Back to today’s topic.
If service won’t differentiate your company, what will?
I’m going to hold off on answering that question. First, I want to evaluate where and how to find opportunities in this market.
We’re not hiring. We don’t use staffing services. We’re happy with our current vendor.
I’ll bet you wish you had a dollar for every time you heard one of these messages.
These are the “three great lies” of staffing, and they get told because our clients have learned that it’s the fastest and easiest way to get rid of salespeople.
Why would an employer need staffing now?
In this market, and any market, there are a wide range of reasons why an employer would need staffing services. Here are a few possibilities:
- Business growth
- Special projects
- Seasonal needs
- Controlling labor costs
- Improving productivity
- Lack of internal expertise
- Accelerating learning curves for new processes or technologies
- Reducing time to hire
- Improving quality of hire
- Mitigating employment risk
- Increasing capacity
- Expanding capability
- Workforce issues
- Production or quality issues
The bottom line is that employers have goals, and they face challenges. And as you know, staffing can be an ideal tool to achieve those goals and overcome the challenges.
Step one to selling staffing in a market like this is to figure out what the employer needs to accomplish, where they are struggling, and how your services can be used to solve their problems.
Why would someone buy from you?
This is the tougher question.
According to the American Staffing Association, there are now 25,000 staffing companies in the United States.
Why might an employer choose you over 24,999 others?
- Lower prices?
- Convenience (right place, right time)?
- Unique expertise or abilities?
- Industry knowledge?
- Better technology?
- Client focus/deeper understanding of their business?
- Perceived value?
- Lower cost of service delivery?
- Problem-solving ability?
- Access to talent?
Unfortunately, this is a bit of a trick question. There is no single reason every prospect will want to work with you. And there are few, if any, differentiators that will make you 100% unique.
So, how do you stand out and sell in a market like this?
A close friend from graduate school, Chris Malone, co-authored a book called The Human Brand. Through his research, Chris discovered that there are two key characteristics that enduring brands exhibit: warmth and competence.
Competence. Your clients want to know that you are good at what you do. You understand their business and what they need. You offer fair prices. And you know how to solve their problems.
Basically, they want to see you as a specialist—one with a proven process for solving their toughest business challenges.
Warmth.
They also want to know that you’re good people. That you’re smart, caring, and you treat your clients and candidates well. They want to know that you’re a good corporate citizen and you operate an ethical organization.
Essentially, they want to feel good about doing business with you.
When you exhibit warmth and competence in your sales process, it will differentiate you from the majority of your competitors. It will make more employers want to work with you.
And when you focus that competence on the specific needs (i.e., the pain points) of individual employers, it will give them an incentive to work with you now.
Don’t forget persistence.
Warmth and competence will help you close deals.
But in a market like this, you first need to get opportunities to sell. Right now, that requires a lot of patience and persistence.
If you have ever read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, you know that the key to success in life is to have a clear vision of what you want and an unwavering commitment to attaining it.
And if you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that I strongly encourage people to play the long game and focus on employers that may not have immediate hiring needs.
To win in this market, you need a long-term plan to nurture relationships, position your company the way you want to be seen, keep your company top-of-mind, and demonstrate your warmth and competence until that hiring need arises.
Where to find more opportunities
Today’s newsletter is part 1 of 7. In the upcoming editions, we’ll review six strategies (one a week) to find sales opportunities in the current market.
Keep reading! |
