Competitive advantage is a popular discussion in my B2B marketing coaching. This week’s topic comes from a newsletter subscriber who is the founder of a BPO service in Colombia offering a wide variety of nearshore outsourcing services aimed at the US market. Their services include operational, sales, marketing and customer support.
One of their questions was on how to compete against other BPO providers, particularly those located in Mexico, mentioning better pricing, cultural affinity and English proficiency as three of their selling points.
These are common selling points across offshoring and nearshoring services marketing but they aren’t the strongest of arguments. Better pricing is implied, cultural affinity is a vague concept and English proficiency should be expected in the SLA.
Colombia vs Mexico: great coffee/good coffee.
I think it’s safe to say that Mexico has a bigger international profile for outsourcing than Colombia…? Correct me if I’m wrong.
So I undertook a fun bit of campaign design research to see if I could undermine this preconception and place Colombia on top. I started by looking at the differences between the tech hubs of Guadalajara, Tijuana, and Ciudad Juarez versus the Silicon Valley between Bogota, Medellin and Cali. I compared English proficiency levels between Mexico and Columbia, the stability of each country’s economy, and the time zones. I thought about the competency of graduates from technical schools and the world rankings for the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia versus the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education.
And back and forth and back and forth. And so I stopped because I don’t think US firms shopping for nearshore outsourcing services are too bothered about these market positions in the first instance.
While there are opportunities to establish oneself against more established competition, going head to head on comparisons of services, demographics or culture is not always the way to differentiate yourself. I think perhaps that B2B services market this way because it’s seen to work in B2C. Unless it’s summarised in a Forbes article though, buyers won’t be looking at like-for-like comparisons initially. They’ll look at how your service can solve their problems (the aim of all B2B marketing) and how different you are from the competition. That gets you on the long list of potential partners. This is good news for Colombian nearshore businesses who have a shot at US business in front of their larger rival.
No shade is thrown at Mexico, but the smaller Colombia is known for exporting WAY more coffee than its northern rival. That is because Colombian coffee has a unique reputation, a value that is in demand for the product itself and not because of comparisons to other coffee producers. So B2B marketers, be more like Colombian coffee.
Here are two paths my nearshoring subscriber can take to help establish that uniqueness without leaning on comparisons.
Accentuate the positive of nearshore outsourcing
You have more in common than differences with competitors when you both talk about the basics of nearshore outsourcing in your marketing. So talk about things that make you different from the competition: what makes you unique, relevant and specific.
Here’s a typical list of marketing foci that I apply to my clients regardless of whether they offer BPO, legal services, property management, or management consultancy:
- Qualification
- Expertise
- Professionalism
- Relevancy
- Specificity
- Uniqueness
- Differentiation
- ROI
These talking points should not be centred around scoring points off other nearshoring companies or nations. Focus on how your B2B uniquely delivers on all of these subjects to the customer. There is only you and the customer.
Focus instead on your real value: solving customer problems through systems, processes, intellectual property, technology and human enterprise.
Eliminate the negative of nearshore outsourcing
Many nearshoring services use their marketing channels to discuss the benefits of nearshoring. When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail.
But trying to be the Wikipedia page for, say, the Colombian nearshoring industry is exhausting and takes up valuable real estate within your marketing platforms. You’ve educated the visiting buyer but that doesn’t guarantee a sale.
I’ve written before that nearshoring service marketing should address negative misconceptions and preconceptions about nearshoring. But these shouldn’t be the primary focus of your marketing – forever fighting fires. Here’s a few of those right now:
- Political instability
- Financial instability
- Poor work ethic
- Weak language skills
- Low-quality threshold
- Fractured communication
Ouch.
Marketing is supposed to reflect the strengths of the company not mask its potential weaknesses. These concerns should be addressed within your service level agreements, KPIs, the proprietary technology you use or the people you employ.
Couch your answers to these problems in positive terms, don’t make them the issue. And don’t expect a page of web copy to solve these issues in the buyer’s mind. Your service ought to make those misconceptions irrelevant.
