Well, the shovelling of THICK SNOW continues in my neck of the woods in British Columbia, Canada. While I was shovelling about a foot of snow from my driveway this morning and a saint of man pulled up on his quad (with attached shovel) and offered to plow through the rest of my driveway. This guy made my day! Thanks for saving my back!

I want to briefly touch on a important element in establishing a good and productive relationship with your Outsourced Internet Marketing Professional/Firm…. Performance Incentives

Performance incentives in any work setting can be a powerful tool for enhancing motivation, strengthening commitment and improving focus for the respective job or project.  It is easy for a work environment to grow stagnant and unproductive with no incentive for employees or contractors to go “beyond the call of duty” in their work endeavors. Implementing appropriate incentives in your outsourcing relationship can lead to higher productivity and better performance across the board…. I have experienced this first hand!

Here are a couple types of performance incentives you might consider incorporating into your new and existing outsourcing partnerships.

1.   Adding more projects and business activity.

In my own dealings with outsourced Internet Marketing Professionals, the prospect of assigning more projects and business opportunities to them has always been a great motivator. I have worked with a number of firms that offer a variety of different services. For example, I am just starting a new outsourcing relationship involving our PPC Search campaign and have clearly outlined that the initial campaign will be the first step with the potential of a full SEO campaign depending on the progress of our first project.

It is important to honestly communicate your future business intentions. You do not want to string them along with no real intention of expanding your business down the road. I prefer to work with a small base of select outsourced professionals over the long term, and am always looking to expand business with those that are performing at a high level.

2. Introduce monetary incentives

Some companies like to build monetary incentives right into the initial contract in order to increase the professional’s motivation and buy in right from the get go. For example, I have seen some Affiliate Management contracts where the Employer will provide a bonus incentive based on different revenue and profit benchmarks that is above and beyond their existing pay structure.  This can be a great tool for maximizing the potential of the relationship. Again, the key is to provide realistic performance incentives, otherwise the Professional might get discouraged and lose motivation.

3. Referrals and endorsements

Outsourced Professionals are always seeking glowing references or endorsements to build credibility and increase business opportunities.  With outsourcing portals like esalesguru.com and elance.com, there is a built in feedback system that provides serious incentive for the professional to perform at a high level. The feedback is posted and viewed by all the other employers accessing the service.

In addition, I am always happy to refer my peers in the industry and express my willingness to endorse their service depending on the quality of the work.

So, Performance incentives are very worthwhile to incorporate into your outsourcing endeavors. It is important to continually review your performance goals and incentives with your outsourced partner to ensure they are realistic and appropriate.

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