If you build it, they will come!
Yup, this is the Field of Dreams coming to life in your business.
Last week, I introduced the concept of building a staffing growth engine.
As you may recall: A growth engine is a system that produces more predictable leads and sales (and yes, recruiting too) — without relying on luck, referrals, or that one magic producer who always seems to “make it happen.”
Missed the issue? Read SMART IDEAS 116 here.
Today, and over the next several weeks, I’d like to add depth to each of the six components and show you step-by-step how to create your growth engine.
Ready to get started? (And apologies…this is a long SMART IDEA!)
Staffing Growth Engine: Part 1: Creating Your Foundation
The foundation of your sales (and marketing) boils down to four things:
Positioning Key differentiators Value proposition Core Story
Let’s dig in to each one of these.
Positioning: “What game are we playing—and for whom?”
What positioning is (in plain English)
Positioning is the decision you make that tells the market:
Who you serve: Specific buyer + environment What you’re “the best at”: Category you want to own What you’re NOT: Trade-offs that make you believable
When I’m teaching people about positioning, I use two analogies: a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and a box of Cheerios.
Let me explain…
When you think about positioning, think about that Thanksgiving pie. When the pie is cut into pieces, positioning is determining which piece you want for yourself. Maybe it’s the biggest slice, or the one with the best crust. Whatever you like…that piece is yours!
The same is true in staffing. You need to think about the slice of the market you want to own. You can’t have the whole pie. And the more tightly you can define the slice you want, the easier it becomes to own. Step 1 in positioning is to define your slice.
Now on to Cheerios.
If I told you, go buy a box of Cheerios, what would you do?
Most likely, you’d get in the car, drive to the nearest supermarket, head to the cereal aisle and grab the first yellow box you saw.
But wait. I did not tell you that Cheerios was a cereal. Where to purchase cereal. Or that Cheerios comes in a yellow box.
How did you know?
General Mills, the company that makes Cheerios, already owns their positioning in your mind. You know Cheerios is a cereal. You know all cereal can be found in the cereal aisle in your local supermarket. And you know that Cheerios is commonly packaged in a big yellow box.
For your staffing business, do your customers know the aisle your are in, where to purchase your services, and “what color” your brand looks like? Most staffing companies are in the “staffing” aisle by default. But some are in different aisles like workforce solutions or online platforms. And some, like Robert Half, have very strong branding, while most have no brand recognition.
In staffing, great positioning defines where you operate, how you want to be seen, your unique “packaging.” FYI, the most common packaging of “We provide great service” is not positioning.
Staffing-specific examples of strong positioning:
“We’re the light industrial risk reducer for distribution centers running 2–3 shifts.” “We’re the fast-ramp partner for seasonal and surge hiring (48–72 hour onboarding).” “We’re the safety-first staffing partner for high-incident environments.” "We exclusively provide work-ready talent." “We’re the retention-first agency for roles with chronic churn.”
A 4-part positioning framework:
ICP (Ideal Client Profile): Industry + role type + size + geography + complexity of hiring needs Trigger problem: What drives demand (e.g., OT spikes, absenteeism, expansion, new contract, safety issues, vendor service issues) Promise/outcome: What you reliably improve (e.g., show-up rate, time-to-fill, uptime, retention, incident rate) Mechanism: Your unique “how” (process, tech, onsite model, screening, redeploy engine, bench strategy)
Putting it all together: “We are the best choice for [ICP] when [trigger problem] because we [mechanism] to produce [outcome].”
If that sentence feels scary because it excludes people…good. That’s positioning working.
Differentiators: “Reasons to believe” (not just nice things to say)
Differentiators are provable attributes that make a buyer say: “Okay…that’s different, and it matters.”
Most staffing firms list table stakes as differentiators:
Responsive Reliable Quality candidates Great service
Those aren’t differentiators. They’re expectations.
Real differentiators pass 3 tests:
Meaningful to the buyer: Ties to cost, risk, speed, or outcomes True and provable: You can data, testimonials, and success stories Hard to copy quickly: It’s operational, not cosmetic
Categories of strong staffing differentiators (pick 3-5 max)
Speed system: Time-to-submit, time-to-fill, time-to-onboard
Quality system: Sourcing capabilities, screening methods, structured interviewing, reference checks, skill verification, performance standards (and how measured)
Reliability system: Show-up rate improvement process, transportation help, attendance incentives, accountability loops
Retention system: Redeploy engine, stay interviews, supervisor check-ins, issue escalation protocols
Safety system: Safety onboarding, PPE readiness, incident reduction process, training documentation
Client experience system: Onsite model, shift coverage, weekly metrics reviews, escalation SLA
Talent supply advantage: Local/indstry-specific pipelines, partnerships, niche communities, always-on recruiting
Proof advantage: Benchmarks, dashboards, case studies by role, ClearlyRated ratings, measurable outcomes
To develop your differentiators, start with proof:
Pull last 10 wins, saves, and best accounts. Ask: What did we do that another agency wouldn’t have done? Turn “activities” into buyer outcomes (i.e., create systems)
Value Proposition: “What outcomes do buyers get—and why should they care?”
Your value prop is the business case for choosing you. It answers:
Why you? Why now? Why pay your rate?
In staffing, the value prop must connect to the buyer’s real scoreboard:
A simple staffing value prop formula
“We help [ICP] reduce [pain/cost/risk] by [mechanism], producing [measurable outcomes] within [timeframe].”
How to build your value proposition
Quantify the pain. Give the buyer a “cost of doing nothing” frame. For example: “Every open shift = OT + burnout + quality issues + missed output.”
Quantify the upside. Even directional ranges work, such as: “If we improve show-up rate by 10–15%, you stabilize staffing and reduce supervisor chaos.”
Anchor to speed and reliability. Staffing buyers don’t buy hope. They buy relief. Don’t sell staffing. Sell what staffing fixes.
Buyers don’t want “temporary labor.” They want predictable production.
Core Story: “Before → After → How”
Your core story is your brand value promise wrapped into a 60–90 seconds narrative that makes a buyer think: “Okay. They’ve done this before. They understand my world.”
It’s not a long case study. It’s a tight “movie trailer” with data.
The staffing core story framework
Before (the pain): What was broken (OT, churn, no-shows, safety, missed production)
Turning point: Why they needed a change (peak season, new contract, leadership pressure)
What we did (the mechanism): Your playbook (screening, onsite, redeploy, transportation, cadence)
After (the measurable result): Metrics + timeframe
Why it matters: What improved operationally and emotionally (less chaos, more control, cost savings)
How to develop your core story
Pick one “hero” account per vertical you care about (light industrial / skilled trades / healthcare / etc.). Extract 3 metrics: speed (time-to-fill), reliability (show-up), stability (retention/tenure), safety (incidents), cost (OT reduction) Write a 2 to 6 sentence version your salespeople can memorize.
Example template (fill in the blanks):
“They were dealing with [pain] and it was causing [business impact]. When [trigger] hit, they needed a partner fast. We implemented [mechanism/playbook] in the first [timeframe].
Within [timeframe], we improved [metric 1], [metric 2], and [metric 3]. The result was [operational relief] and [business result]. That’s what our process is built to do.”
Putting your foundation into action
Once the foundation is built, it has to be operationalized (or it dies in a Google doc). Make sure it shows up in:
Website headlines + hero section Services pages by vertical/role Sales call opener + voicemail scripts One-page capability sheet Email outreach + LinkedIn outreach Recruiter pitch to candidates (yes—candidates need your “why” too) Follow-up sequences and proposals
Simple rule: If your team can’t recite your foundation consistently, the market won’t believe it.
Need help with your messaging?
Reach out. We're happy to share ideas. |
