Outsource Issue 30 - (Page 114)

THE BACK END THE LAST WORD OPINION It Takes Two To Tango I’ve read Outsource magazine for years and since The Last Word started it’s always the first bit I read. I always said to myself that I should write my own rant one day but never got round to it – but having read last issue’s I was so angry that I decided to get in touch with the editor and see if I could have my say at last. And it looks like he’s going to give me the chance! Why was I angry? Because as a member of what you might call the supplier “community” I felt that last issue’s column was very unfair. Of course we’re trying to upsell our clients: you show me a single business that doesn’t try to do that, in any industry in the world – and I’ll show you a business that is going out of business some time soon. “Eager sales execs looking to get me on their respective hooks”: would you prefer our salespeople to be sluggish and lethargic so our margins grow ever tighter and we end up going under and taking all your precious services with us? Don’t be ridiculous. You want us to have the very best sales execs on the market so we can grow our business and stay ever more competitive. And let’s not even start on how difficult it is to stay competitive when our clients are constantly squeezing us for every spare penny in the pot. Some of the client behaviour I’ve witnessed over the last few years has been both extraordinary and repulsively unethical. Of course we know money is tight but think about it: hammering us for huge cost reductions and threatening us with going to our competitors isn’t going to do anything other than poison one of your most important relationships. Do you really think you’re going to get the ‘A’ team when you’ve driven us down so far we’re hardly breaking even? And expecting us to hang on in there and bear with you in the hope of a much deeper more valuable relationship once you’ve come out the other side is just laughable: we already know you’re talking to our competitors, because you’ve made that obvious every chance you get! And if you’ve got such a problem with us upselling you how do you think we’re going to get that deeper more valuable relationship anyway? I know times are tough but it is just wrong to throw such abuse at suppliers who are just trying to do our jobs without trying to put yourself in our shoes. If ‘Mr Target’ isn’t happy with the way his own provider is behaving – “pushing new services on us with all the subtlety and sensitivity of an overgrown toddler” – he should take it up with them. But don’t tar all of us with the same brush. You might be the people our business depends on – but we’re the people yours depends on too, so keep that in mind next time you try choking us any tighter. ‘Anne Gree’ Would you like to contribute an interesting, provocative – and, if you wish, anonymous – piece to The Last Word? Or would you like to respond to this particular column? Why not drop a line to the editor at jamie.liddell@ outsourcemagazine.co.uk to discuss your thoughts? “Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before – it takes something from him.” – Louis L’Amour 114 ●●● ● www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Issue 30

Peering through the fog
Who moved my world
Bringing on the beeb
Courting the commentariat
Everyone is responsible
Our survey says
Fast money
Smarten up
Seeing the biggest picture
NOA round-up
Embracing enterprise innovation
Customer matters
Application development outsourcing
India: rules for offshoring
Talent gap
The Professionals
Book learning
The outsourcing jigsaw
The legal view
Top ten
NelsonHall round-up
Spontaneity
Online round-up
The deal doctor
Inside source
The last word

Outsource Issue 30