1. Think Marketing to Accelerate Shared
Services or BPO Growth
Deborah Kops
Deloitte Annual Shared Services and BPO Conference
Barcelona 28-29 September 2011

2. Accelerating growth is imperative
Mandatory to evolve the business model
Critical to achieve maximum benefit for
stakeholders
Gets more executive attention
Creates momentum
Exploits synergies
Delivers ROI

3. Why is growth difficult to attain…
No executive hammer
Typical “build it and they will come”/order
taker approach
No/few formal metrics requiring scale
Organizational focus primarily on solutions,
delivery and governance
Lack of marketing strategy

4. …but not an uncommon challenge
Goes against the grain: unwelcome structural
change for business unit- or geography-led
organizations
Seen as empire building: perceived by
stakeholders as political/power play
Natural plateaus: ability to scale beyond a
certain size difficult
“Enough is enough” syndrome: Slower growth
natural after 2-3 years
No capability: marketing/sales skills driving
growth not common

5. Solved by Marketing?
Promotes a brand which makes it safe and
smart to shift to a new business model
Demonstrates visible, aggressive leadership
Influences and enables stakeholders to buy
Pushes consistency in business development
Imposes process, discipline and metrics
Delivers a return on sourcing investment

6. Marketing shared services and BPO –
easier than you think
Process – just like any other
Measurable – readily track cause and effect
Value proposition is obvious
Captive market; “hunting license”
Corporate knowledge—know how to play the
game
Reference-able—can harness internal
champions/customers to sell

7. What’s getting in the way?
Lack of capability: Historic focus on financial,
sourcing/process acumen, not marketing/sales savvy
Too soft and squishy: belief that marketing is the
domain of lightweights; detracts from value
“Build it and they will come” approach to scale
“What about this don’t you get” attitude—the
facts should speak for themselves
Positioning: facilitator rather than driver of growth
Charter: CoEs, not internal commercial service
providers

8. Think marketing to scale
Become a company within a company,:
think internal provider
Embed marketing skills within and across
your organization
Develop a marketing plan linking growth
with delivery and governance
Deploy eight vital marketing techniques

9. Create Brand
Convey consistent messaging, service promise
and value proposition
Differentiate a shorthand for stakeholder
engagement through logo and tagline
Launch (or relaunch) initiative to create
momentum
Position as the “one and only”
Create customer pull
Preoccupy the shared services organization

10. Engage before sales
Follow the rule of seven
Invest in education
Structure simple, fact-based messaging
Build relationships
Match buyer and seller
Fund industrial tourism
Keep the catalog on the shelf

11. Develop tools and techniques
Design and enforce use of one set of
messages, interventions and response
models
Develop collateral pushed through
multiple channels
Train team in strategic marketing and
selling techniques
Incorporate marketing techniques
throughout the engagement lifecycle

12. Leverage all Channels
Climb on others’ bandwagons—link to
other corporate initiatives
Beat the drum—message at corporate
meetings/events
Harness the power of influencers
Co-opt user groups/advisory boards as
marketing ambassadors
Go digital!

13. Aggressively confront fears
Deal with the reality of change of control
Be honest about risks
Don’t oversell-- “better than before”
Defuse the concept of ‘empire building’
Use case studies to debunk operating myths
Share competitors’ experiences as examples
Adapt solutions to eliminate minor risks

14. Take a consultative approach
View stakeholders as partners, not as an
enemy to be conquered
Solve problems rather than shoehorn
service
Be agnostic to solution
Tailor offerings by adjusting timing,
phasing, process
Actively “co-solution”

15. Retreat to advance
Invest in relationships rather than score
quick wins; defer low benefit opportunities
Promote strategic rather than transactional
value
Sell up the food chain – “mid process”
or higher
Refuse stakeholder predilection to hive off
“onesies and twosies”

16. Target, not blanket
Focus sales on stakeholders with highest
propensity to buy and scale
Track implications of business cycles,
personalities and internal events for growth
Walk away from lost causes/one-offs/non
accretive growth
Implement a tiered marketing strategy for
account management

17. Parting words
Scale alone moves the dial; without scale,
shared services and BPO have little impact
Shared services operations are internal
providers; providers must market to grow
Marketing is not being a salesman; it’s working
with the stakeholder to develop the right
solution in a way he/she can and will buy
By implementing marketing techniques, it is
possible to change the game

18. Questions? Comments?
deborah.kops@sourcingchange.com