I want to clear something up.
When we recommend BPOs specialize, that doesn't mean they only have one area of focus or one ICP (ideal customer profile). In fact, for firms above roughly 500 seats, we'd expect them to have multiple target markets, and perhaps even multiple ICPs in each market.
The Case for Specialization
When you try to serve everyone, you end up competing on price. When you serve someone specific, you compete on value — and that's where growth, loyalty, and profits live.
If you serve everyone, your competition is enormous: thousands of competitors from across the globe, which means you're always going to face price pressure because prospects don't see you as meaningfully different from your nearest competitor.
The antidote is becoming known for something. Instead of being an order-taker who can meet SLAs with a reasonably consistent team, develop true expertise internally — best practices, proprietary IP or technology, and the vantage point of serving similar clients with the same problem — to help clients actually improve their business, not just execute it.
Firms with that level of expertise aren't seen as interchangeable, and command higher prices and margins as a result.
The Transition Is a Big Change
The move from generalist to specialized expert is significant for a company. First, everyone has to align on the need to focus — often a real challenge, especially for BPOs whose leadership teams grew up in the industry and have only ever known a location-based or agent-retention-based value proposition. Then, once everyone's bought in on the benefits of focus, you need to figure out which market(s) to focus on. CEOs and founders, in particular, often underestimate how much a given team — and organization — can absorb at once.
So we encourage BPOs to start with one market and area — telecom CX, or RCM for hospital systems, for example. Start where you're strongest, with the best track record and the most conviction in your ability to serve that market.
Figure out your USP for that ICP. Turn your best, hidden skills into a branded, repeatable system that everyone can follow — your intellectual property. An authority doesn't rely on luck or talent; they rely on a codified methodology. The conversation shifts from "How many hours do I get?" to "How does your system guarantee my outcome?"
Launch a focused, trigger-based sales outreach that corroborates your differentiation claim with proof points of your IP. Support the sales effort with a digital and content marketing strategy so you start showing up in front of that audience leading with your expertise.
Unsure If Your Firm Is a Generalist?
Some signs: "We take any deal as long as it's over X agents." "We don't have any real sales strategy — we're almost fully reliant on our network to get brought into opportunities."
As the flywheel starts turning — as your team grows in confidence bringing in leads when they focus and work together, and your operations team gets even better at supporting those campaigns — you can repeat the process with your second-strongest market, or a new market you want to break into.
A rough guideline is one ICP per salesperson, ideally supported by marketing as well — rough, because every market is different, and one salesperson may fully penetrate a market with enough bandwidth to extend into a new area.
Confirm You're Positioned to Specialize
Running multiple ICPs well takes the same commercial foundation as running one — a distinct narrative per market, a sales process built around each, and account management that reflects the specificity you're claiming. The Commercial Gap Check is a free ten-question self-assessment across those areas plus business strategy. Results shown immediately, no email required.
FAQ: Running Multiple ICPs Without Diluting Any
We're under 500 seats — does the multiple-ICP guidance still apply to us?
Not yet, in most cases. Below roughly 500 seats, you typically don't have the sales and delivery bandwidth to build real expertise in more than one market at once — pick your strongest one first and get the flywheel turning before you add a second.
How do we know when we're actually ready to add a second ICP?
When your first market is running on its own momentum — your team is winning deals through recognized expertise rather than relationships alone, and your operations are efficient enough that a second focus won't starve the first one of attention.
What does "one ICP per salesperson" mean in practice for staffing?
It's a planning guideline, not a hard rule: each ICP generally needs a salesperson (ideally backed by marketing) with the bandwidth to fully penetrate it. A rep with capacity left over after saturating one market can sometimes extend into a second — but that's the exception, not the default assumption.
Related reading
For the fuller case on why this default beats the generalist model every time, see the specialization pillar.
Amanda Quinn
Founder of Evostr. She works with mid-sized BPO operators on the shift from selling hours to selling outcomes.