You certainly weren't expecting a negative response to your proposal to switch technical support suppliers for your company's simpler software products. Your tech support team handles calls for the more complex products, but there's no point wasting their expertise on simple questions, so you've always used a third-party technical support call team for those. With that contract coming up for renewal, your team leader, Alan, asked you to investigate other options and see if your team could score some points by presenting a money-saving proposal.
At an industry conference last month, you'd heard about a supplier in India that handles basic technical support for several North American software companies. When you investigated, you were pleased to hear that the teams were accustomed to being trained to answer customers' questions about different software products, and surprised to learn how much money your company could save. So you prepared a proposal to change suppliers, including a training plan for the new tech support team, and thoroughly outlined the cost savings. After Alan approved your proposal, you sent it up the line to his boss, Joe, and to the finance department. That's when the answer came back: "No, we're renewing the contract with the current supplier."
Something else is going on, you figure. Maybe someone objects to using a non-Canadian supplier, or specifically a supplier from India? Or perhaps someone has a personal connection to the current supplier, and thus has a vested interest in not making a change? Maybe someone believes that customers prefer reaching a tech support person who doesn't have any accent? Or perhaps someone has heard negative comments about this supplier from another company?
There's no point speculating, you figure. Since your carefully crafted rational appeal didn't work, you'd better find out what the real objections are so you can deal with them on your next attempt – or decide whether another attempt is even worthwhile.
You set up a meeting with Alan, your team leader, with his boss, Joe and with Sally, from the finance department to discuss the problems with your proposal. To prepare for the meeting, list the questions you will ask Joe and Sally as you try to identify the real objections to your plan