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Outsourcing is one of the best ways to scale business operations before a company has the budget for a full-time marketing department. Outsourced CMOs can help small businesses utilize strategies similar to those used by large, Fortune 500 companies. However, managing relationships with an outsourced CMO requires special expertise that most business owners do not have. If you are a small business owner, there are certain management strategies that will help you to make the most of your relationship with any outsourced chief marketing officer you should bring on board. Learn these outsourced management strategies below.
Research Before Hiring
Research potential CMOs before hiring them. This is the best way to set yourself up for the easiest possible management experience. Check references for potential CMO hires. Inquire about their business strategies. Find out how they plan to help your business reach its marketing goals to achieve success for the broader organization. Figure out their work style and how they manage professional relationships. This way, you can be sure to pick the absolute best fit for your organization’s own unique work environment and business objectives.
Set Goals Together
Establish goals together with your outsourced CMO. Doing so will keep your CMO in the loop and act as a team building activity. After all, how can they help you achieve your business objectives if you do not tell them what they are? In addition, they will be able to provide expert insight into whether your goals are attainable within your existing budget. They will also encourage you to set more challenging goals if they believe your existing ones to be too easily attainable with fewer advantages for business performance. This will establish and foster a great working relationship, which will make managing outsourced employees much easier.
Stay In Contact
You want to be sure to maintain consistent communications with your outsourced CMO. Outsourced employees are not quite as easy to keep in touch with as those you employ in-house. You cannot simply walk over to their desk to check the status of current projects or just say hello. That is why you must go above and beyond to maintain this line of communication when using outsourced change management or marketing services. Be sure to stay in constant contact via phone, email, messenger and in-person meetings. If you make the extra effort to stay in contact consistently, managing outsourced marketing employees will be much simpler.
Hold Meetings
Staying in contact via email and phone is not enough. You should also be holding meetings with outsourced CMO employees on a regularly scheduled basis. This is the best way to maintain a scheduled line of communication with those that work outside the office. Set a meeting schedule after hiring an outsourced CMO. Then, stick to that schedule even when it does not feel like a meeting is necessary. That way, you can keep communications open to avoid facing urgent deadlines for vendor events in the future. This is the best way to avoid management problems with outsourced CMOs or other outsourced marketing services.
Set Up A Structure
Establish a chain of command in regards to your outsourced employees. When you set up a communications and responsibility structure prior to beginning your working relationship, you will eliminate any area for confusion. The less confusion their is surrounding the chain of command and communication structure at your business, the better you will be able to manage all types of employees, including outsourced workers. Be sure to set up a management structure. Then, communicate that with your outsourced CMOs once you ink a deal. This way, you can alleviate confusion and miscommunication to ensure a smooth outsourced management process.
If you own a small business, you will need to outsource services at some point if you want to grow your organization. Growing and expanding is difficult for any business. But with an outsourced CMO, it becomes much more manageable. The only difficulty is managing your outsourced employees! Learn how to manage outsourced CMO in the post above. These outsourcing management tips used by those with a project manager certification will help you manage all employees across all different areas with all different goals and roles in your organization. Let us know how it works out for you in the end.
