Weekly inspiration for the staffing industry

If your staffing services were a product on a shelf...would anyone rush to buy them?

Be honest.

Most staffing firms are selling transactions. "We can find better talent." "We provide better service." "We fill orders faster." 

But let’s face it: That’s table stakes.

If you want to win in today’s oversaturated staffing market, you need to do more to capture attention and attract employers. You need an offer so compelling, so obvious in its value, that prospects feel dumb saying no.

Last weekend, I had a chance to watch a presentation by Daniel Priestley on one of my favorite subjects: creating irresistible offers.

In the webinar, Daniel provided a 6-step framework for success. While he’s not a staffing specialist, he has built and sold multiple companies, helped thousands of entrepreneurs, and written the playbook on what he calls "oversubscribed" businesses—where demand consistently exceeds supply.

So how do you apply his ideas to staffing?

Let’s break it down.

STEP 1: Select your ideal client profile (ICP)

Here’s a line from the webinar that caught my attention: “Why is there no mouse-flavored cat food? Because cats don’t have credit cards!”

Your target client must be someone who not only values what you offer—but also has the budget and authority to buy it.

Priestley breaks down the market into three tiers. I’ll show each one and provide a few ideas about how they tie into staffing and recruiting:

Affluent (top 1% of your market, 15% of the spend)

These are the people willing to spend big dollars to solve big problems. It doesn’t mean the buyers are affluent, just that they are willing to make smart investments to get the outcomes they want.

In staffing, think exec-level placements, retained search, locum tenens, and other very hard to find talent.

Niche (9% of your market, 45% of the spend)
These are the individuals who are in specialized industries or roles and only want to buy from someone with relevant expertise.

For example, healthcare staffing that focuses on specialty roles, IT contractors with  niche skills, companies that offer project solutions, and staffing for niches like skilled trades or drivers. These are specialized verticals, where industry expertise is essential.

Mass (90% of your market, 40% of the spend)

The last group is the mass market. This audience tends to be more transactional…and very price sensitive.

Think general light industrial where there are tons of competitors and many price-driven buyers.

Your move? Stop trying to serve everyone. Get laser-focused on the niches that value what you do most—and will pay you top dollar to solve their problems.

STEP 2: Radical empathy for your ICP

People don’t buy staffing. They buy “relief from tension.”

Tension in their operations. Tension in hitting hiring targets. Tension from too many no-shows.

Daniel defines tension as any obstacle that keeps your target client from realizing their ideal, dream future reality.

So, your job? Map their emotional landscape.

What’s their desired reality? Fully staffed, high-performing teams. World-class talent. Zero turnover. Predictable pipelines.

What’s their current reality? Constant fire drills. Missed deadlines. Supplier fatigue.

What’s standing in the way? Broken systems. Talent gaps. Leadership burnout. Empty promises from staffing vendors.

Here’s a fun tactic to break through the industry noise: Build an online scorecard or self-assessment tool that addresses a common staffing challenge. You might ask questions like:

• "What’s your biggest hiring headache?"

• "How good a staffing manager are you? – Take the test!"

• "Will your current staffing strategy succeed? Grade your plan!"

On online scorecard promises clients and prospects a quick and easy way to learn something valuable about themselves or how they compare to the market.

But the real value is that it can give you get market data and sales insights about each prospect—all while positioning your organization as the go-to expert.

STEP 3: Create the path of least resistance

Nobody wants a new vendor.

But everybody wants to win.

So, your offer shouldn’t feel like a leap. It should feel like a slide…safe, easy, and even fun.

Start by defining 3–7 principles for success. Things like:

• Planning for talent gaps

• Hire for fit, not just speed

• Prioritize retention over churn

• Build a scalable, repeatable hiring process

• Nailing the onboarding process

Then, build a clear transformation process. For example:

"Our 90-Day Staffing Optimization Plan"

1. Analyze workforce gaps

2. Rapid-deploy core team

3. Integrate staffing partners

4. Implement retention playbook

5. Optimize productivity metrics

Support your offer with extras to sweeten the value. For example: onboarding templates, training resources, retention coaching. Make success feel easy!

STEP 4: Sell first, then build

This one’s big.

Before you create a new staffing program or service delivery model—test demand.

Use "coming soon" offers to gauge interest. Build waitlists. Offer early access. Recruit beta testers. Your goal is to spark curiosity to evaluate demand.

Here are 3 staffing-friendly ideas:

• Be the first to try our new staffing platform...at early adopter rates!

• Join our pilot: Workforce Retention Accelerator

• Join our VIP List for your Q1 Hiring Blitz

The key is to sell the future state, not the process. Don’t show the temp...show the thriving team. Show the stress-free manager. The hero who finally got their evenings and weekends back.

STEP 5: Set pricing strategically

Time to make the math work.

Priestley recommends 3 pricing approaches:

Value Demand
If your service solves a $500K turnover problem, charging $50K is a steal. While the industry norm is to charge a mark-up on salary, you might look for alternative ways to do value-based pricing.

Note: This approach to pricing probably wouldn’t fly for traditional staffing, but it might be an ideal option for SOW or Project Solutions work. People will typically see a price of 5% to 20% of the value as a steal!

Supply & Demand
Scarcity = value. Limit access. "We only take 5 clients per sector." Watch demand spike.

Tiered Packaging (Gold/Silver/Bronze + VIP)

Example:

• Bronze: Standard placements

• Silver: Placements + onboarding support or training

• Gold: Silver + 90-day retention program

• Platinum: All of the above + onsite manager + strategic workforce planning

Let your buyers self-select. Make Platinum aspirational. And always anchor to results.

STEP 6: Fine-tune product-market fit

This is the part most people skip.

Before you roll out company-wide, Daniel recommends testing with 30 prospects.

What language lands? What assets drive engagement? Where do people drop off?

Use the feedback to:

• Refine your principles

• Simplify the process

• Improve the packaging

• Reposition pricing

Tweak until the offer performs.

The takeaway

You’re not just selling staffing services. You’re selling transformation.

And irresistible offers don’t happen by accident. They’re engineered with empathy, strategy, and simplicity.

Start with your ICP. Map their tension. Make success look easy. Sell the dream. Test like mad. And watch your clients line up.

Need help crafting your own irresistible offers?

Let’s chat. We’ll help you define your ICP, discover what they’re dying to solve, and design an offer that makes them ask to work with you.