‘Cost cutting’ – not the only purchase criteria of Global Outsourcing Companies

Consumers like you and me (generic) in the alternative evaluation stage of our purchase-decision-making-process develop certain criteria (price, quality, brand name, etc.) against which the product or service to be consumed would be valued and of course, this is based on whether our involvement in consumption is high or low. Let’s assume the product to be purchased is an automobile, automatically signifying a high involvement purchase and you will without a doubt mull over your decision with such criteria as price, performance, delivery schedule, servicing abilities and a myriad other clauses of your own. Earlier, with little or zilch competition, marketers worried very little of whether their products were tailor-made to gratify the needs of buyers or not. Conversely, owing to colossal corporate warfare, companies even after delivering top value products and services to consumers, must also bear with the fact that they have to cater to even the minutest of factors that would influence a buyer’s purchasing decision.

The reason why I have crafted out the above mini-version of the buyer decision model is because, ironically a similar sort of scenario now dwells in the Global Outsourcing (business) markets. Formerly outsourcing companies, contracted work primarily to those nations that implicated lower labour costs and ensured quality output (which is an obvious criterion) and these were made available to the buyers with ease by the suppliers. On the contrary, now buyers (Outsourcing companies) have upped the ante by anticipating superior services from suppliers that include enhanced geographic reach and services scope, suave work-delivery models and an assortment of the best talent that is essentially unmatchable.

Suppliers must now gear up and proactively strategise to meet the next-generation sourcing challenges. Though quite a few speculations made rounds of the fact that outsourcing in India has taken a dent during the economic downturn, many Indian IT and ITes (BPO, KPO, LPO) companies emerged victorious, having overcome the dreadful recession. Now, there is a change in the kind of challenge the suppliers of outsourcing services face; a confrontation that is only going to make them mature, improvise, sustain, compete and achieve business triumph. How? By managing to explore new and improved global delivery models, sketching out expansions that ensure positive consequences, adopting few of the best industry practises, recruiting a diversified and effective manpower and certainly the imperative feature (USP) of outsourcing – ensuring impeccable cost effective exercises.

The main motto of this article is to ascertain the significance of how a buyer’s purchasing decision (whether a B2C or B2B market) is subject to change. The functioning of a marketer and his organization can be smooth, provided both pay the right amount of respect to this thing called 'change'. The beauty of marketing is evident when such changes are handled well by bearing the fundamentals in mind and in this case the marketing fundamental being Consumer Buyer Behaviour. It is fitting therefore, to conclude this editorial with 'Heraclitus' cliché statement – The only thing that is constant is change, and flexibility is the need of the hour. 

A Manager's Guide to Creative Cost Cutting


Making profitable outsourcing decisions