Believe it or not, there is such a thing as karma in business. If you neglect or abuse a business relationship, you can expect the fruits of that relationship to decrease sharply. If you do the basics, the bare minimum, you’re likely to get the bare minimum of business from that customer. However, if you take the time and care to add value to your relationships with clients, you can find them paying off handsomely.
One aspect of added value that staffing firms can provide their clients with is advising. After all, you know more about sourcing, placement and hiring than just about anyone. Offer a service such as a resume review, where you look through the resumes a client has received and select which come closest to their ideal candidate.
Another value add can be providing information. This is perfect for your blog, if you have one, or your social media channels: give your clients and prospects information and insight about hiring and human resources. Not only does this illustrate the value staffing firms provide (often by showing how complicated hiring and HR can be!), it also helps your website get found by search engines.
And of course, the best way to add value is by being invested in your clients’ success and helping them improve it. Whenever you can, connect them with people and companies that can help them solve problems (don’t just connect them without a problem being mentioned, though; that would be pretty pushy). Even do a little extra research for them to help them find solutions. Basically: the more you become associated with “solutions” in the client’s mind, the better.
So that’s three ways of adding value. What others can you think of, and which of them does your firm use? Let us know in the comments!