What It Really Takes to Get Inbound Leads

Milan Batinich 0:00
Amanda, what happened to your big plant in your background?

Amanda Quinn 0:04
I killed it. No. I didn't, I didn't. I haven't killed it yet. I haven't killed it yet. He's outside sunbathing on my back porch and I'm routinely forgetting to water him, so he's getting some sun and rays, but whatever.

Milan Batinich 0:18
Yeah, it helps Minimal Drinks. It helps to put it outside of the porch so he gets water when it rains.

Amanda Quinn 0:24
My legacy of killing plants continues. Welcome to Build a Better BPO. At the podcaster we help business process outsourcers break free from the one size fits all approach and build stronger, more profitable businesses.

Milan Batinich 0:41
If you're a BPO leader looking to improve margins, reduce employee churn, and create long-term client relationships, you're in the right place.

Amanda Quinn 0:49
I'm Amanda Quinn, principal at Quinn Growth Advisors. I help BPOs refine their positioning, market their expertise, and move beyond the outdated labor arbitrage model.

Milan Batinich 0:59
And I'm Milan Batinich, CEO of Milan Motivates. I help BPOs and CX leaders build stronger, happier teams by improving employee engagement and retention.

Amanda Quinn 1:09
Each episode will bring you insights, strategies, and real-world examples to help you stand out in the BPO space, attract better fit clients, and build a more sustainable business.

Milan Batinich 1:20
We're cutting through the noise with actionable takeaways. No fluff, no vague theories, just proven strategies from industry experts and BPO leaders who are making it happen.

Amanda Quinn 1:30
So if you're ready to build a better BPO, let's dive in.

Milan Batinich 1:48
Should we dive in? Amanda, what would you like to talk about today? How about that?

Amanda Quinn 1:51
Yeah, I want to talk about inbound. I want to talk about why BPOs don't get inbound leads or quality ones, most BPOs, and how they can.

Milan Batinich 2:04
That's that's great to hear. And in all my years of being in sales, which now is I don't want to date myself. Sound like an old person just saying that, but in my 20-ish years of sales, I've never encountered anyone except for you, anyone like you, that has had more quality inbound leads coming in. Like I've been a part of organizations where inbound leads come in, but they're just trash. They're just garbage. Or somebody's trying to sell less on something. You actually have a ton of inbound leads that are of quality. They haven't seen that before. So you're the right person to talk about this because you figured it out and you're doing it.

Amanda Quinn 2:38
Thanks. Yeah, I uh eat my own dog food, as they say. What I what I do for myself and what I've learned and figured out is what I do uh for my clients. And no fluff here. Let's just uh let's just get some deals going. That's really that's the goal, right?

Milan Batinich 2:55
Uh yeah, definitely. I love that. So you're getting inbound leads and you're getting quality inbound leads, like worthwhile inbound leads. So why is it like most most BPOs or many BPOs aren't seeing that? Why aren't they getting inbound leads, good inbound leads?

Amanda Quinn 3:12
Great question. Um, I think the primary reason is because most BPOs, and frankly, most professional services companies try to target way too many markets and customer types. And so what they're putting out from a content perspective, a marketing perspective, the webinars they host, the LinkedIn posts of theirs are all just super generic and unhelpful. And it doesn't inspire trust and confidence, which is really what B2B buyers need in order for them to be willing to fill out a form and give you their information.

Milan Batinich 3:52
Right. Understood. And it seems like a lot of uh organizations that do fill out those forms, they want to know that they're filling out forms that are worthwhile. They're filling out forms to BPOs that those BPOs have experience in their industry, whatever industry that might be. That way they're not just throwing spaghetti spaghetti against the wall in terms of reaching out to a bunch of different BPOs without understanding like, does this BPO actually do what I do?

Amanda Quinn 4:17
Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I'll say, for example, for myself. So everything I do, all of my content, all of my posts, my podcasts, everything is super clear that I work with BPOs. There's no mistaking it. I'm not having plumbing companies reach out to me for help with go-to-market strategy. I am really clear about who I'm going after and the problems that they are encountering and how I help with those problems. The reason that most BPOs don't get the same level of inbound leads is that they're not doing that. They're saying, I do all of these things, you know, my company has these capabilities, we service in these areas, work with firms like this, and that broad messaging just gets lost because every BPO is doing the same thing. So if you are a, I don't know, CPG brand and you're unhappy with your current BPO and really want someone that will help you do more than just like butts in seats answering calls, and you want someone that will help you with your handling of returns, or how do we give gift certificates or make people make our consumers write if they have a problem with the quality of the product or something like that. You want a BPO that makes it very clear in everything that they show and do and say that they are experienced in helping with all of those various things, that they have worked with clients just like your brand. And so you feel that confidence that when you reach out to them and give them the and their salespeople that brands know are tenacious. You know, Milan, I'm sure if if someone's popping up to say, I need help from a BPO, they know they will be hounded to death by that salesperson. And so they're not gonna do that if they're not sure. And so that's the big bogey out there. I think the big obstacle that BPOs need to understand that they need to digitally and you know, in life form when it comes to conferences and things, but their brand needs to show up in a way to overcome that like inert resistance to want to make yourself known to a sales organization if you're um if you want to win, if you want to get those inbound leads.

Milan Batinich 6:40
Yeah, uh for sure. So really focusing on the niche that they're experts in, and their content should be focused around what their niche is, and then how important is it to be consistent in sharing that content out in order to get those inbound leads?

Amanda Quinn 6:56
That is such a huge point. I think it's probably after not being positioned well and not being able to understand your buyer and understand the market that you're going into. I think consistency is probably the number one, number two problem that most BPOs have when it comes to their marketing efforts because they dabble and they think that will yield results. They think I went to one show, I should get an ROI from it. But those audience, the people in that show have never heard of your firm before, or maybe this is them, this is the first time they're coming in contact with you, or maybe they've sort of heard of you before, but they're not in a buying position yet. And so, like, you need to realize that most consumers, especially now, are so inundated with marketing messages and notifications that all of our collective attention span is negligible. And so you need to really beat the drum and beat the drum consistently and show up wherever your buyers are. That is your only hope of being able to kind of break through that insane noise that they're experiencing and be able to get some brand recall and start being able to be thought of as a potential option for your target market.

Milan Batinich 8:19
Yeah, that makes total sense. Because if you just post sporadically or once in a great while, a different content out there to your market, somebody may see it, but then they're gonna forget about you. Or they may not see it because it's not consistent enough and it's not in their faces enough where they're they're known as or they know those brands know, like, oh yeah, you know, if we need help with outsourcing, we need to contact this company because they specifically specialize in what we do, and we see their contents all the time, all their thought leadership, uh, everything that they're sharing out there versus just trying to pitch us constantly over and over. Yep.

Amanda Quinn 8:54
And I get it's hard, and I get like posting all the time is challenging, right? Like coming up with new content, it's it's hard. And so there is that's one of the things I do with my clients is help them. We come up with what are the content pillars, like what are the themes that you need to be talking about that your buyers care about? How do we reinforce your your point of view and that thought leadership, that authority that you have in this space, and make it really easy by having those themes of this is what we're gonna talk about. And then you just come up with different ways to, depending on what you're aiming to accomplish, you know, if this is top of the funnel content, if this is bottom of the funnel content, what type of content do you need, and then where do you post it becomes more of a bit of like a matrix, not matrix in the Keanu Reeves sense, but like a spreadsheet almost like it's it's much easier to fill it in and it feels much more formulaic, which I think for a lot of people where content feels very nebulous and hard, like how do I game plan this? Having that structure can make it a lot easier.

Milan Batinich 10:07
How do you really drill down? So it's one thing to create that specific focused content for a brand within an industry that the BPO specializes in, but how do you get it even more narrowed down into determining who the actual decision maker is? Like, how do you hit, how do you get that inbound lead from the decision maker at the brand? So, like how are you, I guess, creating content specific to the actual person, the actual buyer persona, the actual buyer within that brand? Is there specific, you know, ideas around that?

Amanda Quinn 10:38
Yeah. Um, it starts by really understanding your buyer, and that's a huge gap. I think most firms don't really do a great job. They have not spent any time on their re like doing the research of understanding your buyer. I help with that too and help my clients get that clarity and hearing from their target market of what they're looking for, because we want to know what they are struggling with. Like, and it doesn't have to do with outsourcing necessarily. I want to understand this person, what's keeping them up at night? Where are they, what do they feel like are their gaps internally? Where do they want help with that, you know, in their heart of hearts that if they could imagine a perfect scenario and like the perfect partner for them, what would that look like? Where are they turning to for best practices? What are their sources of news and insights from the industry? Where, because those are places that we want to advertise, those that research is such a fundamental stage, and I cannot overstate how important doing that work is and how foundational it is because it's gonna feed everything else from a marketing and sales perspective. So once you kind of have that really good sense of your buyer persona, like you said, then it's mapping their journey of like before they've even started thinking about your firm. And they are maybe they're starting to become problem aware and they're starting to be like, okay, our internal team isn't quite cutting it, or maybe my existing team, outsource team is having some struggles. And maybe like, what are they thinking about? What are their their challenges? What are their what would they be searching in Google? Um, you know, you want to start creating educational content, and that's really the key is like not it is not about your company yet. This is education, educating them, being helpful to them about the problems that they're having. And so this could be um you showing off your point of view on where you think this buyer should be focusing. Like, if your point of view of this buyer, if I were this person, this is how they should be thinking of the world. Like that content is great upper funnel. Other content that's really helpful is like your state of the industry. Like, this is what we as a firm think the that we're observing from our research of going on, or this is what we think that the target market, the future of this market is going, and big headwinds to be aware of, or challenges that are coming, mistakes to avoid, those kinds of things are really, really helpful at that brand awareness phase before they're even really starting to become problem aware. Does that make sense?

Milan Batinich 13:26
Yeah, that makes a ton a ton of sense. I was just making a couple notes because uh a couple of things you brought up. First, just now you talked about doing research specific for their industry, not the BPO industry, but the industry they're selling into. And I think so many BPOs really focused on that thought leadership of what they're creating themselves, but not doing the in-depth research. And I think that goes so much further because it shows that you're actually ingrained and embedded into the industry you're trying to sell into because you've done all this research. You have all these statistics that you can share with your potential buyer. So I think that would set a BPO apart, you know, head and shoulders above. If they're you know selling to an industry that maybe a couple other BPOs are selling into, that's a good uh differentiating factor for them.

Amanda Quinn 14:10
Such a good point to call out. Yes, yes. And that is such a um, it's something I observe all the time. Like BPOs on their thought leadership is always about outsourcing. Like how, why to think about this region that we're in, or what best ways to onboard a new BPO. It's always about outsourcing. And the way you really separate yourself from every other BPO is exactly what you just said, like getting really insightful, offering insights about your target market's problems and what you're seeing and what you're hearing from your clients in those industries and what you feel like should be happening or will happen, that totally is without a doubt an easy, easy way to step back and separate yourself from the pack.

Milan Batinich 15:00
Yeah, and something else you had mentioned that I really liked is you know what's keeping your buyer up at night. Because usually, usually this type of decision, choosing a technology, choosing a BPO, whatever it is that the buyer needs to choose that's that instrumental in the success of their CX program, um, a lot of times that does keep them at up at night. And it could be a career maker or a career breaker, depending on the decision that's made. So if a if a buyer from a brand chooses the correct BPO, they could be promoted in the future. If they choose the wrong BPO that maybe isn't specializing in their industry, it could actually end their career because so much weight, so many millions of dollars many times is put on that one decision. So for BPOs not only to have their focus and really work on their contents in the ways that you described, but then also understanding that the people you're selling to are staying up at night over this decision. So to have that understanding.

Amanda Quinn 16:01
And it may not even be like, yes, the once it comes to like which outsourcing firm will I choose, certainly that is stress-inducing. But my guess right now, there's so much change happening in the industry. Every buyer is being kept, every support leader, every head of finance, every head of operations is being kept up at night with what am I doing on AI? Am I making the right moves? Should I be rethinking my team? How do I motivate the ones that I have? Do we go onshore? Do we like there are so many things that you're that that brands right now are struggling with? That if you can name them and start offering insights on here's how I would start unpacking this. If I were you, like you're probably struggling with this litany of problems. This is I would do this, I would do that. I would like that content is gold. And that just if the more that your prospect sees you as a helpful resource, and everywhere they turn, whenever they go to Google, they find your your firm, or they whenever they hit up LinkedIn, they see you guys and you're publishing awesome insights, that is just creating such awesome goodwill and trust that when it comes time to make a decision, you're already leaps and bounds ahead of every other BPO that may be included in the RFP later.

Milan Batinich 17:28
Yeah, that that is really, really insightful, especially around the uh piece that you mentioned on being able to speak to their specific need instead of just you know being very broad in your contents, your broad in your communication, even within that your specific ICP in that specific industry. But being able to speak specific to somebody's need because of what's going on and because of your research and because of everything you've learned about the industry, being able to speak to their specific need, that's going to go so much further than saying, well, we can help with these ten needs. Hopefully, one of these ten is your need, because it really shows that you're focused on them and focused on their specific need and what they're how they're looking to be progressive and move into the future with their uh customer experience.

Amanda Quinn 18:11
Yep, exactly. Exactly. That's how that's I I say this a lot, but that's how you switch from being just a vendor to being a strategic partner. Like the more that your brand like brands can turn to you and say, Oh, they get me, they are asking really smart questions in that first engagement. They're um showing up with helpful guides and how-tos, and made this all what was a very nebulous thing, a really scary thing, very easy and helps walk through it, even if they don't necessarily have the answers. Like, you don't have to have this all figured out. No one does right now. Like, let's just be clear. I think the world is in massive flux. But so take advantage of that, you know, and just shepherd your buyer through this journey. And so um that was all kind of like at the high level of what um in that like top of funnel content, that's what that should look like. When someone is starting to get like you want to have tons of stuff out there. Think of that as like the you want to appeal to them, reach them, get them, pull them into your ecosystem. Then once they're in your ecosystem, like then you want to start talking about why, what are like comparing your your firm versus their options and helping them see that it's not really a comparison. They need to go with your firm, right? So this could be, you know, showing them your framework for how you help companies just like them in this industry solve this problem, right? Our our guides, our how-to's, our case studies of how we helped another, your competitor, solve it. This is like behind the scenes, like what we're hearing from our customers that are in this area, they're all talking about this thing. It doesn't have to do anything to do with outsourcing. It could be they're all talking about, I'm just making something up, um, how CRMs are gonna um not not add as much value with all these different point solutions with AI. Let's just say they're all talking about this and they're really thinking maybe they want to change up their CRM to something that's more flexible and open-ended. I don't know. If you start publishing content like that, and your buyer is also thinking that, they're like, like these guys get me. They understand I'm in good hands when I go to them. And so do you see how like you're starting to work your way, you become more trustworthy the more your content starts really edge, it's education. That's all it is. It's not marketing, it's like it's education. Smart marketing is education.

Milan Batinich 20:46
That that's phenomenal. So then how, because I'm sure a lot of the people listening to this podcast are like, great, I'm gonna do all these things, but how do I get it across? Say, say most of their buyers are on, I don't know, LinkedIn. Like, what avenues do you recommend? How like what channels do they use within LinkedIn? Like, how do they get that content across that leads to the most inbound leads? As you've seen a ton of inbound leads come through. Like, like what modality is used to be able to be successful?

Amanda Quinn 21:15
Yeah, um, I'm glad you brought up channel, the word channel. LinkedIn is a channel, email is a channel, Google AdWords is a channel. You know, any way in which someone can get in contact with you is a channel. Often I think BPOs and those that aren't that familiar with marketing mistake channel strategy with marketing. Like, I'm gonna do this channel, and therefore I tried it, it didn't work. Or I tried, I did SEO, I paid someone to come and do my website, and they made a bunch of changes from an SEO perspective, but it didn't do anything back. Like, and what I would say is kind of going back to knowing your buyer, that's where it starts. And if your buyer is a person that goes to LinkedIn. Then you should be on LinkedIn. If your buyer is somebody that goes to Facebook, you should be on Facebook. Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, you know? So it's like if you're a BPO that serves, I don't know, the construction industry, and you are like a dispatcher for fleet of trucks or something, like they're not on LinkedIn. They should be on Facebook. And so you need to be in the channels that your buyers are on. So just pause for that. I'll get off my soapbox on that one for a second. But what you want to do is really, I'd say the killer, the, the pillars are be authentic. Um, I want everyone, like leaders of your company should be posting. Leaders of your company should be out there being ambassadors of your brand, and they should be coming across as human and relatable and folks that your prospects will want to work with. And they'll need to do that consistently and with a mix of video posts, of um, you know, image posts, of just text posts, and and and then the content of those posts are going to be kind of the things I talked about before. Like you want to have content that's that higher level content where you're just talking about, where you're just educating about the market at large, the middle of the funnel content that's like about why you versus other BPOs and why how they should be what they should be considering when they're in the buying process. And then the bottom of the funnel, which I didn't really get to, is like why should they trust you? And that should be a lot of like testimonials inside maybe like videos of your team and hearing from your team. Maybe it's ROI calculators or explainer videos of what it's like working with us. That kind of so they can start picturing themselves in an engagement with your firm and feel and see what that feels like before they reach out to your sales team. Uh does that make sense? I went on a long tangent there.

Milan Batinich 23:54
No, that that definitely makes sense. And as you were talking, I was just thinking about how how really this is like an added not I don't want to say free, but a very inexpensive salesperson. You know, BPOs bring in, you know, uh myself. I'm a VP of B Dev for a BPO. Um as something I do. And um, you know, these BPOs bring in all these salespeople hoping that through relationships or hoping through all the wrong ways they'll close tons of business by doing this type of marketing and education. I love the that you use the word education because ultimately that's what it ends up being. That's what ends up attracting those buyers. Marketing's great, but it's the education factor. How you're going above your competitors to be able to speak specifically and directly to that buyer. Yeah, I just think it's great because yeah, it's an inexpensive sales rep.

Amanda Quinn 24:43
Yeah, it's I mean, especially social media. Like social media is free, and if you're not leveraging it, you're missing out. You're not taking advantage of what is out there right now. And more concerningly, those that are and are doing it well are going to be surpassing you. And this could become existential if you're not being smart about it. But yeah, I guess to your point earlier, Milan, like I I haven't spent a dollar on marketing. Everything I do is on LinkedIn, secret sauce that's out there. Like, don't tell anyone. And because I'm really tailored and because I'm speaking to my audience really well, it's resonating and I'm getting those inbound leads. And so, yes, if you are brave enough to commit to make a positioning declaration of this is who we're gonna serve and this is what we do for them, and then spend the time really understanding that market and what keeps them up at night, what their goals are, what they want, what the overall industry is doing, and then develop your own point of view on where that is all of that means and where it's going and how you can help. And that might even be like this is part of what we do too. It's like, what do your services need to change? What about your services might need to change to make you more resonant with your audience?

Milan Batinich 26:06
I love that.

Amanda Quinn 26:08
Right? Yeah. Like I was talking to a company that does uh virtual assistant work, and I I was like, I have so many ideas for you guys because as an entrepreneur, like I have I know all the ways I would want a virtual assistant beyond just the do some LinkedIn or social media, manage my email, manage my calendar. Like, there's so many ways I would want a person to be a little bit skilled up a little bit differently, or have this um understanding, or being able to add additional value to me that if you if someone decided they wanted to go after solopreneurs, for example, like they could become this unassailable, easy sale if someone was like, Amanda, I have a solution for you, and this person is gonna come in and do. I'd be like, okay, here's my money. Here's my money, please take it.

Amanda Quinn 27:02
That's what we want. We don't want sales and marketing to be so cumbersome. Like the goal here is how can you spend your spend your resources more wisely so that you're putting in, you're doing this effort at the top of the funnel. So before they come in and they meet with sales, they've already heard of you, they already know your point of view, they already know why, they've already kind of convinced themselves they want to work with you. They're just waiting for, they just want further clarity and probably have specific questions to be answered, which as a salesperson, Milan, I'm sure you know that if you have this resource arsenal of here's a case study of how we helped your competitor, and here is this webinar that we just did on this exact problem that you're talking about. And oh, by the way, we have a technology partnership with this firm that you're talking about, that integration that you are worried about. Don't worry about it. We've already figured out the integration, we've already done it.

Milan Batinich 28:00
And here's a testimonial on how we did it successfully for someone else. So it's not our first at bat in solving your pro type of problem.

Amanda Quinn 28:08
Right. Like that's how sales, the sales cycle gets smaller. That's how you get deal velocity. This, it's like I really this is I'm I'm passionate about it because it I feel like BPOs are stuck in the 1980s and they don't make marketing work for them. It's all like phone-to-phone salespeople, and I really want that to change. This market is so inefficient. I want this to change. I want BPOs to be able to attract their dream clients, and I want brands to know who to go to to get really awesome results. Because we as consumers, that'll just benefit all of us, right?

Milan Batinich 28:47
Absolutely, definitely.

Amanda Quinn 28:49
So anyway, that's a I'm I'm out of breath now, but I'm I'm clearly excited about this.

Milan Batinich 28:54
You are, you are. You're definitely on fire on this topic, which I love because it's it is needed. Right. I think we've seen I've even from your your information and your content that you've shared, I've implemented some and it works. So like why wouldn't you why wouldn't you keep doing something that works? It makes sense. And it's helpful. Makes our lives easier. Awesome. Well, any uh final thoughts or if BPOs want to work with Amanda, how do they how do they do that, Amanda?

Amanda Quinn 29:25
They can reach out to me at uh QuinnGrowthAdvisors.com. Um shoot me a LinkedIn message too, whichever you can book an appointment on my LinkedIn as well. I'm I'm really excited about this. I hope my passion is coming across and I really hope BPOs make this make the decision to really invest in marketing and um and s I say invest because that always sounds really expensive. But no, just being concerted about making a focus on marketing. Because I think it'll pay such big dividends for most BPOs out there.

Milan Batinich 29:59
Love it. That was awesome.

Amanda Quinn 30:02
Thanks for the time, Milan.

Milan Batinich 30:04
Thank you.