When starting to write an outsourcing blog, it’s useful to remember the classic folk tale about making soup from a stone. In case you have never heard it, here goes:
Someone who is hungry (a soldier, a peasant…or maybe a BPO manager) comes along and claims he can make soup from a stone. He starts a fire, asks to borrow a big pot from one of the townspeople, and these people are all amazed that this BPO manager can make soup from a stone. The manager puts a big stone into the pot, adds water, and waits. All of the townspeople come and taste the “soup,” and say things like “Needs salt” and they bring salt, or “Needs carrots,” and they add carrots…until, of course, many ingredients have been added and it really is SOUP! The punchline is that someone says, “Imagine that! Soup from a stone!”
Of course, the soup is never really made from just a stone. Maybe the stone is earth, all the hidden stories of the earth and her people. The soup needs all our individual ingredients–carrots, beans, potatoes, salt–and, if you are not a vegetarian, a meaty soup-bone, too. But it can be delicious and nourishing! It takes a community to feed the poor and the hungry, or to inspire each other to keep hope alive. And an outsourcing blog needs the BPO manager or CEO to communicate with us about the company’s strengths and accomplishments…so we can write about your strengths and list you so other companies will hire you. Personal communication is an important ingredient that having a website cannot replace.
It would be great to have a conversation with you to in order to write an outsourcing blog that will bring you business. Showing me your website is not enough. People did not come up to the soup-maker and offer to show him a website or to order carrots online; people spoke and brought what was needed. Everyone helped. Getting work for your company is a joint effort, and without your input, it will not happen. I need you to tell us about your business, and why anyone should hire you. Can you make soup from a stone? I have visited your country many times, but what I really want is to get to know you.
Food from India is particularly delicious. It has just the right combination of sweets and sours, spicy and bland. I have been to India many times, but people must experience the food for themselves. In the same way, English-speaking companies will want to speak with someone at your company so they feel they have a clear idea of what you do well. What is unusual about your company? What are its strengths? How is it different than other companies that do the same kind of work? Can you have a conversation with us?
Sign on a restaurant window: “Come in and eat, or we’ll both starve.” Without the ingredients you bring—all the interviews and information some of you are providing– there will be no story. But if you tell me a story about how your company started, what the CEO’s background is, and maybe the BPO manager’s background…and how you have helped another company grow– we will have some of the extra ingredients we need to help your company find more work.
Then, we just keep adding the special qualities and skills you bring, and writing and answering requests for information… and then… Soup! For everyone!