I am not running a BPO, so I am not in touch with your reality. But, seeing opportunities is a skill you need. Many in BPO just want to start a call center or data entry firm without knowing what a real opportunity is. They know what they want to achieve, but are out of tune with what the clients want. I’ll tell you what the clients want. They want call centers in Manila, not in Mumbai, so move to Manila and hire local staff if you want to get ahead in the call center world.
There are many niches in the BPO industry a person could get into. The skill here is to be able to identify niches and then later to see if you can be effective at doing the work and gaining clients in that niche. The main skill here is to be able to identify what clients want, and you do that by talking to lots of clients or prospective clients and asking them about their experiences without trying to sell the something.
If your entire philosophy of life is, “give me job, give me job” and you lack grammar, skills or personality, then you won’t succeed. Someone who says, “give me job” is a beggar who only thinks of himself, who doesn’t care what the customer is thinking and doesn’t even know it is important to be in tune with that. Get this mentality out of your head if you want to have a chance.
What if you have a call center, but realize that there might be limited competition in certain niches. What if you learn Mortgage Process Outsourcing? What if you learn where prospective clients are, how to contact them, and how to sell to them. What if you learn how to process the documents like a pro? You might do really well because there is very limited competition in this niche! On the other hand, what if you excel in technical support for particular types of products. You might beat out the competition since nobody else can do what you do. If your offerings are too general, you might not survive the competition. On the other hand, if you are versatile, and can learn to do anything, then if you only have a few clients, they might use you for everything, and you might make tons of cash from them.
So, how should you define your niche? I feel it should evolve over time, and your skills should also be a huge factor in deciding your specialty. If you have superior skills in a particular area of the industry, nobody will be able to beat your service! Good luck!