The Need for Project Management Is Rising in the Channel

Before Telarus, I spent most of my career building, staffing, and running contact centers. We provided the right people and technology to help businesses reach out and respond to their customers.

Most large contact center outsourcing companies spend more time looking for opportunities than pursuing any targets. The best contact center companies invest heavily to create processes and methodologies to replicate and enhance their success.

Large BPO and contact center opportunities are complex. There are many parts, and professional procurement teams are built to harness all requests and look for complete solutions. The teams spend time creating request for proposal, or RFP, documents. Strong RFPs include an overview of the services requested, detailed requirements and specific questions which need to be answered: What type of work is required? What kind of technology can help improve speed and efficiency?

For years, I led a team that found, qualified and responded to RFP requests. We would spend weeks finding, responding to and cleaning up our proposals, and we would review them, look for inconsistencies, highlight strengths and validate our proposal’s financials. If we made it past the first round, our team met with the potential customer’s procurement and response team.

In one case, we knew our customer’s needs, and we answered all the technical questions. The team loved the solution we presented, but they were not confident in our ability to execute what we proposed. We were asked if we had experience, how we would coordinate, and who would own communication within our organization. We answered what we could, but we were not prepared. We were so focused on the presales response that we failed to identify critical members of our implementation team. We walked in confidently to this meeting, and we walked out realizing we had failed to show our ability to execute.

We lost that RFP but learned a lesson: A solution is not a solution if you can’t implement it. Sales is just as much about creating confidence as it is answering questions.

I have watched the channel evolve and offer more complex technology. The opportunities are larger, and the demands are higher. While relationships remain crucial, if your business cannot create confidence around execution, the chances of winning drop.

Over the last six months, I have seen a 3 to 4x increase in requests for project management support. Just like an RFP, we look at the requirements and talk about the end vision.

Sadly, within the channel, the term “project management” is very subjective. Most of what is offered is superficial. Just as a Hyundai and a Porsche are both cars, there is a significant difference between the two.

I see three offerings available to partners when discussing order implementation.

1. Order assistance: Another party provides detail back to you. When you submit a contract, a person giving order assistance will help to coordinate the initial actions and then monitor milestones. This communication is never white-labeled, and the person assisting rarely talks to the end customer.
2. Project coordination: An assigned coordinator will take the signed order and “own” it through implementation. This provides more in-depth support, and the coordinator steps in to handle issues. This service may or may not be white-labeled. The coordinator may or may not handle communication with the customer.
   
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