8 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before You Outsource Your Field Marketing

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Entering into a contract with a Field Marketing Agency requires a large amount of cooperation and communication, from the on-boarding process and throughout the activity, to make it a worthwhile investment. To ensure that you get the most of your money and maintain a prosperous brand image, you need to make sure you ask the right questions in the process.

1) Can I work in partnership with this agency?

Vital to a successful collaboration is consistent communication. If you are thinking of outsourcing your field sales, it is necessary to make sure that the agency shares the same values and ideas, and that you feel you can maintain a productive relationship with them. The importance of true partnership should not be overlooked, particularly in deals that require the transfer of employees. The effectiveness of both sides relies on making this initial transfer smooth and ongoing relations positive.

2) How well does the agency know my brand?

Agencies should thoroughly research your brand to gain an understanding of the target consumer, and thus the marketing audience, key SKUs and upcoming product launches. It is also beneficial for them to have an awareness of your main competitors. Furthermore, you can garner an agency’s enthusiasm and commitment to you from their brand knowledge.

3) Does the agency recognise my key challenges?

From this research, you also need to ascertain whether the agency has identified the crucial issues facing your brand(s) and industry. Instead of providing a blanket approach for every client, Field Marketing Agencies need to tailor their strategy per activity.

4) Can they suggest a considered solution that sounds viable?

Take the time to consider the action proposed and make sure that it addresses all your brand’s problems. Solutions should be comprehensive and respond directly to your brief. The best strategies are intuitive and dynamic so make sure that you don’t settle for proposals that don’t aim to impress.

5) Does this agency have sufficient experience and proven results?

Make sure that you have an understanding of the agency’s client history and have been provided with sufficient, in-depth case studies. No matter how persuasive they are in selling you their strategy, only testimonials can show that their approach is tried-and-tested and, most importantly, rewarding.

6) Can the agency provide the personnel necessary to activate the activity?

For large-scale activities, and those which are affected by seasonal surges in sales, you need to make sure you collaborate with a company that can provide the people to activate these campaigns. For this, a successful recruitment drive may be necessary, or otherwise a reallocation of existing field team members. The resulting challenge will be to make sure that all these field teams are sufficiently trained and educated in your brand, so also ensure they have a well-established recruitment and training approach to direct this process.

7) How much of their solution is based upon third party companies?

It is likely that any agency will have third party companies to which they outsource part of their strategy, whether this is personnel, technology, etc. While this is beneficial for some areas as it could provide specialist support, it can also incur extra costs. Look out for an agency can provide the same services, to the same standard, in-house.

8) Can they provide a range of services?

Field Marketing encompasses many different activities, from auditing and mystery shopping, to active selling and contact centre services. To give you the flexibility to employ a number of different strategies through the course of your engagement, partnering with an agency that has the capability for a range of activities is essential.