Access to global markets through Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Operational excellence is a word that is heard across the business world. But what is operational excellence? How does an organization achieve it? In the “new normal” that has been initiated globally, there are many challenges to overcome to achieve excellence in any company, let alone achieving it within the remote working environment! Firstly, I am going to give a brief synopsis on what operational excellence is and then look at the challenges we are all facing in 2021 to implement excellence while working remotely.

Usually, new product or new service launches are rolled out, initially in your home country, or in the case of large territories they may confine a launch to  a state or region.

A global launch will often follow the same logical pattern. Perhaps initially launching, for example, in countries which share the same language. 

This is very often a completely underestimated undertaking in terms of time to market, resources required, knowledge and skills required and especially  overall costs.

It then gets even more difficult when foreign languages and cultures need to be included and engaged.

Committing to such resources, and underlying costs, for an unknown duration and unknown success rate is a high risk strategy. Then there is the truth of the old adage, “costs expand to fill the available budget:”. Sometimes an empire is created before everyone realises that it is premature and unviable.

So what are your alternative options? I would like to explore some realistic options with you here.

De-risk your market entry with an experienced and expert BPO Service Partner

Let’s face it: You don’t need the expense, liability and risk of going it alone, into the unknown. An experienced BPO Service Provider should have partnered with a wide variety of similar global businesses over a long period. If not, then you are not talking to the right partner.

Such service providers are usually referred to as call centres or contact centres. While these names are often used interchangeably, there is actually a difference.

Let me clarify the technical difference between them.

• A Call Centre is the traditional telephony based inbound and outbound centre. The majority of current centres are still in this limited mode.
• A Contact Centre makes contact with your customers or prospects through a variety of contact channels. It may well be by phone, but also has the options of email, SMS, social platforms and online chat. It should also be capable of running demos for your product over audio visual applications and messaging applications.

In addition they must have experience in global outreach on behalf of substantial global clients. This includes the ability, understanding and experience in providing multilingual support staff for your target markets, and in the market time zones.

If this is a B2B product offering, then the multilingual agents must have a native level of the required language. This can be easily tested for professional verbal and written communications skills, and it certainly should be.

If this is your first venture into outsourcing the front end of your Business Development process, lead qualification and closure,  perhaps an initial  pilot project should be considered in order to mitigate your risk. 

Any confident Sales Call Centre or Contact Centre will offer this option.

They will also help you in building your “Go To Market” strategy and collateral.

What will an expert Sales Partner need from you to help you successfully globalise your business ?

Following the agreeing of general and commercial terms, the real work begins.

Our highly experienced, and renowned, Learning & Development (L&D) Team will now take centre stage.

This is the knowledge transfer phase. The initial phase is to gather, confirm and document a full dossier of your product, its features and benefits, competitive environment, options offered and product road map.. Then there’s the key information on how everything from enquiries to after-sale is processed. What are your systems for ordering, onboarding, pricing etc?. 

While we absolutely need to have a deep understanding of your product and systems, we also need to have an equally clear understanding of your values and

culture. These are often a key factor in gaining customer interest and acceptance. But there are subtle differences across global markets.

Regardless of globalisation, there is still a deep, sometimes unconscious, need for cultural links and understanding in our engagement with prospects and customers. These needs and sensitivities  vary as we cross the globe. When we speak to your prospects it is essential that we are accurately and appropriately representing you in all aspects.

An expert global sales or CX partner will appreciate these nuances. The key to this is for them to know what you stand for. What is your messaging? What impressions do we as a partnering team need to portray in your customer or prospect engagements.? How should we represent you in different markets?

At this stage we will also agree on training responsibilities between us. What will be covered by our team in a “train the trainer” Environment and what aspects (if any)  you wish to deliver directly to the frontline team during training.

All of the training materials  will be expertly created within high quality audio visual modules developed and presented by our experienced training team, for initial and ongoing training. Of course, all content is agreed with the clients.

Obviously your products, systems, pricing etc will change over time. We work very closely with clients to ensure that all knowledge is kept current within our teams and is closely monitored.

Designing the Playbook and Workflows

We have completed this essential process very successfully for countless campaigns and across multiple clients and sectors. 

This will be initiated through  a working “understand” session, (or several), between your team and ours. The objective is to design, and agree, a winning market penetration formula and workflow. We will then design a suggested Go To Market (GTM) strategy which will include a contact and closure strategy. This will be designed based on a combination of your significant input and our experience of delivering scalable global campaigns.

While the flow will be in a specific agreed sequence, there will also be a series of additional dispositions for our contact centre advisors to gather additional market intelligence. This is a feature of our workflows. Every contact we speak to, regardless of their suitability or interest  to sign up for your product or service, is additionally seen as a source of  market intelligence. This information is gathered by our contact centre advisors and shared with you through a series of top level graphic dashboards.

Monitoring And Reporting

Our cloud based Contact Centre Management system gathers significant amounts of data on advisor activities and KPIs. Usually calls to /from prospects will be monitored and recorded. These are available to clients over secure channels for review. Typically a client will request a sample weekly or monthly for review.

Detailed daily / weekly / monthly reports are available to clients covering a wide range of specific and general stats on team activities and performance. 

Commentaries, suggestions and requests are always welcome from clients. Real success requires  a team effort.

Agreed market intelligence can be collected by our representatives as part of the Business Development process. We very much appreciate and utilise the value and opportunity of direct contact with key decision makers in your target markets.

Brief summary

• If you are planning a strategic scaling of your product or service through expansion of market territories do not underestimate the associated costs, and timescales to reach an acceptable ROI, through a dedicated internal team.
• An experienced global BPO provider, with a broad client base,  has developed a proven value added process, across a wide range of sectors, through many years of successful experience.
• We are always happy to have initial exploratory discussions with no obligations on your part.

Please contact us at your convenience to hear more or fill in our form below