Outsourcing and Strategic Partners

Can outsourcers and their clients be strategic partners?

Some outsourcers provide a transactional service, others present a broader set of capabilities or insights that can move your business or project forward. These can become strategic partners and can provide assistance or advice that expands your project outcomes, or even your business’ position in the marketplace.

Strategic outsourcers need not be large organizations, I’ve had the great fortune and pleasure of having a small tax and accounting business serve as a strategic partner for over 10 years.

So, as an outsourcer or a client of outsourcing, you might want to work together to derive a strategic direction for the business. However, an outsourcer and client can only become strategic partners when certain conditions allow for a trust-based relationship to develop.

First, there are no conflicts of interest with the outsourcer’s other clients. If you were a major retail department store, and your outsourcer also provided services for your most direct competitor, this could be problematic. In turn, the client is not working with other outsourcers that could threaten the potential partner’s business.

Second, if the outsourcer has the business background to help facilitate the client’s business growth, than working together on at least a subset of strategy sessions could be advantageous. The client must also be willing to serve as an advocate for the outsourcer to pursue other client’s business.

Third, if the outsourcer is involved in directly serving the client’s customers, it’s recommended that you work together to ensure the outsourcer can properly represent their business interests without compromising the client’s customer relationship and product delivery.

Last, there should be instances where the outsourcer has enabling technology or knowledge they can share that will help the client evaluate various options for their strategic direction.

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich is quoted as saying “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”  This is a critical success factor for long term outsourcing engagements. One of the most powerful instances where that philosophy can be represented is in a client’s strategic planning. When the conditions I discuss here exist, consider working together as outsourcer and client to deepen the support you provide to each other’s business.

These tips are taken from my Outsourcing Critical Success Factors course on LinkedIn Learning. It’s one of a series of six courses on outsourcing that I have on the LinkedIn Learning platform. You can access the course via this link: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/outsourcing-critical-success-factors/successful-outsourcing?u=2125562

Not a member of LinkedIn Learning? You’ll get to view the introduction to the course and will be given the opportunity to get a free trial which will give you access to the entire LinkedIn Learning Library of online courses.