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How to Get the Resources You Need

Marketing, communications, and training people—our clients—have lots on their plates. You are busy planning your programs, developing budgets, selling your ideas to management, and developing content. Unfortunately, the tasks of designing, writing, editing, and publishing content often get short shrift because there's only so much time in a day.

One obvious solution is to hire an outside resource such as Avanza Communications. But when you try to get approval to go outside, your supervisor may ask,“ What do I pay you for?”  That’s a great question, which usually stops the conversation cold!

The next time, you want to bring in outside help, buttress your appeal with one or more of the following arguments:

• In-house marketers, communicators, or trainers are planners and project managers. They specialize in those tasks and do them very well. They may or may not be content specialists. If writing or editing content isn’t a specialty, content may suffer, which has a financial implication for the business. Doesn’t it make more sense to hire the right specialist for the right job?
• In-house staffers are strategists. They need to stay on top of internal and external customer needs and to design communications and training programs that help their companies stay focused on those needs. Why distract the in-house strategists with tactical content development?  Taking their eyes off their customers can have a negative impact on the business.
• In-house people only have so many hands. If they are fully engaged with current projects and a new and important request hits their desks, doesn’t it make more sense to farm out the project than to keep it inside, which might result in a late delivery?
• Internal people know the business really well. That’s a plus, obviously, but it can also become a disadvantage if they begin relying on tired content approaches. Bringing in an outside resource can inject new ideas into an ongoing program.
• Finally, in-house people need help. Establishing an ongoing relationship with an outside content resource is like having an extra employee, without the costs of having that person on payroll. Now that’s a win-win scenario for all involved!

So the next time you hear the dreaded, “What do I pay you for?” take a deep breath and make a strong business case for going outside.

More articles How to Get the Resources You Need | Top Ten Ways to Leverage Your Outside Writers | How to Write a Case Study

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