This is the final post in a seven-part series on anticipating and handling growth in the second half of 2011. For the whole series, click here.
Is your staffing business ready to meet the needs of businesses experiencing growing demand? Being able to handle growth isn’t an accident; it’s the result of a step-by-step plan that puts your business in the best possible position to deal with any change in the economy.
Step 3: Market Yourself for Growth
Marketing isn’t just about reaching out to customers; it’s about establishing the importance and value of what you do, and of how you can make your customers’ businesses stronger and more profitable. To truly do this, we must look beyond our usual positioning, and how you can add value to grow profits.
Sell to Value, Not to Margin
In a tough economy, the tendency for staffing to be seen as a commodity made it difficult to sell clients on anything other than a low price. Unfortunately, that race to the bottom makes it harder for staffing as an industry to rebound to pre-recession levels of pricing.
Our industry is long past due in changing the selling proposition. We must sell value.
To get out of the downward spiral of pricing, stop using your margin as a selling point. Instead, focus on the value of the candidates you are providing and the value those candidates can provide to your clients.
All our candidates bring different skill sets to the table and are separated by experience or certification. Let your clients know about the worth of the candidates you recommend. And don’t under-sell your business and the importance and worth of the work it does.
Veterans of the staffing industry have seen this all before, yet the basics remain a fundamental of solid firms. Sure, there have been changes in marketing, unemployment, recruiting and margins, and we must adjust our business models to remain competitive. But we must always remember our core product: people. They will always be the key to our success, no matter what turns the economy takes.
This post concludes our series on growth. We hope you’ve found it informative, helpful and inspiring. If you have any thoughts or questions, please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!