Through Tendril's innovative approach, BrainPOP has transformed its post-COVID sales function - shifting from an inbound-heavy model to a balanced strategy that leverages outbound calls, data-driven insights, and nearshore talent.
As schools navigate ever-changing budgets and academic priorities, BrainPOP stands ready with a renewed, high-functioning sales team equipped to serve educators across the country.
The big picture
BrainPOP, a renowned EdTech organization with a 25-year heritage, partnered with Tendril to revitalize its sales strategies in the wake of pandemic-induced market shifts.
Historically reliant on a steady influx of inbound leads, BrainPOP recognized the need to rebuild a robust outbound motion - one that would enable consistent engagement with new prospects, better serve existing customers, and navigate fluctuating school budgets.
By implementing Tendril's data-driven platform and nearshore sales support, BrainPOP aimed to regain its foothold in an increasingly competitive education market.
Who BrainPOP is - and why the shift mattered
For 25 years, BrainPOP has sparked joyful learning through animated movies, interactive quizzes, and playful activities for K–8+ classrooms. Following an acquisition by Kirkby, the organization set out to evolve from a family-led passion project into a more process-driven, scalable operation.
That evolution coincided with a post-COVID market reality: school budgets were in flux, contact data changed fast, and inbound alone couldn't carry annual targets.
The path forward was clear: rekindle the outbound muscle - without slowing down the team or compromising the brand's educator-first ethos.
The challenge and turning point
Years of success with email and social meant reps hadn't flexed their cold-calling muscles in a while. Contact data had grown stale in a market where district org charts change quickly. And with grants opening and closing on tight timelines, "we'll get to it next month" could mean missing the window entirely.
BrainPOP didn't just need more dials; it needed a system that made each dial smarter.
Rebuilding outbound muscle
- Over-reliance on inbound: during the pandemic, ESSER funding and the surge in virtual learning flooded BrainPOP with inbound inquiries. As ESSER dollars tapered off and classrooms returned to in-person instruction, that inbound tide receded. BrainPOP now had to reignite its pre-pandemic outbound fundamentals: picking up the phone, identifying new prospects, and proactively reaching out.
- Pause on phone outreach: BrainPOP sales reps needed support getting back into outbound calling techniques and best practices. Years of digital channels like email and social media had supported pipeline generation - but as BrainPOP turned a new page in the ed-tech landscape, going back to the phones became a must, and Tendril's support started making a huge impact on pipeline generation.
Organizational transformation
- A new acquisition, a new opportunity: BrainPOP's new ownership gave the company a chance to level up, introducing new KPIs, new best practices, and improved internal processes and workflows.
- From family-owned to corporate entity: the acquisition came with excitement to move beyond the norms of a family-owned business and into a more structured, growing corporate operation.
Market complexity in EdTech
- Budget fluctuations: school districts constantly reassess funds, needing timely outreach to seize short-term grant opportunities.
- High stakes for data accuracy: contact information for administrators and educators can quickly become outdated, complicating outreach campaigns.
"We needed to reintroduce best practices for phone outreach. We've been really relying on inbound leads to kinda keep us afloat, but we needed to go back to basics and the fundamentals of selling, which is really, picking up the phones and making phone calls."
- Marcela Labrador, Director of Rep Readiness & Performance, Sales Enablement, BrainPOP
The solution
The first weeks felt different. Reps who'd avoided the phone were suddenly booking dedicated Connect sessions and surpassing their past monthly call activity. Sequences stitched together phone, email, and social so BrainPOP stayed top-of-mind with administrators juggling tight budgets. Data enrichment meant fewer dead ends and more live conversations.
Most importantly, the culture shifted. Sellers started talking about calls again - what worked, which intros landed with principals, why one district moved forward while another needed time. BrainPOP's leaders could actually see the work: consistent sessions, clean reporting, honest QA, and steady lift in early pipeline indicators tied to outbound.
How
Agent-assisted dialing
- Relaunching outbound: by leveraging Tendril Connect, Tendril's agent-assisted dialing platform, BrainPOP's sales reps systematically connected with leads while saving time on tedious manual tasks.
- Strategic outreach playbooks: customized call sequences integrated with BrainPOP's email cadences, and region-specific targeting, focused effort on high-value opportunities - such as states offering new education grants.
The Tendril support
- Skilled extensions of the sales team: as part of Tendril Connect, bilingual agents from Latin America seamlessly integrated into BrainPOP's existing processes, bridging time zones and cultural nuances - doing the heavy lifting and supporting reps every step of the way.
- High adoption & engagement: BrainPOP reps quickly grew confident in nearshore collaboration, noting the strong work ethic, fidelity in each Tendril Connect session, and mission alignment.
- Continuous training: Tendril's U.S.-based sales coach held workshops and QA sessions, boosting BrainPOP's confidence in phone outreach - a crucial channel in the EdTech sector.
- Fidelity & trust: transparent reporting and data analytics gave BrainPOP's leadership team full visibility of sales efforts from the get-go, so they could adjust strategies on the fly.
"Tendril just fit in perfectly when we were thinking about how to save our reps time but still make the most impact, when it comes to outreach, cold calling and just going back to the fundamentals and the basics of sales."
- Marcela Labrador, Director of Rep Readiness & Performance, Sales Enablement, BrainPOP
The results: from inbound reliance to outbound readiness
The shift didn't announce itself with a bang or a single big win. It showed up in smaller, repeatable moments that started to stack: calendars with blocked "Connect" sessions, managers hearing more live call recaps in standups, and reps comparing notes on which openers resonated with principals versus curriculum directors.
BrainPOP's culture became a habit of "we'll go first."
Re-engaged sales culture
In the first weeks, reps who hadn't picked up the phone consistently in years were scheduling focused Tendril Connect sessions, and sticking to them. The structure helped: lists were ready, intent was clear, and the session had a beginning and an end, which lowered the emotional friction of cold calling. A few early conversations turned into quick follow-ups, and those early wins became stories the rest of the team could borrow.
The muscle memory returned faster than expected. Sellers began sharing talk tracks, subject lines that paired well with voicemail drops, and the two or three questions that reliably opened a useful conversation with district stakeholders.
Instead of sporadic bursts of activity, the team built a cadence - phone, email, social - so BrainPOP stayed present while busy administrators were juggling budgets and timelines. Confidence rose, not because the calls got "easier," but because Tendril's system made the work feel doable every day.
Enhanced efficiency & time savings
Before, a rep might spend too long hunting down a correct phone number or second-guessing who to call next. With agent-assisted dialing, that overhead shrank - lists were curated, contact data was refreshed, and Connect sessions moved smoothly from dial to dial. The reps' attention shifted from mechanics to message: what's the shortest path to value for this school? Which use case matters most for a district about to renew?
That change freed up meaningful time for higher-value work. Instead of bouncing between tools or restarting every hour, reps stayed in conversation mode longer. The end result: fewer stalls and more forward motion.
Better visibility and stronger forecasting
Leadership didn't have to guess whether outbound was happening because they could see it. Session fidelity, contact outcomes, and follow-up tags created a throughline from activity to pipeline. When a meeting was set, it carried the fingerprints of the campaign and the list that produced it - meaning weekly reviews became more than "how many dials?" and "how many meetings?"; they became conversations about which segments were warming up, which scripts converted best, and where to allocate the next wave of effort.
Early ROI indicators that actually matter
Perhaps the most important result was cultural. Phone hesitation gave way to craft pride. Reps compared discovery questions the way teachers compare lesson plans. Managers coached to skill, not just volume. The nearshore Tendril team felt less like external help and more like the extra gears that kept the flywheel turning: researching, enriching, and executing so BrainPOP's sellers could be fully present in the moments that matter.
Strategically, outbound stopped being a "project" and became a pillar. With consistent reporting, BrainPOP could plan capacity, layer in seasonal education rhythms, and decide confidently where to double down. The organization moved from reacting to inbound tides to steering toward the right districts at the right time, with clear intent and accountable execution.
Looking ahead
With a steady outbound rhythm in place, BrainPOP is now focused on sharpening the machine: measuring call-to-meeting ratios by segment, tightening conversion metrics across campaigns, and deepening integrations between Tendril, the CRM, and marketing automation to unify data end-to-end.
- Scaling up: BrainPOP is a committed partner to Tendril and is continuously discussing the endless opportunities Tendril provides to support BrainPOP in its outbound function.
- Refining metrics: with more robust data, BrainPOP aims to measure conversion rates, call-to-meeting ratios, and campaign ROI.
- Deeper technology integration: tighter integration of Tendril with BrainPOP's CRM and marketing automation tools will unify data tracking and streamline workflows.
- Continuous improvement: regular workshops and collaborative brainstorming sessions will keep reps updated on best practices in an evolving EdTech landscape.
This success story wasn't about doing "more activity." It was about rebuilding a muscle, one conversation at a time, so BrainPOP could meet educators where they are, when it matters.
With Tendril, the team moved from inbound-dependence to a balanced, confident outreach motion grounded in data, discipline, and human connection.
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