand the importance of community building. If you run a blog, forum, or community of some sort, you attract people who get to know your writing over time. These people can become clients or share your articles on the web on their networks. Blogging is a powerful way to make meaningful connections with thousands of people. I blog daily and swear by it. I spend an average of ninety minutes per day blogging which says a lot.

Chat Support — Many people will come to your site, but if you offer online chat to visitors, you might annoy them or you might develop a dialogue which could turn them into a client. Chat services on your site are something to consider although that is more of an advanced technique than a basic one.

Free Services — My best marketing secret is to offer free services in order to maintain and develop new connections with new people. A free client can turn into a paid client after they get to know you. Free services are by definition limited and not labor intensive for you to maintain. However, if you talk to your free members after a few months, you might find that they are more open to buying from you now that they have gotten to know you. My entire business model revolves around free services and I swear by its effectiveness as 25% of my paying clients started as free members. The question is, what type of free services could you offer? Samples of your work, or some other web-based application that they could have access to online. Think long and hard about this as it could change your future.

You might also like:

Best Marketing Resources (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/02/24/compilation-of-best-marketing-resources/

Why email sales promotions don’t work as well as cold calling
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/10/25/why-email-sales-promotions-dont-work-as-well-as-cold-calling/

Who are your best business connections? They are not who you think!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/08/who-are-your-best-business-connections-they-are-not-who-you-think/

Create stories in your blog about the experience of your clients
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/07/18/create-stories-in-your-blog-about-the-experience-of-your-clients/

How to start an outsourcing company (2016)

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

I wrote an earlier version of how to start an outsourcing company several years ago. I wanted to spruce it up a bit, so here is the new version.

1. Have Extensive Experience
I get emails daily from people who want to start a BPO, or who just got one but lack clients. There is a lot of competition out there and a lot that can go wrong. You need many years of experience in your industry to have a chance at doing well. Additionally, you need to be better at what you do than anyone else, otherwise, why should anyone hire you? I’ve read many articles about entrepreneurships and startups. The point that hit home is that people in their 20’s that want to start businesses have a high failure rate because they lack maturity and experience. A startup might be a new business, but the experience that goes behind it should be old. People tend to do a lot better at entrepreneurship in their 50’s as they are well seasoned, mature, have contacts, and have a ton of experience. I’m not discouraging young people from starting businesses. I started my first business when I was six, and another when I was fourteen. I did okay too and I learned a lot from it. However, I was very immature how I ran many aspects of my business. My businesses had small investments like a lawnmower and a rake. If you are investing in a 20 seat office and salaries, you had better know what you are doing.

2. Get Management Experience
Okay, so you know how to do your job and you worked for the best. There is a lot more to running a business than being a worker. Being a good worker is only one aspect to the endeavor. If you were a good worker, that shows you have the skills and patience to survive in the industry. But, you need to know how to manage expenses, do marketing, hire, fire, train, and assess workers. That requires many years in management to be any good. I recommend that you have at least seven years in management before attempting to create your own BPO.

3. Master your Marketing
As a BPO owner, you won’t survive at all if you don’t have clients. You need to be an expert at marketing. You need to be able to find decision makers at companies around the world to get clients. Some use LinkedIn, others go to networking meetings, while many have agents to help them find clients. You can also subcontract work from other people’s outsourcing operations. Having a great website and promoting it is often the solution while excelling at social media and blogging is a great boone to your business presence.

4. Excel at Customer Retention
If you start an outsourcing company, you will have customers. The difference between a good outsourcing company and a great one is how long you keep your clients. Do you do a good job? Do you keep in touch with clients? Do you help them find new reps quickly if they don’t like the old ones? Are you there for your clients, or do you just use them for money? To do well at outsourcing you need to focus on pleasing clients no matter what. You can’t grow your company if you are always losing your clients.

5. Give Free Samples
I grew my businesses by offering free samples or discounted trials. If you want to attract outsourcing clients, give them a chance to try your work with no contracts and low prices. They will be seven times as likely to give you a chance if you give them something for free or half price. If you do a good job, you might win them over for life. So you get by giving.

6. Offer Liberal Terms
Most outsourcing companies want people to sign rigid contracts that enslave them to stringent terms. Personally, I don’t want to sign a contract with a stranger. The contract ensures that I will pay a certain quantity of dollars each month. However, the contracts never ensure the quality of the service that I am getting. If I get poor service, can I pay with low quality dollars? Dollars are dollars, but no two services are the same. My suggestion is to have easy contracts in the beginning going week to week or month to month with very small deposits. Let the client get comfortable with you before you get demanding.

7. Have Clearly Defined Specialties
There is nothing worse than a call center that is not clear about what they do. Some do telemarketing, others do chat support, while a few do appointment setting. You never really know how good they are at any of their specialties. It is easier when there is a list of specialties in the “services” page of their website. That way you can be sure they do chat support — unless they stopped doing it three years ago and removed it from their site. If you claim to specialize in something, make sure you have multiple workers trained in it so a client can always get someone.

8. Flexible Office Space
Some call centers start with a huge office and then try to get clients. Many of them end up with huge losses from miscalculating how much space they need. It is better to have a flexible system for getting office space. Start small, and don’t get a big office until you have stable clients who are not going to end their relationships with you on a whim. If your workers are divided between two buildings, that is not the best, but it is temporary and you will have to deal with that as your company grows. Some offices offer shared spaces where you can rent space by the day, week, or month. Those would be excellent resources for a startup that doesn’t know how much space it will need.

9. Offer Training To Your Workers
Most BPO companies do not invest enough in training their workers. If you care about success, be like some of the top rate call centers and monitor your workers daily. Train them constantly. Make sure your workers are the best. I am tired of calling outsourcing companies only to hear them say, “hullo” when they answer. This is very unprofessional. If that is how the managers answer the phone, their workers are almost guaranteed to be horrible. If you aren’t professional yourself, how can you possibly train your workers to be?

10. Have Marketing Managers & Floor Managers
To grow your company, you can’t be two places at the same time. You need someone to manage the workers as well as someone to handle marketing and sales. If you hire people who aren’t loyal to you, you might be left high and dry. So, you might have primary managers and a few backups who you are constantly training.

11. Reward Worker Loyalty
You can’t build a good business with disloyal employees. Businesses that do well have a core of people who have been with them for ten or twenty years. You need to make sure you treat your star employees like stars. They deserve more money, better conditions, and appreciation. If you take them for granted you’ll lose them. Mediocre workers are dime a dozen — they are replaceable. But, you can’t build a business with them. Stars are the framework of your future success. Find them and find a way to keep loyal and talented people, otherwise your business will be tiny forever — or worse — it might be a collection of 50 dysfunctional nitwits!

Summary
I wish you good luck in business. But, the worst thing you can do in business is to go too fast. Get your foundation in order before creating a business. If you are not already a marketing genius, you’ll never survive. If you have to ask me how to get clients, you’re in the wrong field altogether. Additionally, I would like to add that the call center business is one that many Indians want to start. This type of business is almost exclusively being done outside of India. Even Indian companies are hiring Filipinos to do their call center work since the manners in India are very unpolished. Try to focus on an outsourcing specialty that caters to the talents of the workforce where you are. Indians are better at accounting and technical support than call center work. Keep that fact in mind as it can make you or ruin you! Good luck!

You might also like:

Six problems that only someone working in a BPO company would understand
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/15/six-problems-that-only-individuals-working-in-a-bpo-industry-would-understand/

Marketing your BPO firm from A to Z
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/05/22/marketing-your-bpo-outsourcing-firm-from-a-to-z/

If you invested in training your BPO workers, what types of skills would you teach them?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/03/28/if-you-invested-in-training-your-bpo-employees-what-types-of-skills-would-you-teach-them/

See our 2011 version of how to start an outsourcing company!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/24/how-to-start-an-outsourcing-company/

Which type of online content influences consumers the most?

Categories: Outsource Marketing, Popular on Twitter | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Expert content has been proven to be the most effective during purchase consideration, and even for affinity and familiarity according to a recent Nielsen report involving 900 respondents who responded to an online survey. Expert content was found to be more effective in attracting buyers than user reviews or even branded content. But, why is this?

Should we trust the experts?
Many consumers liked the third party characteristic of expert reviews. The experts were not promoting the product themselves, but merely giving an intelligent unbiased review or commentary of the product. 50% of consumers in the study indicated that they would not trust a brand’s website to be evenhanded about promoting the product while even more were less likely to trust reviews that could have been paid for by the company promoting the product. Additionally, consumers found the expert content to be a better source of information.

Not all products respond the same way to product information.
Video games had similar results between expert content and user reviews while dryer sales were more dependent on user reviews than any other type of content. However, electric toothbrushes sold better with branded content. Maybe the experts couldn’t hit the image home that you would have whiter sexier teeth if you would only buy a particular toothbrush.

If you are promoting your own product, you might try to experience with all types of content to market your product. Although you can’t control user reviews, you can create formats where users can leave reviews, and you can promote whichever ones you like as well!

You might also like:

Marketing your BPO firm from A to Z
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/05/22/marketing-your-bpo-outsourcing-firm-from-a-to-z/

Compilation of best marketing resources
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/02/24/compilation-of-best-marketing-resources/

What separates “A” marketers from the flock?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/01/16/what-separates-a-quality-marketers-from-the-flock/

A blog plugin that doubled the length of i-phone visits!

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I noticed that many people were visiting my blog on i-phones which is no surprise since everyone I know is glued to their i-phone! I figured that I might get more visits, or longer visits if I optimized my blog for i-phone usage.

So, my programmer offered to do a manual job of reprogramming my blog so it would look really good on any format. But, I wanted to know what it would look like before I committed to the work. It was not about the money, I just like to know what I’m buying. So, I mentioned that it might be nicer to try a plugin. That is faster and not expensive. So, the next day my programmer had the plug-in plugged in. It was very easy on the eyes. The width of the rows was just right. The display of recent blog articles made it easy to choose which article I wanted to read. It was so easy and so perfect. Then, I went to my stats. Visits had gone from 98 seconds average to 180 seconds overnight! Wow!

So, if you have a blog, it is time to consider a plugin.

Then, on my travel blog, we were having a problem with spam comments. I asked the programmer for that blog to put in a spam blocker for comments. Once again, overnight, the headache stopped, and I was really happy.

It is nice that in life certain things are easy and fast like plugins. The rest of my life unfortunately is not so easy! Onward ho!

What to write about in your outsourcing profile on 123outsource.net

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Leave a comment

Many people advertise on 123outsource.net. Many claim that they get great leads from our directory as well. However, most companies do not describe their specialties clearly and do not write a good notes section for their advertising profile. So, what should companies put in their notes section? There are actually many points that a company could put. Many introduce their company and talk about their lofty corporate mission, but fail to give you even a vague clue what the company actually does which makes it unlikely that they will get any calls. Other companies have bullet points and go point by point what they do and all of their respective specialties. While a third category of companies writes about themselves as an individual and redundantly mentions their cell phone at the bottom of their notes as well as their address which is already in the contact information section of the listing. In any case, here are some winning ideas of what to put.

(1) Services & Specialties:
Examples: Inbound, Outbound, Telemarketing, Order Taking, Collections, Product Support, Technical Support, Help Desk, Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Custom Software Development, PHP, Java, .Net, etc.

(2) Training
How do you train your workers? What is unique about them?
Many companies create long paragraphs about how great their workers are without mentioning any specifics about how they are trained and what metrics they focus on. There are often vague claims about how they deliver more “value” to the client, or how they focus on training, but the nitty gritty would add some substance to the notes. Uniqueness and specifics sell while vagueness is a waste of the reader’s time.

(3) Management
What is unique about your management?
Once again, being specific about your uniqueness is much better than talking about some lofty mission goals that have nothing to do with your daily functioning.

(4) Other
Do you offer 24 hour service?
Are you international?
Does your staff speak American or British English?

(5) What is better about your BPO or call center?
Is there a way you can prove that your BPO operation is better without resorting to bragging? Some companies give compelling reasons why their company is better. Perhaps they have an impressive list of clients like IBM or Intel, or perhaps they have been in business longer, or have a larger staff. Others might hire better trained workers, or do a better job of training them in house. There are many reasons your company could be better or worse. Knowing how to express this is the difference between looking inexpensive vs. professional.

(6) Date of incorporation or inception
How long has your company been in business?

(7) What is the process of getting started and choosing your reps?
How hard is it to switch a rep if you don’t like the first one? I often don’t like a particular call center worker or programmer and want to switch them. Companies are often very sluggish about letting me swap workers.

(8) Who are some of your best clients?
Such as international companies like IBM, Burger King, Walmart, etc.

(9) What are your rates per rep for different levels of service?
Do you make prospective clients pull teeth to find out what their options are, or do you lay the various choices and price breaks on the table for them to choose?

(10) If you have a mission statement, that is not a bad thing to add.
Sometimes mission statements can sound very cheesy, and often they are used instead of much needed specific information about your services. But, if you have a legitimate mission statement and company goal, that might be valued by prospective clients.

Outsourcing 101 Course Outline

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

For a long time, I wanted to create a course for outsourcing companies. Rather than try to sell them something that they won’t want to buy, why not offer something for free. Then, if they get a passing score on my free test, they can go to the next level. I haven’t written the course yet, but will be doing so hopefully over the next several months.

The contents of this course will be:

(1) Communication
Answering the phone
Interacting with prospects
Getting back to people

(2) Double checking your work
Hiring people who can double check work
Training employees to double check their own work

(3) Meeting deadlines
Planning for deadlines: allocating labor resources
Managing deadlines and changing the course of scheduling

(4) Hiring
Selecting, assessing and training new workers

(5) Management structures
Having the right middle management to be able to handle interacting with your clients, and managing the workers to ensure seamless work.

(6) Having a good website
Good artwork, clear navigation, and substantial information are what is necessary.

(7) Marketing
Understanding the multiple channels in which you can promote yourself.
Social Media
Lead Generation Specialists
Agents

(8) Foreign offices and phone numbers
Is it better to have a sales staff in the country where the client is?
Or is it better to have an American number that rings wherever you are?
Either way you need to answer your phone during American business hours.

(9) Small talk
Prospecting clients is a real skill. Mastering the art of small talk is a huge topic that Indians understand in their social life, but typically avoid in business.

Understanding crowdsourcing segments for Twitter

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Twitter is a lot of fun, but having a niche market can get “too niche” after a while. If you want to get a large audience, tweeting only about your specialty of interest might not yield you too many followers. So, what is the secret or the “tweetret”? Keep your tweets industry specific for the most part, but keep them general as well. You need to appeal to a crossover audience and be niche enough for the niche people, and general enough for the laypeople.

Example:
A term of office for a notary public can range from 3 years to life depending on what state you are commissioned in (niche)
If you were a good babysitter, you will make a great notary signing agent (crossover)

The first tweet has some good factual information which might get you a retweet or two. But, the second one is first of all funny, but is understandable to the layperson without sacrificing relevancy!

You need to understand crowdsourcing to be good on Twitter. Your crowd is different from other crowds. They are human which unifies them with other humans around the planet. But, each crowd has certain types of subject matter and styles that appeal to them as a crowd. One crowd might like to hear about things that are illegal, while another crowd might enjoy a good scientific discovery. Remember, your tweets are not about what YOU like, but are for what your crowd likes and will retweet.

Also, remember that your crowd has followers who are not in your niche, so if you keep it general enough for a layperson to understand, you stand a chance to go viral which is the dream of any Twitterer!

Another way to handle the niche verses general market issue is to tweet 50% about niche topics, and 50% about general stuff. You might attract a well rounded crowd and be able to grow your account into the millions. Twitter is a relatively new phenomenon, and a little experimentation might be healthy. Good luck and may the tweets be with you!

How to start an outsourcing company part 2

Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged | Leave a comment

If you want to start an outsourcing company, and start with a bang, consider this.

(1) First, read our article about how to start an outsourcing company (the prequel)

(2) Then, read this article which is the sequel. This article basically consists of additional tips.

Be amazing
Most clients have a lousy experience with whomever they hire. Do you want your company to grow? Do you want to maintain your client base? What if you got work done for your clients better and faster than anyone else did? You will inspire loyalty on their part. If you are new in business, you might have extra time, since you have less clients. So, with the clients that you do have, you can afford to do an amazing job.

Have a web site that says it all
I am tired of visiting websites that have very little to say about the company. There are others with spelling mistakes, and useless content. Can you become an expert in having meaningful content that others want to read? Do you have a lengthy FAQ page as well as a Q&A page?

Have the best sales staff
A company that always answers its phone, and always answers questions with great answers fast will be popular with everyone — especially me. Also, great follow up througout the business relationship makes all the difference. We have written many other articles about outsource marketing that go over how to answer your phone, and how to train your sales staff. Please consider reading those articles.

How to attract more software business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/12/10/how-to-attract-more-software-business/

Improving your credibility at a call center
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/07/28/improving-your-credibility-at-a-call-center/

Getting call center work – making your list
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/05/27/getting-call-center-work-making-your-list/