Marketing your outsource company to U.S. based clients

I realize it’s difficult for offshore agencies to market to the U.S., yet there are so many that some must do well.

So I think we must be doing something wrong, because there are so many mismatches in the responses.

I’ve been through a few of these processes, recently hiring Adobe AEM developers and Architects (JavaEE), Machine Learning engineers (Python) and now looking for Shopify development experts(Ruby on Rails).

I know there are some great bus dev/sales people, but the bad ones make me not want to try any.

Also, your competition, real developers who market themselves, are very accessible and easy to evaluate.

It seems like such a wasted resource of so many great developers and architects in India and Ukraine and elsewhere that are under-earning because their marketing is so weak.

Below are our critiques from the recent search for ShopifyPlus expertise.

1.  TOO GENERAL AND BROAD BASED

Most outsource companies try to be all things to all clients, offering every kind of development. This is a turn-off to most potential clients. The responses are also very general vague, “we can do that” vs. specific data on past successful projects. They list dozens of technologies – that scares many people away.

SOLUTION: We look for specialization in the one area we are working in, deep specialization and experience. In some cases, certifications. For ShopifyPlus, I want a team that only does Shopify/RoR and can show several sites they’ve built.

2.  MIDDLE MEN (WOMEN) / TOO MANY LAYERS

Many respondents are bus dev or sales for an agency. I understand the reason for this but it causes friction, takes more time and obfuscates us from the actual engineers. Also, too many are not even real agencies.

SOLUTION: We want to evaluate each actual engineer, look at some of the following: repos, urls of their work, YouTube training videos, code bases, blog entries, twitter feed.

3. NO REAL CONNECTION TO THE DEVELOPER

As above, trying to discuss the spec for a software project through an interpreter is cumbersome.

SOLUTION: Connect client with real developers asap. When I talk directly with developers I can discern exactly where their strengths and weaknesses are and have an efficient conversation.

4. REFERENCES / CASE STUDIES

Most of these don’t help much, unless they are about a very similar project and are recent.

SOLUTION: Connect client with real developers asap. When I talk directly with developers I can discern exactly where their strengths and weaknesses are and have an efficient conversation.

 

5. NO PRIOR RELATIONSHIP

When there is no prior relationship, trust must be built, especially if it’s a different country than your own.

Do a free small project to show your skills. Build a working relationship.

If packaged right most agencies could gain much more business and not get dismissed before they have a real chance.

Please comment below.