What will work in 2026?

That’s the homework my friend (and newfound pickleball buddy), Rob Mann, assigned me in preparation for an appearance on his You Own the Experience (YOE)  Podcast.

I’ve known Rob for a couple of years, and I’ve always admired his love of technology, enthusiasm for our industry, and all the insights he shares.

And at Staffing World I learned that we share an addiction to the same sport. Yes, we really did sneak off to Crush Yard one morning before breakfast to get a few games in before the first sessions started!

Now, back to Rob’s question. What will work in 2026?

And he had a second question for me…how can AI help?

I think I overprepared

Rob invited me to spend about 10 minutes on the show discussing the challenges facing the staffing industry and a few ideas to deal with them.

Of course, I WAY over-prepared. That’s what I do. Afterall, who wants to sound dumb on a podcast???

I considered the impact of the economy on the industry, the current political climate, the decline in staffing penetration into the workforce, changing interest rates, competitive challenges, AI, and all the ways I’ve seen staffing companies struggle with their sales and marketing over the past three years.

I prepared a page and a half outline of advice to share on the show. And while I pondered the “brilliant tips” I would offer, I, um, neglected to consider that Rob might actually want to speak—and we had a whopping total of 10 minutes for the conversation.

On to the ideas

So, I’m not sure I shared anything brilliant. Hopefully, I provided at least an insight or two the listeners will find helpful.

Today, I want to share my who list with you. I hope you’ll find an idea or two to make a positive impact on your sales and marketing in the New Year,

7 ways to drive sales in 2026

1) Focus

Staffing companies that develop a laser focus on their ideal clients are more likely to succeed than those who are generalists.

Your focus might be based on:

• Target industry

• Roles and skill disciplines (for which you recruit)

• Ideal buyer persona (really knowing who you sell to)

• Your tech stack and how it improves the client and candidate experience

• Problems you solve best

• Unique solutions your company offers

2) Client “intimacy”

Get closer to your clients—to the point you know their business better than they know it themselves. Use that knowledge to solve deeper problems and become more strategic (and essential) to their success.

3) Move up the value chain

The staffing industry has been battling commoditization for decades. To stand out, stop being just a staffing agency.

Moving up the value change means:

• Tackling bigger problems

• Providing new solutions

• Being viewed in an entirely different way by buyers

Here are a few ways you might expand your services:

• Workforce management solutions (workforce planning, risk management, safety, performance management, onboarding, etc.)
  

• RPO services

• Recruitment marketing solutions

• Upskilling services

4) Buyer enablement

Eric Gregg from Clearly Rated recently shared this eye-opener: 55% of the staffing purchase decision is made before first sales call.

That’s right, more than half of your sale is completed before the first conversation with your team.

So, what does this mean for you?

You need to provide staffing buyers with the resources (i.e., self-service tools and content) that empowers them to answer their critical buyer questions —before they ever talk to your team.

Your objective: Get your company onto the finalist list of staffing partners under consideration before the first meeting.

5) Automation to increase productivity

We’re going to get to AI in a minute, but let’s not ignore the critical importance of automation for improving process efficiency.

It’s no secret that your clients are pushing to drive your margins down. They want lower mark-ups and lower bill rates.

To protect your margins (and to profitably sell at a lower price), you need to automate low-value, repetitive, and routine tasks .

This could include:

• Sales research and outreach

• Prospect nurturing

• Recruiting workflows (sourcing, screening, reference checking)

• Back-office operations

6) Own the talent (market)

This strategy isn’t new, but it still works..

Whether it’s candidates with specific skills or just reliable employees with a strong work ethic, you can make your company stand out by building strong talent communities that allow you to:

• Fill orders faster

• Lower costs

• Deliver higher quality workers

7) SEO/AIO/AEO/GEO

Call it what you will, the world of search has fundamentally changed in the past 12 months. To drive sales (and recruiting) in 2026, you will need to master the art and science of showing up in:

• Google Search

• Google AI summaries

• LLM (large language model) searches

Platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are rewriting the playbook for how people find and engage with information on the Internet. To avoid becoming irrelevant, you need to take action now..

How can AI help?

I could write a full SMART IDEA…or more like a hundred…on this.

Whether you fully embrace AI (or are fully sick of hearing about it) AI is redefining how work gets done.

Here’s a quick (and very partial) list of ideas for using AI to support your sales and marketing in 2026:

• Predictive analytics – determine who to call and when to call. This can include analysis of the data in your ATS as well as publicly available data analysis, like BLS data and even jobs on LinkedIn.to improve your outreach with ATS data and public data analysis.
  

• Market research – speed up industry analysis, buyer persona definition, and prospect research.
  

• Personalization – create content and communication that’s hyper-focused on your ideal client’s industry, role, needs.
  

• AI Video – will 2026 be the year of AI avatars? If so, get ready to clone yourself!
  

• AI self-service tools – improve service, accelerate sales, and deliver a better buying experience for your clients and prospects with AI-powered tools such as Chatbot/virtual CSR/Staffing Manager, Instant Interview™ (AI automated screening interviews), and AI-driven skill marketing.
  

• Talent coaching/advisory services  – Indeed has already started offering this to attract, engage, and retain candidate relationships!

• Training – tools like Notebook LM and GPTs make it easy to create knowledge bases about your clients, the industries you serve, and the services you offer. Once you create the knowledge, you can use it to set up role practice, perform analysis of your sales calls, identify success trends, compare calls to your company sales playbook, and provide personalized sales coaching.
  

• AI thought partners – this is one of my favorite AI use cases. Use AI as a parter to brainstorm ideas. Create a virtual board of directors for your company (our “board” is awesome!). Build synthetic advisors to coach people in specific roles in your organization. Develop “Red team members” whose job is to critique your ideas.
  

• Hyper targeted content creation at scale – with tools like RogIQ (Rogue IQ) – our soon-to-launch AI platform. Creates persona driven strategies, content (thought leadership, SEO, social), and outreach targeted to specific buyer interests and pain points—and developed in whatever volume needed.
  

Keep an eye out for more information next month!

Sorry, Rob. That was definitely more than 10 minutes…

I had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas for the YOE Podcast.

Yes, the staffing industry is struggling through the longest downturn in more than three decades. But tough times like these create opportunities.

Companies like Uber and Netflix were born out of the great recession. And while it may not be fun running a staffing company right now, it forces us to think more deeply, get more creative, and find new and better ways to solve the challenges employers face.

If you have other ideas for ways to succeed in 2026, let me know.

I’d love to add your brilliance to my list!