Marketing for ITO organizations working with SME clients

Many outsourcing providers who have just started their way to success do not have a clear understanding of how to find clients. In the modern world competition between IT providers is extremely high. A wrong business development strategy can lead to a total business failure. The goal of this presentation is to help my colleagues to choose the right strategy and effective tactics in their way to success.

The problem

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What do you sell? Who are your buyers? Who are decision makers at buyers’

side? Who are your competitors? Why are your services better? What are global trends in

outsourcing?

A FEW QUESTIONS TO START WITH

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What is their geography? What is their industry? What is their annual revenue? Do they have internal IT

departments? What are their business challenges

today? Do you have solutions for those

challenges?

Who are your buyers?

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DO YOUR HOME WORK AND ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS:

Business practice difference

Culture difference Language barrier Time zone difference

Geography challenge

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RESOLVING THESE CHALLENGES BELOW MUST BE PART OF YOUR STRATEGY

Culture difference

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COUNTRY UAI

Denmark 23

Sweden 29

UK / Ireland 35

United States 46

Norway 50

Netherlands 53

Finland 59

Germany 65

Australia 70

Greece 112

CHECK THIS SITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TABLE BELOW AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOURBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY http://geert-hofstede.com

General Executives CEO / Chairman Managing Director COO Director Etc.

Who is the right decision maker for you?EACH GROUP OF DECISION MAKERS REQUIRES PERSONALIZED APPROACH

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Marketing Executives CMO VP Marketing Marketing Director Etc.

Technical Executives CTO VP Engineering Development

Director IT Director Etc.

Financial Executives CFO Finance Director Commercial Director Etc.

Who are your competitors? Source: www.atkearney.com

Deciding who are your competitors you predetermine your company growth for the next 2 – 5 years.

Your real competitors are those who have been now resolving business challenges of your potential clients, not those who provide the same services as you do now.

The only way to win the market share is learning your clients’ and competitors’ businesses.

Design your services and your marketing message based on deep understanding of your target market; do not copy what your peer companies do.

Competitors are important

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Service perspective You are cheaper You are business niche experts You provide unique services and do not have any competitors You develop brand new technology and do no have any competitors

Customer service perspective Your team is proactive (including software engineers, yes I do mean

them as well) You are 100% responsible for the work you do You provide local customer support You are flexible and ready to go an extra mile for your clients You speak business language You understand and are able to address client’s business challenges

Why are your services better?

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WHAT WILL BE YOUR CHOICE?

What do you sell?

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Outcome-based contracts is a trend

Multi-sourcing trend continues to grow

Business moves its IT infrastructure to cloud

Value added services are more important than cheaper labor cost

Location risks matter Clients became more and

more sophisticated and proficient in IT

GLOBAL TRENDS

Source: www.cio.com

What business wants from IT?

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• Proactive technical leaderships • Business improvement • Innovations• Business result on every dollar spent

DOWNSIDE OF OUTSOURCING

WWW.DIGITEUM.COMInformation has been taken from www.deloitte.com

Time to change the paradigm

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Business understanding must become your new marketing strategy

You as a technology leader are responsible for business outcome of technology projects you are committed to do

Invest into market research before starting any marketing campaign

Invest into communication quality: level of spoken English, quality of your marketing materials, quality of your business communication matter

Technology like programming languages, databases, frameworks, etc… is a tool not a service itself

Software engineers are not “bodies for leasing” anymore; they are service people who help your clients to grow business.

Start measuring your business success based on what real value your services brought to your clients

Thank youMichael GrebennikovManaging Director Skype: michael.grebennikovE-mail: michael@digiteum.com