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Build Vs. Buy? – Outsourcing the Training Function

Does it make more sense to develop the solution internally or use outside resources? While much has been written regarding the build vs. buy decision for technology solutions, there is little literature regarding learning solutions or the training function as a whole.

While we believe that build vs. buy is a good question to ask, it is not necessarily the first, only, or best question to ask. In order to determine what makes sense for your specific situation, we recommend considering the following questions and reviewing the enclosed articles on outsourcing.

• 5 Key Business Questions to Consider before Outsourcing

• Key Cost, Quality, and Time Questions Regarding Outsourcing

• Outsourcing for Cost Savings, Speed, and Strategic Growth

• Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource

• Top 10 Factors for Successful Outsourcing

• Top 10 Factors in Vendor Selection

• With LSA vs. Without LSA

5 Key Business Questions to Consider before Outsourcing

Before speaking with a potential outsourcing partner or finalizing your decision to outsource a function, program, or project, we recommend that you review the following questions. At a minimum, your potential vendor or partner should be asking these questions to ensure that they are adding clear value.

1. Do you understand all of the symptoms?

• What is the context of the issue? What are the facts and the technical issues?

• What pain is the problem causing? How is it felt specifically? How does the problem manifest itself in your organization?

• How bad is the pain? How big is the problem? What is the value of solving the problem? What is the value of not achieving your desired result? What are the consequences to you? Your boss? Your organization?

• Who/what else is affected? Is that important?

2. Do you understand the key causes and constraints?

• How did the problem come about?

• What has stopped it from being resolved before now?

3. Do you understand the business objectives?

• What are the positive desired results?

• What are the benefits of solving the problem or fulfilling an opportunity?

• How will you know success has been achieved?

4. Do you understand the benefits?

• What is the payoff from each outcome?

5. Do you understand the bigger picture?

• If you were the CEO (or General Manager) of your company, would you care about this problem?

Why? What about the solution would be valuable to you?

• Is there anything else to consider?

• Has anything been left out?

• Is there anything or anyone that would inhibit the successful implementation of a solution?

Key Cost, Quality, and Time Questions Regarding Outsourcing

We believe that the outsourcing of a function, program, or project should provide clear cost, quality, and time benefits to an organization. Here is a list of typical questions that we believe should be addressed.

Cost

Will outsourcing reduce costs? Short term? Long term?

Have you compared Build vs. Buy return on investment scenarios?

Do you want to invest internally in hiring, managing, firing, researching, assessing, designing, marketing, delivering, and evaluating solutions?

Quality

Do you have the internal resources to effectively meet the objectives? Is this the best use of these resources visà- vis other strategic priorities?

How can you most effectively deliver and scale up or down with changing and anticipated business needs?

Would you benefit from access to best practices and world class quality outside the organization?

Should you outsource some or all of the function/project?

Is this your core competence? Should it be? Will it help you develop one?

Would you gain valuable partnership benefits and contacts?

What would work best in your culture?

Time

Will outsourcing increase speed to better results?

Do you have the time to build it internally?

Outsourcing for Cost Savings, Speed, and Strategic Growth

A recent Outsourcing Institute study found that while most enterprises try to survive, the outsourcing industry continues to thrive.

A decade ago, cost reduction took center stage as companies sought short-term, “band aid” solutions from outsourcing and received equivalent tactical benefits. But, the market has turned. It’s “do or die” and outsourcing is no longer about cost savings. Now it’s an essential revenue and growth strategy for every corporation.

In this unpredictable—and mostly down—economy where most companies struggle to “do more with less,”outsourcing is not only a clever alternative to hiring, but also a means to turn “big picture” goals into reality faster and more effectively than ever—with measurable returns. Now everybody wants to plug into “OPR”—other people’s resources—and strategically focus internal resources towards doing what they do best. No more, no less.

Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource

1. Reduce and control operating costs

2. Improve company focus

3. Gain access to world-class capabilities

4. Free internal resources for other purposes

5. Resources are not available internally

6. Accelerate reengineering benefits

7. Function difficult to manage/out of control

8. Make capital funds available

9. Share risks

10. Cash infusion

Source: Survey of Current and Potential Outsourcing End-Users

The Outsourcing Institute Membership, 1998

Top 10 Factors for Successful Outsourcing

1. Understanding company goals and objectives

2. A strategic vision and plan

3. Selecting the right vendor

4. Ongoing management of the relationships

5. A properly structured contract

6. Open communication with affected individual/groups

7. Senior executive support and involvement

8. Careful attention to personnel issues

9. Near term financial justification

10. Use of outside expertise

Top 10 Factors in Vendor Selection

The factors listed below are relevant to both our partners and clients. We find that the ranking of the various factors shifts with specific business situations, philosophies, and industries. In addition to the factors listed below, our clients typically use Speed to Results as a key criteria in selecting an outsourcing partner or vendor.

1. Commitment to quality

2. Price

3. References/reputation

4. Flexible contract terms

5. Scope of resources

6. Additional value-added capability

7. Cultural match

8. Existing relationship

9. Location

10. Other

With LSA vs. Without LSA

Since 1995, we have focused on adding clear value to our clients. The list below represents the top 10 areas that our customers tell us that they appreciate about outsourcing functions, programs, and projects to LSA.

With LSA Without LSA

1. Guaranteed results Inconsistent quality, pricing, and results

2. Focus on partnering with business units to drive meaningful results Tie up valuable resources on administration and non value-added activities to your customers

3. Select from pre-qualified, proven world-class experts, approaches, and practices Invest resources reinventing the wheel, sourcing, qualifying, managing, and auditing multiple unproven vendors and cumbersome RFPs

4. Receive a 24+% ROI and clear business cases supporting each project based upon best practices Forego discounts across multiple vendors and projects and spend time creating internal Justification

5. Have one point of contact, one invoice, and one contract Deal with multiple contacts, relationships, invoices, purchase orders, and negotiations

6. Leave the logistics to us Invest in managing scheduling, marketing, registration, materials, changes, etc

7. Access to the LSA Success Cycle™ used to measure results (levels 1-5) and prioritize next steps Invest in collecting, summarizing, and analyzing individual results and evaluations and determining next steps

8. Access to objective Industry-wide options designed for your specific business, culture, industry, and budget Sort through multiple vendors selling isolated, one-off, off-the-shelf training events based upon what they have available

9. Have an objective Account Consultant assigned to your account at no cost

Use only internal resources and paid vendors to drive success

10. Utilize integrated solutions across multiple vendors, content areas, and Processes Invest time and money “patching” together independent vendor solutions

How To Build A Successful Business Affiliate Program For Beginners

If you’ve just started your online business and you’re getting increasingly alarmed about the amount of money you’re spending on advertising – which unfortunately seems to get you nowhere close to even the first ten pages of search engine results for the primary keywords used in your website – don’t you know that there’s a cost-efficient way of gaining advertising and building traffic for your site which has a very high success rate?

The answer: building a business affiliate program.

A business affiliate program is a marketing strategy that allows you to hire as many affiliates interested in joining your program in a commission basis. Think of it as having a company that employs sales agents and paying them only when they sell something.

Benefits of a Business Affiliate Program

A LARGE ACTIVE WORKFORCE – You may be a small-sized business but designing the right business affiliate program technically allows you to have as large a workforce as possible and the best thing about it is that probably each and every one of them is actively working in marketing your products and services.

EARN FIRST, PAY AFTER – A business affiliate program doesn’t require you to give your affiliates base pay every month. Yes, of course, you’re grateful that they’re working so hard but you’re nonetheless under no obligation to pay them for their effort. This is standard for all business affiliate programs: payment is only made when there’s a corresponding action.

INFINITE POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH – There is no limit to what a business affiliate program could do for your company. It can grow beyond your wildest expectations as long as you continue to deal professionally with your affiliates. Be aware however the growth potential of your business affiliate program is also directly proportional to product or service development. But more about that later on.

CONTINUOUS TRAFFIC – The very first thing that having a business affiliate program can contribute to you is traffic. Every time a person clicks on your link in an affiliate website, he or she is immediately directed to your website. Visitors may not buy anything from you in the end but at least you’ve achieved one important objective and that’s to make them aware your business exists! Some companies wouldn’t ask even any more than that!

How to Make a Business Affiliate Program that Works

GREAT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE THE LIFELINE OF A BUSINESS AFFILIATE PROGRAM – Without unique, attractive, beneficial, and useful products and services, there’s simply no way for your business affiliate program to succeed. You have to start by giving your affiliates something incredible to sell.

A GROWING COMPANY – A business affiliate program can only enjoy long-term success if you can match this with long-term plans as well. Your products and services must evolve in response to the changing needs of your market. If you’re satisfied with a constant rate of success that shows no signs of increasing, don’t expect your affiliates to feel the same. All affiliates expect and demand for growth, and if they can’t see you offering that to them then they’ll simply switch to another program.

THE RIGHT OBJECTIVE – What do you want your business affiliate program to achieve for you? If it’s only attention and interest that you need then you should use a pay-per-lead program. If it’s higher sales you’re after then you should use a pay-per-sale program. It’s that simple.

PROVIDE SUPPORT – A good business affiliate program succeeds because of the cooperation between the affiliate merchant – that’s you – and its affiliate websites. They help each other obtain mutual success. As the owner of the affiliate program, it’s your job to provide as much training – preferably free – and support to your affiliates. There’s nothing to lose as well if you invest a few minutes of your time once in a while to check on your affiliates’ progress and send them motivational and encouraging emails.

PROFESSIONAL – Last but not the least, a good business affiliate program is professional. This can largely be seen on how it deals with its affiliates. It offers contracts that do not violate any laws and protect their mutual interests. A good business affiliate program offers fair and competitive pay to its affiliates. It utilizes a reliable and efficient tracking system to provide sales reports for its affiliates.

And there you have it, the benefits of a good business affiliate program and how to make one. Good luck!

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List and Email Marketing software

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you are selling. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and it helps build credibility with your subscribers. As a result, you can generate more sales and profits.

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, responsive and permission-based email list. If you have a list of subscribers that trust you and consider you an expert, you’ve completed the first step and are on your way!

Below you will several list-building ideas that will help you make the most of your email marketing efforts:

Provide useful, relevant and unique content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be useful to your subscribers.

Add a subscription form to every page of your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If appropriate, you can also include it in more than one place. For instance, your opt-in form might always appear in the top-left corner of your site, while you also include an opt-in at the bottom of some of your popular articles.

Make it easy for your reader to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. (Note: If you don’t have a Privacy Policy, put the words “privacy policy generator” into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form for your readers to review.

Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form.

Show your first issue or other sample to your visitors. This lets potential subscribers review your newsletter before they sign up to determine if it is something they’d be interested in.

Archive past newsletter issues. A “library” of past newsletters is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can send additional traffic to your web site through good search engine positioning.

Contact other newsletter publishers. Introduce yourself and explore ways you may be able to help each other. Perhaps you can introduce other publisher’s newsletters or print articles they have written to your list, with a link to sign up. When you contact them, be sure to tell them why you think THEIR readers would like what you have to offer and why YOUR readers would benefit from their newsletters. This is a win-win scenario; both of you will build your lists faster!

Give away bonuses subscribers can use. Create an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list. You can write an ebook or PDF report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to only a gift for new opt-ins. Remind your readers that the next bonus is coming soon. People hate to miss out on things. If you systematically pass on “goodies” throughout the year, your subscribers are unlikely to leave.

Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find the content you share with them to be informative, they will pass your newsletter on to their friends. This can be a good source of new subscribers.

Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you will get new subscribers, traffic and links pointing to your site.

Include a “Sign Up” button in the newsletter. If you are using plain text instead of HTML, provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint it online. You want to make it easy for them to subscribe.

Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal ? to get an opt-in and build your list. Think of it like a mini-sales letter for your subscription or opt-in bonus. It features a powerful headline and a couple of very important benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up to your list. Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and advertise there using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put 1 or 2 strong testimonials from satisfied subscribers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video social proof) is more “believable”. To increase that believability, include full names, locations and/or urls; don’t use “Bob K, FL” as a testimonial name.

Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with your potential customers, and it creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.

Post on other blogs. Post great comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers.

How to Build an Online Survey

In the past, when business owners wanted to conduct surveys, they were forced to do so without the help of software or online tools. Collecting the data, analyzing it, and taking the appropriate action required experience and finesse. Today, you can build an online survey which does most of the heavy lifting for you. Whether you’re surveying your website visitors or customers to your retail store, a simple link or website address will can drive them directly to your questionnaire.

Below, we’ll explain how to build an online survey that delivers the results you need. Asking the right questions is only one part of a multi-faceted process. We’ll describe how to design your survey, keep your data clean, and create an effective feedback loop.

Design Around Your Objectives

Too many business owners immerse themselves in creating the perfect set of questions. While asking the right types of questions is important, launching your surveying project in that direction will sabotage your efforts. Instead, think about what you would like to accomplish with the data. Do you want to expose areas in your customer support in which more training would be appropriate? Would you like to know the reasons why your customers purchased a certain product from your website?

The data you collect can be invaluable. But, you must know in advance what you would like to do with that data. Your objectives will guide the broad design of your online survey.

Design For A Higher Response Rate

There are several rules of thumb for developing questions which elicit a response. Think of your online survey’s design from your average respondent’s point of view. Their main motivation for participating is they believe their responses will bring about the changes they want to see. That said, their time and attention span are limited. The more questions you include, the more their patience will wane. Your questions need to be simple, to the point, and easy-to-understand. If they’re not, your response rate will drop.

Try to keep your questionnaire brief – or, at least give it the appearance of being brief. Know the limits of your respondents. You may be tempted to wring as much information from them as possible. But, even making the attempt can damage your response rate. Also, use a variety of response mechanisms throughout your online survey to break the monotony. Radio buttons, short answers, drop-down menus, and ranking questions should be used liberally.

Keep Your Data Clean

Collecting more data is not necessarily an advantage; it must be “clean” in order to provide value. A common problem is that online surveys are often designed with questions that require a response, but are unclear. Because skipping such questions is not an option, many respondents will simply choose any answer, even if their choice doesn’t accurately reflect their perspective. When this happens, your data becomes muddied and its value declines.

If you are going to require certain questions be answered before a respondent can proceed, make sure the questions are relevant and easy to answer accurately. In some cases, you may need to include a choice which allows them to select “does not apply” or “other.”

Develop A Feedback Loop

The purpose of surveying your audience is to solicit their feedback. The tools that are available today can play a key role in developing a feedback loop within your organization. Data can be automatically collected and reviewed by software. Certain types of responses can generate emails to key people within your company, prompting the appropriate action. Poor feedback can trigger an immediate response while all other data is filtered through the loop.

By designing and executing a series of well-crafted online surveys, you can develop an ongoing system of useful feedback from your customers. That will help you meet their needs while reinforcing their loyalty and goodwill.

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