Should you sell off your web marketing work to the lowest bidder?
The business-to-business service market trends towards commodification. As soon as something works and someone makes some money others follow – driving up the cost of doing business for everybody by undercutting existing pricing and increasing advertising saturation.
Online, where the true global economy is brewing, it’s hard not to compare services on price considering the sheer volume of options available.
Web development and marketing services are pretty cheap to come by. eLance, Guru and other rapid-fire service auctions make the initial steps of outsourcing painless. The perceived risk of being burned by a bad service provider approaches zero as the costs drop.
Go ahead, submit your project to eLance.com right now. Within a few days you’ll have dozens of proposals – some of which will offer below minimum-wage hourly pricing. This is the reality of the global market. This is what’s available.
This makes sense to business owners: why pay more if you can get it for less?
The problem is that you’re never getting the same “it.”
You can outsource your programming if you provide the right guidelines. You can outsource your busy work if you’re prepared to let a few fires be put out by hands other than your own. You can even outsource your daily schedule management if it suits you.
But understand the moment you’ve outsourced your strategy to the lowest bidder you are, in fact, risking everything.
For some things it doesn’t pay to cut corners.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Outsourcing can be great, but it can also be a real hassle. Just like with anything else it pays to do your research and know (as best as possible) who you are working with and what their reputation is. It’s not always easy to figure these things out, especially when using a service like Guru or Elance, but over time you start to be able to see the diamonds among the coal.
It’s hard to compare U.S. vendors with overseas vendors in places like India on price – it’s a shocking difference.
I think it makes sense for the right projects/tasks. I outsource myself for certain tasks. But there are things, like strategy development and content creation, that I think get at the heart of your organization. Outsourcing those is like outsourcing your culture.
Couldn’t agree more, Mike. How many times have we heard about the bargain shopper who thinks do-it-yourself is a smart money saver, only to dig himself into a world of mess? Whether it’s the DIY guy or the “gimme the lowest bidder” guy, the result is the same: bigger expenses in the end.
The crowdsourced and bid-for-work models online are great experiments, but as the Romans said, “Buyer beware.”
@Scott – most definitely.
I think if you’re very careful about what you’re asking an outsourced vendor to handle and give explicit instructions you can have a successful experience.
But the moment you’re leaving marketing communications and strategy development up to someone you found via eLance or a similar service you’ve taken some serious risks.
What most people who hire work done don’t realize is they are not paying for someone’s time; they are paying for their experience, expertise, and especially their ability to produce excellence. Businesses that are truly serious should be hiring only the most exceptional: the top one percent or less of providers. Most of them are independents like you who collaborate with others like themselves.
You truly do get what you pay for – especially when it comes to RESULTS – and results are all that matters. Any business that desires maximum success should hire the most outstanding experts in design, usability, analytics, copywriting, ecommerce – every skill necessary. A business is limited by their weakest links.
The primary reason outsourced work is less expensive is the disparity in the exchange rate between currencies. The last time I asked someone in India their company charged $2 USD per hour which equated to roughly $96 in their currency.
Communicating clearly and setting expectations is the most challenging issue facing any consultant. Imagine how having to learn another language and culture could complicate that. Yes, you might find an exceptional person in another country, communicate your needs to that one person (and possibly teach them), and then have them teach others they directly supervise. It can be done and can be useful for routine repetitive tasks.
When it comes to complex skills and creative work, paying for the best is well worth it. Can you hire work done cheaply? Yes. Can you get Mike Tekula’s level of performance? Almost impossible.
@Internet Strategist – The exchange rate certainly plays a big role. It’s probably the single biggest reason people are turning to eLance to have their work done.
I’ve been surprised at just how well-spoken some of the India-based vendors I’ve worked with have been. Their communication skills often exceed some of the U.S.-based vendors I’ve worked with.
That said, your point about culture is a good one – creative services that are geared for an audience (and they always are in marketing) require providers who are in-tune with the culture of that audience. That’s one thing global outsourcing will never be able to effectively replace.
It truly depends on what you’re looking to outsource and what your expectations are. But I am certainly not one to discount outsourcing entirely – I think under the right circumstances it can be a huge cost saver, and some of the overseas service providers do great work.
Of course, you can’t get Mike Tekula’s level of permance. Perish the thought! ;)
I agree that outsourcing of some tasks can work. It just depends on what your goals are and how complex the work is. There is one thing I have observed across all industries in every business. The top 1-2% have the majority of the success – to get there you must work with only the most exceptional. This is true in competitive sports, horse racing, and businesses of all kinds.
The top 10% are comfortable. They must have some competitive advantage and at least provide decent service – or compete like Microsoft and Google. The other 90% are struggling to survive. If you don’t want to be in that 90% you need to figure out at least what the 10% are doing. If you’re going to do that you may as well aim for exceptional and join the top 1-2%!
That’s a great observation – sounds like a blog post waiting to happen. ;)