I just got three "complaints" in one day about sponsored outsourcing events and how little impact could be attained by these different venues. One was with a buyer, one with a supplier and one with a fellow analyst colleague. These conversations got me into a bit of a crusty mood. Here's why.
There is an over abundance of outsourcing-related venues on which you could spend your precious marketing and sales-related budgets, and it gets me so mad that suppliers, buyers and advisors in this space are spending SO much money without really understanding the true "value" they ultimately will gain from participating.
OK, let's personalize it. It's not what you expect to gain, but, instead, when you walk out the door AFTER an event or after paying to join an association or buying an advertisement - what value did you really get? We're taking MAJOR money here that these guys plan to make off of you...so what really will be in it for you??? In our economic climate, we can't just choose straws anymore.
Let's start with your intention...and you should have intention with every thing you spend your marketing money on.
- Are you affiliating to get new business, or to make new contacts so you could start new conversations to get new business?
- Is it for information gathering...to get tips or learn success factors about the outsourcing domain?
- Is it to make connections and network for business partnerships, or even future job opportunities?
- Or is it to meet like minded people - peers with whom you could share your deepest and darkest outsourcing-related fears...and they'll just "get it", because they too may have the same anxieties?
Depending on your intention, you need to get in front of the right audience AND have plentiful access to leverage the opportunity to accomplish your intention.
It's come to the point in the outsourcing space where everyone is trying to do the same thing. It's easy to pull together a great agenda. We all know the same people. We all know what information needs to get out there. We all know that the majority of people are "in it" for bullet #1.
The real differentiator is - and, by the way, I see noone doing this successfully at all - who is sitting in the seats...or reading the magazine...or specifically noticing that YOU are there?
Keep an eye on every event out there related to outsourcing so you understand the "chatter" going on in this space. Understand what the associations are trying to accomplish so you can share in the bigger picture of industry concerns. Read the articles so you can gain perspectives of industry experts and see how theirs may differ from yours. Understand your intention.
But most importantly, be sure that the value is justified by the money you intend to spend.
I bet that in the overwhelming majority of cases, it's not. This is where we are, as an industry. Maybe it's time to shake things up a bit and dictate a better course of events. Noone likes feeling that they are being cheated. Or used. Or bullied into spending money. There IS a right way to do things...and it includes integrity too.
You're busy. I'm busy. And everyone else in this domain is busy. So...wherever you spend your time and money, be sure that ultimately it will be worth it for you, for your unique intention.
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